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FROM MOSES AND MONOTHEISM TO BUDDHA ANDBEHAVIORISM: COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR THERAPY’STRANSPERSONAL CRISIS

Douglas Y. Seiden, Ph.D.

Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

KaNei Lam, Ph.D.

Hung Hom, Hong Kong

ABSTRACT: Philosophers of science in psychology have traditionally defined the field in such a

way as to keep it distinct from inquiry into external referents of transpersonal experience. The

cognitive behavioral mindfulness therapies (MTs) provide a forum for increased assimilation by the

mainstream discipline of knowledge and skills drawn from the perennial psychologies and

technologies of transcendence, and for accommodation of psychology’s own world hypotheses,

root metaphors and truth criteria. The science-metaphysics debate in psychology is presented,

including the pragmatism of William James, the radical behaviorism of B.F. Skinner, and the

functional contextualism of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Classical and operant

behavioral approaches to mysticism are explored, with a proposal for an integral behaviorism

incorporating ‘‘putative events’’ associated with anomalous states. The authors recommend a

Transpersonal Cognitive Behavior Therapy drawing from the full range of wisdom tradition

teachings in a manner that is entheo-syntonic with a given client’s world view.

Reality may be merely an inference and, according to some authorities,

a bad one. What is important may not be the physical world on the far

side of the skin but what that world means to us on this side.

—B. F. Skinner (The steep and thorny way to a science of behavior, 1975, p. 43)

With our thoughts we make the world.

—S. G. Buddha (Byrom, Dhammapada: The sayings of the Buddha, 1976, p. 1)

In 1939, the reigning psychological explanatory model of the day, psycho-

analysis, ventured into scientifically uncharted territory to investigate the

‘‘true’’ relationship between Moses and Monotheism (Freud, 1939/1967). In

1984, behaviorism employed its own investigatory method, behavioral analysis,

for a similar feat. Here, the quest was nothing short of scientifically explaining

mystical experiences such as nothingness, immortality, unity and omnipresence

(Hayes, 1984). In both cases, a prevailing scientific theory was used as an

alternative to unfavored truth criteria (i.e., the Bible, mystics and the man in

the street) to arrive at a scientifically palatable conclusion (in the former, that

Moses learned monotheism from Akhenaten, and not from God; in the latter,

that metaphysics, for the game of science, is overvalued linguistics).

[email protected]

Copyright ’ 2010 Transpersonal Institute

The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2010, Vol. 42, No. 1 89

In a recent survey of historians of American psychology and founders of

transpersonal psychology, it was suggested that ‘‘ … the emergence of

mindfulness practice and Buddhist psychology as flourishing domains inmainstream academic and clinical psychology’’ may be a sign that ‘‘Perhaps

American psychology is just now, 40 years following Maslow’s declaration of a

fourth force, ready to embrace a transpersonal perspective on psychology’’

(Ruzek, 2007, p. 173). The integration of historically esoteric spiritual

techniques such as meditation and mindfulness into mainstream scientific

psychotherapy has been a welcome development in the evolving field. As to be

expected, the theoretical and technical implications of the endeavor have

provoked both controversy and cautions (Kabat-Zinn, 2003; Moran, 2008;Styron, 2005). We might even consider the discipline’s rising tide of existential

self-inquiry, provoked by the ‘‘Third Wave’’ cognitive behavior therapies, as

indicative of a crisis of spiritual emergence (Grof & Grof, 1986/1993) for a

nascent ‘‘transpersonal behaviorism’’ (Tart, 1979). There is nothing better for

science than some healthy disagreement and finger pointing (at the moon or

otherwise), and the advent of the cognitive behavioral mindfulness therapies

(MTs, or ‘‘empties’’) promises to provide both.

THE JAMESIAN PARADOX: HOW PSYCHOLOGY LOST ITS SOUL AND BECAME

TRANSPERSONAL

In a historical sense, ‘‘transpersonal psychology,’’ far from being oxymoron-

ically neologistic, as some would have us believe, is redundantly archaic. Until

the mid- to late 19th century, psychology was the doctrine of the soul and an

ally of religion (Reed, 1997). William James broke with this tradition in hisPrinciples of Psychology (1890/1950), defining psychology as ‘‘… the Science of

Mental Life, both of its phenomena and of their conditions’’ (p. 1). He took

pains to divorce his ‘‘natural science’’ of psychology from ‘‘metaphysical’’

concepts such as the soul or ‘‘transcendental ego’’ (1892/1920, pp. 321–322).

James differentiated psychology, which as a natural science would gather data,

and philosophy, which could then speculate on the meaning of the findings.

While rejecting psychology as the proper disciplinary home for debates as to‘‘first principles,’’ James embraced the spiritual as a potential source of data

and as a valid object of scientific inquiry, albeit by psychic, rather than

psychological, science. He was among the founders of the American Society for

Psychical Research in 1885, was President of the London-based Society for

Psychical Research from 1894–1895, and the aim of a course that he taught on

metaphysics in the 1905–1906 academic year was ‘‘to unite empiricism with

spiritualism’’ (Perry, 1935, p. 443). In his mission to make of psychology a

science, he in no manner meant for it to become a scientism (Wellmuth, 1944)which ‘‘… goes beyond the actual findings of science to deny that other

approaches to knowledge are valid and other truths true’’ (Smith, 1976, pp. 16–

17). James was a great proponent of the philosophy of pragmatism, which ‘‘…

is completely genial. She will entertain any hypothesis, she will consider any

evidence … She will count mystical experiences if they have practical

consequences …’’ (James, 1907/1992, p. 53).

90 The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2010, Vol. 42, No. 1

In sum, James helped to remove metaphysical speculation as the primary focus

of psychology, but remained keenly interested in the unbiased search for and

study of phenomena, metaphysical or otherwise, involving the brain, mind, andconsciousness. For this reason, it is entirely appropriate to consider him both

the father of scientific psychology and its transpersonal subdiscipline (Ryan,

2008; Taylor, 1978, 1996).

P.O.E.T.-ICAL CORRECTNESS

History has taught us that unless a theory or practice is acceptable from thestandpoint of the spatiotemporally dominant arbiters of political, ontological,

epistemological or theological (P.O.E.T.-ical) ‘‘truth’’ regarding power,

existence, knowledge or God, respectively, it risks marginalization and

persecution. The birth of scientific psychology in the late 19th to early 20th

century corresponded with an ideology of scientific materialism characterized

by (a) objectivism (the use of empirical methods to test empirical facts and

arrive at third-person verifiable results); (b) reductionism (redefinition of the

unfamiliar/poorly understood in terms of the more familiar/understood); (c)the ‘‘closure principle’’ (that even if non-physical phenomena exist, they remain

causally closed-off from the physical universe); and (d) physicalism (‘‘ … that

the universe consists solely of configurations of matter and energy within space

and time’’) (Wallace, 2007, pp. 30–33).

