What is Transpersonal Psychology?

"In a very basic way, people who are drawn to transpersonal psychology are very likely to be people who, even from childhood, did not think that things are simply the way they appear. People that have seen beyond ordinary appearance into the complexity of human experience. "

~ Leslie Gray in The Science of the Soul

Transpersonal psychology relates the “personal” to the “transpersonal”. The “personal” encompasses the personality, the mind, the ego, and the body. The “transpersonal” includes the “personal” and goes beyond it: soul, higher Self, the personal and collective unconscious, and Spirit (Tao, God, Source).

In relating the personal within the transpersonal, transpersonal psychology peers into the mystery of exceptional human experiences, creativity, intuition, and other important questions that give rise to, and make evolve, the human condition.

Transpersonal psychology investigates the shared insights of wisdom traditions and the world’s longest standing religions about human nature, the nature of consciousness, and the nature of the universe. Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and indigenous spirituality are surveyed in breadth and depth.

Transpersonal psychology is interested in the full spectrum of human experiences, valuing the pathological as well as transcendent experiences the same in their potential for individual as well as collective healing, transformation, and evolution.

Pioneers and notable persons recognized for their contribution to transpersonal psychology include William James, Roberto Assagioli, Carl Gustav Jung, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers,, Stanislav Grof, Ken Wilber, Frances Vaughan, Angeles Arrien, James Fadiman, Robert Frager, Roger Walsh, Charles Tart, John Welwood, Robert A. Johnson, Joseph Campbell and still others.

Resources (Videos):

Science of the Soul: The Story of Transpersonal Psychology
Roberto Assagioli, The Scientist of the Spirit
The Way of the Psychonaut: Stanislav Grof’s journey of consciousness

Resources (Books):

The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, written by Abraham Maslow
Toward a Psychology of Being, written by Abraham Maslow
Psychosynthesis, written by Roberto Assagioli
The Stormy Search for the Self, written by Christina Grof and Stanisav Grof
Holotropic Breathwork, written by Stanislav Grof & Christina Grof
Act of Will, written by Roberto Assagioli
Paths Beyond Ego, Edited by Roger Walsh & Frances Vaughan
Meeting the Shadow, Edited by Connie Zweig & Jeremiah Abrams
Soulcraft, written by Bill Plotkin
Nature and the Human Soul, written by Bill Plotkin
Wildmind, written by Bill Plotkin
Pathways of the Soul, written by Hillevi Ruumet
The Seeker’s Guide, written by Elizabeth Lesser
The Fourfold Way, written by Angeles Arrien
The Second Half of Life, written by Angeles Arrien
The Living Labyrinth, written by Jeremy Taylor
The Wisdom of Your Dreams, written by Jeremy Taylor

Resources (Articles):

Contemporary Viewpoints on Transpersonal Psychology, by Mariana Caplan, Glenn Hartelius, & Mary Anne Rardin, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2003. Vol 35, No. 2.

Definitions of Transpersonal Psychology: The first twenty-three years, edited by D.H. Lajoie & S. Shapiro, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1992. Vol 24, No. 1.

On Transpersonal Definitions, by R. Walsh & F. Vaughan, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1993. Vol 25, No. 2.

"You can say transpersonal psychology is a system of thinking that covers the whole spectrum of human experience, which includes what we call non-ordinary states of consciousness. Now what’s very specific for transpersonal psychology that it not only studies these states but transpersonal psychologists hold these states in great esteem. Transpersonal psychology has shown that if these states are properly understood, properly supported, that they are actually healing, that they are transformative, and even in a sense…evolutionary."

~ Stanislav Grof in The Science of the Soul