7. PEAK EXPERIENCE (Maslow)

1. CONTEXT, CONTENT, AND PROCESS (Vaughan, JTP).

Context: the philosophical assumptions of a field, its orientation, attitude, and approach; guides research and practice. Characteristics of a transpersonal context include self-transcendence, nonduality, optimal mental health, and the intrinsic health and wisdom of each person and each part of the whole.

Content: the material dealt with by a field, its topics of research, theory, and practice. Examples are transpersonal, mystical, shamanic and similar states, self-transcendent consciousness, the difficulties that arise in the spiritual journey such as spiritual emergency, the relationship between transpersonal states and psychopathology, transpersonal ecopsychology, and so on.

Process: the various practices used by a field. Transpersonal processes include practices drawn from spiritual traditions which might be useful to psychologists (such as meditation) and psychological methods which might be useful to those on spiritual paths (such as dealing with anxiety or self-pathology).

Using these concepts, there are two ways to define transpersonal psychology. Transpersonal psychology can be defined as a field or area of study, i.e., the overlap of spirituality and psychology. By this definition, transpersonal psychology holds no particular view or context, and it is defined by its CONTENT and PROCESSES. This definition is the same as definitions of other areas of psychology, such as developmental psychology, personality theory, or clinical psychology. Transpersonal psychology has a focus but there can be different theoretical approaches within that focus, e.g., behavioral, psychodynamic, or cognitive.

Transpersonal psychology can also be defined by its CONTEXT as a metatheory or paradigm (comparable to behaviorism or cognitive psychology). This definition focuses on its particular views, principles, and beliefs.

I do not think transpersonal psychology has differentiated itself well as a field based on content and process and as a metatheory based on its context. This has created some confusion in definition.

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2. SELF-TRANSCENDENCE AND DISIDENTIFICATION (Maslow, others)

Maslow suggested self-trancendence as the highest need in his Hierachy of Needs and suggested that it appears in some self-actualizers as a need to find communion and connection to the cosmos. This relates to his Theory Z. Theory X refers to people motivated by fear, image, and other deficiency-motivations. Theory Y refers to people motivated by a chance to grow and develop, i.e., to self-actualize. Maslow suggested a further expansion, or Theory Z, to refer to those motivated by peak experiences and other experiences of connection to the whole and self-transcendence.

Miles Vich (founding editor of JTP) once said to me in conversation that "Self-transcendence is the central defining characteristic of transpersonal psychology." Self-transcendence: a sense of self which is not based on (or identified with) the individual as a separate entity, disconnected from other parts of the whole. Knowing the self as part of a larger whole, going beyond identification with personal history, body, self-images, and object relations to a deeper identification which is more integrated and includes spiritual dimensions.

Disidentification: loss or disintegration of the ordinary sense of self. A necessary step toward the transpersonal, but is not transpersonal in and of itself. One kind of disidentification is letting go of the sense of a separate self. Self-transcendenceis movement toward nonduality.

Self-transcendence need not negate one's sense of individuality and personalness, although at deeper (or higher) levels of identity, it may. Many would also say that self-transcendence must include embodiment, groundedness, autonomy, personalness, and self-knowledge (i.e., an expanded, more realized sense of self identity), too. I understand self-transcendence as occuring along a continuum, from a more expansive sense of self which includes both a sense of oneself as a separate individual AND as part of a larger whole to self-transcendence which goes beyond any sense of self as an individual entity.

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3. TRANSPERSONAL ECOPSYCHOLOGY

Well, OK, this term isn't widely used, but I use it to refer to the intersection of nature, spirit, and psyche. There are several examples or analogies from this area that apply to transpersonal psychology and which seem to help people "get it." It is a way to talk about connections that transcend individuals and about nonduality. Individual organisms exist in, and are part of, an ecosystem. One can focus on individual organisms (CF, the personal) or on the larger, integrated ecosystem (CF, the transpersonal). Many people know the concept of Gaia, that the Earth functions as a single organism, and can relate to transcendence this way, too.

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4. VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE (James)

William James took a particularly psychological approach to the study of religious experience and mysticism. He examined a variety of such experiences and identified their common characteristics, regardless of the theory or dogma around them. This approach reflects some of the essence of transpersonal psychology.

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5. FIRST-HAND AND SECOND-HAND RELIGION (James); SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION (various writers)

First-hand religion is based on direct experience of the sacred, also called mystical experience. Second-hand religion is based on another's experience, authority, or dogma. This distinction is often framed as the difference between spirituality (first-hand) and religion. (second-hand). Transpersonal psychology is interested primarily in first-hand religion.

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6. COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS AND ARCHETYPES (Jung)

It could be argued that this is the main transpersonal concept. Jung extended Freud's topographical model of consciousness (Conscious, Preconscious, Unconscious) by distinguishing between a personal and a collective (or transpersonal) unconscious. All of humanity, and perhaps sentient beings beyond the human, share the collective unconscious. One of Jung's original references called it the Überpersonliche (literally, overpersonal or transpersonal) unconscious.