This hodgepodge of procedures and assumptions represented ‘‘baggage from

ancient Greek atomism, scientific views drawn from Christianity, and 19th

century European materialism’’ (Wallace & Hodel, 2008, p. 87). Modernpsychology would nonetheless have little argument with mid-19th century

proponents of scientific materialism who ‘‘reduced the mind and consciousness

to physical brain states produced by active matter …’’ (p. 21). In the 20th

century, this opinion was further reinforced due to the adoption by psychiatry,

psychology and psychotherapy of the Western medical model, itself inspired by

the preceding century’s dogma.

Over the course of the last hundred years, there has been increasing attentionto the risk posed by scientific materialistic hegemony to the progress of science

and psychology. This may be found in the literature treating of the philosophy

of science (e.g., Ouspensky, 1920/1982); limitations of traditional science and

psychology (e.g., Maslow, 1966/2002); the role of metaphysics in empirical

inquiry (Trusted, 1994, p. 179); alternative models such as ‘‘state specific

sciences’’ (referring to states of consciousness; Tart, 1972, 1975/2000, 2008),

‘‘contemplative science’’ (Wallace, 2007), and ‘‘sacred science’’ (Nasr, 1993);

relationships among science, psychology, psychotherapy, religion and spiritu-ality (Nelson, 2009); and the ‘‘psychology of the future’’ (Grof, 2000).

Huston and Kendra Smith observed in their Foreword to Charles T. Tart’s The

End of Materialism that ‘‘… science begins when experience doesn’t jibe with

what we know or think we know. From that, an explanatory theory is spun,

with hypotheses that can be tested under controlled conditions’’ (in Tart, 2009,

From Moses and Monotheism To Buddha and Behaviorism 91

p. ix). Not knowing, and the unknown, are the proper and perpetual beginnings

of the scientific endeavor, not the end of it, as scientism would have it. If

anything, it is the illusion of knowing that is most tenuous. ‘‘Theories pass. Thefrog remains’’ (Rostand, 1959, cited in Jacob, 1982, p. 355).

One important barrier to transpersonal psychology’s integration into the

mainstream may be its lack of a Division within the American Psychological

Association (for a history, see Aanstoos, Serlin, & Greening, 2000) – a catch-

22, to be sure, but one that must be approached from one end or the other.

According to Tart (1992), ‘‘… the challenge faced by the spiritual psychologies

in taking root in our civilization is very much a challenge of accommodatingthemselves to the physicalistic worldview’’ (p. 115). The Achilles’ heel of

transpersonal psychology could be that its name, originally employed by James

in 1905–1906 in the mundane intersubjective sense of ‘‘… when my object is

also your object’’ (cited by Perry, 1935, p. 445), confounds the individual’s

phenomenology of a subjective personal experience as ‘‘ultimate’’ or ‘‘tran-

scendent’’ with the discipline’s ontology of a controversial explanatory model of

objective reality that includes meta-, para- or trans-physical phenomena and

causation. This amounts to a P.O.E.T.-ically incorrect manner of interrelatingWilber’s (2000a) Upper-Left (‘‘interior of the individual, the subjective aspect of

consciousness,’’ p. 62) and Upper-Right (‘‘objective or exterior correlates of

those interior states of consciousness,’’ p. 63) quadrants. While it is just this

distinction that to some extent differentiates transpersonal psychology from

parapsychology (with no value judgment implied), it would be foolish to expect

those without knowledge of, or interest in, these areas to engage in such

hairsplitting. Incidentally, parapsychology’s own chosen name is problematic

as well, obscuring as it does that (a) its hypotheses (as all hypotheses) arescientifically legitimate to the extent that they are testable; (b) it tests these by

employing the scientific method (Evans, 1996; Tart, 2009); and thus (c) to the

extent that it investigates aspects of consciousness, cognition and behavior, it

too fits squarely within, rather than beyond the field of psychology.

Because the term ‘‘transpersonal,’’ for the reasons outlined above, is P.O.E.T.-

ically incorrect from the standpoint of mainstream psychology, a solution

might be to propose an APA Division title that, within psychology, haslegitimacy similar to that of ‘‘non-locality’’ in physics. One possibility is a

Division of the Psychology of Anomalous Experience, taking as a cue the

APA-published book entitled Varieties of Anomalous Experience (Cardena,

Lynn & Krippner, 2000), with this latter defined as

… an uncommon experience (e.g., synesthesia) or one that, although it may

be experienced by a substantial amount of the population (e.g., experiences

interpreted as telepathic), is believed to deviate from ordinary experience orfrom the usually accepted explanations of reality. (p. 4)

The word ‘‘experience’’ in both the book title and chapter titles is definitional

to the approach. Echoing the Jamesian distinction between science and

metaphysics, and between psychology and philosophy, the authors specify that

‘‘The focus of this book is on experiences, not on testing the consensual validity


of such experiences … the focus is on the experiences people have, not on the

external phenomena to which they may refer … ’’ (p. 4). This clarification is

important for the integration of transpersonal psychology into mainstreampsychology because, again, mainstream psychology’s argument is most likely

not with the fact of anomalous experiences, but with their interpretation.

Given that discrete states of consciousness (d-SoCs; Tart, 1975/2000) are

implicated in many types of anomalous experience, and that the nature of

consciousness is of special significance to a scientific psychology, another

option would be a Division of Consciousness Studies and the Psychology of

Anomalous Experience. A third solution would be a Division of Complemen-tary/Alternative Psychology, consistent with the phraseology employed by

Western medicine. By marginalizing the holistic paradigm, mainstream

psychology has fallen behind both of its role models, the hard sciences

(especially physics) and medicine. Physics has its non-locality; the National

Institutes of Health has its Energy Medicine (NCCAM, 2005); and the

American Medical Association (AMA, 2010) has in its House of Delegates the

American Osteopathic Association, which holds as its first tenet that ‘‘The

body is a unit: the person is a unit of body, mind and spirit’’ (AOA, 2010). Forall its efforts to emulate science, modern psychology would appear to be mired

in philosophy, and a defunct 19th century philosophy, at that (and this not

from the standpoint of soft science, but of the ‘‘hardest’’ of sciences, physics,

confirming in many ways the prescience of pre-science).

