Educating the ‘‘more’’ in Holistic Transpersonal Higher Education: a 30þ Year Perspective on the Approach of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology

This article describes a holistic and transpersonal approach to higher education and presents the graduate psychology programs and practices of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) as an illustrative example of this approach, given its 30þ year history. The article describes ITP’s transpersonal and whole-person focus, its experiential learning emphases, its foundational principles and their implementations, a unique six-facet project for assessing students’ transpersonal qualities and transformative changes, and the use of internal and external evidential indicators of its educational effectiveness. The article also addresses issues of transpersonal assessment and research and presents a variety of views of transformative change and spirituality that are relevant to transpersonal psychology. This discussion is useful to anyone wishing to understand how experiential and transpersonal principles and practices might be applied in higher education in order to more effectively foster and serve the full range of human capabilities and potentials—treated in terms of the ‘‘More’’ described by William James. The object of education is to bring out the best and highest powers in [those being] educated. Do we, in our education, even attempt to bring out the best and highest powers of the spirit, as we seek to develop those of the body and the mind? . . . The mischief is that whatever our theoretic beliefs, we do not in practice really regard spirit as the chief element of our being; the chief object of our educational care . . . It is the whole self which is called to turn towards Divine Reality . . . not some supposed ‘‘spiritual’’ part thereof. (Evelyn Underhill, 1920/ 1960, pp. 87, 88, 101) This article addresses the nature of holistic transpersonal education, focusing particularly on graduate education and on the approach of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (Palo Alto, California, U.S.A.), with its overarching and overlapping emphases on transpersonal studies and experiences and on experiential and whole-person learning. The approach’s rationale, implementation, and methods of evaluating its educational effectiveness are considered. For purposes of this article an approach can be considered a form of transpersonal education if either its intention or practice yields experiences or understandings consistent with the construct transpersonal, as defined and elaborated below. Transpersonal education can involve transpersonal content or a transpersonal approach or stance; ideally, both content and stance would be present. It addresses material that can be considered spiritual as well as material relevant to the existence and importance of that which is other than, or more than, the typically conceived self. It aims to confront and apprehend the whole of what is studied by means of the whole being of the student; its approach or stance is holistic, inclusive, integrated. It emphasizes and values the continued growth, development, and transformation of the student. Copyright 2006 Transpersonal Institute The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2006, Vol. 38, No. 2 PURPOSE OF THIS ARTICLE AND WHY ITP? The chief purpose of this article is to describe some of the essential features of holistic, experiential, and transpersonal education, and to provide a concrete example of how these features have been applied in the context of higher education. The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) was chosen as an illustrative example because of its long (over 30 years) and successful history in implementing these principles, and because—although an increasing number of schools now are providing transpersonal offerings—ITP remains the only accredited institution of higher learning that offers a doctoral degree in transpersonal psychology. This example is offered for readers who might wish to understand one way in which transpersonal psychology graduate education has been designed and operationalized successfully. This information may be useful to those who wish to develop similar implementations or devise their own variations on the themes presented herein. It is not the author’s intent (nor is there space) to provide detailed historical information about ITP. However, certain aspects of this history may be found in various sections of this article. EMPHASES OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM Described most directly and simply, the Institute’s aim is to help its students recognize that there is More (see William James’ treatment of a More, below) to our ways of knowing, being, and doing, and More to our nature and worldview, than commonly is recognized in conventional academic education. The aim is to help students learn about the nature of this More, access it better, integrate its aspects more fully into their lives, and share the benefits of this learning and integration with others by means of their own teaching, research, and practical applications. In this approach to transpersonal education the transpersonal aspect provides the academic