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...
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...
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...
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,...
I had to consider how to make this threshold a stretch for me as silence and solitude are my natural habitat. I devised an exercise that would bring me back in contact with another part of myself that has been starved while I’ve been engaged...
While I enjoyed the width and breadth of the voices and stories we read for this threshold, perhaps I was most moved and fascinated by Nick Walker’s amazingly well-written piece. This immediately brings to light one of my (previous) prejudices: I was surprised to find...
As Richards (2014) points out, the mainstreaming of psychedelics has opened the door for scientific researchers to explore and measure the mystical and ineffable. This will offer transpersonal psychology peer-reviewed empirical research studies to buoy up our own studies. Drugs offer reliability in a way...
I am familiar with solitude and silence. I cultivate it. One of my practices is that I get up every morning between 4-5 so that I can be alone for several hours before my husband or the rest of the world wake up. The silence...
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has published a psychedelic therapy model of a nine-month course of psychotherapy interspersed with three psychedelic sessions, usually MDMA or psilocybin. This model (Mitthoefer et al., 2014) allows the therapist to assess firstly for the stability of the...
It seems from the research that transpersonal experiences have been seen as healing for millennium, perhaps since the beginning of time, in all cultures except the rational, patriarchal Western ones. Transpersonal experiences were treated with great awe and respect, and the cultures that formed around...