REMYSTIFYING BEHAVIORISM

Behavioral psychology clearly has the potential to assimilate and accommodate

to transcendental realities and take its place among the Wisdom Traditions. In a

Letter to the Editor of American Psychologist, Charles D. Hoffman (1975) refuted

the implication of B. F. Skinner (1975) that behavioral techniques are

‘‘antithetical to mysticism’’ (Hoffman, 1975, p. 943), feeling that Skinner ‘‘…

misses the essential point of mysticism, and of transpersonal psychology’’ (p. 943).

Skinner, like James, effectively exiled the metaphysical from psychology due to amethodological preference, in Skinner’s case, for observation over introspection.

He was suspicious of those who, citing Diderot, find it ‘‘… easier and shorter to

consult oneself than it is to consult nature’’ (Skinner, 1975, p. 49). While he did

not object to ‘‘… the metaphysical nature of mind stuff’’ (p. 44), he held that ‘‘ …

the self-observation that leads to introspective knowledge is limited by anatomy

…’’ (p. 44). One might speculate whether he would have been less categorical in

his objections were he to have personally experienced the ‘‘enhanced

introspection’’ reported by those skilled in the meditative arts.

As a radical behaviorist, Skinner believed that what determined behavior,

including private behavior such as thinking, was the environment, which is

within reach and manipulable, as opposed to ‘‘the remote fastness of the so-

called human spirit’’ (Skinner, 1975, p. 49). In sum, he exiled the metaphysical

from his behaviorism for three reasons: (a) he was ambivalent about its ‘‘so-


called’’ referent; (b) he did not consider it as accessible to observation; and (c)

he did not view it as controllable and thus found it irrelevant to behaviorism’s

goal of creating ‘‘… a world in which people feel freer than they have ever feltbefore, because they will not be under aversive control’’ (p. 47).

Hoffman (1975) took issue both with Skinner’s marginalization of metaphysics

and with his judgment that it was not amenable to the scientific method.

Hoffman observed that both Eastern philosophy and the therapies derived

from humanistic psychology provided examples of (a) behavioral correlates of

transcendental experience, (b) conditioned emotional responses serving as

barriers to such experience, and (c) ‘‘… the means (Behaviorally) to attain byapproximations (shape) so-called higher states of consciousness’’ (p. 943). He

maintained that ‘‘The systematic applications of behavioral control techniques

to various related behaviors we might wish to obtain are in keeping with a

behavioristic stance and may well prove highly effective’’ (p. 943).

Hoffman’s suggestions for a behavioral mysticism relying on predominantly

operant conditioning principles resonate with the writings of Albin R. Gilbert

(1967, 1969, 1971, 1978), who explored a classical conditioning model oftranscendence in which he likened Pavlov’s conditioning techniques to those of

the Buddha:

The ‘‘mystic intent’’ of the aspirant can be compared with an unconditioned

stimulus, having an adequate response: effulgent serenity. The specific life-

pursuits of the aspirant can be taken as stimulus situations, originally neutral

to effulgent serenity, but eventually conditioned to it. (Gilbert, 1967, p. 125)

For Gilbert,

There is no far cry from Buddha to Pavlov. Conditioning indifferent stimuli

to the unconditional stimulus of food, as performed by Pavlov, requires the

same technique as conditioning everyday life to the unconditioned mystical

potentiality in man, as practiced by the active mystic. (p. 128)

There is indeed a line from Buddha’s to Pavlov’s conditioning techniques.Should not this line be directed ‘‘from Pavlov to Buddha’’ in the future of

mankind? That this turn shall come to pass is the transcendent faith of every

mystic. (p. 128)

Gilbert may have provided us with the first Western behavioral model of a

mindfulness therapy. He sets forth as examples ‘‘A number of practices,

implementing the conditioning of everyday life to the ‘mystical intent’’’ (1967,

p. 125). These include concentrating with ‘‘penetrating intent’’ on every task athand ( p. 125), and ‘‘concentration on every step of life … with equal intent,

regardless of personal involvement’’ (p. 126).

Elsewhere, Gilbert (1971, 1978) cited Joseph Wolpe’s (1958) behavior

therapeutic theory of reciprocal inhibition and its relevance to the emotional

correlates of ‘‘mind expansion’’:


He who conditions and counter-conditions his daily life by the continuous

mindfulness of the One (stemming from ‘‘equally-intent-concentration’’),

with its outgrowth of tranquil serenity, does not only repose in radiant

happiness, but is also distinguished by a remarkable effectiveness in carrying

on the affairs of his life. (Gilbert, 1971, p. 191)

Just as Dollard and Miller (1950) provided psychology with an integrative

approach to the behavioral and psychoanalytic, Hoffman and Gilbert sketched

the beginnings of a behavioral reconciliation with the spiritual. Contemporary

work along these lines is that of ‘‘Psychosomatic Mysticism’’ (Louchakova &

Warner, 2003), which correlates physiological, psychological and transcendent

experience with techniques that involve focusing attention on ‘‘subtle energies’’

in various ‘‘body centers of consciousness.’’ According to Chia and Huang

(2005) in their esoteric interpretation of the Tao Te Ching and instructions on

meditational practices symbolically referenced therein,

By tapping into our internal resources and channeling the energy around us,

we can perceive much more than the senses normally report to the mind. We

extend our perception from the limited perspective of the sociologically

conditioned senses to the unlimited awareness of the universe. (pp. 40–41)

As an example of how a given ‘‘psychotechnology’’ (Ferguson, 1980/2009) is

usually found in some form across the entire spectrum of ancient and modern

spiritual, psychological and medical disciplines, the concept of subtle energies

and their manipulation is present in all of the following: Judaism (Scholem,

1991, 1995); Christianity (Hesychasm in Cutsinger, 2003); Islam (Sufism in

Khan, 1982); Hinduism (Kundalini Tantra and Shakta Vedanta in Woodroffe,

1919/2003; and the Kashmir Shaivism of Lakshmanjoo, 2000, one important

text of which, the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, was popularized as Centering in

Zen Flesh Zen Bones by Reps & Senzaki , 1957/1998); Buddhism (Tibetan

Tantra and Dream Yoga in Norbu, 1992; and Vajrayana in Gyatso, 2003);

Taoism (internal alchemy in Chia & Huang, 2005; Kohn & Wang, 2009; Luk,

1977; Wilhelm, 1931/1962); Shamanism (Eagle Feather, 2007); Theosophy

(Powell, 1969); Western Esotericism (Stavish, 2008); the Western Mystery

Tradition (Matthews & Matthews, 1986); Western Magic (e.g., the Middle

Pillar Exercise in Regardie, 1981); integrative approaches such as the ‘‘Inner

Guide Meditation’’ (Steinbrecher, 1988) drawing from depth psychology,

astrology, tarot and pathworking (Ashcroft-Nowicki, 1987); Western research-

based psychotherapies such as Focusing (Gendlin, 1978/2007); energy healing

(Mark, 2009); energetic psychotherapies (e.g., Reichian therapy); and systems

that teach induction of a ‘‘vibrational state’’ associated with the out-of-body

experience (OBE; Monroe, 1979; Rogo, 1986; Vieira, 2002). Mary Scott’s

(1975) Science and subtle bodies is interesting in this regard, as are Joseph

Chilton Pearce’s (2004) The biology of transcendence and Childre and Martin’s

(2000) HeartMath solution. Experimental psychology, while cautious as it

should be in interpreting the reported experience of subtle energy, is clearly up

to the task of studying its observable manifestations, antecedents and

consequences in an empirical manner.