content and informs the stance of the practitioner, while a holistic and experiential emphasis informs the pedagogy. The major subareas to be addressed in this article include (a) the meaning of a transpersonal emphasis, in general; (b) an emphasis on experiential learning; (c) expanded meanings of intellect and ways of knowing; and (d) transpersonal approaches to inquiry and research. The presentation of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology’s program and practices, as an illustrative example, will indicate specific, concrete ways in which these subareas can be addressed and integrated. Transpersonal Emphasis In surveying an extensive set of definitions of transpersonal psychology, Lajoie and Shapiro (1992) found that the most frequently mentioned themes involved states of consciousness, one’s highest or ultimate potential, going beyond ego or personal self, transcendence, and spirituality. In a subsequent and more theoretically neutral treatment, Walsh and Vaughan (1993) emphasized the study of transpersonal experiences ‘‘in which the sense of identity or self extends beyond (trans) the The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2006, Vol. 38, No. 2 individual or personal to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life, psyche or cosmos’’ (p. 203). They indicated that this emphasis did not exclude or invalidate the personal but, rather, ‘‘set personal concerns within a larger context that acknowledges the importance of both personal and transpersonal experiences. Indeed, one interpretation of the term transpersonal is that the transcendent is expressed through (trans) the personal’’ (p. 203). A century ago, William James (1902/1985) expressed a similar idea in describing succinctly how one becomes conscious of and in touch with ‘‘a MORE’’ with which one is ‘‘conterminous and continuous’’ (p. 508); and Van Dusen (1999) recently conveyed the essence of the transpersonal in speaking of the ‘‘More-than-Self’’ (p. 42) and how one relates to the latter. Van Dusen provides one of the most straightforward and satisfying statements of the transpersonal stance: ‘‘to love, honor, care for, or respect what is more than yourself’’ (p. 57). In a recent issue of this Journal, Caplan, Hartelius, and Rardin (2003) updated and expanded our understanding of the nature and emphases of transpersonal psychology—and, indirectly, the nature of transpersonal itself—in their presentation of the views of 41 individuals who are active in the field. What stands out, especially, in that presentation is the increased richness and diversity of the expressed views. Recent developments, concepts, and approaches within the new but rapidly growing field of positive psychology (Lopez & Snyder, 2003; Snyder & Lopez, 2002, 2007) also have helped us refine our understanding of transpersonal and how that overlaps and differs from what is treated in that new area of study. Positive psychology is beginning to explore topics treated by transpersonal psychology decades earlier. However, the former can be distinguished from the latter in terms of its subject matter and its approaches. Positive psychology continues to emphasize qualities within the realms of ego and, sometimes, of self actualization (with less attention to features beyond ego and features of self transcendence), and it tends to continue to approach its subject matter using positivistic research strategies (which emphasize quantitative, behavioral, and cognitive methods) rather than the more radical empiricist, pluralistic epistemology (which includes qualitative methods, experiential methods, and alternative modes of knowing) advocated by many transpersonal psychologists (see, e.g., Braud & Anderson, 1998). The transpersonal might be described succinctly as ways in which individuals, societies, and disciplines might increase their ambit and become more inclusive and expansive in areas of sense of identity (including ways of being and ways of functioning beyond the typical egocentric mode), development and transformation, conditions of consciousness, ways of knowing, values, and service. The transpersonal also involves recognizing and honoring the spiritual aspects of our being, actions, and ways of thinking. In discussing transpersonal education—as a way of drawing out or leading forth (educare) transpersonal qualities in practice—Clark (i.e., Frances Vaughan) (1974) stressed its concerns with the study and development of consciousness (especially ‘‘higher states of consciousness’’ [p. 1]) and with ‘‘the spiritual quest as an essential aspect of human life’’ (p. 1). She emphasized its devotion to knowledge and the ‘‘discovery of truth’’ (p. 1), its interest in ‘‘questions of value, meaning and purpose’’ (p. 1), its valuing of subjective experience and intrapersonal (as well as Holistic Transpersonal Education interpersonal) work, and the importance of an open, nonauthoritarian, nondogmatic attitude in doing all of these things. Clark also emphasized that transpersonal education ‘‘seeks to balance knowledge about a subject with direct intuitive knowing of particular states of being’’ (p. 4), and that it ‘‘seeks to affirm the deepest insights of human experience, be they scientific or religious, rational or