Transpersonal Psychology Essay Example for Free

Transpersonal Psychology EssayThe field of Transpersonal Psychology is the fourth field of psychology in addition to psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and humanistic psychology which covers the concepts regarding in effect(p) Death Experience human beings, dream reality and waking reality. According to Lajoie and Shapiro from the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, Transpersonal psychology is concerned with the study of humannesss highest potential, and with the recognition, understanding, and fruition of spiritual and transcendent states of consciousness. (Lajoie and Shapiro, 199291).However, Walsh and Vaughan started to criticize the many definitions of transpersonal psychology and referred it as the branch of psychology which studies transpersonal gets which can be experienced during a distorted consciousness and new(prenominal) phenomena related to realms of mind and consciousness. (Walsh Vaughan, 1993, p203).Near Death ExperienceNear Death Experience (NDE) has been regar ded as a phenomenon connected with several aspects such as the after-life experience and physiological experience that has both spiritual and psychological effects depending on how it is perceived. According to Jansen and Phil, NDE is an altered state of consciousness of potentially great importance to psychology, philosophy, religion, medicine, neuroscience, art, and humanity in general. The mystery which it represents is of universal significance. (Dr. Karl Jansen MB.ChB., 1998). According to Jody Long, a person who experienced NDE integrates it to his existing belief and strengthens their sense of spirituality which may involve change of religion. (Long, 2003)Generally, Kenneth rabble (1980) classified NDEs on a 5 stages in progression1. feelings of peace and contentment2. a sense of detachment from the body3. entering a transitional world of darkness (rapid movement through a eagle-eyeddark tunnel the tunnel experience)4. emerging into bright light which maybe a spiritual fig ure and5. entering the light.According to van Lommel, et.al., based on the clinical studies, some factors that lead to NDE include cardiac arrest, postpartum loss of blood, anaphylactic shock, coma, asphyxia, suicide, apnoea, near-drowning and heartrending depression.(van Lommel, 2001) However, it was observed that there are quite similarities among the description of NDEs and the skeptics understood it to be attributed to the pathology of the dying or reviving brain as suggested by Dr. Vladimir Negovsky. (Pravda, 2004).Dream honestyA dream, as defined by American Heritage Dictionary (1978), is a series of images, ideas, etc., occurring in certain stages of sleep. Physiologically, it is commonly understood to be the result of the subconscious brain in processing waking reality and oftentimes outside the control of the wishful thinker.Eventually, studies showed that there is an exemption in manifest dreaming where the dreamer can control some aspects of the dream and experience it clearly. Stephen LaBerge, a popular experimenter has defined it as dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming. The clarity of the lucid dream signifies good dream visit. Practicing the control of the dream and recreating it may sometimes need tests to determine whether one is dreaming or not. Most common reality tests applied includes pinching oneself, holding ones nose, or facing a mirror.(LaBerge, 1993)According to Eugen Tarnow, lucid dreaming is similar to NDE in that the persons involved both recall them with clarity. Both gives color and sound and become part of a long-term memory even during waking life. During waking life an executive function interprets long term memory consistent with reality checking. (Long, 2003) This coincides with Grossos observation that both stem from the same matrix of consciousness and involve the same mechanisms. (Grosso, 1983) It can too noted that as the NDErs consciously knows that they are experiencing reality, so the lucid dreamers know s that they are dreaming.It was shown in a study entitled Dreams and NDE that dreams rarely reproduced any part of the experience. (Long, 2003) This became the strongest recount that NDEs and dreams are generally different states of consciousness. Another way to interrelated the dreams, NDE and waking life is by looking at the thickness or thinness of boundaries an person may have.According to Abraham Maslow an individuals capacity to experience transcendent states depends on a quality of openness that permits them to occur. (Kohr, 1983) p.171 Apparently, the thicker or more rigid the person, the slight dreams the person recalled while the thinner or more fluid the person, the more dreams and waking reality blended.REFERENCESLajoie, D. H. Shapiro, S. I. (1992). Definitions of transpersonal psychology The first twenty-three years. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, Vol. 24. p. 91.Walsh, R. Vaughan, F. (1993). On transpersonal definitions.Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 25 (2) 125-182Dr. Karl Jansen MB.ChB., M. M. S., D. Phil (Oxon), MRCPsych. (1998). Ketamine Near Death and Near Birth Experience. Retrieved February 26, 2007, from http//www.lila.info/document_view.phtml?document_id=91Grosso, M. (1983). Jung, Parapsychology, and the Near-Death Experience Toward a Transpersonal Paradigm. The Journal for Near-Death Studies, 3(1), 19-22.Kohr, R. (1983). Near-Death Experiences In, Altered States, and Psi Sensitivity, Anabiosis. The Journal for Near-Death Studies, 3(2), 169-172.LaBerge, S. a. L., Lynne. (1993). The Light and Mirror essay Nightlight 5(Summer), 10.Long, J. A. a. L., Jeffrey. (2003). Dreams, Near-Death Experiences, and Reality Retrieved February 26, 2007, from www.nderf.orgvan Lommel, P. e. a. (2001). Near Death Experience In Survivors of Cardiac Arrest A Prospective Study in the Netherlands. The Lancet( 358 ), 2039-2042.