THE FUNCTIONAL CONTEXTUAL PARADOX: HOW BEHAVIORISM REGAINED ITS

SPIRIT WITHOUT BECOMING TRANSPERSONAL

If one detects a pattern emerging, in which philosophers of psychology grapple

with the role, if any, for metaphysics within their discipline, the plot thickens

when Steven Hayes’ Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT, pronounced

like the word ‘‘act’’) appears on the scene (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 2003).

ACT has been defined as

… a psychological intervention based on modern behavioral psychology,

including RFT [Relational Frame Theory], that applies mindfulness and

acceptance processes, and commitment and behavior change processes, to

the creation of psychological flexibility. (Luoma, Hayes & Walser, 2007,

p. 22)

While ACT comes out more or less on the same side as James and Skinner, it

does so with a major twist: its status as a scientific approach to psychotherapy

that counts among its core processes the primary esoteric technique of one of

the world’s major religious traditions.

ACT’s stance on science and spirituality is that of functional contextualism, a

philosophy of science inspired by Skinner’s radical behaviorism and Stephen C.

Pepper’s contextualism. Philosophical systems are seen as clustering around

worldviews, themselves characterized by root metaphors and truth criteria.

Contextualism’s root metaphor is the ‘‘act in context,’’ and the truth criterion

for an idea is its workability rather than its correspondence with whatever is

culturally held to be reality (Hayes, Hayes, Reese, & Sarbin, 1993). In this it is

akin to the historical Church-supported philosophy of scientific instrumental-

ism that contented itself with serving as a heuristic to ‘‘save appearances’’ and

made no claim to scientific realism, which sought to explain the ‘‘truth’’ about

phenomena (Wallace, 1996).

Hayes (1984) addressed the historical tension between science and

metaphysics in Making Sense of Spirituality, to which the origin of ACT

has been dated (Hayes, 2002b). This appeared in the journal Behaviorism

and had as its purpose ‘‘… to attempt to analyze the distinction between

matter and spirit from a behavioral point of view’’ (Hayes, 1984, p. 99).

Functional contextual behaviorism hypothesizes spirit to be ‘‘You-as-

perspective’’:

Spirit is defined as an ‘‘immaterial’’ being; and matter is the stuff of things.

Spirit is thus a being non-experienceable as a thing. You-as-perspective

seems to fit this definition rather well … As soon as perspective is viewed as

content from what perspective is it viewed? Perspective must move one step

back. It seems plausible, then, that the matter/spirit distinction has as its

source the content/perspective distinction established as a necessary side

effect of language. Quite literally, it may be that verbal behavior gave

humankind a soul. (Hayes, 1984, p. 104)


Whereas James succeeded in extracting the soul from a psychology defined by

its presence, functional contextualism reconceptualizes the spirit for a

psychology defined by its absence. The article goes on to explain suchconcepts as temporal immortality, physical infinity, unity, nothingness,

omnipresence, and love as making sense from the point of view of the self as

perspective trying to gain a perspective on itself. For example, a perspective has

no temporal perspective of not having existed before itself, or of ceasing to

exist subsequent to itself, thus, Immortality. A perspective has no spatial

perspective of having ever been anywhere in which it had no perspective of

itself, thus, Infinity. And so on.

To grossly simplify this stance, spirituality is seen as a linguistic game. This

viewpoint is consistent with some Eastern psychologies, such as Taoism, for

which ‘‘… The Named [or, Naming] is the Mother of All Things’’ (Yuting,

1948, p. 41, cited in Watts, 1961, p. 85). Functional contextualism, as a school

of scientific contextualism, does not claim to be searching for or stating the

Truth (big ‘‘T’’), but rather employs its chosen (little ‘‘t’’) truth criteria to arrive

at its own (little ‘‘t’’) truths functioning as expedient (big ‘‘T’’) Truth proxies.

This reiterates the Jamesian and Skinnerian pragmatic stance that science is notultimately in the reality business, and certainly not in the Ultimate Reality

business.

PERCEPTUAL EXPANSION REVISITED

A number of other hypotheses in the subjective-versus-objective debate

surrounding spiritual phenomena have been proposed by Arthur Deikman inhis writings on the psychology of the mystical experience. He uses as an

example the meditator’s experience of ‘‘unity’’:

I have already referred to explanations of this phenomenon in terms of

regression. Two additional hypotheses should be considered: On the one

hand, the perception of unity may be the perception of one’s own psychic

structure; on the other hand, the experience may be a perception of the real

structure of the world. (1966a, p. 335)

These have been labeled by Deikman as the ‘‘reality transfer hypothesis,’’ the

‘‘sensory translation hypothesis’’ and the ‘‘perceptual expansion hypothesis’’ of

the mystical experiences reported by participants in his study of ‘‘experimen-

tally induced contemplative meditation’’ (1966b). Whereas the first is a

function of the ‘‘ego’’ (1966b, p. 110) and the second of an ‘‘altered cognitive

mode’’ (p. 109), the third involves

… the widening of perceptual intake to encompass ‘‘new’’ external stimuli,

with a new perceptual route strongly implied. Perceptual expansion is made

possible by de-automatization of the selective gating and filtering process

that normally are in constant operation (p. 111) … Such a process of de-

automatization might then be followed by an awareness of aspects of reality

that were formerly unavailable to us. (p. 113)


Here, Deikman has proposed, as has Hayes (1984), some hypotheses in which

mystical experiences are epiphenomena of internal processes. However,

Deikman additionally suggests that these perceptions may correspond withexternal realities that are experienced by some and merely and temporarily

inaccessible to others.

