Plaidoyer for Transpersonal Psychology: Theoretical and Practical Importance of its Discoveries

Stanislav Grof describes the meaning of Holotropic states of conscience, the “states moving toward wholeness”, such as that kind of states which “traditional” psychology and psychiatry normally call altered.

Creativity, Critical and Integral Thinking

To think, means creating patterns out of its surroundings, forming concepts about the observed process. Once the patterns are formed it becomes possible to recognize them. This system is a very efficient way of handling information because patterns are easily formed, combined, and ingrained in the brain. However, it is extremely difficult to restructure them. The thinker is concerned with the observed object of his thinking and not with the thinking or observation. There are several ways to think: wishful thinking, Critical thinking, Lateral thinking, Intuitive thinking, Mindful Thinking, and Integral Transpersonal Thinking. In this article, I will explain the meaning of these distinct ways of thinking as I have learned to understand them. After that I will offer my personal viewpoint on the concepts that I have learned and the impact they have on my life. KEYWORDS Wishful thinking, critical thinking, lateral thinking, observation, questions.

Methods of Exploring Transpersonal Lucid Dreams: Ineffability and Creative Consciousness

Lucid dreaming is being conscious and aware while dreaming. Lucid dreaming is a form of meta-consciousness and reflective practice that calls in to question habitual behavior, fixed perceptions, core beliefs, and presuppositions. From an epistemological perspective, lucid dreaming could be considered as a way of knowing. The practice of lucid dreaming ultimately leads to the practice of lucid waking, creating a recursive relationship between waking and dreaming awareness. This article discusses three research methods exploring lucid dreaming and specific transpersonal experiences within lucid dreaming I call “Hyperspace Lucidity”. Hyperspace Lucidity is the experience within lucid dreams beyond time and space, transpersonal in nature, nondual, nonrepresentational in content, and at times, extraordinary and impactful. These inquiries were conducted over two decades, however, their significance and implications are becoming relevant today as the topic of lucid dreaming is discussed within psychological and spiritual frameworks. Each research project informed the next. It began with quantitative research designed to explore the transpersonal experiences in lucid dreams, expanded into a phenomenological study including some of the lucid dreamers from the first study, and then finally it evolved into an art-based inquiry involving the public. KEYWORDS Dreaming, transpersonal experience, dream signs, creative consciousness, research.

The Archetypal and Transpersonal Dimension in Modern Narratives: Watching the Lion King as a Process of the Self Realization

Reworked and taken from a thesis work in Transpersonal Counseling (Integral Transpersonal Institute, Milan 2020), this paper starts from archetypical and trans-personal dimension in psychology and mythology. With the eye of the integral and transpersonal vision of the Biotransenergetics discipline, we will look at the story of The Lion King illustrating the imaginative, symbolic and archetypal processes as the expression and structure of the journey of realization of the Self. In the stories of myths, ancient and contemporary, the plots and evolutionary keys of our lives are revealed. A deep heartfelt thanks to Dr. Simona Vigo, supervisor of the thesis from which I reworked this article. KEYWORDS Archetypal, Psyche, Anima, Self, realization, myth, narratives, Biotransenergetics, image, hero, lion, king.

Omolù at the Time of Covid-19: Interviews and Reflections on the Archetype of Death and Rebirth During the First Seclusion March – April 2020

During the first lockdown for virus Covid-19, March and April 2020, the author reflected on the strength of Omolù, the archetype of illness-healing/death and rebirth, that was permeating the entire world; if and how it was perceived and if, despite the evidence, illness and death were still events to hide or if people felt It as rituals of passage or as an opportunity for spiritual and psychological transformation. To explore this, the author conducted a qualitative research using a questionnaire for depth interviews. The survey aimed to understand the differences of perception of the archetype between those who were following the BTE method and practices, those who were following other spiritual paths and those that did not started any spiritual or psychological pathways. All answers have been collected, observed and reported using also verbatim to underline the strength of the results. KEYWORDS Biotransenergetics, Covid-19, Archetypes, Omolù, Death and rebirth, Spiritual transformation.

The Characteristics of Wakefulness: What Does it Mean to Be Spiritually Awakened?