intuitive’’ (p. 5). These last statements suggest a pluralistic epistemology, which is an important emphasis of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology’s programs. Emphasis on Whole Person Learning In seeking to help students encounter the transpersonal and the ‘‘More-than-Self,’’ a first step is to acknowledge that there are valid ways of knowing and learning other than an exclusively ‘‘mental’’ way of reason and discursive intellect. In describing the model of transpersonal education that was later to become actualized in the Institute’s programs, Frager (1974) indicated. At the core of the model is an emphasis on the balanced development of the whole individual, including physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual growth and integration. The model is designed to provide students with tools for working with others at all levels and, more important, to facilitate each student’s growth and development. Knowledge of psychological theories and techniques are important, but even more important is the state of consciousness, the being of a teacher or a therapist. This model can be viewed as part of the life-long growth of the individual, and its completion understood more as a foundation for further development than as the conclusion of learning. (p. 164) Since its founding in 1975, the Institute has remained true to this model by providing, in its curriculum, opportunities for training and balancing of body, emotion, mind, and spirit. Later, two additional areas were introduced into the Institute’s academic programs: a community-relational emphasis and a creative expression emphasis. The Institute’s work in these explicitly identified six areas of study (physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, community-relational, and creative expressive) is consistent with, and often anticipated, current interest and developments in multiple ways of knowing (e.g., Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger & Tarule, 1986; Shepherd, 1993), ‘‘multiple intelligences’’ (Gardner, 1983), ‘‘emotional intelligence’’ (Goleman, 1994; Payne, 1985; Salovey & Mayer, 1990) ‘‘spiritual intelligence’’ (Noble, 2000; Woodhouse, 2003; Zohar & Marshall, 2000), and related areas. Recently, it has been suggested that two additional areas— ecopsychology (ecological awareness) and diversity (appreciation of diverse ways of being in the world)—be added to the six areas already emphasized by the Institute. Recognizing and addressing multiple modes of knowing, being, and doing constitute a whole-person approach to learning and education. A whole-person approach includes, but is not limited to, the following aspects of human functioning: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal ‘‘intelligences’’ (Gardner, 1983); emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1994; Salovey & Mayer, 1990); and ways of learning about and interacting The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2006, Vol. 38, No. 2 with others and with the world that are characterized by feeling, receptivity, subjectivity, multiplicity, nurturing, cooperation, intuition, relatedness, and connectedness (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger & Tarule, 1986; Shepherd, 1993). A whole person approach also recognizes and addresses a variety of conditions of consciousness (‘‘normal or ordinary,’’ ‘‘altered,’’ ‘‘nonordinary,’’ and ‘‘pure’’; cf. Forman, 1997, 1999; Grof, 1972; Tart, 1975), their capabilities and limitations, and the nature of what can be known or not known in these respective states and experiences. Along these lines, Roberts (1989) has suggested the development of a multistate form of education that would recognize a variety of mindbody states, explore mindbody psychotechnologies (methods of producing these different states), and learn about and promote the human abilities and inabilities and their analogs that reside in the different mindbody states. Within a Jungian framework, the practitioner of wholeperson learning would honor all of the four functions—thinking, feeling, sensing, intuiting—as well as that tertium quid, the transcendent function, which simultaneously holds, balances, and integrates both conscious and unconscious materials (Jung, 1916/1969, 1921/1971). The different modes of knowing mentioned above have been incorporated, in various ways, into the Institute’s programs, curricula, courses, and other offerings, especially in its emphasis on experiential learning. Emphasis on Experiential Learning Because many of the components of whole-person learning are based on specific and concrete experiences, much of whole-person learning is experiential in nature. ‘‘Experiential’’ learning is fully and deeply lived, immediate, and embodied; it tends to be particular and concrete. It is distinguished from forms of learning (e.g., academic or intellectual forms) that are further removed from what is to be known— i.e., that are mediated—and that tend to be more abstract and cognitive. The Institute’s programs have both experiential and intellectual components. This blend can provide deeper and more complete understandings, appreciations, and apprehensions of ourselves, others, and the world at large than can either mode