Transpersonal Psychology

Toward a Multidisciplinary Approach to Ayahuasca Studies

by Steve Beyer

A review of the current state of ayahuasca studies: an introduction to the Special Ayahuasca Issue of the journal... more A review of the current state of ayahuasca studies: an introduction to the Special Ayahuasca Issue of the journal Anthropology of Consciousness

Ayahuasca and the Grotesque Body

by Steve Beyer

Ayahuasca meets Mikhail Bakhtin. Westerners coming to ayahuasca are often seeking what James Hillman called an... more Ayahuasca meets Mikhail Bakhtin. Westerners coming to ayahuasca are often seeking what James Hillman called an "imageless white liberation" -- an insight, an epiphany. What they encounter instead is a ferocious corporeality. In the cultural context of the Upper Amazon, that is what ayahuasca is for.

What Do the Spirits Want from Us?

by Steve Beyer

Shamanism, if nothing else, is a special way of relating to the spirits. The tragic vision of Upper Amazonian... more Shamanism, if nothing else, is a special way of relating to the spirits. The tragic vision of Upper Amazonian shamanism helps teach us the meaning not only of its own ceremonies but also the meaning of vision fasts, talking circles, dreams, and our own encounters with each other.

Rida (Contentment) in Early Sufism

by Atif Khalil

Thoughts them on the Transpersonal

by Louis Hoffman

Mark Yang, co-author

Review of the book the Transpersonal in psychology, psychotherapy, and counseling, PsycCRITIQUES-Contemporary... more Review of the book the Transpersonal in psychology, psychotherapy, and counseling, PsycCRITIQUES-Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 53 (No. 34).

Clarifying issues in transpersonal psychology: Beyond the myths

by Louis Hoffman

Review of the book Shadow, self, spirit: Essays in transpersonal psychology, PsycCRITIQUES-Contemporary Psychology:... more Review of the book Shadow, self, spirit: Essays in transpersonal psychology, PsycCRITIQUES-Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 51 (No. 7).

Searching for Compassion in an Uncompassionate World.

by Louis Hoffman

PsycCRITIQUES review of Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness by Barasch. PsycCRITIQUES review of Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness by Barasch.

Prajna on the Left?: In Reply and Gratitude to Raphael Foshay

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

Published at Integral World in response to Raphael Foshay's 2009 essay "Tension on the Left."

Towards A Post-Wilberian, Critical Integral Theory: Why It is Not Necessary to Read Past Page Five in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

Another experiment in engaged scholarship, also published at IntegralWorld.

" Shaking the world awake": An interfaith multiple case study of spiritually advanced social change agents

by Katherine Coder

UGANDA'S SUCCESS IN REDUCING HIV/AIDS PREVALENCE RATES IN THE 1980s AND 1990s

by Katherine Coder

Of Truth and Falsehood in a Spiritual- Materialistic Sense: A Response to Sean Esbjörn-Hargens' Proposal for True But Partial

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

This is a position paper I wrote in response to a very strange call for papers. The tone is in places unnecessarily harsh, which I regret. I am sharing it because I think the ideas are worth considering as representative of an undercurrent of radical thought in integral studies. First published at Frank Visser's Integral World site.

A Sunny Second Coming: In Response to H.B. Augustine's “Integral Politics: A Brief Outline of and Introduction to the Integral Era”

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

This was published at Frank Visser's Integral World site. In it, I try to show how the idealistic views of time in certain New Age and "integral" thinkers has definite political consequences, with the understanding that a different view of time and transformation might indicate a more coherent social and political theory.

Integral Theory After Wilber

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

An experiment in dialectical thinking

Psychedelics and Species Connectedness

by David Luke

Krippner, S., & Luke, D. (2009). Psychedelics and species connectedness. Bulletin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, 19 (1), 12-15.

Psychedelic shamanism might be thought of primarily as a communication with Nature, for instance by asking the plants... more Psychedelic shamanism might be thought of primarily as a communication with Nature, for instance by asking the plants directly which ones can heal a particular illness, or by asking the plant spirit to teach them, or by using the plant in aiding the psychological metamorphosis into a plant or animal “allies.” Given that shamans have most likely been communicating with Nature in this way for thousands of years, it might well be asked what can be gained for humanity’s relationship with the ecosystem from such a dialogue and, perhaps more importantly, how can Nature benefit from this relationship?

The Ethics of Transpersonal Psychology

by Beth McLarnan McDonald

Transpersonal psychology--psychology of consciousness: chances and problems

by Niko Kohls

On specialness and ordinariness

by Michelle Smith

The paper proposes that we are all to some extent motivated by a belief that we are or ought to be 'special' and takes... more The paper proposes that we are all to some extent motivated by a belief that we are or ought to be 'special' and takes a psychotherapeutic approach to unravelling the various strategies that people use to deal with the issue.

A preliminary survey of paranormal experiences with psychoactive drugs

by David Luke

Luke, D. P., & Kittenis, M. (2005). A preliminary survey of paranormal experiences with psychoactive drugs. Journal of Parapsychology, 69 (2), 305-327.

The occurrence of transpersonal experiences with psychedelic substances is well attested, and several surveys have... more The occurrence of transpersonal experiences with psychedelic substances is well attested, and several surveys have consistently found a small relationship between paranormal experiences and the use of such drugs in general. Isolated investigations of experiences with specific drugs exist, but no surveys have systematically examined whether particular experiences relate to particular drugs. In an online survey, 139 respondents were recruited through parapsychology or psychedelic interest groups and completed a questionnaire detailing psychoactive drug-use behaviour and the frequency of occurrence of a number of paranormal, shamanic, and mystical type experiences. Patterns of drug-induced transpersonal experiences reported elsewhere were mostly corroborated, particularly the proclivity for telepathic experiences with cannabis, out-of-body experiences with ketamine, entity encounter experiences with N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and plant-spirit encounters with a host of psychedelic plants. Several small correlations were found between drug-use frequency and experience frequency with certain drug and experience types, particularly those termed mystical. As expected, alcohol and opiate/opioid-use did not correlate with any transpersonal experiences although, surprisingly, no sizable correlations were found for psi experiences and the use of any one type of drug, possibly due to the high rate of occurrence of psi experiences among both drug users and non-drug users with this particular sample.

Talking of transcendence: A discursive exploration into how people make sense of their extraordinary experiences

by Madeleine Castro