This paper summarises my research into the state of “wakefulness”. I put forward the “essentialist” view that the concepts of a higher-functioning ideal state in various spiritual traditions are conceptualisations of the same essential landscape of expansive human experience. Based on a thematic analysis of transcripts of interviews with 85 individuals who reported an ongoing experience of wakefulness, I describe 18 characteristics of the state. These characteristics can be divided into perceptual, affective, conceptual (or cognitive) and behavioural. I include quotations from my interviews to illustrate the characteristics, and suggest reasons why they are associated with the “wakeful” state. I suggest that there are two “meta characteristics” of wakefulness: fluid or labile self-boundaries (bringing a sense of openness and connection) and inner quietness. The article is written in British English, the author’s Native Language. KEYWORDS Wakefulness, characteristics, sleep.

Integral Transpersonal Inquiry

The human experience appears as an integral participatory dialogue between the individual and his environment. This article will outline the essential lines for an Integral Transpersonal Inquiry (ITIq) a method of research able to study the Circuit of Experience by framing the individual feeling-thinkingacting within an integral dynamic process that includes the subject of experience, the object of investigation and the field. I’ll present the ontology, the epistemology and the methodology of an integral transpersonal approach to research in the psychological field, focusing on inner experiences, its contents and vehicles.

Using Gratitude to Increase Well-Being

Many people are seeking ways to live a happier and more fulfilling life. There is a plethora of books, articles, and expensive workshops about how to be happy. One quick, easy, and free way to improve happiness and overall well-being is to practice gratitude. Practicing gratitude only takes minutes to do but it has lasting effects. This paper offers definitions for both gratitude and well-being, reviews current literature, and gives a critical analysis of two recent studies. In addition, this paper explains how gratitude and well-being are measured, offers various ways to practice gratitude, and states why gratitude and well-being are important. KEY WORDS Happiness, well-being, gratitude, satisfaction, affect.

Exploring Experience as a Myriad Richness: Micro-phenomenology as a Transformative Approach to Research

Over the last twenty years, researches within cognitive sciences has massively grown in the field of the ways of knowing. For instance, in recent years, the paradigm of 4-E cognition suggests that cognition involves the whole body, as well as the situation of the body in the environment. This article argues that a first-person approach enriches the understanding of the ways of knowing in their complexity - particularly by seeking to re-question classical dichotomies - through the re-integration of subjective experience. In the heart of first-person epistemology, the micro-phenomenological interview - based on the explicitation interview - consists in “guided retrospective introspections”, and allows to scientifically access subjective experience. This technique relies on the epoché – the suspension of judgement – a process at first investigated by philosophers that was made accessible to psychology to empirically investigate and study subjective experience. How does the epoché happen? What concrete acts make it up? More broadly, what is the relationship between the epoché and embodiment? This paper sheds lights on possible relations between researches describing concrete practices of the Husserlian epoché and Gendlin’s work concerning the process of Focusing, which aims at accessing the inner felt sense of experience. The process of Focusing, is a way of paying attention to one’s being-in-the-world, one’s interaction as it is experienced through the individual (but not separate) body. We will especially consider the process of “clearing a space” that Gendlin describes, as well as the rupture that occurs during the “bodily felt shift” which can be compared to the conversion happening within the process of epoché. Finally, we discuss how our proposition can allow the construction of new models of knowledge processes, the challenge of such a proposal being not only epistemological, but also ethical and societal. KEYWORDS Subjective experience, embodiment, micro-phenomenology, epoché, focusing.

Virginia Satir’s Transformational Systemic Therapy: A Transpersonal Approach to Family Therapy

The work of Virginia Satir, a pioneer family therapist, is examined as a transpersonal approach to family therapy. Ways in which transpersonal perspectives may be applied in family therapy are explored in Satir’s notions of grounding and centering, the evolving and transcending concept of congruence using the Self/I AM concept in the Satir iceberg model, as well as the Satir conceptualization of the therapist’s use of self. Aspects of transpersonal psychotherapy relevant to the practice of family therapy are examined, including the creation of a transpersonal space of trust in order to strengthen the therapeutic alliance, going beyond meaning in working with the family system to apply transpersonal (e.g. nondual psychotherapeutic) approaches to the therapist’s use of self in therapy. A discussion of intersubjectivity and the role of the beingness of the family therapist in promoting transcendence, awareness, and healing for the family is included. Satir family therapy is consistent with transpersonal psychotherapeutic perspectives and is therefore recommended as a prospective family therapy modality for the transpersonally-oriented psychotherapist. KEYWORDS Satir, Family Therapy, Transpersonal Psychology, Transpersonal Psychotherapy, Transcendence, Consciousness, Transformation, Intersubjectivity, Nondual Psychotherapy.