Psychology Commons^™

Zombie Perennialism: An Intelligent Design For Psychology? A Further Response To Taylor's Soft Perennialism, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

In a recent paper Taylor has suggested that perennialist models are or should be resurgent within transpersonal psychology. However, perennialist models such as those of Wilber and Taylor are metaphysical philosophies of spirituality typical of New Age religions; while such systems may be studied by a psychology that considers human spirituality, they are not and should not be proffered as psychology. Claims that Taylor's soft perennialism are partly evidence based are compared with invalid claims that the narrative of Noah's flood or the Christian-based idea of intelligent design are partly evidence based. Critiques of Wilber's integral perennialism and Taylor's soft …

Meaningful Mutations: Reflections On The Synchronicity Of Evolution, Ritske Rensma

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Although Jung made a connection between his concept of the archetype and mankind’s evolutionary history throughout his career, he remained notoriously tight-lipped about his own specific views on evolutionary theory. In the final years of his life, however, he finally went more into detail about this important topic, putting forward a most thought-provoking idea: the notion that synchronicity, or meaningful coincidences, had a role to play in the way evolution took shape. As I will argue in this paper, Jung’s comments on this topic present clear evidence that he did not think primarily along Darwinian lines, as has recently …

Ayurvedic Psychology: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science, Daniel Rhoda

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Ayurveda is a holistic medical system based on ancient Indian texts that utilizes natural treatments, botanical medicines, and lifestyle and dietary practices to promote healing of the body, mind, senses, and spirit. Interest in Ayurveda has grown in the United States over the last two decades, as consumers, therapists, scientists, and health regulators have recognized its holistic and preventative benefits. According to Ayurveda, every human being is composed of a unique proportion of these elemental energies, a foundational theory in Ayurveda known as tridosha. The three doshas (vata, pitta, kapha) represent three psychobiological constitutional types that govern …

Understanding Bohm’S Holoflux: Clearing Up A Conceptual Misunderstanding Of The Holographic Paradigm And Clarifying Its Signifigance To Transpersonal Studies Of Consciousness, Mark A. Schroll

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Throughout the past 31 years transpersonal anthropologists and transpersonal psychologists seeking a scientific language to discuss anomalous phenomena and the farther reaches of human nature (or to invoke a discussion of ultimate reality, universal mind or cosmic consciousness) have referred to the holographic paradigm, the conceptual origin of which is directly related to David Bohm’s implicate order theory. In 1982 and 1984 Bohm discussed the holographic paradigm’s limitations (and more specifically his concept of holomovement) to accurately represent his implicate order theory, suggesting instead the more precise conceptual reference holoflux; yet the limited publication of this correction has not been …

Transpersonal Psychology, Parapsychology, And Neurobiology: Clarifying Their Relations, Douglas A. Macdonald, Harris L. Friedman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Neurobiological advances have resulted in growing interest in many psychological phenomena

heretofore resistant to scientific scrutiny, including within transpersonal psychology and

parapsychology. These advances perhaps can resolve longstanding tensions between these

two psychological subdisciplines, which have generally been treated as disparate. To

implement such a rapprochement requires more than just additional empirical findings,

as theoretical development is also needed. Consequently, we identify some important

theoretical problems, such as conventional assumptions about scientific naturalism and

materialism that potentially undermine substantive advances in further understanding

such phenomena through neurobiology. We also discuss links between parapsychology and

transpersonal psychology that can be forged …

Mindfulness-Based Substance Abuse Treatment For Incarcerated Youth: A Mixed Method Pilot Study, Sam Himelstein

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The current study investigated the effects of an 8-week mindfulness-based substance use intervention

on self-reported impulsiveness, perceived drug risk, and healthy self-regulation in a sample of 60

incarcerated youth. Forty-eight participants completed questionnaires pre and post intervention.

Additionally, 16 participants from two of the final 8-week cohorts were interviewed in focus groups

about their experience of the program immediately following its completion. A mixed-method

embedded model was used, in which qualitative data was used in support of quantitative data. Paired

t-tests revealed a significant decrease (p < .01) in impulsiveness and a significant increase (p < .05)

in perceived risk of drug use from pretest to posttest. No …

Ecopsychology, Transpersonal Psychology, And Nonduality, John V. Davis

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Nonduality is at the core of both transpersonal psychology and ecopsychology and provides a

means of finding common ground between these approaches. However, misunderstandings

and the lack of an adequate conceptual language for nonduality have limited the value

of this concept for ecopsychology. Nonduality is presented as a range of experiences and

stages of development in which particulars are perceived and understood as part of an allencompassing

totality. Specifically, nonduality is understood in terms of a self-identity

in which separating boundaries no longer isolate one from other expressions of Being. A

description of nondual dimensions of Being based on the …

Unidentified Allies: Intersections Of Feminist And Transpersonal Thought And Potential Contributions To Social Change, Christine Brooks

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Contemporary Western feminism and transpersonalism are kaleidoscopic, consisting of

interlocking influences, yet the fields have developed in parallel rather than in tandem.

Both schools of praxis developed during the climate of activism and social experimentation

of the 1960s in the United States, and both share a non-pathological view of the human

experience. This discussion suggests loci of synthesized theoretical constructs between the

two disciplines as well as distinct concepts and practices in both disciplines that may serve

the other. Ways in which a feminist-transpersonal perspective may catalyze social change on

personal, regional, and global levels are proposed.

Relational Spirituality, Part 1 Paradise Unbound: Cosmic Hybridity And Spiritual Narcissism In The “One Truth” Of New Age Transpersonalism, Gregg Lahood

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Cosmological hybridization, a process in which spiritual paradises are bound together, is

highly active in American religious culture. Beginning with an early Christianized version of

the Buddha, this religious Creolization gathered speed after WWII and peaked during the

Vietnam War, leading to a complex spiritual revolution in which transcendence became an

all important orientation. This revolution set the scene for the emergence of a non-relational

transpersonal psychology in which Americanized nondualism gained ascendency. It is argued

here that popular New Age transpersonalism traps the spirit, breeding a self-serving, Selfas-

everything form of spiritual narcissism. Given that some are calling the …

Relational Spirituality, Part 2 The Belief In Others As A Hindrance To Enlightenment: Narcissism And The Denigration Of Relationship Within Transpersonal Psychology And The New Age, Gregg Lahood

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The aim of this paper is to tease out from the New Age religion and religious transpersonal psychology a more relational spirituality. Humanistic and transpersonal psychologies were important forces in the emergence of the social phenomenon of the New Age. New Age transpersonalism leans toward a restrictive non-relational spirituality because of its historical affirmation of individualism and transcendence. Relational spirituality, which is central to the emerging participatory paradigm, swims against strong and popular currents in New Age transpersonal thinking which tend to see spirituality as an individual, personal, inner pursuit, often into Eastern/Oriental nondualism. Whatever the merits of impersonal Advaita …