Transpersonal Psychotherapy is
a generic term for a number of perspectives and schools that have developed over the past forty years. It is an in-depth psychological and superconscius level of experience that transcends and includes ordinary consciousness.
Stanislav Grof’s research into consciousness
has clearly confirmed the existence of the psychodynamic experience field and has shown how the perinatal, (experiences from birth, pregnancy and childbirth), and the transpersonal experience opens the heart to complete soulconsciusness.
Mystical, near-death, out-of-body, so-called peak and extra-ordinary experiences are examples of the experiential qualities that go beyond time-space dimensions and are thus classed as transpersonal. Christ- and Buddha consciousness are examples of transpersonal experiences.
Therapists that work with this method:
In the late 70s,
a group of psychotherapists and scientists met to discuss a long-felt need for an alternative concept to the prevailing humanist psychology approach.
Abraham Maslow, Jim Fadiman, Anthony Sutich, Stanislav Grof
and others formulated the concept of transpersonal psychology based on the need to provide spiritual experiences with a psychological language.
Qualities such as wholeness, perfection, completeness, fairness, animation, richness, simplicity, beauty, goodness and being unique, effortlessly, playfulness and truth was formulated by Maslow as a description of the self-realised, healthy individual. This new field of psychology was named the fourth wave after psychoanalysis, behavioural therapy and humanist psychology.
Inspiration is drawn from the world’s religious
mystical traditions, for example Christian Gnosticism, Buddhism’s Tantra, Islam’s Sufism, Judaism’s Kabbalah and Hinduism’s Rig-Veda.
Common to various religions’ mystical traditions is the search for a direct experience of the divine, spiritual or sacred, and some believe that they all share the Perennial philosophy. Some have described this common ground in terms of being more uniform the deeper our spiritual experience.
A scientific approach and deepest existential conditions such as birth, sexuality and death are also included in the transpersonal.
Several prominent figures in psychological thought
have developed ideas around the method. Carl Jung, founder of Analytical Psychology, coined the term “die überpersonliche”, (beyond or above the personal), in 1929.
Roberto Assagioli
formulated Psychosynthesis which includes a transpersonal element. A.H. Almaas founded the Ridwan school of thought. Stanislav Grof started Grof Transpersonal Training. And philosopher Ken Wilber is an important writer in the transpersonal movement.
Spiritual awakening
can sometimes be turbulent and chaotic. The transformation when personal and transpersonal dimensions are mixed can feel painful and threatening. With the right attitude, i.e. taking suffering seriously, these difficulties can eventually lead to a breakthrough towards a more expansive worldview. The idea of a ‘spiritual emergency’ was coined by Christina and Stanislav Grof.
Such spiritual emergencies needed a diagnosis that David Lukoff, amongst others, succeeded in getting included in the DSM IV psychiatric manual. The Spiritual and Religious Issues diagnosis has the advantage that not all with psychosis-related problems receive the same treatment. Being able to distinguish those with spiritual problems can significantly reduce treatment times in this category and experience shows that this in turn delivers savings in terms of both personal suffering and societal resources.
“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
Carl Sagan – Cosmos
“Life is what happens to you while you´re busy
making other plans.”
John Lennon
“Today, it is more important than ever to raise human consciousness,
so that technology becomes a means
of empowerment, not destruction.”
Sadhguru
“Vi i Västerlandet har aldrig haft så mycket kunskap
och så lite visdom.
John Opsahl i Supermat – Läkande Mat från Naturens Hjärta
“En människas verkliga värde
avgörs framför allt av
i vilken utsträckning och på
vilket sätt hon har lyckats
frigöra sig från sig själv.”
Albert Einstein
“Straight and narrow is the path…
Waste no time.”
David R. Hawkins
“My heart can take on any form,
a meadow for gazelles,
a cloister for monks.”
Ibn Arabi
“The great religions are the ships, Poets the lifeboats.
Every sane person I know has jumped overboard.”
Hafez
“Throat singing imitates animal sounds and create sounds in tune with the
universal.
For me these sounds – the rhythms of a whole”.
Nikolay Oorzhak
“In the journey to the center,
there will be portals for each of us.
Each will be marked in some way –
by dreams, by symbols, by poetry –
and our enlagement will be determined
by how we read the signs”.
J. L. Walker (1997)
Romanska bågar
Inne i den väldiga romanska kyrkan
trängdes turisterna i halvmörkret
Valv gapade bakom valv och ingen överblick
Några ljuslågor fladdrade.
En ängel utan ansikte omfamnade mig
och viskade genom hela kroppen:
“Skäms inte för att du är människa, var stolt!
Inne i dig öppnar sig valv bakom valv oändligt.
Du blir aldrig färdig, och det är som det skall”.
Jag var blind av tårar
och föstes ut på den solsjudande piazzan
tillsammans med Mr och Mrs Jones,
Herr Tanaka Och Signora Sabatini
och inne i dem alla öppnade sig valv bakom valv oändligt.