alone. The distinction between experiential and intellectual learning has interesting relatives and an interesting pedigree. The following section sketches some of the history of experiential learning, how it differs from other forms of learning and knowing, and how it appears in certain spiritual and wisdom traditions. According to Roger Bacon (1268/1928), there are two modes of acquiring knowledge: by reasoning [argument] and by experience. For Bacon, nothing can be sufficiently known without experience; when one has had an actual experience, one’s mind is made certain and rests in the full light of truth. William James, in the Principles (1890/1950), distinguished two kinds of knowledge: knowledge of [or by] acquaintance (of which feelings, emotions, and sensations are the vehicles) and knowledge-about (which might also be called representative knowledge, and of which thoughts, conceptions, and judgments are the vehicles) (pp. 221–222). The latter can be imparted to others; the former, because it is a direct and immediate experience, cannot be so imparted—through Holistic Transpersonal Education conventional means—but must be partaken of, directly, by another, in order to be appreciated. This Jamesian distinction echoes one made within the Sufi tradition: Knowledge is empty unless it is connected internally with what is known. Reason always means knowledge at a distance, across the mediation of language and concepts; but wisdom presupposes something like the intimacy of becoming what one knows. ‘‘What a difference there is,’’ al-Ghazali writes in his autobiography, ‘‘between knowing the definition of health and satiety, together with their causes and presuppositions, and being healthy and satisfied!’’ (p. 55). Only the mystics can raise knowledge to the level of gnosis (ma’rifa), in which one experiences what one knows with all the intimacy of being . . .. (Bruns, 1992, p. 127) Within the Naqshbandi tradition, the forms of knowing are elaborated further: Three ‘‘kinds of knowledge’’ . . . have to be separated, and the difference has to be felt: 1. The description of something—as in the words used to convey the idea of a fruit; 2. The feeling of something, as when one can see, feel, and smell a fruit; 3. The perceptive connection with something, as when one takes and tastes, eats and absorbs a fruit. These three departments of cognition are described in more technical language as: 1. Certain knowledge (Ilm-al-Yaqin), which comes from the intellect, which tells us that there is a fruit; 2. Eye of certainty (Ayn-al-Yaqin), which is from the ‘‘inner eye,’’ and operates like the senses but in relation to deeper things; the ‘‘assessment of a fruit’’; 3. Perfect truth (Haqq-al-Yaqin), which is the experience of ‘‘union with Truth.’’ (Schneck, 1980, pp. 32–33) Mention of the ‘‘eye of certainty’’ calls to mind the three ‘‘eyes’’—the ‘‘eye of the flesh,’’ the ‘‘eye of reason,’’ and the ‘‘eye of contemplation’’—and the various ways of knowing (of the senses, of the mind, of the spirit) elaborated by Boethius, by Hugh of St. Victor and other Victorine mystics (Richard of St. Victor, Thomas of St. Victor), by Bonaventure, and by Thomas Aquinas (see Boethius, 524/1980; Bonaventure, 1259/1953; McGinn, 1996, 1998; Thomas Aquinas, 1267–1273/1971). (A more modern appreciation of the ‘‘three eyes’’ can be found in Ken Wilber’s Eye to Eye: The Quest for the New Paradigm, 1990.) To these forms of knowing should be added knowing through affect, compassion, and love; through being and becoming what is to be known; through direct knowing and intuition; through sympathetic resonance and empathy; and through ‘‘unknowing’’ (see Braud & Anderson, 1998; Forman, 1999). Additional modes of knowing would include tacit knowing and personal knowledge (Polanyi, 1964), as well as a form of knowing, mimesis, described by Havelock (1963) and by Simon The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2006, Vol. 38, No. 2 (1978). In mimesis, as a member of the audience of a performance, one comes to know through imitation, personal identification, and sympathetic resonance with a performer. Havelock and Simon contend that this form of knowing featured prominently among the pre-Homeric and early-Homeric Greeks, but was increasingly abandoned when oral, poetic, and dramatic communication styles were superseded by the written and prose preferences of Plato and his contemporaries. Related to mimesis is ritual, which can itself provide forms of knowing not otherwise possible (see Deslauriers, 1992) and can facilitate transformative change, especially in liminal contexts (see McMahon, 1998). Experiential learning involves appreciations and apprehensions that occur through the direct, personal experiences of our lives. They need not be limited to only one or to a few facets of our nature, but may occur in any, and any combination, of the forms mentioned above. In a passage cited earlier, Frager (1974) mentioned the state of consciousness and the being of a teacher or therapist. In experiential learning, as in all knowing, the nature and being of the knower are important determinants of what can be known or experienced. The importance of the knower’s qualities and dispositions is recognized, currently, in the