29 Nov Body Erotic
In the readings and video for this module I was happy to be exploring the erotic and the body, as sex is my main area of research in my doctoral work. I was surprised to learn in Erickson’s video (2023) that Jung had said the...
22 Nov The Ineffable
One of the challenges in transpersonal psychology is that it is most often attempting to study the non-rational with the rational mind. As transpersonal psychologists, we are trying to put into words the ineffable, or, that which cannot be expressed in words. We attempt to...
15 Nov Transpersonal Psychology: Transcendence
When talking about how writing and the academic journey may be self-transcendent, it is important to first distinguish what we mean by the term. The problem with the word transcendent (Daniels, 2001) is that it is commonly perceived to mean rising above the self, the...
08 Nov Ecopsychology
As transpersonal psychology has evolved to include the horizontal and participatory points of view, the individual’s relationship with ecological systems has become increasingly important. The field has broadened the definition of self-identity to include other beings, the natural world, as well as the cosmos (Davis...
01 Nov Contemporary Mindfulness
In 2014, an author wanted to title her book Shortcuts to Enlightenment but saw that “mindfulness” was the current buzzword and that Shortcuts to Mindfulness might sell better. She was right. Mindfulness had gone mainstream.For millennia, mindfulness had been a Buddhist meditation practice that was...
25 Oct Transpersonal Psychology: Feminism
In the introductory class for the CIIS doctoral program in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology, the required text is the Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology (2015), out of which the 38 articles presented as essential to the field, nine were written by women. A perusal of...
18 Oct Integral Education
Mainstream, conventional higher education emphasizes the cognitive, the rational, the verbal and written word (Wexler, 2011). Wexler also points out that despite this emphasis, students are graduating deficient in writing skills, mathematical understanding, or the ability to think critically. On the contrary, an integral education...
11 Oct Transpersonal Psychology: Future
The next wave of transpersonalism can be inferred from the surprising mainstreaming of psychedelics. Although our field has been exploring the therapeutic and ecstatic use of psychedelic substances and the altered states they provide for decades, no one paid us any attention. Now that the...
04 Oct Mystical Experience
When we first entered this module, I was surprised that these experiences were contained within one threshold, but as I progressed with the videos and readings, it made sense. All of these experiences have to do with personal encounters with the transpersonal, whether through mystical...
27 Sep Love and Collaboration
Last week I attended a memorial at Beyond Baroque, the literary arts center, for a dearly-loved member of the L.A. writers’ community. The man who died was a popular member of the community, not necessarily because of his work, but for his friendliness, outgoing nature,...