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Ranspersonal Studies Volume 31(1), 2012 he International Journal of ranspersonal Studies T Volume 31(1), 2012 Table of Contents Editors’ Introduction—Glenn Hartelius iii Spirituality and the MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical Scales Diana M. Mendez & Douglas A. MacDonald 1 Connecting the Spiritual and Emotional Intelligences: Confirming an Intelligence Criterion and Assessing the Role of Empathy David B. King, Constance A. Mara, & Teresa L. DeCicco 11 The Scale for xistentialE Thinking Blake A. Allan & C. Branton Shearer 21 Trauma and Transformative Passage Reed A. Morrison 38 SPECIAL TOPIC: Parapsychology Introduction to Special Topic Section Sean Avila Saiter & Glenn Hartelius 47 Transpersonal Psychology, Parapsychology, and Neurobiology: Clarifying their Relations Douglas A. MacDonald & Harris L. Friedman 49 Mental Health and the Paranormal Simon Dein 61 How Should Therapists Respond to Client Accounts of Out-of-Body Experience? Alexander De Foe 75 Is the Reincarnation Hypothesis Advanced by Stevenson for Spontaneous Past-life Experiences Relevant for the Understanding of the Ontology of Past-life Phenomena? Sergei Slavoutski 83 Psychoactive Substances and Paranormal Phenomena: A Comprehensive Review David Luke 97 International Journal of Transpersonal Studies i The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Volume 31, Issue 1, 2012 Editor Publisher Glenn Hartelius Floraglades Foundation, Incorporated 1270 Tom Coker Road Senior Editor LaBelle, FL 33935 Harris Friedman © 2012 by Floraglades Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved Coordinating Editor Les Lancaster ISSN (Print) 1321-0122 ISSN (Electronic) 1942-3241 Assistant Editors Maureen Harrahy Board of Editors Courtenay Crouch Manuel Almendro (Spain) Rosemarie Anderson (USA) Honorary Editor Liora Birnbaum (Israel) Stanley Krippner Laura Boggio Gilot (Italy) Jacek Brewczynski (USA) Editors Emeriti Søren Brier (Denmark) Don Diespecker Elias Capriles (Venezuela) Philippe Gross Michael Daniels (UK) Douglas A. MacDonald John Davis (USA) Sam Shapiro Wlodzislaw Duch (Poland) James Fadiman (USA) Guest Special Topic Editor Jorge N. Ferrer (Spain/USA) Sean Avila Saiter Joachim Galuska (Germany) David Y. F. Ho (Hong Kong, China) Associate Managing Editors Daniel Holland (USA) Cheryl Fracasso Chad Johnson (USA) Adam Rock Bruno G. Just (Australia) Rochelle Suri Sean Kelly (USA) Jeffrey Kuentzel (USA) Associate Circulation Editor S. K. Kiran Kumar (India) Adrian Andreescu Charles Laughlin (Canada/USA) Olga Louchakova (USA) Editorial Assistant Vladimir Maykov (Russia) Lila Hartelius Axel A. Randrup (Denmark) Vitor Rodriguez (Portugal) Student Interns Brent Dean Robbins (USA) Liz Caine Mario Simöes (Portugal) Rashmi Chidanand Charles Tart (USA) Nick Fortino Rosanna Vitale (Canada) John Welwood (USA) ii International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Editors’ Introduction ranspersonal scholars at times suggest that their Humanistic psychology began with the premise work is an extension of an area of study that that mental health is not merely the absence of disease, reaches far back into human history, that in but the cultivation of human potential. Transpersonal Tthe spirit of the great spiritual traditions it inquires into psychology applied this inspiring stance to human transcendent human capacities, but within the context of spirituality, adopting the vision of democratized trans- contemporary Western psychology and the humanities. cendence crafted by the American transcendentalists However, it is also possible to see the contemporary and put into practice by the anti-authoritarian youth transpersonal project as something quite new. revolutions of the 1950s and 1960s. Unlike the great Within cultures where religious traditions still Eastern traditions to which transpersonal scholars hold considerable influence—India or Indonesia, for often give deference, the transpersonal movement sees example—the average person participates in religious transcendence not as the province of the few, but as the ritual but does not typically partake in the transformative birthright of every human being. This confluence of esoteric practices reserved for mystics or renunciates. human potential and spiritual democracy is the particular These are used by a small percentage of the population, heritage of transpersonalism. It is an approach resonant who devote themselves to advanced spiritual study. with a widespread contemporary interest in personal Such an arrangement is resonant with the structure of growth, popular spirituality, alternative approaches to traditional cultures throughout much of the world—a healthcare that seek to align themselves with the healing spiritual version of the sorts of social hierarchies in which powers of the body, and concerns for social justice and political power and