Philosophy Commons^™

A Secret Poem For You, Jorge N. Ferrer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

In this paper, the author presents a poem entitled “Plenitude.” The poem, originally written by

the author’s father (José Antonio Noguera Gimenez) in Spanish, is offered by the author as a vehicle

for the exploration of self, life, spirit, and nature. Both the Spanish and English versions of the

poem are provided.

Metaphysical Tracking: The Oldest Ecopsychology, David Kowalewski

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Ecopsychology—the use of nature for understanding and healing the soul—has become accepted

as a legitimate tool by theorists and practitioners alike. Yet one important dimension of the

field has been ignored: metaphysical tracking. This article brings to light a number of mystical

phenomena that trackers, ancient and modern, have experienced, and suggests their common

root in the so-called energy body. The implications for psychospiritual growth are then

described. Finally, alternative explanations and new avenues for research are discussed.

Toward A Participative Integral Philosophy, Daryl S. Paulson

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Entheogens: True Or False?, Roger Walsh

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Despite 40 years of dialogue, debate still continues over whether psychedelics are capable of

inducing genuine mystical experiences. This paper first reviews the arguments against this possibility

and shows that all of them contain shortcomings. One reason the debate still continues is

that there has been no adequate theory of mystical states and their relationship to the factors

which produce them. Consequently a theory of mystical states based on Charles Tart’s systems

model of consciousness is proposed. This theory suggests how identical states of consciousness can

be induced by very different means, including contemplative practices and chemical substances,

and yet …

Gnostic Dilemmas In Western Psychologies Of Spirituality1, Harry T. Hunt

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Early Gnosticism is identified as a form of Weber’s inner-worldly mysticism that, following the

critique of Plotinus, entailed spiritual metapathologies of inflated grandiosity, despair, and/or

social withdrawal. These vulnerabilities re-emerge in the naturalistic psychologies of spirituality

begun by Emerson, Nietzsche, Jung, and Maslow and more implicitly within contemporary personality

and neuropsychological research on numinous/transpersonal experience. An updated

version of Gnostic dilemma and its conflicted dualism may be endemic to any would-be science

of the spiritual and to much current transpersonal psychology as well.

Mysticism And Its Cultural Expression: An Inquiry Into The Description Of Mystical Experience And Its Ontological And Epistemological Nature, Evgeny Torchinov

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The purpose of this paper is to critically explore the nature and ontological and epistemological

significance of differences observed in how various cultural traditions describe and explain such

experiences. After an initial consideration of definitional issues, the article focuses on the arguments

supporting and challenging the idea of mystical experience being a universal phenomenon

and a vehicle for true knowledge. The article also examines the problem of the unity of the mystical

experience as a definite state of consciousness and the multiplicity of its sociocultural and

civilizational expressions and descriptions conditioned by different cultural and historical factors.

An Integral Approach To Depression, Harris Friedman, Douglas A. Macdonald

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Integral Approach In Transpersonal Psychotherapy, Laura B. Gilot

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Clinical Depression: A Transpersonal Point Of View, Jaime L. Llabres

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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The Perennial Philosophy, Axel Randrup

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Experience, Culture And Reality: The Significance Of Fisher Information For Understanding The Relationship Between Alternative States Of Consciousness And The Structures Of Reality, Charles D. Laughlin, Jason C. Throop

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The majority of the world’s cultures encourage or require members to enter alternative states of

consciousness (ASC) while involved in religious rituals. The question is, why? This paper suggests

an explanation for the culturally prescribed ASC from the view of Fisher information. It argues

from the position, first put forward by Emile Durkheim in his magnum opus, The Elementary

Forms of the Religious Life, that all religions are grounded in reality. It suggests that many of the

structural elements of cultural cosmologies are similar and that the ritual induction of ASC may

help to bring individual experience into greater accord …

Editors’ Introduction, Harris Friedman, Douglas A. Macdonald

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Spirituality Of Depression, Marc-Alain Descamps

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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An Integral Perspective On Depression, Dinu S. Teodorescu

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The integral approach to therapy proposes to accommodate all the etiological factors of

unipolar depression in its theory, as well as to make use of all existing therapies, both pharmacological

and psychological, in the treatment of unipolar depression. Integral Therapy is

compared to cognitive therapy to find evidence for its superiority over the cognitive

approach. It appears that the cognitive therapy is more cost-effective than Integral Therapy

as an individual approach in the treatment of depression, but that the integral perspective

accounts better for etiological factors.

