TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Transpersonal indicates something transcending or reaching beyond the personal or individual.



Transpersonal psychology stands at the interface of psychology and spiritual experience. It is the field of psychology which integrates psychological concepts, theories, and methods with subject matter and practices of the spiritual disciplines. Its interests include spiritual experiences, mystical states of consciousness, mindfulness and meditative practices, shamanic states, ritual, the overlap of spiritual experiences and disturbed states such as psychosis and depression, and the transpersonal dimensions of relationships, service, encounters with the natural world, and many other topics. The central concept in Transpersonal Psychology is self-transcendence, or a sense of self-identity which is deeper or higher, broader, and more unified with the whole. The root of the term, transpersonal or literally "beyond the mask," refers to this self-transcendence. While this self-transcendence recognizes a value to the personal, it also holds nonduality and the transpersonal as the more fundamental ground of being and consciousness.
Its orientation is inclusive, valuing and integrating the following:

• the psychological and the spiritual,
  
• exceptional mental health and suffering,
  
• ordinary and non-ordinary states of consciousness,
  
• modern Western perspectives, Eastern perspectives, postmodern insights, and worldviews of indigenous traditions, and
  
• analytical intellect, direct experience, and contemplative ways of of knowing.

Transpersonal psychology is a field of inquiry which offers insights based on research and experience and provides practices for evaluating and confirming (or disconfirming) its findings. It is also a field of practice integrating and evaluating methods for accessing and developing full human potential and realization.

Transpersonal psychology has benefits for both psychology and the spiritual disciplines. Psychology can expand toward a fuller and richer understanding of the full range of human experience. The spiritual disciplines can incorporate insights about human development, suffering, and healing, and methods to deal more skillfully with the psychological issues that arise during the spiritual search. Transpersonal psychology also provides perspectives on spiritual systems to help understand their similarities and differences.