Report of the Expert Committee on Transpersonal Research

Members of the Committee:

Pia Keiding, Belgium and Denmark, Initiator
Wilfried Belschner, Germany
Claus Christer, Sweden
Klaus Engel, Germany
Evgueny Faydysh, Russia
Sandra Goncalves, Portugal
Sue Michaelson, United Kingdom
Mario Simoes, Portugal
Guest: Joachim Galuska, Germany

Members wishing to continue participating in the Committee’s work:

Peter Kampschuur, Netherlands

Annamaria Komlosi, Hungary

The main streams of the Committee’s work from last year were resumed, together with an intensified need to explore the potential power and strength of the ECI:

1. The Meta-level of reflections and definitions of the Transpersonal,
2. The specific Role and Functions of the "Institution", EUROTAS CREATIVE INITIATIVE (ECI) for the European Transpersonal Field of Research.

ECI could be developed to have an important influence in the field of research. Some of the persons participating in the ECI are involved in research, either on the level of local scientific communities or on national or international ones. At a time when European unity is developing rapidly, it is of immense, universally shared interest to embed research even more in a Europe-wide context. "Internationalisation" is one of the most important keywords in research politics and ECI could promote the kind of research that transcends national boundaries and cultural differences.

The issue of coming to EUROTAS as a EUROPEAN member of humankind was stressed. Furthermore, in EUROTAS we do not meet as ‘private person-holons’ but as larger ‘person-in-function-holons’ for the institutions we come from. We meet in the larger holon called EUROTAS. To empower this larger holon we need to nourish it and feel to be part of it. Without this institutional perspective EUROTAS will not receive the interest and respect due to it. This raises the following questions:

• What is the European quality of being together, and what is the specifically European quality of EUROTAS? What is EUROTAS contributing to us?
• What is our contribution, as Research Committee, to EUROTAS?
• Is our Committee to be a task force for European Transpersonal research?
• What does research mean on a European level? What are the obstacles and barriers, and what are the ways to facilitate it?
• We have jumped from an individual to a national and a European level. The opportunities that we have for communication and bridge-building are unique.
  

At this point all the members agreed that the most productive thing we could probably do at this time would be to work together on a EUROTAS project.

A Pilot Study as process agent:

Creating a binding research project together would enable us to actively build and expand the major issues already brought forward in a concrete way.

So, inspired by the considerable fund of experience among our members ( several of whom are experienced researchers) and by the common wish for promoting internationalisation to acknowledge the potential of the ECI, the Committee agreed upon developing a Pilot Study during the working days of this second annual meeting. Through an experiential method of working we were able to define the following three areas in which we could support each other through the ECI, thereby

Moving towards becoming a European Transpersonal Research TASK FORCE.

1. Supporting Qualification for Transpersonal Research:

Reflection on the fundamentals of Transpersonal Research, where the following four topics should be addressed:

• Is there a special topic (like the brain) for Transpersonal Research, or could it include all thinkable subjects?
• Is there a difference between the theoretical Transpersonal models and the hitherto known scientific models?
• Are there special methods and processes for Transpersonal Research?
• Are there specific qualities required for the personality and consciousness of the researcher?

The first job of this international task force could be seen in the creation of a European Training Programme for the education of competent Transpersonal researchers, as well as a European Research Consultancy to develop the maieutic, i.e. ‘midwifing’ approach of Transpersonal peer group support for the emergence of research projects, and to offer supervision.

1. Constructing Research Tools:

As Europe is rich in cultural varieties, we should make available research tools already existing in one country to all other countries. Building on such already constructed concepts, methods and tools in the Transpersonal realm (e.g. for assessing spirituality), the Committee would like to empower a European culture of spirituality on a scientific level. This task of adapting research tools for intercultural use and comparisons according to psychometric standards is a very demanding but necessary job to promote research Europe-wide.

In constructing the principles and methods for our pilot study, we experienced dimensions of this ‘Unity in Diversity’ way of working.

The second job of this international task force could be the construction of European research instruments. The ECI could ‘certificate’ those research tools that meet specific methodological criteria in the process of test construction ("process quality") and outcome ("outcome quality").

2. Establishing Research Groups:

To promote in the Transpersonal field an exchange of ideas — hypothesis, research design and tools, statistical methods and the conclusions of our research projects, we should like to suggest that ECI become a powerful forum and meeting point for European Transpersonal research colleagues. This would make it possible to find partners who could contribute their very specific competence, e.g. in a project that is too large for one local research group to handle.

For the same purpose we would work towards establishing a cross-boundary network for research funding.

Networking was also suggested to promote the peer reviewing of, say, research articles, and to help one another to get them published. This was already decided within the committee.

The third job of the task force could be to act as a magnet in attracting groups and networking. We need to find ways in which we can nourish and strengthen the institutional perspective of EUROTAS.

This raised the question:

3. What are the formal structures that can hold ECI’s contribution to research?

These might include:

• Projects for financial support,
• Articles for scientific journals,
• A bank of ongoing research,
• A list of useful journals to contact.

 

4. The pilot study on Intuition as an example of an ECI research project:

The KAIROS PROJECT

Probabilistic Futures. A Study of Space and Time in Altered States Of Consciousness.

This ‘Binding Project’ would be a unique opportunity to work together as Europeans, enabling us to experience both the problems and the opportunities that this might involve. The project would be a mixture of parapsychology and cognitive psychology — about precognition and intuition. Wilfried Belschner would be the project director. The committee aims to put in an application for funding at the end of August. This pilot study would lead to further research. Group members would need to communicate with one another by e-mail for further detailed discussions.

About Intuition:

It was agreed that if one is researching Intuition, it is very important to respect the nature of the subject. The language of Intuition can be seen as the language of the Feminine Principle which is subtle and sensitive and has its own special qualities. It communicates through images, symbols, dreams, sometimes as a colour, a sound or a body feeling. We agreed that it is crucial not to become overwhelmed with structure and research methodology, and undervalue the special qualities of what we are researching. While the binding project might well be a very valuable exercise in cooperating as Europeans working from a scientific perspective, it would be equally important to recognise that Intuition is a huge subject, full of poetry and magic. Perhaps EUROTAS could hold a conference on Creativity and Intuition that would expand the limits of a pilot research project.

Concluding remarks and future perspectives:

The subject we are dealing with is vast. The members of the Committee need to keep in touch with one another throughout the year, both to share relevant literature on Transpersonal definitions, and for the research project as such. A meeting would be envisaged, too.

The suggestion was made that in future every research project would benefit from having an artist, a philosopher, and maybe a theologian as well as scientists as essential participants in the project. We all need to be involved in this process together.