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The European Transpersonal AssociationEUROTAS NEWLETTER 1818 December 2003Dear FriendsThis newsletter is made up mainly of the draft programme for the London Conference the latest draft of which is attached. As you will see a good programme is developing. If you are interested in proposing a workshop for the Conference, we are looking for a number of workshops allied as closely as possible to the four Conference themes which are the transpersonal and Health, Education, Society and Consciousness.
1. The London EUROTAS Conference Citizenship in an Interconnected
World Regents Park London,
You are warmly invited to take part in this central London Conference during the summer of 2004 in the lovely surroundings of Regent’s Park. It is for all those in Europe and elsewhere who are interested in the relation between the inner aspects of their lives and the outward living of them. It brings together like minded people from many different countries. The emphasis will be on our meeting together and learning from one another. It is not a conference at which you will just sit at the feet of great people and hear their views, although there will be expert lecturers and workshops offered from all over Europe and elsewhere. It will be a time for personal reflection on the contribution we might make in our own special ways to the complexity of the fast changing global, regional and local. We'd like to introduce you to some online resources we have developed in order to keep you up to date with the latest information.
The Eurotas site offers links to our member associations. Visit www.transpersonalcentre.co.uk CTP offers professional preparation for transpersonal psychotherapists and accreditation in the Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy Section of the UK Council for Psychotherapy. Visit www.citizenshipconference.org The Citizenship Conference web site will give regular updates on the conference schedules, workshops, accommodation, meals, and directions. Also featured is a secure online registration system and soon to come, a discussion board to preview some of the proposed topics. Register NOW!Please register for the conference as soon as you can. There are limited places available for this conference so visit the web site now to register online or see below for further information on how to register by fax or post. Conference & Workshop ScheduleWe are pleased that already there are a wide range of seminars/workshops which have already been offered. If you wish to present a workshop, then visit the web site and fill out the Workshop Presenter Form to register your interest. It is important that you show how your work would fit in with the theme of the Conference. The number of remaining presentation slots is very limited. While you can find the information online, please find attached to this email, the latest Conference Brochure which includes a Registration Form for the conference if you would like to register by fax or post.
Yours, As ever
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MORE ON HOW TO REGISTERPlease register for the conference as soon as you can. This helps us to cover the up front costs of the conference and also ensures that you have a place. There is a maximum number of 350 participants and although we cannot say at this stage for sure, we believe that the Conference will be oversubscribed, so please do not leave things too late as we will take bookings in the order they are sent to us. Cost: £190*This fee is refundable up to the 1st June less 15% to cover administration. After June 1st 50% of the cost of the conference is returnable and after 15 July the fee is forfeit unless a person can be taken from the waiting list. *The cost of the conference is £190 until April 1, 2004. After April 1, 2004 the fee will be £220.
Register OnlineVisit www.citizenshipconference.org to go through the secure online registration. Register by Fax or PostYou may send a copy of the registration form (see attachment) by mail or fax to Sue Lewis at the Centre for Transpersonal Psychology 101 Crawford Street, London W1 2HP Tel: 44(0)20 7724 9842 Fax: 7724 9243. Bank drafts are acceptable but please bear in mind that you must cover the exchange costs into £ sterling from other currencies. AccommodationOne the web site you can find more information on the onsite accommodation available at the residence halls at Regent's College, as well as a list of other accommodation local to Regent's Park. Prices range from £23-£38.
2. Research in EUROTAS Professionals and academics interested in research should read this. Some of it is from the last Newsletter. There are about 20 academics at least who are interested in the development of a EUROTAS research capacity and to develop this with others across the world who would like to work with them. Each afternoon of the London Conference will have a Research Seminar where both subjects and methodology will be discussed in workshops, presentations and networking sessions. There could be up to fifty people in these seminars depending on the interests of those involved. We are also looking at initial proposals from the UK, Germany and the US about the possibility of a summer school around the London Conference for students... A discussion board has been put onto the Conference
website - www. citizenshipconference.com and this can be accessed direct
via the website or via Eurotas.org. The President of EUROTAS, Professor
Dr Wilfried Belschner supports warmly the proposal by Ovidiu Brazdau
of Romania and the discussions with Olga Louchakova, David Lukoff and
others. The aim is to bring together those professionals in EUROTAS
interested in research in both transpersonal subjects and methodology
through discussions during the year via the discussion board and then
at the London Conference. This development came from the Creative Initiative
established by Rumold Mol and others some years ago and the proposal
for a discussion board on the EUROTAS website agreed in Portugal and
developed in Sinaia.