wealth is vested in a monarchy or environmental sustainability. small ruling class. Yet as a scholarly discipline, transpersonal psych- The American and French revolutions of the late ology has been long on discussion and short on empirical 18th century, however imperfect their implementation, evidence. A recent review of literature in the Journal of brought a novel idea: Everyone can participate in political Transpersonal Psychology and the International Journal power. American transcendentalism, a movement of the of Transpersonal Studies during the first four decades of mid-19th century that took shape around such luminaries the field’s existence showed that from 1970 to 1979, only as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickenson, and John 4% of articles were empirical in nature; three decades Muir, took a similar view of spiritual power. It planted later, during the period 2000 to 2009, the percentage the notion that the esotericism of the East was something of empirical papers had risen to no more than 17% in which a simple-living American might partake. In the (Hartelius, Rothe, & Roy, in press). While this shows a words of Thoreau (1854/2008), “I lay down the book and clear positive trend, the amount of empirical evidence that go to my well for water, and lo! there I meet the servant of the field has produced is still modest at best. the Bramin, priest of Brahma and Vishnu and Indra, who The resistance to empirical work is understand- still sits in his temple on the Ganges reading the Vedas, or able, even laudable, given that it is inherited from dwells at the root of a tree with his crust and water jug. I humanistic psychology, and reflects a similar concern meet his servant come to draw water for his master, and that the richness and nuanced complexities of human our buckets as it were grate together in the same well. The experience not be reduced to numbers and categories pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the and statistics. Yet the tools of empirical study within Ganges” (p. 183). Though short-lived, the transcendentalist psychology are vastly improved from the era in which vision was revived by best-selling books of the Victorian these concerns took root—the 1950s and 1960s. Not era such as Light of Asia (Arnold, 1879/1995)—a fictional only are there now scores of measures for qualities such as account of the enlightenment of the Buddha—by the compassion, empathy, spirituality, mindfulness, and other poets of the Beatnik generation, and by the counterculture transpersonally-related constructs (see MacDonald & revolution of the 1960s. Esoteric visions were now not just Friedman, this issue), but qualitative inquiry has developed for a few in the East, but available to everyone through either to the point where it is now represented by a division within meditation or communion with psychedelic substances. the American Psychological Association (Division 5). International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 31(1), 2012,International pp. iii-iv Journal of Transpersonal Studies iii In short, at this date the sparseness of empirical papers basic concerns about human existence and how adept within the transpersonal field appears to be more habitual they are at meaningfully situating themselves relative than justifiable on grounds that once held validity. to these issues. The study presents validation data on As psychology moves toward being an evidence- the scale as well as correlations with constructs such as based science, it will be necessary to take positions on what curiosity and meaning in life. Given that transpersonal constitutes evidence, what philosophical assumptions may psychology considers matters of ultimate concern, this be implicit within a given methodological approach, and scale offers a novel and valuable tool for measuring the whether reductionistic and materialistic values should tendency to think in those terms. determine what is or is not reasonable to examine. Finally, Morrison proposes that the experience of However, for the field to gain the prominence that it initiates who undergo experiences of controlled violence deserves based on the importance of its subject matter and in traditional rites of passage significantly parallels the the care for preserving the authenticity of experience that phenomenon of trauma disorder, and the fact that such permeates its approaches, a steadily increasing emphasis initiates are apparently able to integrate their experiences on empirical work can and should be made a priority. usefully may offer insights into how trauma sufferers The modest occasion for this rather large might be guided into similar positive outcomes. This preamble is the fact that in the current issue, nearly suggestion is accompanied by two short clinical case half of the papers are empirical in nature.
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