MEDITATION, MINDFULNESS AND MTNESS

The ‘‘Third Wave’’ cognitive behavior therapies are broadly conceived in terms

of contextualism (which, incidentally, may be a better candidate for a FourthForce in psychology than either of those heretofore proposed, transpersonal

psychology and multiculturalism, reflecting as it does the essence of these as

well as the movement toward increasing interconnectedness of previously

compartmentalized areas of inquiry). Each has as a central feature some

form of meditation or mindfulness. They include Acceptance and Commitment

Therapy (ACT) (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 2003), Dialectical Behavior

Therapy (DBT) (Linehan, 1993), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy

(MBCT) (Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002), and Mindfulness-Based Re-lapse Prevention (MBRP) (Marlatt, Chawla, & Bowen, 2010). Not to be

mistaken for an MT, Jon Kabat-Zinn’s (1990) Mindfulness Based Stress

Reduction, upon which MBCT is modeled, does not conceptualize itself as a

psychotherapy.

The MTs are presented as fundamentally different in focus from traditional

CBTs: ‘‘Unlike CBT, there is little emphasis … on changing the content of

thoughts; rather, the emphasis is on changing awareness of and relationship to

thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations’’ (Segal, Teasdale, & Williams, 2004,

p. 54). For Hayes, ‘‘That is a different organizing idea – regardless of the term

used to describe it’’ (2008, p. 151).

Although religious and spiritual traditions are acknowledged to accomplish

some of the ends of psychotherapy, they are seen as doing so ‘‘… in a way that

psychotherapy cannot adopt in whole cloth because of their sectarian and

supernatural conceptual content …’’ (Hayes, 2002b, p. 104). The articleOperationalizing Mindfulness Without Unnecessary Attachments (Hayes &

Shenk, 2004) falls within the Jamesian tradition of attempting to ‘‘clear

metaphysical entanglements’’ from a scientific psychology’s path (James, 1892/

1920, pp. 326–327). This includes a recommendation to ‘‘uncouple mindfulness

from any given technology, including meditation’’ (Hayes & Shenk, 2004,

p. 249) by distinguishing between psychological process and method. A perusal

of the transpersonal literature indicates that the authors are in good company

in seeing past the apparent differences among meditational techniques(Naranjo & Ornstein, 1971).

The controversial issue of transcendence, central to the definition of

transpersonal psychology (Lajoie & Shapiro, 1992), has now made its way

into cognitive behavioral psychology as well. One of the goals of ACT involves

contact with ‘‘a transcendent sense of self’’ (Hayes, 2002b, p. 60). In order to


facilitate this, ACT employs exercises to create ‘‘… a safe place … that will

allow the client to open up to previously avoided private events without being

overwhelmed. That safe place is consciousness itself’’ (p. 61). Here Hayesechoes the transpersonal psychological model’s dimension of ‘‘identification,’’

in which ‘‘… Identification with mental content renders the individual

unconscious of the broader context of consciousness which holds this content’’

(Walsh & Vaughan, 1980/1991, p. 17). Likewise, Jung noted in his commentary

on the Taoist text Hui Ming Ching (The Book of Consciousness and Life): ‘‘…

consciousness is at the same time empty and not empty. It is no longer

preoccupied with the image of things but merely contains them’’ (Wilhelm,

1931/1962, p. 123–4).

To ‘‘… help the client find a transcendent part of themselves’’ (Hayes, 2000b,

p. 61), ACT contains an ‘‘observer exercise’’ based on the ‘‘self-identification

exercise’’ of psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli (1971), a contemporary of Freud and

Jung, who in the early 20th century developed the positive, transpersonal, holistic

paradigm of psychosynthesis as an alternative to pathology-focused psychoanal-

ysis. A chapter section on ACT entitled A Transcendent Sense of Self similarly

presents the need for providing ‘‘psychological space’’ within which clients can‘‘experience private events fully and without defense’’ (Hayes, 2004, p. 20).

Finally, an ACT exercise used to teach transcendence-as-perspective-taking

employs a chess metaphor, in which one sees oneself as the board rather than as

the pieces which represent thoughts, feelings and beliefs (p. 21).

In addition to sharing content with and at times drawing directly from

transpersonal psychology, the ACT notion of transcendence would appear

similar to the teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi (Godman, 1985), SriNisargadatta Maharaj (Nisargadatta, 1973), Jnana Yoga, and Advaita Vedanta

in which ‘‘neti neti’’ (not this, not this) is a reminder of Who the I is not. It might

even have similar results. However, it is very important to note that

‘‘transcendence’’ in ACT is more mundane than mystical, with corresponding

worldly, and entirely valid for its purpose, goals of emotional regulation and well

being. This is the case, as well, for DBT’s psychotherapeutic use of Zen koan-like

paradox (Mace, 2008, pp. 67–68) and MBCT’s employment of mindfulness and

meditation (Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002).

The de-transcendentalization of transcendence in the mindfulness therapies is

somewhat in keeping with the Buddhist ‘‘ordinary mind’’ view of enlighten-

ment. As such, it raises the issue of complementary approaches to spirituality,

namely, the ‘‘immanent’’ versus the ‘‘transcendent’’ (Kornfield, 1993), the

‘‘way of forms’’ versus ‘‘the expressive way’’ (Naranjo & Ornstein, 1971),

‘‘alpha means’’ versus ‘‘beta means’’ (Ring, 1976), and the ‘‘here and now’’

versus the ‘‘everywhere and always’’ (Khan, 1982, p. 4). While thecharacterization of transcendental states as mental events unworthy of

cultivation is an aspect of some perennial teachings, mystical approaches to

meditation do exist within various schools of Buddhism (Kornfield, 1993;

2008); Hinduism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Naranjo &

Ornstein, 1971); the diverse esoteric schools constituting the Western Mystery

Tradition (Matthews & Matthews, 1986); and contemporary New Age


approaches. Jewish mysticism (Laenen, 1998/2001), for example, employs

‘‘mystical weeping’’ to ‘‘establish contact with other realms’’ (Idel, 2009).

Indeed, from some Buddhist perspectives, the mindfulness element ofVipassana or insight meditation as adopted by the MTs can be important as

a preliminary to prepare the mind for practices such as (a) Shamatha, deep

concentration to cultivate the Jhanas, ‘‘states of mental function … beyond the

operation of the ordinary conceptual mind’’ (Gunaratana, 2009, p. 12); (b)

Tonglen, a meditative technique that includes breathing in the suffering of

others, and breathing out to them lovingkindness (Rinpoche, 2002); and (c) the

Buddha’s Third Vehicle of Vajrayana (also known as the Tantric/Attachment/

Secret Mantra Vehicle) that involves, among other methods, circulating bodilyenergies in the yogic tradition (Gyatso, 2003).

