The birth of the transpersonal psychology movement in California. The cultural context of the 1960s and 1970s provided fertile ground for the emergence of transpersonal studies as a separate field of study within psychology. The infusion of ideas from the Eastern contemplative traditions of Zen, Advaita, Vedanta, and Taoism, coupled with the institutionalization of the humanistic revolution in academic psychology, and the growing interest in consciousness and altered states of consciousness that was triggered by the widespread use of psychedelics, paved the way for the birth of transpersonal psychology movement in California of the late 1960s (Ferrer, 2002, pp. 5-6).
Transpersonal psychology is an extension and expansion of humanistic psychology. Modern transpersonal psychology emerged out of the field of humanistic psychology in the late 1960’s in order to expand the field of psychological inquiry beyond traditional psychoanalytic and behaviorist perspectives, models, and concepts to study “the farther reaches of human nature” (Maslow, 1971), especially “religions, values, and peak-experiences” (Maslow, 1964). This new development in psychology grew out of humanistic psychology, yet had quickly outgrew that framework by calling attention to possibilities of selfhood and psychological development beyond the humanistic model of self-actualization. According to historian of psychology, Eugene Taylor (1999), “in the 1970’s, humanistic psychology graduated to transpersonal psychology” (p. 280) as a result of several factors:
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There was the widening of interest among humanistically-oriented psychologists such as Sutich, Maslow, Grof, Fadiman, Vich,, Buhler, Jouard, Moustakas, Pahnke, Frankl, and others into matters of ultimate or cosmic value, meaning, and purpose, and into phenomena that traditionally occupied only the interests of psychologists of religion.
There was the increasing interdisciplinary and holistic character of explorations into mind and consciousness that were taking place, especially in cognitive science.
There was the growing recognition that official, traditional, orthodox Western psychology must overcome its highly limited concepts about the nature of the self if it is to achieve its greatest fulfillment as a discipline.
The next logical development in humanistic psychology. Anthony J. Sutich and Abraham H. Maslow, two founders of humanistic psychology, recognized it had reached a point where a newer development of psychology was not only feasible but necessary. It was the next logical development in humanistic psychology – affirmation of our spiritual identity.
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) is considered the intellectual father of transpersonal psychology (Hoffman, 1988).
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