3) Libido's Casino: Cosmic Order and Synchronicity In A Chaotic Random Universe/Enter Transpersonal Psychology

What Is Transpersonal Psychology? Transpersonal psychology recognizes that "humanity has both drives toward sex and aggression and drives toward wholeness, toward connecting with and experiencing the divine" (quoted in Lajoie and Shapiro: 87, 1992).

A longer definition of transpersonal psychology and a brief examination of its origins is put forth in this blog, In its most general expression transpersonal psychology is the field of study that grew out of Abraham Maslow's investigation of transcendence.

I like this definition of the person because it suggests that personality development has a dynamic quality, instead of placing an emphasis on the object permanence of any particular state of consciousness we might experience, demonstrate, or actualize within our self-awareness. The transpersonal is equally present in states of ecstasy, sensuality, and somatic experiences capable of just shaking you to your roots and really waking you up: life encounters that make you come alive and experience the kinesthetic, the tactile, and the erotic. Each of these human drives (and their various nuances) is equally important toward the creation and maintenance of a healthy personality. No definition of transpersonal psychology should be viewed as a description of some finished or final product of enlightenment. Rather, transpersonal psychology's emphasis is on the continuous process of transcendence and transformation within the realms of the personal, the planetary and the cosmological.

Defining Transpersonal Psychology

Denise H. Lajoie and Samual I. Shapiro thoroughly examined 202 original citations pertaining to transpersonal psychology, subsequently putting forth this definition:

"Transpersonal psychology is concerned with the study of humanity's highest potential, and with the recognition, understanding, and realization of unitive, spiritual, and transcendent states of consciousness" (Lajoie & Shapiro: 91, 1992).

The Origins and Growth of Transpersonal Psychology

Ralph Metzner offers a way of summing up the origins and growth of transpersonal psychology, telling us:

"Transpersonal psychology grew out of a need to have a language for a fourth strand (or school) of psychology (besides psychodynamic, behaviorist and humanistic) that would cover areas of human experience not covered by these three. Previously, such matters (higher states of consciousness, mystical experience. spirituality, religious values and aspirations, methods of transformation such as yoga), would be covered under the rubric of "psychology of religion," as in William James' "Varieties of Religious Experience," which was mostly based on the Western Christian literature of mysticism. Transpersonal psychology, due to the efforts of Stanislav Grof, Abraham Maslow, and Tony Sutich followed by many others, stated to develop a language to describe these areas, without using the language of any one religion and instead considering the common psychology experiences and processes that were talked about in the Hindu, Buddhist, Judeo-Christian, Confucian literature. Thus, Transpersonal Psychology has an ecumenical, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary character" (Metzner, quoted in Caplan, Hartelius & Radin: 151, 2003).

References

Caplan, M. Hartelius, G., & Radin, M. A. (2003). "Contemporary Viewpoints On Transpersonal Psychology." Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 35 (2), 143-162.

Lajoie, D. H. and Shapiro, S. I. (1992). "Definitions of Transpersonal Psychology: The First Twenty-Three Years." Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 24 (1), 81-98.