Process, Structure, And Form: An Evolutionary Transpersonal Psychology Of Consciousness, Allan Combs, Stanley Krippner

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

In the spirit of William James, we present a process view of human consciousness. Our approach,

however, follows upon Charles Tart’s original systems theory analysis of states of consciousness,

although it differs in its reliance on the modern sciences of complexity, especially dynamical systems

theory and its emphasis on process and evolution. We argue that consciousness experience

is constructive in the sense that it is the result of ongoing self-organizing and self-creating

(autopoietic) processes in the mind and body. These processes follow a broad developmental

agenda already described by psychologists such as Jean Piaget. Similar constructive transformations

of consciousness appear …

Primal Spirituality And The Onto/Phylo Fallacy: A Critique Of The Claim That Primal Peoples Were/Are Less Spiritually And Socially Developed Than Modern Humans, Steven Taylor

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Many theorists—including Freud, Habermas and Wilber—have suggested that there are strong

parallels between ontogeny and phylogeny, and that the development of the human species has

followed the same basic pattern as the development of the individual from birth to adulthood. I

discuss this view in relation to archaeological and anthropological knowledge of the world’s “primal

peoples.” I look at the spiritual, moral, and social development of primal peoples and find

that, in almost every instance, they are more advanced than these theorists suggest, possessing

characteristics which only occur—ontogenetically—at the higher “fulcrums” of development. I

argue that Wilber’s spectrum model cannot …

Wu Wei In Chuang Tzu As Life-Systematic, Kuang-Ming Wu

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Wu wei (non-doing) in Chuang Tzu is expressed in story-bits reflecting life-slices. They are lifesystematic,

not random, not having a system. One; Chuang Tzu is a dragonfly over the pond of

life, dotting the water of daily ongoing without dotting it. Two; the dotting is dot-sayings that

yam life's concrete bits into story-coherence. Three; Chuang Tzu dots and struts around to let

others say, and life-coherenc.e appears. FoUl'; life-coherence is a life-family of concrete bits, a

thread of many life-fibres twisted together. Five; Chu Hsi and Chuang Tzu have dot-sayings

that draw readers into making systems of their own to …

Dancing With The Trickster Notes For A Transpersonal Autobiography, Stanley Krippner

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This autobiographical essay focuses on "transpersonal," "anomalous," and "exceptional"

experiences, those elements often ignored when individuals write the stories of their lives.

Nevertheless, these experiences have life-transformative potentials that may be more salient

than the activities usually serving as the basis for autobiographical accounts.

Spring Essence The Poetryofh8xuan Hu'o'Ng, John Balaban

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Language As Aperture, Duane Preble

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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The Universe Grasper, S. I. Shapiro

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Altered States Of Consciousness And Psychotherapy A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Mario Simoes

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The main physiological and induced Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs) aJ:e outlined as well as methods of induction. The phenomenology of ASCs is described and related to psychopathology. A short commentary is given aboutASCs used in some ethnopsychotherapies. Psychotherapies of Western origin using ASCs, especially hypnosis, Holotropic BJ:eathwork, and Personalized Experiential Restructuralization Therapy (Past-Life/Regression Therapy) are outlined and discussed.

Transpersonal Psychology As A Scientific Field, Harris Friedman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The importance of the development of transpersonal psychology as a science is considered. Arguments from romanticism, scientism, and constructionism that challenge this possibility are countered. A distinction is drawn between the field of transpersonal psychology as a science and the broader area known as transpersonal studies that may legitimately use scientific or nonscientific methods. The concepts of transpersonal phenomena and transcendent noumena are delineated, the latter being seen as outside of the purview of science. The benefits of embracing a scientific approach are contrasted to a number of epistemological alternatives. The scientific approach is forwarded for its potential contribution towards …

Embodied Light, Chris Mcdonough

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Underwater photography triggers new ways of experiencing space, time, and being. In the seemingly boundless liquid space, the self expands and focused attention induces intense clarity of the present moment and of our basic nakedness. This portfolio seeks to capture the primal embodied experience of weightless energy and the unceasing dance of light, the creator/ destroyer.

Lumignosis, Michael G. Mitchell

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Photography can compress what moves through eternity into the appearance of a single moment. Eternity is always willing to participate; light is its favorite son. Light is always ready ro befriend the sensitive photographer and to induce metacomprehensive wonder. Truth has always come to me through my eyes. What I call "greater truth'' comes as poetry sung by the voice of light.

Jean-Jacques Dicker Photography First, Philippe L. Gross

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Quiet Mind, Atsumi Yamamoto

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Endangered Asanas, Ralph Augsburger

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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The Re-Cognition Of Being's Infrastructure As Self-Completion, Herbert Guenther

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Wholeness as indivisible and the human being's connectedness with it are the abiding themes

of the Buddhist experience-rooted and process-oriented thinking that goes by the name of

rDzogs-chen. From its basically holistic point of view, the human being is a sub-whole,

similar to a variation on a musical theme. From another point of view, however, based on

the confusion of a compacted (and hence de-compactable) totality with wholeness, the human

being is seen as being a reality that is internally divided and feels uncertain about who/

what he really is. Together, the intolerable feelings of being divided and uncertain cause …

The Last Time I Saw Fritz, Marc L. Joslyn

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Zen is not merely an exotic practice imported from the Orient; it is the constantly fresh

realization ofTrue Nature everywhere and at every time. So, it may be expected that sparks

of Zen will be found in all cultures. Hence, having been engaged with Zen practice since 1964,

the author reminisces here about how he turned to Zen after his study of Gestalt psychology

and his encounter with Gestalt therapy in the person ofFritz Perls. Gestalt therapy as usually

practiced is not Zen, the author concludes. But if it clears the way for a glimmer of the Self

which has …