Re: Sri Aurobindo as a pioneer of transpersonal psychology -- Transpersonal Psychology Discussion Forum

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3] ]

Subject: Re: Sri Aurobindo as a pioneer of transpersonal psychology

Author:
Michael Daniels

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 15:18:49 09/03/01 Mon
In reply to: Girija Shettar 's message, "Sri Aurobindo as a pioneer of transpersonal psychology" on 09:33:00 08/29/01 Wed

This is a very interesting and important question. In my view (expressed in the "definition" of TP I gave), it is *possible* to be a transpersonal psychologist without having to make metaphysical assumptions - I am thinking of those who emphasise extending our sense of self to incorporate the natural world, or the world of relationships. Also those (like Jung) who try to avoid metaphysical assumptions by considering everything in terms of a manifestation of the psyche. Having said that, there is no doubt that most transpersonal psychology is heavily metaphysical in its underpinnings. Ken Wilber's is perhaps the most clearly metaphysical approach and is itself based very much on Vedanta, Buddhism and Aurobindo. Aurobindo has had such a profound influence on Wilber and some other transpersonal psychologists that he is therefore rightly considered, I think, to be a pioneer of transpersonal psychology. Aurobindo's work also counts as a highly sophisticated transpersonal psychology in its own right, as long as we are aware that it IS (as you say) based on a particular metaphysical view. I mean by this that it is not entirely metaphysical - there is a lot of *psychology" in his approach as well.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]