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Self-transcendence is an ambiguous construct without consensual meaning, yet many claim that it relates to, or even causes, beneficial outcomes. Few discuss its potential deleterious side effects, choosing to focus primarily on positive effects. However, anything with sufficient potency to heal may have unintended side effects, especially when it leads beyond a transitory state to becoming an enduring trait, such as when self-transcendence (ST) becomes persistent self-transcendence (PST). With PST, evidence is overviewed here, along with two illustrative case reports, that people can suffer emotional difficulties, motivation changes, loss of self-reflexivity, anhedonia, dissociation, depersonalization, memory problems, and other psychological concerns. This is discussed in terms of the disruption of the sense of self, which ordinarily serves as an integrative center for the person that conveys a sense of agency. Possible neurobiological and sociocultural effects of PST are also discussed, with a focus on its role on narrative memory as the construction of self-concept. Evidence has also been accumulating on problematic side effects of meditation and mindfulness, techniques commonly presented as paths to PST. Given that PST is often presented as a pinnacle of human development and spiritual attainment, seekers of PST, psychologists, and other mental health professionals are urged to become informed about its possible side effects, and view this phenomenon in a more balanced way.

Parapsychology and transpersonal psychology were founded independently and have evolved separately as two distinct movements, although there is considerable overlap in both their content and in the interests of a number of scholars who are active in both areas. Harris Friedman, Co-President of the Association of Transpersonal Psychology, and Dean Radin, President of the Parapsychological Association, engaged in an informal discussion on the salient commonalities and differences between the two movements, focusing on exploring ways that the two could be brought into better alignment, such as including more transpersonal approaches within parapsychological studies and vice versa. Stanley Krippner, whose seminal work straddles both areas, chaired the panel, introducing and serving as a discussant for Friedman’s and Radin’s views, as well as in presenting his own views on the relationship between parapsychology and transpersonal psychology.

Self-expansiveness is a transpersonal construct that uniquely provides a secular-naturalistic conceptualization related to, but distinct from, constructs based on a supernatural approach to spirituality. It avoids supernatural references that are often explicitly or implicitly embedded within many approaches to understanding spirituality. Self-expansiveness refers to the malleable nature of self-concept, which can expand in various transpersonal ways in space and time that have similarity to some naturalistic conceptualizations of spirituality, especially those related to interconnectedness. The Self-Expansiveness Level Form (SELF) is a short self-report measure operationalizing self-expansiveness that has demonstrated psychometric worth, as well as successful use, in a variety of empirical studies. In essence, the SELF is a measure of the willingness of individuals to view themselves through the process of identification in an expansive way that goes beyond limiting the self to the here-and-now. The SELF Transpersonal Scale taps into willingness to identify with unusual items, such as atoms in the body, all life, all that has happened, distant descendants, and the entire universe beyond time. The SELF thus provides an alternative approach to studying spirituality and has potential implications for clinical and other applications.

An extraordinary claim was made by one of the leading researchers within positive psychology, namely, there is a universal–invariant ratio between positive to negative emotions that serves as a unique tipping point between flourishing and languishing in individuals, marriages, organizations, and other human systems across all cultures and times. Known as the “critical positivity ratio,” this finding was supposedly derived from the famous Lorenz equation in physics by using the mathematics of nonlinear dynamic systems, and was defined precisely as “2.9013.” This exact number was widely touted as a great discovery by many leaders of positive psychology, had tremendous impact in various applied areas of psychology, and, more broadly, and was extensively cited in both the scientific literature and in the global popular media. However, this finding has been demonstrated to be bogus. Since its advent as a relatively new subdiscipline, positive psychology has claimed superiority to its precursor, the subdiscipline of humanistic psychology, in terms of supposedly both using more rigorous science and avoiding popularizing nonsense. The debunking of the critical positivity ratio demonstrates that positive psychology did not live up to these claims, and this has important implications, which are discussed in terms of “romantic scientism” and “voodoo science.” In addition, articles in the special issue on the “Implications of Debunking the ‘Critical Positivity Ratio’ for Humanistic Psychology” are introduced, as they also delve into these concerns.

Recent randomized controlled trials of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for patients with cancer suggest that this treatment results in large-magnitude reductions in anxiety and depression as well as improvements in attitudes toward disease progression and death, quality of life, and spirituality. To better understand these findings, we sought to identify psychological mechanisms of action using qualitative methods to study patient experiences in psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 adult participants with clinically elevated anxiety associated with a cancer diagnosis who received a single dose of psilocybin under close clinical supervision. Transcribed interviews were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, which resulted in 10 themes, focused specifically on cancer, death and dying, and healing narratives. Participants spoke to the anxiety and trauma related to cancer, and perceived lack of available emotional support. Participants described the immersive and distressing effects of the psilocybin session, which led to reconciliations with death, an acknowledgment of cancer’s place in life, and emotional uncoupling from cancer. Participants made spiritual or religious interpretations of their experience, and the psilocybin therapy helped facilitate a felt reconnection to life, a reclaiming of presence, and greater confidence in the face of cancer recurrence. Implications for theory and clinical treatment are discussed.

