What is Transpersonal Psychology
Transpersonal psychology is a school of psychology that studies the
transpersonal, self-transcendent or spiritual aspects of the human experience.

Transpersonal experiences may be defined as “experiences in which the sense of identity or self extends beyond (trans) the individual or personal to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life, psyche or cosmos”.
‘Trans’ in Latin means ‘beyond’. ‘Personal’ refers to the consciousness
level of personality. A transpersonal level of consciousness is any level
beyond where the normal personality operates. Personal comes from the
Greek word “to wear a mask” and taking apart Per meaning through and sona, meaning sound, it is about speaking through a mask. Transpersonal would be where you take the mask off and can see yourself for who you really are, a spiritual being.

Issues considered in transpersonal psychology include spiritual self-
development, self beyond the ego, peak experiences, mystical experiences, systemic trance and other sublime and/or unusually expanded experiences of living. It addresses the next stage of evolution, not only for humans, but also this planet.

A short definition from the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology
suggests that transpersonal psychology “is concerned with the study of
humanity’s highest potential, and with the recognition, understanding, and realization of unitive, spiritual, and transcendent states of consciousness”.

Transpersonal psychologists have suggested that transpersonal psychology “is the area of psychology that focuses on the study of transpersonal experiences and related phenomena. These phenomena include the causes, effects and correlates of transpersonal experiences and development, as well as the disciplines and practices inspired by them”.

Lajoie and Shapiro reviewed forty definitions of transpersonal
psychology that had appeared in literature over the period 1969 to 1991. They found that five key themes in particular featured prominently in these definitions: states of consciousness, higher or ultimate potential, beyond the ego or personal self, transcendence, and the spiritual. Walsh and Vaughan have criticized many definitions of transpersonal psychology, for carrying implicit ontological or methodological assumptions. They also challenge definitions that link transpersonal psychology to healthy states only, or to the “Perennial Philosophy”. Instead, they propose a definition of transpersonal psychology as being the branch of psychology that is concerned with transpersonal experiences and related phenomena, noting that “These phenomena include the causes, effects and correlates of transpersonal experiences, as well as the disciplines and practices inspired by them.”