Tomas Tranströmer ur “För levande och döda” (1989)
References:
Eben Alexander : Till himlen och tillbaka
A.H. Almaas : Essence – The Diamond Approach to Inner Realization
A:H. Almaas : Hjärtats diamant – om människans sanna existens
A.H. Almaas : Luminous Night´s Journey – An Autobiographical Fragment
A.H. Almaas : The Inner Journey Home – Soul´s Realization of the Unity of Reality
Almqvist – Hammer (red) : JUNG och det Andliga
Xavier Amador, Anthony David : INSIGHT and PSYCHOSIS – Awareness of Illness in Schizophrenia and Related Disorders
Susan Anderson : Gudomligt Ingripande – En oväntad resa från kaos till klarhet
Roberto Assagioli : Transpersonal Inspiration and
Psychological Mountain-Climbing
P. M. H. Atwater : The Big Book of Near Death Experiences
Christopher M. Bache : The Living Classroom – Teaching and Collective Consciousness
Morris Berman : The Reenchantment of the World
Sean Blackwell : The Quiet Mind
Robert Bly : Järn Hans – en bok om män
David Bohm : Wholeness and the Implicate Order
Gregg Braden : The Divine Matrix
Richard Maurice Bucke : Cosmic Consciousness – A Study of the Evolution of the Human Mind
Kerstin Stina Carlsson : TRANSCENDENS eller PSYKOS? – En personlig berättelse om ett andligt uppvaknande
Jan Cederquist : Slumpen är ingen tillfällighet
Chapman / Thomas : Förlåtelsens fem språk
Nicolya Christi : 2012 A Clarion Call – Your Soul´s Purpose in Conscious Evolution
Andrew Cohen : Evolutionary Enlightenment : A New Path to Spiritual Awakening
Andrew Cohen : Living Enlightenment – a call for evolution beyond ego
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi : Finna FLOW
Arthur J. Deikman : Det Observerande Självet – En jämförelse mellan österlänsk mystik och psykoterapi
Mini – D IV : Diagnostiska kriterier enligt DSM-IV
Larry Dossey : Läkande Ord
Karl-Erik Edris : Vart är Världen på Väg? (2015)
Stefan Einhorn : Konsten att vara snäll
Jule Eisenbud . The World of Ted Serios – “Thoughtographic” Studies of an Extraordinary Mind
Mircea Eliade : Yoga – Immortality and Freedom
Michael El Nour : GLORIA – Michaeli Archangelo
Masaru Emoto : Love Thyself – The Message from Water III
Terry Evans : Berget
VJ Fedorschak : The SHADOW on the PATH
Sandor Ferenczi : Thalassa. A Theory of Genitality
Jorge Ferrer : Revisioning Transpersonal Theory
John Firman & Ann Gila : The Primal Wound – A Transpersonal View of Trauma, Addiction and Growth
Jean Gebser : The Ever Present Origin
Antoon Geels : Berusad av Gud
Antoon Geels : Medvetandets Stilla Grund
Geels – Wikström : Den religiösa människan
Paul Gilbert : The Compassionate Mind
David Godman : Be as you are – The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
David Godman : Nothing Ever Happenend 1-3
Bruce Goldberg : Past Lives Future Lives
Gopi Krishna : The Evolutionary Energy in man
S. Grof & C. Grof : The Stormy Search for the Self
Stanislav Grof : The Ultimate Journey : Consciousness and the Mystery of Death
Peter Hagerrot : Synkronicitet i ett terapeutiskt perspektiv
Barbara Hannah : Encounters with the Soul – ACTIVE IMAGINATION
Frank Haronian : The Repression of the Sublime
Ted Harris & Ann Lagerström : Konsten att leva innerligt
Hart – Nelson – Puhakka : Transpersonal KNOWING – Exploring the Horizon of Consciousness
David R. Hawkins : Power vs. Force
David R. Hawkins : The Eye of the I
David R. Hawkins : I – Reality and Subjectivity
Hirtenstein – Tiernan : Ibn ´Arabi – en minnesbok
Lex Hixon : Coming Home
Aldous Huxley : Den Oförgängliga Filosofin
Darrel Irving : Serpent of Fire – A Modern View of Kundalini
B.K.S. Iyengar : LIGHT ON YOGA
William James : The Principles of Psychology
William James : The Varieties of Religious Experience
Robert Johnson : INNER WORK
Johnson-Ord : The Coming Interspiritual Age
Carl-Gustav Jung : The Red Book
Sudhir Kakar : The Analyst and the Mystic
Donald Kalsched : Trauma and the Soul – A psycho-spiritual approach to human development and its interruption
Roshi Philip Kapleau : Zens Tre Pelare
Richard Katz : Boiling Energy – Community Healing Among the Kalahari Kung
Jon Klimo : Channeling
Jack Kornfield : A Path with Heart
Jack Kornfield : The Wise Heart
Dag Körlin : Creative Arts Therapies in Psychiatric Treatment (Avhandling)
R.D. Laing : Upplevelse beteende
Frank Lake : CLINICAL THEOLOGY – A Theological and Psychiatric Basis to Clinical and Pastoral Care
Lama Surya Das : Buddha Standard Time