The psychological mechanisms of action involved in psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy are not yet well understood. Despite a resurgence of quantitative research regarding psilocybin, the current study is the first qualitative study of participant experiences in psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy. Semistructured interviews were carried out with 13 adult participants aged 22 to 69 years ( M = 50 years) with clinically elevated anxiety associated with a cancer diagnosis. Participants received a moderate dose of psilocybin and adjunctive psychotherapy with an emphasis on the process of meaning-making. Verbatim transcribed interviews were analyzed by a five-member research team using interpretative phenomenological analysis. General themes found in all or nearly all transcripts included relational embeddedness, emotional range, the role of music as conveyor of experience, meaningful visual phenomena, wisdom lessons, revised life priorities, and a desire to repeat the psilocybin experience. Typical themes found in the majority of transcripts included the following: exalted feelings of joy, bliss, and love; embodiment; ineffability; alterations to identity; a movement from feelings of separateness to interconnectedness; experiences of transient psychological distress; the appearance of loved ones as guiding spirits; and sharing the experience with loved ones posttreatment. Variant themes found in a minority of participant transcripts include lasting changes to sense of identity, synesthesia experiences, catharsis of powerful emotion, improved relationships after treatment, surrender or “letting go,” forgiveness, and a continued struggle to integrate experience. The findings support the conclusion that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy may provide an effective treatment for psychological distress in cancer patients. Implications for theory and treatment are discussed.

Heroism requires acting altruistically in the face of considerable risk. Professions such as psychology are based on working toward a public good and accordingly provide offsetting privileges for the sacrifices expected. Consequently, psychologists occasionally face professional dilemmas that provide everyday heroic opportunities. Examples of such opportunities during one psychologist’s career path are presented and implications for others in the profession are explored. These are put into the context of heroism as a transpersonal act that can be based on self-expansiveness in which someone goes beyond identifying with their self as an isolated entity and, instead, experiences a sense of interconnectedness with others, the world, and even the cosmos.

This study replicated and extended previous research (Bloom & Friedman, 2013) indicating that humans can correctly identify emotional expressions in photographs of dog faces when tested with one breed (i.e., a Malinois). It examined the effect of dog facial morphology on accuracy of emotion identification by using images of a Malinois, as well as two-different breeds (Doberman and Rhodesian Ridgeback) expressing six-discrete emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, surprise). Using a sample of 105-undergraduate students, participants were shown slides presenting four different expressive images of the same breed and asked to identify the image that best depicted one of the six emotions. Analyses indicated that participants were able to correctly identify all emotions across all dog breeds significantly better than chance, replicating the previous study for the Malinois, and extending its findings to additional breeds. Accuracy of emotion identification was predicted to be lower for the Doberman due to its darker coloration, possibly interfering with recognition of subtle emotional cues, but was found to be highest for the Malinois, followed by the Doberman, and then the Rhodesian Ridgeback.

Transpersonal psychology has at times critiqued the broader psychology field for perpetrating a somewhat arbitrary Cartesian subject-object divide. Some phenomenologists claim that reframing this purported divide as an experienced phenomenon can defuse its philosophical impact. If subjective experiences are viewed as continuous with the lifeworld out of which objective phenomena are abstracted, the divide between these is revealed as a somewhat arbitrary, if useful, construction. This, in turn, challenges psychology to engage with subjective phenomena in a more substantive way. In this paper based on excerpts from a protracted email conversation held on the American Psychological Association’s Humanistic Psychology (Division 32) listserv, two academic psychologists with transpersonal interests explore this extraordinary claim of phenomenology, one being a proponent and the other being a skeptic of the claim. Two other academic psychologists with transpersonal interests who participated in this dialogue comment on its relevance for transpersonal psychology. The conversation focuses on the ideas of Husserl and Heidegger, and emphasizes how phenomenology might reconcile the subject-object divide through exploring intentionality, the meaning of noetic/noema, and thinking itself, while the discussion serves as an example of an adversarial collaboration in which disagreeing parties seek deeper understanding through dialogue.

Further developing transpersonal psychology as a science has been impeded by the over emphasis on two approaches to building theory, namely grand theories that attempt to explain everything and mini-theories that avoid explaining much of anything. In between these extremes are “middle-range” transpersonal psychology theories that can better allow for scientific progress. They bracket metaphysical and supernatural approaches common in transpersonal grand theories, and accept the possible generalizability of findings commonly rejected by transpersonal mini-theories. The transpersonal construct of self-expansiveness illustrates one way that middle-range transpersonal theories can lead to a program of cumulative empirical research and empirically informed practices. Other transpersonal constructs, such as awe, can also be good candidates for building and testing middle-range transpersonal psychology theories.

Humanistic Psychology is often mis-portrayed as dying or dead, a claim that is especially egregious when made by positive psychologists who minimize their debt to, as well as co-opt a narrow version of, Humanistic Psychology. Dilthey's collection of essays, written prior to his death in 1911, distinguished between natural and human sciences, with the former focused on material explanations and the latter focused on understanding humans and their unique lives within socio-historical contexts. Mruk provided a good way to delineate the complex rift characterizing the cultural divide separating Humanistic from Positive Psychology. Specifically, he delineated between what he called 'positivistic positive psychology' and 'humanistic positive psychology'. He outlined their commonalities and differences, while denying that they constitute separate fields. With the increasing cultural ascendency of Positive Psychology, claiming superiority over Humanistic Psychology by supposedly restoring hard science approaches to positive phenomena constitutes both a threat and an opportunity for Humanistic Psychology.

