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 The Transpersonal Studies workshops help students take a step back and perceive their ordinary life experiences as steps along a path
of self-transformation. By examining key moments of their life
cycles such as birth, relationship and death, students learn to
participate in life with more clarity and purpose.
These workshops are influenced by transpersonal psychology, a field of psychology that views the healing of a person as related to that person’s understanding of himself in relationship to a larger consciousness that exists beyond the conscious mind. In practice, transpersonal psychology integrates psychological theories and methods with what may be considered spiritual practices or states. These include spiritual experiences, mystical states of consciousness, meditative practices, shamanic states, ritual, and the overlap of spiritual experiences in disturbed states. In essence, transpersonal psychology is the study and understanding of self-transcendence, that expansive sense of identity that is less individuated and more unified with the whole.
Transpersonal psychology provides an invaluable forum within western psychology for the consideration of information that is not generated solely by the rational mind. Clinical psychology, the more dominant paradigm in the healing of the mind in the west, does not allow for the processing of information outside the rational model. Transpersonal psychology allows for the discussion of concepts such as soul and spirit and incorporates other fields and disciplines such as eastern thought and altered state therapies. There are many writers and practitioners who have contributed to the transpersonal field. These include, Carl Jung, Sri Aurobundo, Roberto Assagioli, Abraham Maslow, Ken Wilber, Stanislov Grof and Christina Grof to name a few.
As a field, transpersonal psychology is relatively young, and holds the potential for breaking new ground in understanding the western psyche. Clearly, the important similarity of the transpersonal psychologists is their ability to think outside of the given paradigm, and to embrace the idea of healing through the connection with higher consciousness, or spirit. Transpersonal psychology remains one of the most dynamic and cutting edge fields in psychology today.
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Transpersonal Studies Program Overview
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