The term transpersonal (or beyond the personal) refers to states of being that transcend (go above and beyond) the normal experiences of the Ego. It is a branch of Humanistic Psychology and Jungian Psychology. It is influenced by the East through Buddhism, breathing exercises and holotropic breath-work, Hinduism through Chakra work and the West through inner-child work, behavioural psychology (egs.- removing fear, anger etc from the body), imagery and trance work.
The focus of transpersonal therapy includes concerns such as confidence and self-esteem, while emphasizing the spiritual view of our human nature and our soul nature. This enables one to heal, transform and become self-aware. The Institute’s vision of healing is simple, yet radical. We are already whole. Our task consists of releasing the layers of doubt, fear and vulnerability that prevent us from expressing our true soul nature of love, compassion, wisdom and inter-connectedness with life. The beauty of the transpersonal is that it accepts the full spectrum of human experience; working with the mind, body and spirit.
Psycho-Spiritual Integration – Integrating personality and soul
The sense of unworthiness, the feeling that 'I am not enough' is a deep wound that impedes both physical healing and emotional and spiritual growth. To the extent that we identify with shame and fear-driven false-selves, we forget the joy and radiance of our own true nature. Psycho-spiritual integration is devoted to dismantling the false-selves, retrieving lost parts of our personality; and practicing remembrances of the true Source Self, allowing us to heal, rejuvenate and transform.
It is much easier to say what it isn’t than what it is. For example, the
spiritual is often confused with the moral, but it is not the moral.
Morality is concerned with the issues of right and wrong. Although often
attributed to the “godhead”, it actually has a social basis and
reflects a social tradition or consensus. What is considered moral
varies from culture to culture and from time to time within the same
culture. Morality often serves as a basis for judgement or for one
individual or group separating themselves from another. Spirituality is
profoundly non-judgemental and non-separative. The spiritual does not
vary from time to time because it is not within time. Spirit is
unchanging.
The spirit is different from the ethical. Ethics is a set of values, a code for translating the moral into daily life. If the moral isn’t the spiritual, then the ethical isn’t either.
The spiritual is also not the psychic. The psychic is a capacity that we all share, although it is better developed in some than in others. It is a way of perceiving. We may use a psychic power to know the spiritual, but that which we know is not the means by which we know. If psychic perception is spiritual, then seeing is spiritual and hearing is spiritual. A sense is simply a way of gaining information about the world around us. One could use their senses to accumulate personal power or assert one’s separateness. The spiritual however, is not separative. Oddly, the psychic is often used to “prove” the spiritual to the non-believer. Yet the spiritual is the one dimension of human experience which does not require proof.
The spiritual is not the religious. A religion is a dogma, a set of beliefs about the spiritual and a set of practices that arise out of those beliefs. There are many religions and they tend to be mutually exclusive. Yet the spiritual is inclusive. It is the deepest sense of belonging and participation. We all participate in the spiritual at all times whether we know it or not. Religion is a bridge to the spiritual, but the spiritual lies beyond religion. The most important thing to defining spirit is the recognition that spirit is an essential need of human nature. There is something in all of us that seeks the spiritual.
The spirit is different from the ethical. Ethics is a set of values, a code for translating the moral into daily life. If the moral isn’t the spiritual, then the ethical isn’t either.
The spiritual is also not the psychic. The psychic is a capacity that we all share, although it is better developed in some than in others. It is a way of perceiving. We may use a psychic power to know the spiritual, but that which we know is not the means by which we know. If psychic perception is spiritual, then seeing is spiritual and hearing is spiritual. A sense is simply a way of gaining information about the world around us. One could use their senses to accumulate personal power or assert one’s separateness. The spiritual however, is not separative. Oddly, the psychic is often used to “prove” the spiritual to the non-believer. Yet the spiritual is the one dimension of human experience which does not require proof.
The spiritual is not the religious. A religion is a dogma, a set of beliefs about the spiritual and a set of practices that arise out of those beliefs. There are many religions and they tend to be mutually exclusive. Yet the spiritual is inclusive. It is the deepest sense of belonging and participation. We all participate in the spiritual at all times whether we know it or not. Religion is a bridge to the spiritual, but the spiritual lies beyond religion. The most important thing to defining spirit is the recognition that spirit is an essential need of human nature. There is something in all of us that seeks the spiritual.