Ovidiu Brazdau writes: Manuel Almendro's suggestion is the way we can continue a very good development of EUROTAS. Separation between professionals and non-professionals will be the key for keeping the fields of interests in a proper way for everyone. The Romanian Association has this structure - professional membership and regular membership. A professional membership in EUROTAS must be necessary for joining some EUROTAS sections for example: o Research –subjects and methodologies o Transpersonal therapy training o Research section - o Some ideas on development - (please give your feedback to this) 1. As we are speaking mainly about transpersonal psychology, the most important part will be in the psychology field - not philosophy, medicine, etc. The mixture of psychologists, doctors, engineers etc is directing the research too broad. Realistically, right now the people really interested in doing real work for EUROTAS are only a few, so maybe we can choose some fields – e.g. psychology and medicine and do a good job. or maybe only one field? Research section must have two categories included: o methodology, including diagnostic tools - scales, tests, instruments to be used by the transpersonal psychologists o practical research projects ITP has the resources already developed - why not asking some of the ITP professors or researchers to come to Europe and give trainings, workshops on it? Also the materials developed by ITP - maybe somehow they become available for us. e.g. - can we get from David or Olga the list of research books and materials form ITP? Or a list of their researches? Some important statistics must be available for the use of the research section: o a list of the transpersonal psychology research methods used in US, Europe and all over the world o a list / Catalogue of the psychological instruments (tests, inventory) that are or can be used by the transpersonal researchers o a list of the ongoing research projects in the transpersonal field (including some elementary data - title/organization/methods/duration/subjects-populations etc.) o a list of previously done research projects I would like to start gathering this information through web or contacts and making a database to be published in a book - "Transpersonal Psychology Research". Review 1970 - 2003. Maybe someone has done this before, but I do not know this and I cannot find references on this matter. Another seminal book needed - Transpersonal Psychology Research Methodology. My proposal is to discuss these things by mail and in one month to make a draft of the development strategy for research section. The research section at the Conference in London can be a good opportunity to finalize gathering of these data on research, and to have a personal meeting with all the people already who have already joined the research section. Olga Louchakova writes: I consulted with ITP co-presidents Pat Luce and Bob Schmitt. We can provide methodological support both in research and transpersonal transformative education, either in the form of seminars in your countries, or by inviting you to be visiting scholars at ITP. In exchange, ITP will expect you to give lectures or seminars from your expertise. ITP had visiting scholars in the past, as well as our faculty was teaching abroad. From my experience, these visits have to be planned well in advance. Following is the brief description of the research programs at ITP. ITP prepares professional psychologists, MA and PhD level. Students come from different backgrounds (medicine, psychology, education, art, science), which influences their research. Our focus is in helping people to do their Ph.D. research according to the personally significant interests. This involves interdisciplinary relationships with the vast variety of fields of human knowledge, including social, life and physical sciences and humanities. To get an idea of how broad it is, you may take a look at the list of dissertation topics at ITP over years on our website, click here to visit. To accommodate these interests, we pay special attention to the research design, formulating strategies which will allow us to attain the particular research goals. While psychological tests and scales are used, qualitative methods including phenomenology and hermeneutics are predominant, also frequent are the combinations of the above. For example, one of my students, former medical pharmacologist, is doing the discs on yoga in treatment of cancer: she will combine interviews, focus groups, personal observations, and the medical data such as lab tests etc. Sometimes students develop and assess educational programs, sometimes they even chose to research no human subjects, doing a linguistic or philosophical analysis of the scriptural or historic sources or even movies or artifacts. Because of the above, I like very much Ovidiu's suggestion regarding Eurotas being both a professional and public forum. However, I would define transpersonal psychology profession differently from how professional membership is usually defined, i.e. by credentials. First of all, credentials in psychology or medicine in different countries may mean different things. Then, there are people with backgrounds in art or science, who may have years of experience of work with others in transpersonal field, but have no credentials in psychology or medicine. So, it may be good to work on a definition of transpersonal professional membership.
Best wishes.
Olga Louchakova,
M.D., Ph.D.
Wilfried Belschner writes Thanks for your initiative in the field of research. I agree with you that we need right now this emphasis on gathering the resources that have already been developed for transpersonal research. And I agree with you that we could summarize and present the results of this collaboration soon, for instance in the TRANSPERSONAL RESEARCH NEWSLETTER and afterwards at the London Conference. I would greatly appreciate if you would write a proposal to start this process and project of collecting research tools, research methodologies etc. The board of Eurotas would authorize this project and we could spread this letter for the inquiry by our national organisations. Best wishes, Ovidiu has agreed to develop a proposal and those interested should contact him soon.