concept of the theoretical sensitivity of the investigator, within the qualitative research approach of grounded theory (Glaser, 1978). The same concept appears within all spiritual and wisdom traditions and within all systems of transformative practice. One place in which this has been formally explicated is in the principle of the adaequatio (adequateness or preparedness) of the knower (see, e.g., Schumacher, 1978, pp. 39–60). We can experience, perceive, and know only that for which our sensitivities have prepared us, and these sensitivities and dispositions depend upon aspects of our very being. Other expressions of the importance of the preparedness of the knower can be seen in the following quotations: Therefore, first let each become godlike and each beautiful who cares to see God and Beauty. (Ennead 1.6.9) All knowing comes by likeness. (Ennead 1.8.1) (Plotinus, circa 250/1966–1988) Everything that is known is comprehended not according to its own nature, but according to the ability to know of those who do the knowing? (Boethius, 524/ 1980, p. 157) Knowledge occurs according as the thing known is in the knower. But the thing known is in the knower according to the mode of the knower. Hence the knowledge of every knower is according to the mode of its own nature. If therefore the mode of anything’s being exceeds the mode of the nature of the knower, it must result that the knowledge of that thing is above the nature of the knower. (Thomas Aquinas, 1267–1273/1971, p. 53) To no one type of mind is it given to discern the totality of truth. Something escapes the best of us—not accidentally, but systematically, and because we have a twist . . .. Facts are there only for those who have a mental affinity with them. (William James, 1890/1956, p. 301) Holistic Transpersonal Education We behold that which we are. (Underhill, 1911/1969, p. 423) Only the Real can know Reality. (Underhill, 1911/1969, p. 436) Knowledge is a function of being. When there is a change in the being of the knower, there is a corresponding change in the nature and amount of knowing . . . Nor are changes in the knower’s physiological or intellectual being the only ones to affect his knowledge. What we know depends also on what, as moral beings, we choose to make ourselves. (Huxley, 1944/1970, pp. viii, ix) Practice may change our theoretical horizon, and this in a twofold way: it may lead into new worlds and secure new powers. Knowledge we could never attain, remaining what we are, may be attainable in consequences of higher powers and a higher life, which we may morally achieve. (William James, cited in Huxley, 1944/1970, p. viii) Expanded Meanings of Education and Intellect In the author’s view, most forms of modern higher education are relatively narrow in their scope, emphasizing intellectual development alone and subscribing, at that, to a narrow view of intellect. This assumption can be validated by perusing the catalogs of various well-known institutions of higher learning. Modern and postmodern conceptions of both education and intellect have limited and distorted earlier views of these processes. Early Greek education, in contrast, attempted to address the complete individual, emphasizing not only ‘‘a sound mind in a sound body,’’ but attending to a wide range of pursuits, including reading, writing, poetry, gymnastics, mathematics, philosophy, and science. Similarly, the early Greeks’ understanding of intellect was different and much broader. Intellect (Nous) was the largest manifestation of mind, and the term was used much as we use heart (in a certain sense) today. Nous encompassed the deepest core of one’s being—‘‘more spiritual than mind, more intellectual than spirit’’ (Underhill, 1960, p. 121). Through this intellect, humanity’s highest faculty, one could know the inner essences or principles of things by means of direct apprehension or perception. Nous was distinguished from dianoia (the discursive, conceptualizing, and logical faculty); the latter was only a part of the former (see Palmer, Sherrard & Ware, 1995, pp. 427–437). (In the well known opening passage of Ennead 4.8.1, Plotinus mentions descending from Intellect [Nous] to discursive reasoning [dianoia].) If we were to review representative ‘‘mainstream’’ professional publications today, we would find that, in both general and academic parlance, the meaning of intellect has been narrowed and reversed; taken to signify rational, analytical, discursive thinking, it is more appropriate to the workings of a computer than to the experiences of a human being. The Institute, through its emphases on whole-person and experiential learning, and on multiple ways of knowing, seeks to expand both education and intellect, and return them to their earlier, more inclusive, status. Transpersonal Research Approaches The expansions of educational content and approaches described above carry over into the teaching and conduct of transpersonal research (see Braud, 1998a, 2004; Braud & Anderson, 1998). Transpersonal research endeavors are characterized by The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2006, Vol. 38, No. 2 expansiveness and inclusiveness, as well as sensitivity and nuance. One aims to confront the whole of what one is