Probably all systems of religion, spirituality and mysticism combine elements

of paths both immanent and transcendental, passive and active, striving to

reconcile Prentice Mulford’s ‘‘impossible possibility’’ of ‘‘Infinity in a finite

fact and eternity in a temporal act’’ (cited in Khan, 1982, p. 4). One or another

of these may be more ‘‘theo-syntonic,’’ ‘‘entheo-syntonic’’ (or even ‘‘atheo-

syntonic’’) with a given client’s own beliefs regarding God without or within(or neither), or simply appealing to the client for one or another reason (e.g., a

preference for an approach that employs imagery, sound, movement,

bodywork, energy, dreamwork, consciousness projection, etc.). The mindful-

ness therapy movement could therefore begin to explore these other traditions

and their potential clinical utility within a more broadly conceived school of

Transpersonal CBT.

WALK LOUDLY AND CARRY A BIG SCHTICK

Modern psychology need no longer limit itself to de Back’s (1653) ‘‘doctrine of

the soul,’’ (cited in Lake, 1966, p. 63), James’ (1890/1950) ‘‘science of mental

life,’’ nor Watson’s (narrow) or Skinner’s (general) ‘‘science of behavior.’’ Its

evolution as an experimental science over the past century has brought it to a

point at which it is firmly enough established to be able to accommodate all

three, soul, consciousness and behavior, without fearing for its scientificintegrity. It can consider and test hypotheses based upon metaphysical

speculation and mystical insights and experiences without the risk of becoming

a para-psychology, God-As-Perspective forbid.

Psychology is now comprehensively defined as ‘‘the study of human

consciousness and its manifestations in behavior,’’ including the functions,

structures, states, modes and development of consciousness, as well as its

‘‘relational and behavioral aspects’’ in terms of ‘‘its mutual interaction with theobjective, exterior world and the sociocultural world of shared values and

perceptions’’ (Wilber, 2000a, p. 1). Its proper domain is consciousness and

behavior in all of their manifestations, including those yet to be experienced by

a sufficient portion of humanity to be generally considered as what

consciousness explorer Robert Monroe (1979) referred to as ‘‘knowns.’’ Its

proper method is that of empirical science, which differs from philosophy not


in ignoring or denying unknowns (the investigation of which constitutes its

very raison d’etre), but in its approach to formulating and testing logical

hypotheses regarding these. To the extent that an hypothesis can be formulatedregarding behavior or consciousness and an experiment carried out, one is

practicing experimental psychology, whether the phenomena under investiga-

tion be social strategies to gain approval or cognitive strategies to ‘‘project’’ (or

believe to be projecting) one’s consciousness to a given ‘‘location.’’ Arguably,

an experiment such as the latter is no more para-psychological than quantum

physics is meta-physical.

From a contextualistic standpoint, transpersonal psychology will truly becomea redundancy in terms only when mainstream psychology’s world view expands

such that (a) its root metaphors, or assumptions about the nature of existence,

permit hypotheses regarding referents of transcendental experience that are

external to the experiencer or even orthogonal to space-time itself, and (b)

potential evidence for these is not rejected a priori by its truth criteria. For this

to take place, the burden is on likeminded psychologists to continue patiently

to affirm the relevance of its subject matter for their mother science. Reasons

for optimism include evidence that mainstream science is indeed evolving in thedirection of open-mindedness. Perhaps the best example is the National

Institutes of Health (NIH) recognition of ‘‘research challenges and opportu-

nities’’ in the domain of Energy Medicine, which it defines as

… a domain in CAM [complementary and alternative medicine] that deals

with energy fields of two types: Veritable, which can be measured [and]

Putative, which have yet to be measured … The veritable energies employ

mechanical vibrations (such as sound) and electromagnetic forces … Incontrast, putative energy fields (also called biofields) have defied measure-

ment to date by reproducible methods. Therapies involving putative energy

fields are based on the concept that human beings are infused with a subtle

form of energy. This vital energy or life force is known under different

names in different cultures, such as qi in traditional Chinese medicine

(TCM), ki in the Japanese Kampo system, doshas in Ayurvedic medicine,

and elsewhere as prana, etheric energy, fohat, orgone, odic force, mana, and

homeopathic resonance. (NCCAM, 2005, p. 1)

In effect, science without the putative reverts to dogma, good science being a

perpetually recursive process by which the veritable is expanded via testing of

putative hypotheses. There is no good reason not to extend the NIH

definitional compromise into the domain of behavioral psychology by

broadening existing theories based upon ‘‘veritable’’ variables to include as

yet unmeasurable phenomena inspired by the Perennial Philosophies and other

metaphysical bodies of knowledge. After all, the ‘‘putative’’ placement of thesun at the center of the planetary system proved a fairly useful thought

experiment (incidentally validating ancient Greek ‘‘pre-science’’).

As one example of what a transpersonal cognitive behavioral model might look

like (behaviorists, hold on to your hats), we could transpersonally ‘‘retrofit’’

Kurt Salzinger’s (1980) Behavioral Mechanism, which explains behavior in


terms of ‘‘the occasions for the behavior (that is, the stimuli that precede it) and

the consequences of the behavior (that is, the stimuli that follow it)’’ (p. 67). To

existing ‘‘veritable’’ variables, we might add ‘‘putative’’ states of the organism

(e.g., biofields in NCCAM, 2005; cosmic consciousness in Bucke, 1901/1991);

physical environments (e.g., parallel universes in Kaku, 2006); social environ-

ments (e.g., extraphysical intelligences in Vieira, 2007); reinforcement or

learning histories (e.g., prior conditioning during conscious or unconscious

anomalous experiences in wakefulness, sleep, other states, or even past lives as

in Roberts, 1972); behaviors (e.g., activities during out-of-body experiences in

Muldoon & Carrington, 1929/1989; Tyson, 2007; during near death

experiences in Moody, 1975; Parnia, 2006; Ring, 1982; and during luciddreams in LaBerge, 2009; Waggoner, 2008); discriminative stimuli (e.g.,

binaural brainwave entrainment patterns for triggering anomalous states such

as those developed by the Monroe Institute, 2010); reinforcing stimuli (e.g.,

valued mystical states or occurrences that increase the likelihood of the

conscious or unconscious behavioral chains that preceded them); and

contingencies of reinforcement (e.g., relationships among discriminative stimuli,

behaviors, and consequent stimuli in ‘‘putative’’ physical and social

environments). An example of the latter is the phenomenon in which, uponrealizing that one has successfully induced an OBE or lucid dream

(discriminative stimulus), one thinks in a positive or negative manner

(Skinnerian ‘‘private event’’ or cognitive behavior) that triggers strong emotion

(consequent conditioned emotional response), this in turn serving as a stimulus

for the aversive response of waking up. Here, the entire stimulus-response

chain, upon sufficient repetition, conditions equanimity during OBEs and lucid

dreams that is rewarded by prolongation of the experience.

