Transpersonal Awareness

Evoking the ineffable: The phenomenology of extreme sports.

“…In these instances the experience is invariably described as being beyond words, embodied, invigorating, and transcendent. Time often takes on new meaning and is said to “slow down,” the perceiver and perceived are described as merging, senses are enhanced, and space seems altered to include new ways of perceiving the body–space continuum (Valle, 1998; Valle & Mohs, 1998). In these cases ineffability, as a phenomenological construct, reflects the extraordinary nature of the experience itself.…”

DESI EROS: Reclaiming South Asian erotic power through arts-based phenomenology and Hindu epistemology.

“…While these researchers insinuate transpersonal aspects of phenomenological research, Valle (1998) and Solowoniuk and Nixon (2009) explicitly called for a transpersonal-phenomenological research method. Adopting transpersonal awareness as phenomenological researcher means being open to:…”

“…While these researchers insinuate transpersonal aspects of phenomenological research, Valle (1998) and Solowoniuk and Nixon (2009) explicitly called for a transpersonal–phenomenological research method. Adopting transpersonal awareness as phenomenological researcher means being open to:Bursts or flashes of insight … or “intuitive seeings” … they initially have an “other-than-me” quality about them, as if the thoughts and words that emerge from the insights are being done to, or even, through me—a sense that my mind and its contents are vehicles for the manifestation as experience of something greater and/or more powerful than myself.…”

“…Adopting transpersonal awareness as phenomenological researcher means being open to:Bursts or flashes of insight … or “intuitive seeings” … they initially have an “other-than-me” quality about them, as if the thoughts and words that emerge from the insights are being done to, or even, through me—a sense that my mind and its contents are vehicles for the manifestation as experience of something greater and/or more powerful than myself. (Valle & Mohs, 2006, p. 4)The transpersonal–phenomenological researcher understands oneself as a receptive channel for “flashes of insight” that emerge through spiritual encounters with a higher consciousness greater than their ego. Solowoniuk and Nixon (2009) elaborated on four steps to doing transpersonal–phenomenological research.…”

Toward a psychology of silence.

“…Aligned with the notion of a spiritual or transcendent Self, a number of contemporary authors speak of an ineffable silence in relation to spiritual awareness and development, using descriptors such as metaphysical, inner, deeper, interior, nameless, higher, sacred, spiritual, ultimate, or absolute in an attempt to express this kind of silence in words even though, by its very nature, this level is beyond the mind and description. From this more radically spiritual perspective, Valle (1998) proposes the concept of transintentionality and advocates the need for a transpersonal phenomenological psychology (Valle, 1995; Valle & Mohs, 1998) to acknowledge and research transcendent human experience on its own terms. A discussion of various ways in which the relationship between the mind and spiritual experience has been addressed follows.…”