Eric D. Leskowitz, Ed. : TRANSPERSONAL HYPNOSIS – Gateway to Body, Mind and Spirit
Bruce Lipton : The Biology of Belief
Alex Loyd, Ben Johnson : The HEALING CODE
David Lukoff : From Spiritual Emergency to Spiritual Problem
David Lynch : Catching the Big Fish – Meditation, Consciousness and Creativity
Stephen MacKenna : PLOTINOS – The Enneads
Abraham Maslow : Motivation and Personality
Abraham Maslow : Toward a Psychology of Being
Maxwell – Tschudin : Seeing the Invisible
Robert M. May : Cosmic Consciousness Revisited – The Modern Origins and Development of a spiritual Psychology
Grant Mc Fetridge : Peak States of Consciousness : Theory and Applications, vol 2 : Acquiring Extraordinary Spiritual and Shamanic States
Iain Mc Gilcrist : The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
Lynne McTaggart : The Field – The Quest for the secret force of the universe
David L. Miller : The New Polytheism
William R. Miller – Janet C´de Baca : Quantum Change – When Epiphanies and Sudden Insights Transform Ordinary Lives
Robert A. Monroe : Yttersta Resan
Thomas Moore : The Planets Within
Robert Moore-Douglas Gillette : King Warrior Magician Lover – Rediscovering the archetypes of the mature masculine
Donald Moss : Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology
John E. Nelson : Healing the Split : A New Understanding of the Crisis and Treatment of the Mentally Ill
Newberg, Daquili, Rause : Why God Won´t Go Away
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj : I Am That
John O´Donahue : Eternal Echoes : Celtic Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong
John Opsahl : SUPERMAT- Läkande Mat från Naturens Hjärta
John Weir Perry : Roots of Renewal i Myth and Madness
John Weir Perry : The Self in Psychotic Process
John Weir Perry : Trials of the Visionary mind – Spiritual Emergency and the Renewal Process
Eva Pierrakos : The Pathwork of Self Transformation
Pierrakos & Saly : The Pathwork of Relationship CREATING UNION
Pierrakos & Thesenga : Fear No Evil – The Pathwork Method of Transforming The Lower Self
Pierrakos & Thesenga : Surrender to God Within – Pathwork at the Soul Level
Sri H.W.L Poonja : The Truth Is
Ring/ Cooper : Mindsight – near -death and out- of-body experiences in the blind
Sogyal Rinpoche : Den tibetanska livs- och dödsboken
Bengt Rudqvist : Frågor kring Visdom & Kärlek
Lee Sanella : The Kundalini Experience – Psychosis or Transcendence
Robert Sardello : Freeing the Soul from fear
Arthur Schopenhauer : The World as Will and Representation
Scotton, Chinen, Battista Eds. : Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology
Suzanne Segal : Collision with the Infinite
Sonu Shamdasani, Ed. : The RED BOOK – Liber Novus C*G*JUNG
Stuart Sovatsky : Passions of Innocence
Stuart Sovatsky : Words from the Soul
Len Sperry : Spirituality in Clinical Practice – Incorporating the Spiritual Dimension in Psychotherapy and Counseling
Rick Strassman et al : Inre Vägar till Yttre Rymden – Resor till Främmande Världar med hjälp av Psykedelika och andra Andliga Tekniker
Michael Talbot : The Holographic Universe
Richard Tarnas : Cosmos and Psyche
John Tarrant : The Light Inside the Dark: Zen, Soul and the Spiritual Life
Wayne Teasdale : The Mystic Heart
Irina Tweedie : The Chasm of Fire
Arnold van Gennep : The Rites of Passage
Frances Vaughan : The Inward Arc
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee : Love is a Fire
Frank Visser : Ken Wilber – Thought As Passion
Jenny Wade : Changes of Mind – A Holonomic Theory of the Evolution of Consciousness
Jenny Wade : Transcendent Sex – when lovemaking opens the veil
Roger Walsh : Essential Spirituality – Exercises from the Worlds Religions to Cultivate Kindness, Love, Joy, Peace, Vision, Wisdom and Generosity
Walsh – Grob : Higher Wisdom
Berit Wegler : När själen skenar
John Welwood : Toward a Psychology of Awakening – Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Path of Personal and Spiritual Transformation
Ken Wilber : Grace and Grit
Ken Wilber : Sex, Ecology, Spirituality – The Spirit of Evolution
Kenneth Wide : Bildens helande kraft
Richard Wilhelm : The Secret of the Golden Flower
Anthony William : Medial Läkning
Fred Alan Wolf : Taking the Qantum LEAP – The New Physics for Non-scientists
V. Vernon Woolf : Holodynamics
Trond Överland : Psykosyntes
– holistisk psykologi för allsidig utveckling