A transpersonally retrofitted Behavioral Mechanism of the conditioning of

cognition, affect and action during anomalous states could facilitate the

interfacing of modern science, psychology and psychotherapy with paradigms

of more ancient (one might say more ‘‘time-tested’’) traditions that focus on

similar interrelationships among parallel, if putative, variables. For example, in

the Tibetan Buddhism of the Dalai Lama, one learns to conquer habits of

attachment and aversion in the two ‘‘natural bardos of this life’’ (meditation

and sleeping/dreaming) via practices of the day (meditation) and of the night(dream yoga). This training is considered the ‘‘whole preparation’’ for

navigating the four bardos, or ‘‘dimensions of mind’’ (Rinpoche, 2002,

pp. 112–114) to be encountered when we one day ‘‘… leave this compound

body of flesh and blood’’ and ‘‘know it to be a transitory illusion’’ (p. 227). Just

as Skinner’s radical behaviorism expanded Watson’s methodological behav-

iorism to include ‘‘private events’’ of the personal mind (among other internal

processes), so too could a transpersonal behaviorism, following the National

Institute of Health’s approach to energy medicine (NCCAM, 2005), invigorateSkinner’s model by allowing for ‘‘putative events’’ of the transpersonal Mind.

The migration of meditational theories and practices into cognitive behavior

therapy, the most empirically-oriented psychotherapeutic modality, may be an

indication that mainstream psychology is growing its ‘‘third eye’’ (Wilber,

1983) as a mode of empirical, or experiential, investigation. Whereas sensory


empiricism recognizes evidence gathered by the ‘‘eye of flesh’’ from the

sensorimotor world, and mental empiricism allows for evidence gathered by the

‘‘eye of mind’’ in the form of mathematics and logic, spiritual empiricism

permits as evidence that which is gathered by the ‘‘eye of contemplation’’

(Wilber, 1998), which is especially active during anomalous states of

consciousness. And just as we wonder at the 16th century mindset that

considered the mental empiricism of mathematics to be a branch of magic

(Hopking, 2001), a 21st century science that rejects spiritual empiricism on a

similar basis may be judged by future scientists as equally primitive.

As Walsh (1992) observed,

… Psychological schools that focus on one of these three eyes (or

epistemological modes) and realms of knowledge often deny the importance

or even the validity of others. However, all three modes may be necessary

for a psychology seeking to encompass the full spectrum of human

experience, nature, potential, and development. (pp. 27–28)

Within the behavioral tradition, whereas behavior therapy initially recognizeddata available only to the eye of the senses, and cognitive therapy introduced

the second eye of reason, the MTs have invited into cognitive behavior therapy

the third eye of contemplation which, when fully developed, is said to function

as ‘‘Samadhi, a telescope for the mind’’ (Wallace, 2009, p. 82), ‘‘… a direct

perception of reality, not by the five physical senses or by thinking, but by

mental perception’’ (p. 7). Similar to the use of sensory-enhancing instruments

such as the microscope and telescope by Western science, Buddhists and adepts

of other spiritual systems have for thousands of years employed contemplationas a method of refining introspective (and reportedly interoceptive and

exteroceptive) observation and investigation (Wallace, 2007). The modern

cognitive behavioral MTs walk loudly, carry a big schtick, and are well situated

to help integrate this newly borrowed tool, and its effects, into its own Wisdom

Tradition of Western Science.

TOWARD A TRANSPERSONAL COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR THERAPY

In 1980, Walsh and Vaughan proposed that

If the field of transpersonal psychotherapy is to be advanced, it needs

empirical testing and validation of many current assumptions and practices.

Here, the behaviorists have much to teach us. Similarly, as behaviorists

appreciate the need for a broader, less restricted and dehumanizing

perspective, they may turn to the experiential psychologies for guidance.Although it may still be far off, some type of [r]approchement is clearly

desirable. (1980/1991, p. 25)

In the thirty year interim, behavior therapy has indeed broadened its scope by

accommodating approaches with experiential, cognitive, psychodynamic and,

now, transpersonal elements. To be fair, Joseph Wolpe, the father of behavior


therapy, founded the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry

in March, 1970, and began publishing research with a transpersonal flavor just

as soon (e.g., Boudreau, 1972). The same was true of the journal Behavior

Therapy, founded in 1970 (e.g., Berwick & Oziel, 1973). With its empirical

focus, inquisitiveness, emphasis on adaptive as well as maladaptive function-

ing, and current embrace of Eastern tradition, cognitive behaviorism is an ideal

candidate to serve as a modern forum for scientific advancement at the

interface of the functionally defined ‘‘Four Psychologies’’ (as distinguished

from the temporally defined ‘‘Four Forces’’ in psychology) that have evolved

over the past century. These former are: (a) Negative, curative, or deficit-

focused psychology, focusing mainly on problems and pathology (e.g.,psychoanalysis, behavior therapy and cognitive therapy); (b) Positive, or

growth-focused psychology, concerned with human potential and self-

actualization in the ordinary sense (e.g., existential/humanistic psychology);

(c) Transpersonal, or transcendence-focused psychology, with its sight set on

the ‘‘farthest reaches of human nature’’ (Maslow, 1971) and ‘‘ultimate states’’

(Sutich, 1969); and (d) the ‘‘Integral Approach,’’ or ‘‘the endeavor to honor

and embrace every legitimate aspect of human consciousness’’ (Wilber, 2000a,

p. 2). It should be noted that Wilber sees the Integral Approach not as aseparate ‘‘force’’ or even a ‘‘psychology,’’ but rather as a coherent

‘‘Kosmology’’ that will ‘‘transcend and include’’ the diversity of traditions

within the currently fragmented field (Wilber, 2000b, p. 8). This is consistent

with the blurring of lines between psychology, parapsychology, physics,

metaphysics, religion and spirituality that has been taking place over the past

century, and with an eventual ‘‘unified theory’’ of ‘‘metapsychophysics.’’

Psychology will apparently have been on the right track from the start. It had

its scientific origins in subjective correlates of the physical (Fechner, 1860/1966), and its future may lie in objective correlates of the perceptual.