researching with the whole of one’s being, in order to acquire descriptions and understandings of one’s topic that are as rich, deep, ‘‘thick,’’ and complete as possible. Expansiveness and inclusiveness are realized in the researcher’s use of multiple modes of knowing in collecting, working with, and communicating data and findings and in the researcher’s radical empirical stance toward the subject matter. Radical empiricism is, of course, an epistemological stance advocated by William James (1912/1976), in which one includes only what is based in experience, but includes everything that is based in experience. James also espoused a radical ontology—although he never used this term–in which the real is considered to be anything that we find ourselves obliged to take into account in any way (James, 1911). I offer the term radical ontology and mention it here because it is important to recognize how epistemology and ontology are intimately interrelated. The multiple modes of knowing include not only familiar ‘‘left-hemispheric,’’ theoretical, rational, linear, analytical, verbal research skills, but also less frequently emphasized, but equally important, complementary, ‘‘right-hemispheric,’’ experiential, body-based, sensory-based, intuitive, imagistic, and holistic techniques and skills. The transpersonal researcher adapts transpersonal, psychospiritual skills and practices such as mindfulness, discernment, compassion, and appreciation and honoring of differences (in all domains) for use in research projects. The researcher can supplement these, in all phases of research, with skills such as intention-setting; attention-focusing; bodymind quieting; extended and nuanced uses of vision, audition, proprioception, and kinesthesia; imagery, visualization, and imagination; direct knowing, intuition, and empathic identification; play; and accessing typically unconscious materials and processes (through dream incubation, active imagination, and other techniques). Forms of creative expression and embodied writing (Anderson, 2001) may be used in communicating research findings. The transpersonal researcher uses quantitative, qualitative, and blended-methods research designs in order to explore topics of interest. She or he allows the work to be informed not only by findings and conceptualizations within transpersonal psychology; psychology at large; and the natural, social, and human sciences; but also by the accumulated knowledge and methods of the humanities, the expressive arts, and the great philosophical, wisdom, and spiritual traditions—ancient, modern, and postmodern. The transpersonal researcher is concerned not only with the acquiring of new information (what Clements, 2004, has called ‘‘changes of mind’’) for the researcher and for expanding the knowledge base of the discipline, but also with the potential transformation (which Clements has called ‘‘changes of heart’’) of everyone involved in the research enterprise. Those who might be transformed by a research project include the investigator, the research participants, those who receive the research findings (the research project’s ‘‘audience’’), and, ultimately, society at large. Because the researcher is likely to be investigating a topic of great personal meaning, because a wide range of research skills will be used in the investigation, and because Holistic Transpersonal Education the researcher will be taking a more involved, rather than distancing, stance in the research project, the personal characteristics of the researcher are of utmost importance in transpersonal research—just as personal qualities of the practitioner are of great importance in transpersonal forms of therapy, counseling, and other practical applications (see above). The researcher herself or himself is the chief ‘‘instrument’’ in transpersonal research, especially if qualitative methods are employed; therefore, the preparedness or adequateness (adaequatio; see Schumacher, 1978) of the researcher is crucial to the success of the research project. Such preparedness can be enhanced by the researcher’s own prior experiences with the topic being investigated; in grounded theory, this is known as the researcher’s theoretical sensitivity (Glaser, 1978). Researcher preparedness or adequateness also can be increased through deliberate prior training of the complementary, holistic research skills mentioned above. Braud and Anderson (1998, especially pp. 20–22), Coppin and Nelson (2004), and Louchakova (2005) have provided useful suggestions for enhancing researcher preparedness. The topics addressed by a transpersonal researcher are likely to be those mentioned in previous sections of this article, especially the Transpersonal Emphasis section. However, a wide range of additional topics may be investigated through a transpersonal lens or stance and/or with an aim of learning the possible transpersonal aspects, implications, or applications of those topics. FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATIONS In addition to its Residential doctoral training, which the Institute has been providing since 1975, and its Residential evening Master’s training, which began in 1988, the Institute has been providing distance learning Certificates and