Although he formally departed from the transpersonal psychological community in the 1990s, Ken Wilber was, and continues to be, one of the most important and influential theoreticians in this subdiscipline of psychology. Given his indisputable prominence and substantive contributions to transpersonal psychological thought, both Harris L. Friedman and Douglas A. MacDonald met with Wilber in order to learn about his views of the field and to solicit him for suggestions on what might be done to help move transpersonal psychology forward. On November 16, 2018, Wilber, Friedman, and MacDonald met in Denver, Colorado. The 3-hour conversation that ensued was recorded and transcribed. In this article, we provide salient excerpts from this conversation, including some minor edits (in brackets) made to enhance quality of expression. The gist of Wilber’s recommendations, made early in the conversation, is that transpersonal psychology should “disband or, at the very least, come up with a different name.” What follows is a lively dialog between two transpersonal psychologists and one of the subdiscipline’s most renowned early thinkers who now disavows its worth and shares some of the reasons why he left the subdiscipline to pursue “integral” psychology.

Meant to be an authoritative guide for psychiatrists and others interested in understanding and applying ketamine psychedelic psychotherapy (KPP), this paper focuses on its pharmacology, phenomenology, and clinical applications. Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic widely used by physicians and veterinarians in the United States. In addition to its anesthetic and dissociative properties, ketamine also has a multitude of other psychological and pharmacological properties, which include analgesic, sedative, neuroprotective, anxiolytic, antidepressant, stimulant, euphoriant, and hallucinogenic effects. The literature on the clinical application of KPP is comprehensively reviewed, practical advice for using KPP is given, and the pharmacology and phenomenology of ketamine-induced psychedelic experiences are explored, including in relationship to transpersonal healing and possible iatrogenic consequences of misuse of KPP.

SYNOPSISHumanistic Psychology is often misportrayed as dying or dead, a claim that is especially egregious when made by positive psychologists, who minimize their debt to, as well as co-opt a narrow version of, Humanistic Psychology. This rift rests on a cultural divide that cuts broadly across many sectors of modern life. Through denigration of and distancing from Humanistic Psychology, positive psychology has gained considerable benefits siphoned from Humanistic Psychology. Consequently, a better future for Humanistic Psychology requires making explicit efforts to be more holistic, including in valuing all methodologies, and emphasizing the importance of including both positive and negative phenomena within its purview. This could reclaim largely dormant aspects of Humanistic Psychology, undermining the efforts of positive psychology to assert itself as distinct, and perhaps facilitating an eventual reconciliation.

Zimbabwe has been experiencing one of the worst economic and humanitarian crises in modern times, after its people have suffered from horrific episodes of political violence. An approach to healing and reconciliation in Zimbabwe aimed at developing transpersonal resiliency, called Lament, Welcome, and Celebration (LAWECE), was designed to be culturally appropriate through involving two distinct versions of psychological and spiritual intervention, one appropriate for traditional Shona values and one for Christian values. LAWECE involves a sequence of activities focused on both individual and community healing, starting with a lamentation process acknowledging the atrocities, followed by a welcoming process that invites all to participate (including perpetrators of the violence), and culminates with a celebratory process to consolidate the healing. Throughout there is a respect for diversity of religious and secular perspectives, congruent with its transpersonal perspective.

Humans accurately read other humans' emotional facial expressions. Little research was found examining human ability to read dogs' expressions. Cross-species research extended facial expression research to chimpanzees, and there is much research on dogs' auditory signaling to humans. To explore humans' ability to identify dogs' facial displays, photographs of a dog's face were taken under behaviorally defined conditions expected to elicit specific emotions. Dog experts consistently rated these photographs. The photographs rated as best by experts were used as stimuli for people experienced and inexperienced with dogs. Both groups were able to read the dog's emotions. Paradoxically, experienced people were less accurate reading aggressiveness. Experienced people were better identifying behaviorally defined situations. Research using behaviorally anchored, standardized photographs is recommended.

When the scientific method yields discoveries that imperil people’s lifestyle or worldviews or impinge on corporate vested interests, the public and political response can be anything but favorable. Sometimes the response slides into overt denial of scientific facts, although this denial is often claimed to involve “skepticism”. We outline the distinction between true skepticism and denial with several case studies. We propose some guidelines to enable researchers to differentiate legitimate critical engagement from bad-faith harassment, and to enable members of the public to pursue their skeptical engagement and critique without such engagement being mistaken for harassment.

Aikido, and related martial arts, such as Hapkido, offer insights for reconciling conflict at intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, and global levels. How these operate can be understood scientifically using psychological concepts, especially from transpersonal and transcultural psychology. Some basic approaches for applying these principles are explained, and case examples of their application across different levels for reconciling conflict are provided.