Within the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) are

Special Interest Groups both for ‘‘Mindfulness and Acceptance’’ and for

‘‘Spiritual and Religious Issues in Behavior Change.’’ The goals of this latter

are to ‘‘integrate spiritual and behavioral approaches to change,’’ ‘‘encourage

personal integration of spiritual and professional pursuits among behavior

therapists and students of behavior therapy,’’ and ‘‘encourage research onspiritual aspects of behavior change and on behavioral aspects of spirituality’’

(ABCT, 2010). This is similar to the model of transpersonal cognitive behavior

therapy (TCBT) outlined here, which may be defined as (a) the use of cognitive

and behavioral techniques to (b) cultivate discrete anomalous or transcendent

states of consciousness or experience in the researcher, therapist or client, (c) in

the service of developing, implementing or benefiting from the effects of

curative, positive or transpersonal modalities of psychological change. Still shy

of Wilber’s Kosmology, but hopefully a step in the right direction.

There are any number of ways in which therapists could draw from among the

diverse Wisdom Traditions and their psychotechnologies (what we might

collectively term the Perennial Psychologies and Technologies of Transcendence)

to enrich their practice. A potentially useful strategy for conducting transpersonal

cognitive behavior therapy in an ‘‘entheo-syntonic’’ manner that honors the


client’s own cultural, subcultural or idiosyncratic metaphysical belief system is

that of ‘‘explanatory model negotiation’’ (Kleinman, 1981; Tanaka-Matsumi,

Seiden & Lam, 1996) in the transcultural psychiatric tradition. Adapting this tothe transpersonal therapy context (in which a client, or ‘‘co-evolutient,’’ desires a

modality that addresses religious, spiritual, or otherwise metaphysical issues), the

therapist would (a) assess the client as to preferred beliefs and practices, (b)

evaluate whether there exist theories or practices that are theo-, entheo-, or atheo-

syntonic (for example, variants of meditation, mindfulness or equanimity drawn

from the client’s own religious tradition) and for which there is evidence of

therapeutic utility, (c) employ these in the course of treatment, and (d) evaluate

their effectiveness. An integral model of ideographic assessment that resonateswith cognitive behavioral, transpersonal, and negotiation models has been

outlined by Marquis (2008).

With time, the empirical method could be applied to compare the efficacy of

techniques drawn from both scientific and religious/spiritual/metaphysical

schools of thought for the attainment of curative, positive and transpersonal

psychological goals. Within the MT movement itself, it would be helpful to

compare the therapeutic efficacy of different approaches to mindfulness andmeditation. Beyond the MTs, given the widespread practice of cultivating,

focusing upon and circulating energy through the body in traditional and

modern systems of healing and transcendence, variants of this procedure would

be a logical area for psychological research.

Anomalous states such as the lucid dream and out-of-body experience have

therapeutic potential as well. The lucid dream, a controllable, realistic,

multisensory ‘‘bio-psychological virtual reality’’ (Tart, 2009, p. 223), can beused for behavioral rehearsal (LaBerge & Rheingold, 1997). Lucid Dreaming

Treatment (LDT) has been employed for chronic nightmares (Spoormaker &

van den Bout, 2006) and could help with this and other symptoms of

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (Gavie & Revonsuo, 2010). Lucid dream

exposure therapy for Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia, Obsessive-Compulsive

Disorder and the various phobias is also worth exploring as the most vivid

alternative to in-vivo procedures.

The out-of-body experience, in which consciousness is perceived as existing

independently of the physical body, may lead to more positive attitudes regarding

death (Alvarado, 2000) and therefore has special relevance for work with hospice

patients. An intervention that bridges the three or four functional psychologies is

the Going Home program (Monroe Products, 2005) created by Elisabeth Kubler-

Ross, Charles T. Tart and Robert A. Monroe for individuals with terminal illness

and their families. Here, portable audio-administered brainwave manipulation

technology (binaural beats and guided imagery listened to with headphones) isused to induce OBEs during which the individual can get acquainted in advance

with the after-death environment (or that which is perceived as such), thereby

reducing fear of dying and instilling hope. The effects of this program and other

OBE-induction strategies on optimizing the cognitive, emotional, behavioral and

physiological adaptation of this important population could be studied and

compared with standard hospice care.


This article has considered ways in which cognitive behavior therapy could both

build upon and go ‘‘beyond mindfulness’’ by delving deeper within Buddhist

psychology, expanding its scope to encompass the full range of Wisdom

Traditions, and drawing from the existing field of transpersonal psychology. The

strength of the spiritual traditions is the full development within each of qualities

specific to its unique historical breadth and depth. The beauty of transpersonal

psychology is its attempt at integration of the wide variety of ancient and modern,

Eastern and Western, spiritual and psychological systems of thought and

practice. What cognitive behavior therapy has to contribute (in addition to its

affinity for parsimony, which could be useful in distilling the operative elements

across diverse psychotechnologies) is its modus operandi of putting newly

acquired theories and techniques to the test of empirical validation. As the MTs

and the CBTs in general pursue this new direction, it behooves us to heed the

advice of Jon Kabat-Zinn (2003), here regarding mindfulness but applying as well

to the broader category of transpersonal phenomena, that

… intimate sensitivity will be necessary to understand, evaluate, and

preserve essential elements of the universal dharma dimension of

mindfulness practice as it is analyzed by and incorporated into Western

science. It in no way contradicts the call by Hayes [2002a] to find ways to fit

practices and knowledge from spiritual traditions into the theoretical matrix

of scientific psychology. The challenge is to find a fit that honors the

integrity of what may be different but complementary epistemologies.

(Kabat-Zinn, 2003, pp. 146–147)

It has been said that science and mysticism cannot be synthesized (Capra,

1976). If this is so, it is mostly in the paradoxical sense that when meta-physical

and para-psychological theories and techniques are accepted as objects of

empirical scrutiny, rather than science and mysticism combining to form

something new (as in synthesis), the epithets meta- and para- fall away, and

what was formerly labeled ‘‘mystical’’ is subsumed by science, becoming

Science itself, at its Jamesian, ‘‘genial,’’ best.

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The Authors

Douglas Y. Seiden, Ph.D., is a Clinical Psychologist and Supervisor for the

California School of Professional Psychology’s Clinical Psy.D. Program in


Hong Kong. His approach is that of transpersonal cognitive behavior therapy,

drawing from the universal core of metapsychophysical theory and practice in

such a way as to maximize client entheo-syntonicity. He is the author of Unity’s

Pulse (2008), a fictionalized, P.O.E.T.-ically incorrect account of some of his

own anomalous experiences.

KaNei Lam, Ph.D., is a Clinical and School Psychologist with licensure in New

York. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Social

Sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her professional interests

include cognitive behavioral assessment and therapy; schema-focused cognitive

therapy; cross-cultural issues in psychopathology and therapy; mindfulness-based stress reduction; Ericksonian hypnosis; and development of the field of

professional psychology in Hong Kong.


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