Master’s degree offerings, since 1983, in what had been called the Institute’s External Program (later renamed the Global Programs). In the summer of 2002, the Institute began offering doctoral degree training as part of its Global Programs. The Global Program’s transpersonal psychology offerings take the forms of the study of course modules individually supervised by mentors, attendance at week-long residential Seminars, online courses and discussions led by core faculty, thesis and dissertation work, and supervision by faculty advisors and practicum instructors. As a more inclusive illustration of the Institute’s approach to transpersonal education, the philosophical or foundational principles that guide the Institute’s programs, along with ways in which these principles have been implemented in the Global Ph.D. Program, are presented in Table 1. The most salient transpersonal educational aspects of these principles and implementations are (a) the strong emphasis on fostering experiential learning and supporting the psychospiritual growth and transformation of students; (b) an emphasis on transpersonal content and approaches; (c) a recognition and honoring of the great spiritual, wisdom, and philosophical traditions as formal psychologies and metaphysical systems; (d) the inclusion of multiple ways of knowing, including the translation of holistic, transpersonal, and spiritual skills and practices into methods of education and research; (e) application of transpersonal principles and practices in four application areas or contexts (individuals, small groups, larger groups, the The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2006, Vol. 38, No. 2 global community and more-than-human world); and (f) advancement of the field of transpersonal psychology not only through research and professional publications, but also through educational and practical services to the general public, and through individual living and embodiment of transpersonal, spiritual qualities. ASSESSING EDUCATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS Having described aspects of the transpersonal education approach, it is important to address ways in which the effectiveness of this approach has been or might be Table 1 Foundational Principles and Curricular Implementations in the ITP Global Ph.D. Program Seven Major Philosophical or Foundational Principles Implementations of the Principles in the Global Ph.D. Program Curriculum Personal growth and transformation of the student Experiential aspects; emphasis on self-work, growth, development, and transformative change; personal application and integration of course materials; aims of research include both information and transformation (of participants, researcher, audience, field, society at large) Maturity and uniqueness of transpersonal psychology as a field of study Emphasis on transpersonally relevant areas, methods, and findings, rather than on ‘‘conventional psychology’’ and the development of the key transpersonal qualities of mindfulness, discernment, compassion, and appreciation of differences in working with conventional topics in psychology and related disciples. Epistemologies of heart and intellect as ways of knowing Courses translate transpersonal, spiritual, and holistic ways of knowing into research skills and incorporates creative expression in various forms such as visual art, dance, and storytelling into teaching and community activities. Wisdom psychologies of the world’s spiritual, religious, and philosophical traditions Indigenous, Eastern, and Western metaphysical systems emphasized in three-part foundational course, with reminders in other courses Expansion of transpersonal psychology to interpersonal, communal, and global systems Research, theory, and application of transpersonal principles takes place in four Application Areas or Contexts—individuals, small groups (dyads, families), larger groups (organizations), global community/ecology/the more than human world A spacious and collaborative learning environment for students, faculty, and staff. Teaching, curriculum goals, and administrative style encourage the creativity and integrity of students, faculty, and staff to contribute and sustain a learning environment that changes and refines itself over time; collaborative work with Mentors and Faculty Advisors and in Research Groups and Global Seminars. Application of transpersonal principles to service in the world Transpersonal Practica that emphasize two application areas (primary and secondary); field advanced through scholarly publications and also through practical applications and public education (including semipopular and popular publications, workshops, etc.) Note: The content of this table was developed, jointly, by Institute of Transpersonal Psychology core faculty members Rosemarie Anderson and William Braud. Used by permission. Holistic Transpersonal Education assessed and evaluated. A wide range of methods have been used to assess transpersonal educational effectiveness, and these are addressed in the following sections. Here, only the methods and measures themselves are described. The outcomes and results of these assessments are not presented in this article, but are available from the author.