Transpersonal Research Colloquium

The Transpersonal Research Colloquium (TRC) 2015 took place at Lake Orta in northern Italy in June, following the EUROTAS Festival. The colloquium was organized by Drs. Pier Luigi Lattuada of the Integral Transpersonal Institute (www.integraltranspersonal.com), Rosemarie Anderson of Transpersonal Consultancy (www.transpersonalconsultancy.com) and Giovanna Calabrese and Regina U. Hess representing the EUROTAS Division of Transpersonal Research (http://eurotas.org/division-of-transpersonal-research-edtr/). 

Facilitators introduced their specific research interests. Pier Luigi Lattuada discussed research from an epistemological perspective speaking about his vision of Second Attention Epistemology; Rosemarie Anderson overviewed transpersonal research as encounters with the Sacred open to personal and cultural transformation; Giovanna Calabrese considered the importance of a transpersonal perspective on evidence-based practice; Regina Hess spoke about embodied phenomenology and embodied aesthetic interpretation. 

Twenty-five participants from Europe, North America, and South Africa shared their experiences in research using a range of methods to explore different areas of transpersonal, spiritual, and related topics. The facilitators and the participants engaged in stimulating dialogue including transpersonal approaches to research and epistemological considerations from scientific and philosophical perspectives. Different research approaches were considered, including ways to combine qualitative and quantitative methods effectively, hermeneutical methods and intuitive inquiry, narrative and embodied art-based approaches to research, as they are applied in different fields from clinical to social and personal development. 

What emerged from the different discussions is the involvement of the researcher in the research journey, from the first arising of the research question through the disclosing of the philosophical implications, which in turn guide the choice of the method, data collection and analysis. Ethical issues were also considered, as intimate and private experiences are often the focus of the research and personal disclosure and sharing has to be considered with particular respect and attention.  

A Transpersonal Research Colloquium (TRC) 2016 will be organized by the same facilitators together with members of the Transpersonal Section of the British Psychological Society. The colloquium will take place in London in September 2016.