Figure 4-1. Varieties of Transpersonal Research Methods
(Braud & Anderson, 1998)
Parapsychological Assessment and Design Issues – Investigate non-sensory based information transfer, and action-at-a distance phenomenon (Irwin, 1989; Rao, 2001)
Action Research – Develop new skills or new approaches to solve problems with direct application to an applied setting (Dubin, 1994; Murdock, 1978).
Theory-Building Approach – Develop theories, models, and conceptualizations that attempt to integrate sets of findings or explain various transpersonal phenomena or processes, integrates and interrelates previously unrelated findings, permitting a theory to emerge directly from the data and be grounded in the data (Boals, 1978; Leone, 1995; Tart, 1995; M. C. Washburn, 1978; Wilber, 2000a).
Meta-Analysis – A statistical tool for combining statistical information across studies to obtain an estimate of effect size and chance outcomes and to compare effects between studies in order to better understand moderating factors (e.g., Honorton & Ferrari, 1989; Nelson & Radin, 2001).
Behavioral and Physiological Assessments - Specialized methods and instrumentation are used for measurement to identify behavioral or physiological correlates of a transpersonal experience (Earle, 1981; Echenhofer & Coombs, 1987; Greyson, 2000; Hughes & Melville, 1990; Murphy & Donovan, 1997).
TRANSPERSONAL APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
Integral Inquiry – An array of research methods are used to describe as fully as possible the phenomena, explain the phenomenon historically or theoretically, identify causal factors for the emergence of the phenomena, and consequences on the life of the participant (Braud & Anderson, 1998, pp. 256-258; Wilber, 2000a).
Intuitive Inquiry – Using intuition, empathy and altered states of consciousness as core methods of inquiry, the researcher collects data from a wide variety of sources (e.g., Anderson, 1996; Braud, 2001).
Organic Research – Inviting, listening to, and presenting individual participants’ stories about important aspects of their lives, using the participants’ own voices and words as much as possible, recorded and reported in the researcher’s own voice as well, whose goal is personal transformation of the reader of the study (Anderson, 2001; Ring & Valarino, 1998).
Transpersonal-Phenomenological Inquiry – Explore transpersonal awareness when it presents itself in awareness, and the experience is explored using empirical phenomenological research method (e.g., Valle and Mohs, 1998).
Inquiry Informed by Exceptional Human Experiences – Emphasizes the tacit knowing and other forms of personal knowledge of the researcher to exceptional human experiences (i.e., unitive and mystical, paranormal, death-related experiences) that are studied for their own sake (e.g., Palmer & Braud, 2002; Wren-Lewis, 1994).
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“Separateness science” and “wholeness science” compared. Braud and Anderson (1998, Chapter 1) explain how the conventional view of “separateness science” and the expanded view of “wholeness science” usually have different assumptions about what constitutes legitimate content domains, valid types of research demonstrations, and the kinds of explanations that are appropriate for scientific knowledge. Braud & Anderson (1998) maintain that quantitative and qualitative research methods appropriate for scientific knowledge under the conventional view of “separateness sciences” are equally applicable to the study of transpersonal topics. New methods of human inquiry that are appropriate for scientific knowledge under the expanded view of “wholeness science” (e.g., direct knowing, dream and imagery work, meditation, creative expression, storytelling, and intuition), however, may “better suit the ideographic and personal nature of transpersonal experiences…and that become as creative and expansive as the subject matter we wish to investigate” (Braud & Anderson, 1998, pp. x, 4).
Let’s examine several of these research methods in more detail to illustrate how they have been applied to the study of transpersonal human experiences and behaviors.
Historical and Archival Approaches
Spontaneous Remissions. Spontaneous remission refers to “the disappearance, complete or incomplete, of a disease or cancer without medical treatment or with treatment that is considered inadequate to produce the resulting disappearance of disease symptoms or tumor” (O’Regan & Hirshberg, 1993, p. 2). Although some psychologists and physicians may argue that spontaneous remissions do not really occur but are the result of a mistaken diagnosis of the individual’s condition and that the person never really had the disease in the first place, or simply reflect a temporary abatement in the natural history of a disease that will inevitably reoccur, best evidence indicates that spontaneous remission is a genuine phenomenon.
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Noetic Science’s Remission Project. Brendan O’Regan and Caryle Hirshberg (1993) as a part of the Institute of Noetic Science’s The Inner Mechanisms of the Healing Response Program and The Remission Project have assembled “the largest database of medically reported cases of spontaneous remission in the world, with more than 3,500 references, from more than 800 journals in 20 different languages” (p.3). The collection of abstracts of research reports of remission reported in their 1993 book, Spontaneous Remission: An Annotated Bibliography indicate that extraordinary forms of healing are widespread and occur for practically all medically known diseases, including:
Cancers
Infectious and parasitic diseases
Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases
Immunity disorders
Diseases of the circulatory system, blood and blood forming organs
Disorders of nervous system and sense organs
Respiratory and digestive system disorders
Disorders of genitourinary system
Pregnancy and childbirth-related disorders
Diseases of the skin
Subcutaneous and connective tissue diseases
Musculoskeletal disorders
Injury-related disorders
Biological correlates of spontaneous remission. Interestingly, O’Regan & Hirshberg’s (1993, pp. 11-39) collection of research reports indicates that spontaneous remissions have been observed to occur with no medical intervention at all, but following a complex range of events one would not expect to cure the person at all, including:
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Diagnostic biopsy procedures
Bacterial skin infections
Wound infections
Hypoglycemic coma
Hemorrhage
Menopause
Smallpox infection
Typhoid fever
Pneumonia
Heat (fever)
Hepatitis
Hysterectomy
Cauterization
Inflammation
Pregnancy
Abortion
Incomplete operations
Influence-at-a-distance effects in remission. One of the more intriguing observations reported in O’Regan & Hershberg’s 1993 collection of remission research articles is that in some cases when the organ that was the primary site of cancer was surgically removed (and the largest category of spontaneous remissions involve cancer), the other organs to which the cancer had spread (“metastases”) would frequently heal. In other cases, when a simple needle biopsy procedure of the primary cancer site occurred (i.e., there was no surgery to remove the cancer), secondary metastases would disappear. “Biopsy can be part of the process of inducing remission somehow. When you intervene in one area, it sets up a process which can help in another” (O’Regan, 1991, p. 50).