Archetypes are primordial patterns in, and expressions of, the collective (transpersonal) unconscious. They are tendencies to perceive the world in certain ways which are shared by all human consciousness, similar to original patterns, prototypes, or Platonic forms. Examples include the persona (the mask we present to the world), the shadow (repressed elements of the self), anima and animus (feminine and masculine archetypes), the hero, God, the Devil, earth mother, sage, fool, divine child, and many others. Archetypes manifest personally in dreams and culturally in symbols and myths, fairy tales, rites, and art. A central archetype is the self, symbolized by the mandala, which unifies opposites and reaches its full development in what Jung called "individuation." While the archetypes themselves are generally beyond consciousness, Jung also said that mystical experience is the direct experience of archetypes.

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7. PEAK EXPERIENCE (Maslow)

Maslow was looking for a way to do good psychological research on mystical and other extremely positive experiences as part of his studies of psychological health. He settled on the term "peak experience" because it was more neutral and did not trigger the rejection of his peers as the term "mystical" did. His definition: "The most wonderful experience or experiences of your life, happiest moments, ecstatic moments, moments of rapture" (Maslow, 1962). Maslow hypothesized that virtually everyone has had a peak experience, though some have them more often and more deeply than others, and some careful research bears this out. This concept is related to a broad range of transpersonal experiences and states.

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8. PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY, HIERARCHY OF NEEDS, AND DEVELOPMENTAL SPECTRUM, (Maslow, Wilber)

There are many variations on this theme and some important critiques of a simplistic or rigid view of it, but I still think it is extremely useful in clarifying misconceptions about transpersonal psychology.

Reality is ordered (e.g., matter, mind, soul, spirit) and identity and consciousness develop in a orderly fashion. This ordering has been seen as a hierarchy (linear with higher levels either incorporating or replacing lower levels) or as a nested hierarchy or holoarchy (with more expanded levels incorporating and extending more narrow levels...think of nested boxes or circles).

Maslow's needs hierarchy reflects this as does Wilber's developmental spectrum. Wilber: Three broad stages of identity: prepersonal, personal, transpersonal. Here, transpersonal refers to a particular level or kind of organization of identity and self-reflective understanding. It is not the same as spirit. A child is spirit, as is a meditation master. However, a meditation master knows her/himself in a transpersonal way, and a young child only knows him/herself in a prepersonal way.

This is similar to many other developmental models, as Wilber has shown. I think it is especially helpful to distinguish self-actualization and self-transcendence, as Maslow did. Self-actualization: fulfilling one's individual potential and living in an existentially authentic way. Self-transcendence: finding oneself at home in, and part of, the cosmos, beyond individual needs and identity. (Note: I still get excited by this concept. I feel Maslow laid out an agenda for transpersonal psychology that the field is still pursuing.)

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9. PRE-TRANS FALLACY (Wilber), REDUCTIONISM AND ELEVATIONISM (Walsh and Vaughan).

These concepts stem from Wilber's developmental spectrum model. Failing to distinguish prepersonal states from transpersonal states leads to a fallacy. Neither is characterized by a coherent, integrated, and consistent sense of self, but they are very different. In prepersonal states, a healthy personality has not yet developed; in transpersonal states, it has been transcended. Engler's aphorism,
you have to be somebody before you can be nobody" refers to this distinction, too. Note that this concept presumes some kind of hierarchical or holoarchical organization of reality.

Walsh and Vaughan put different words to it, but the idea is the same. Reductionism reduces all non-personal experience to prepersonal levels; elevationism elevates all non-personal experience to the transpersonal. So, a Freudian who says all meditative experience is regressive and pathological is an example of reductionism. A "new-age" transpersonalist who says all psychotic experience is really mystical awakening is an example of elevationism.

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10. EXTRAPERSONAL AND TRANSPERSONAL (Green, JTP).

Transpersonal refers to states of a higher order of integration and development toward unity or nonduality. Extrapersonal refers to states outside normal consciousness which are not necessarily more integrated. Various kinds of anomalous states, such as experiencing ghosts and shamanic states, might be extrapersonal but not transpersonal.

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11. SPIRITUAL CRISES (Roberto Assagioli), SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY (Grof), POSITIVE DISINTEGRATION (Dembrowski), MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE WITH PSYCHOTIC FEATURES (Lukoff et al.), NADIR EXPERIENCE (Maslow), a similar concept was introduced by Roberto Assagioli.

I have found the concept of spiritual crisis or spiritual emergency to be one of the most useful examples of a concrete contribution of transpersonal psychology, especially when introducing transpersonal psychology to people who are new to it or skeptical about it.

Sometimes, a spiritual awakening, very strong peak experience, or mystical experience can be so disturbing that one is not able to function for a time. The "spiritual emergence" becomes a "spiritual emergency" or a "positive disintegration." This experience shares many characteristics with brief psychotic reactions and other forms of psychopathology and is easily misinterpreted. Thus, it can also be called a "mystical experience with psychotic features." However, handled well, a spiritual emergency has the potential for an extremely positive resolution.

Maslow referred to a similar idea in a footnote to a discussion about peak experiences. He pointed out that sometimes an extremely negative (or "nadir") experience can have an extremely positive outcome.

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Send suggestions for other core concepts which are helpful in understanding transpersonal psychology to John Davis, Naropa University.