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What is Transpersonal Psychology and Transpersonal Therapy?      Transpersonal Psychology emerged as a separate psychological discipline at the end of the ‘60s with the creation of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology. In part, it grew out of a backlash to the materialistic/scientific worldview embodied in the Behaviorist school of psychology, (and the Newtonian/Cartesian mechanistic universe). These disciplines view the individual as a product of learned behavior in three-dimensional experience. This position held that human experience is limited to the physical self, to the manifestation of the physical self, and that part of the personality in control called the ego.      The countercultural seeds were sown by Freud when he created the psychoanalytic school wherein he allowed for an unconscious that influences and often surreptitiously directs behavior. What you see on the surface isn’t always what you get. Freud’s view totally changed the notion of conscious control of the individual. One of Freud’s students, the Austrian psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung, took a giant step past his mentor when he allowed for a group unconscious, the racial unconscious, which also impacts behavior and, more importantly, the spiritual development of the self. Jung also had a much more benign view of the actions of the unconscious in bringing about healing and spiritual development in the individual. These views represent the first modern definitions of a self that lies beyond what we see as the ego and the physical person. The Jungian school also emphasized the vast resources of the unconscious and its positive role in individual and spiritual development.      Transpersonal psychology moves several steps beyond this early definition of a self that is more than the physical self. Wikkipedia, the online encyclopedia, defines transpersonal as, “Transcending or reaching beyond the personal or individual.” In part, Transpersonal Psychology allies itself with the Eastern philosophies such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and the ancient Ayurvedic ideas and blends it with modern scientific ideas of quantum mechanics and a multi-dimensional reality. It definitively got the study of the individual past what the celebrated philosopher/theologian Alan Watts called the “skin encapsulated model”. There is a portion of the self that transcends, goes beyond the mind/body as defined by the physical self and that portion impacts the course of your life, the challenges, and soul lessons. You and I are more than what is contained within the boundary of our skin. What does this mean?      Most transpersonal psychologists agree with the following: You are more than the physical self that is reflected in the mirror. The other parts of you are called various things, the unconscious, the racial unconscious (a kind of group unconscious) and the super-conscious. Many (but not all) believe in reincarnation. They believe that you have lived many lives and have access to the memory of those lives. These other parts of you have a great bearing on the course of your life and are an integral part of who you are. They entertain a reality or realities beyond the physical reality in which we live. It is not necessary to believe in the reality of reincarnation for transpersonal therapy to be effective. Professionals still debate what it is that is really being recalled in a regression. One of the luminaries in the transpersonal field, psychiatrist Stanislov Grof, says (paraphrased), It doesn’t matter if it is fantasy. Don’t waste a good fantasy; it can be used to heal. Believe that through relatively simple and proven techniques each of us can discover the reason (in the present childhood, past life or lives) for the challenges in our life and can, in most cases, resolve the challenges. Believe that everyone’s life has a spiritual component and purpose and that the capability for change and healing lies in each one of us. As a matter of fact, if you get out of your own way, your inner self will inexorably drive toward healing. The therapist’s role is to help you understand the reasons for your issue, the answers to your question, and this will lead to inner growth.      All of this has powerful implications for your understanding and control of your life – talk to me.