Transpersonal psychology – one of the newest and most advanced areas of modern psychology, which examines such an interesting thing, as altered states of consciousness, mystical and religious experiences of man. They say: “everything is new – it is well forgotten old.” This phrase describes very well the essence of transpersonal psychology, which in their studies of the human psyche is drawn to the religious and spiritual practices that have been known to mankind for many millennia. Modern science (particularly in the face of Transpersonal Psychology) again reveals that Indian yogis, or the Celtic Druids or the ancient shamans have known for many centuries. And this mysterious, wonderful experience, which has a shaman when entering into a trance, or a yogi in deep meditation, transpersonal psychology attempts to describe and convey in terms of modern psychology.

In such a deep mystical states of meditation, yoga, and various shamanic rituals, the person goes beyond of his normal self consciousness, which is also called «person». Therefore, this area was called transpersonal, that is, outside of the «person».

Born in transpersonal psychology in the 60-s of last century. It was a time of great change, the hippie movement began, residents of the West suddenly began to discover the east, eastern philosophy and religion, yoga and meditation. Of course, such cultural wildness could not relate to psychology, many psychologists and therapists are also interested in Eastern mystical practices, and they became in the wake of studies of transpersonal psychology.

It is also a great influence on the development of transpersonal psychology had invention by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in 1942, a synthetic psychedelic drug known as LSD.

It is the inventor of LSD, Albert Hofmann in his laboratory.

And then he portrayed.

Effect of LSD on human does not like the others say drugs or alcohol, consciousness under the influence of LSD expands a person experiences something akin to a mystical, ecstatic experiences of shamans when entering into a trance. It is worth noting that in the 50’s and 60’s LSD did not officially considered a drug, but psychologists and therapists are actively engaged in studying its effects on the human psyche. The greatest success in these studies has made the Czech psychologist Stanislav Grof. Later S. Grof became one of the founders and a prominent representative of transpersonal psychology.

Stanislav Grof

Thou art a brave explorer of the human psyche, he repeatedly took LSD, and conducted so-called group of LSD therapy session during which participants were given to try LSD, then blindfolded, and included a specific music (shaman tambourines, drums, African tom-toms, etc ., music played a very important shamanic sound tools had to send glitches caused by LSD in the right direction). And of course with LSD therapy participants sausage is not childish, yet many still managed to go beyond the limits of their consciousness, to experience the amazing state of ecstasy, unity and harmony with the universe, re-birth, etc. Some of the participants in LSD therapy, even remembering certain episodes from their former lives.

Also, in addition to the experiments with LSD a lot of attention paid to research S. Grof memories of birth of people believing that human birth – one of the most striking and strong events, which were in each of our lives. Although we do not remember the time of our birth and the time when we were quite small but, nevertheless, the memory of the birth is written deep in our subconscious mind and has a huge impact on the rest of our life. LSD-assisted therapy is a very in these studies, as has often happened that, under the influence of LSD, many people are re-experienced his birth, the memory of which floated from the depths of the subconscious to the surface.

In the 70s of last century, LSD was officially recognized as a drug, so all the psychological research that led S. Grof, using LSD have been banned. Of course not Grof gave up these studies, however, instead of LSD (which was the use of crime), it was necessary to find another way to get into the “altered state of consciousness.” And S. Grof found such a way that allowed to experience similar to LSD, but without any physical-chemical intervention to the body. This method consisted in entering into an altered state of consciousness with the help of some heavy breathing, which Grof calls holotropic. So there was Holotropic Breathwork. Holo from Greek translates as “holistic” and Holotropic can be translated as “directed toward integrity.” In our time, Holotropic Breathwork, which came up with Grof, has become very popular psychological and spiritual practices of people interested in psychology and esoteric. (And if you’ve read here, you probably belong to them).

In fact, nothing new Grof and not opened, because the breathing practices to enter into altered states of consciousness has long been used by the same shamans, Indian yogis, Sufis, Muslim, and Orthodox monks hesychasts (Hesychasts – Jesus prayer leaders).

As already mentioned in the beginning, everything new is well forgotten old. A transpersonal psychology thing, however, is extremely interesting and progressive, as it attempts to combine a knowledge of classical Western psychology with powerful esoteric and mystical religious tendencies that lead people to enlightenment and happiness.

P. S. Also with help of Transpersonal psychology people can easy achieve altered state of consciousness, which sometimes opens extra ability. For example, if you are student, then you’ll be able to do any homework for a few minutes (so you won’t need to take tutor online) or to learn the foreign languages. For this you only need to enter into altered state of consciousness and that’s all, you’ll become very smart men.