Psychological and spiritual correlates of spontaneous remission. O’Regan & Hirshberg’s (1993, p. 45) collection of research abstracts indicates that remissions occur in conjunction with a host of psychological and spiritual factors that correlate with and appear to promote the occurrence of remission including:
Group support
Hypnosis/suggestion
Meditation/Relaxation techniques
Mental imagery
Psychotherapy/behavioral therapy
Prayer/spiritual belief
Religious/spiritual conversion
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Sense of purpose
Placebo effect
Diet/exercise
Autonomous behavior/increased autonomy
Faith/positive outcome expectancy
Fighting spirit/Denial
Lifestyle/attitude/behavioral (changes)
Interpersonal relationship changes
Positive emotions/acceptance of negative emotions
Environmental/social awareness/altruism
Expression of needs
Sense of control/internal locus of control
Desire/will to live
Increased or altered sensory perception
Taking responsibility for illness
Clues to the transpersonal nature of the body. The rare, spectacular and understudied demonstrations of self-healing processes known as spontaneous remissions persist in the annals of medicine and provide important clues to understanding the innate healing potentials and transpersonal nature of the physical body
Descriptive Approaches
Deep Structural Analysis. Ken Wilber (1977, 1980; Wilber, Engler, & Brown, 1986) has pioneered the use of the transpersonal research method called “deep structural analysis.” In this method, similarities among transpersonal experiences are focused upon and differences are ignored. The common experiential qualities are theorized to constitute “deep structural” elements responsible for the underlying similarities that unite or connect the different experiences. The “deep structural elements” are then clustered and organized into a developmental sequence that provides an overarching theory of their function and relationships. Using this technique, Wilber has been able to organized and systematize a vast number of different states of consciousness into a relatively few number of deep structures.
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How deep structural analysis works: An example. The shaman seeing power animals, the Christian contemplative envisioning angels, and the Hindu practitioner merging with her Isha deva are all clearly having different experiences. Yet at a deep structural level they are all seeing archetypal spiritual figures. (Walsh, 1993, p. 127) In this case, seeing “archetypal spiritual figures” is a reflection of a common structural element underlying the specific forms that all mental phenomena in a particular state of consciousness may take. It is the deep structural element that defines what, in this instance, Wilber (1980) refers to as the “subtle stage of consciousness.” In this stage of consciousness, all mental phenomena may take the specific form of archetypal spiritual figures. Different stages of consciousness each have their own corresponding deep structures that are responsible for generating the common phenomena experienced while in that stage of consciousness.
Transpersonal structures of consciousness beyond formal operations. Using this technique, Wilber has identified a small number of deep structures underlying different states of consciousness beyond Piagetian formal operations and has ordered and stratified them into a developmental sequence consisting of three transpersonal stages he calls “subtle” (in which archetypal figures arise into awareness), “causal” (in which no objects or images arise into awareness), and “absolute” (in which all phenomena are understood to be creations of consciousness).
Case Studies and Life Stories
Miraculous Cures at Lourdes. Another source of evidence for the hypothesis of the transpersonal nature of the physical body is found in instances of so-called “miraculous” cures. Miracle cures are defined as “the sudden, permanent, and complete cure of a long-lasting condition of a more or less organic in nature for which no adequate treatment can be held responsible” (Van Kalmthout, 1985, p. 1).
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Miraculous remissions differ from spontaneous remissions. “Miraculous” remissions differ from pure remissions (or regressions) by their time course and the definitiveness of the cure. Whereas “miraculous” remissions are sudden, total, permanent, and inexplicable, spontaneous remissions tend to be gradual and temporary. Despite these temporal and curative differences, miraculous healings, such as those carefully documented by the Roman Catholic Church, appear to involve some of the same psychoneuroimmunological pathways as placebo effects and spontaneous remissions (Ader, Felten, & Cohen, 2000).
Rules of evidence for miracle cures. Originally formulated in 1735 by Cardinal Lambertini (afterwards Pope Benedict 14th), five sets of criteria must be satisfied in order for a healing to be considered a “miraculous cure” by the Roman Catholic Church (Dowling, 1984, p. 634):
The disease must be serious, incurable or unlikely to respond to treatment.
The cure must be sudden and reached instantaneously (or developed over a period of days). The disease that disappeared must not have reached a stage at which it would have resolved by itself. No medication should have been given, or if some medicines were prescribed then they must have had only unimportant effects (or potentially curative treatments can be demonstrated to have failed).
The cure must be complete, not partial or incomplete.
All claims for a miracle cure have to pass through the procedures of an International Medical Commission.
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