3. News from Lithuania This is a lovely letter from Egle and Arturas in Lithuania and I have left it virtually as it was written. You will remember that they drove the length of Europe to be with us at Sinaia and how welcome they were. Talking about Ovidiu's suggestion regarding EUROTAS being both a professional and public forum. However, according to our individual experience of discovering and practising the transpersonal, we doubt if we could come to today’s ground, following the professional psychology or the medicine way. That’s why we’d like to support Ovidiu Brazdau’s suggestion of deep research work (as the vertical line) expanded with: Tanna’s educational aspect: “We start from ourselves and learn with others” (as the horizontal line); Olga’s definition of the transpersonal psychology profession: “First of all, credentials in psychology or medicine in different countries may mean different things. Then, there are people with backgrounds in art or science, who may have years of experience of work with others in the transpersonal field, but have no credentials in psychology or medicine. So, it may be good to work on a definition of transpersonal professional membership”; Our strong belief is in the science-culture synthesis, trying to transcend constrictive conceptual dominants. This is very subtle intrigue for transpersonal science: the vanishing-line of science, transcendence and Love, not only methodology and gnosis. As history of “consumerism” shows: research is easier to do than to make it work as it was meant to be. Only then we could create and harmonize the “vertical-horizontal” model.
Some short notes about Lithuania and the transpersonal: o We use some expertise resume made by humanistic psychiatry professionals on National TV: Lithuania as a young post-soviet country lives between two powerful forces: there is still big old Soviet “pre- Freudian” educated psychiatry and western neo-biological Psychiatry influence with pharmaceutical dominant, especially ignoring deep consciousness oriented transformative psychotherapy”. o These active people try to inspire a wider “self-education movement” in the cultural renewal process at national level after 15 years of independence, because the way to real freedom, as you know, needs much more initiative than the way of becoming “homo oeconomicus “from “homo sovieticus “. A large part of society is still passive. o We are still moving on our own initiative, in the atmosphere of strange silence from academic professionals’ side, after they had been informed about the Romanian Conference.
Here is a short description of our organization and plans: o As a result of the Sinaia conference, enjoying Vladimir Marko’s Assistance, we have founded an Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Lithuania and started completing a good will team and creating a draft for the Lithuanian Transpersonal Project. o Our focus points in our TP activity:
1. Transpersonal education spreading according to our public 2. Situation; 3. This methodology Lithuania needs most of all for the time being: short information - fast cooperation - effective integration.
4. Practical methodological work when integrating a rich old ethno-cultural heritage material into everyday life; 5. Exchanging between similar socio-cultural context Baltic Sea Countries transpersonal education experience;
o We hope to find possibility to show Lithuanian Transpersonal Project progress at the sixteenth International Transpersonal Conference in California and to come to the Conference in London in 2004 where Lithuanian TPI will apply to join EUROTAS (or maybe sooner, is it possible?); o As you know from the EUROTAS Conference hold in Romania we wanted to become a member of this growing family all over Europe;
EUROTAS found useful to suggest us becoming a Coordination Centre for all three Middle Europe-Baltic countries-Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. It’s a lot of “contact work” to do among all interested sides; we will continue work in this direction o We are planning a possibility to organize a EUROTAS Conference in Lithuania in 2005, establishing the Baltic States Transpersonal Association. The brief description of how we see the EUROTAS and other Associations colleagues help in our activities. o We would like to be in contact with Organizations, Centres and Associations involving into the worldwide network; o To receive the consultation service and advice in choosing, assessing, compiling basic programs for the Lithuanian TPI; o To complete European certification in TP, possibly accredit our credentials, introspective bio events, description of ourselves as life learners, according to the information, listed below. Our short bio and credentials resume: o We are a family: Egle (b.1965), Arturas (b.1965) and three children. o We didn’t come to transpersonal by “professional way”. (Egle got BA in English, Arturas - MSc in biology). We have been life learners for 20 years now; o Our “discovering of transpersonal”: a few spontaneous moments (“peak experience”, near death exp. in a car accident, telepathy exp), inner conflict with old traditional biology paradigm; “searching of Self” through spiritual crisis moments; three own children home births without medical personnel assistance after “water birth” preparations at Spiritual Midwifery courses (in Russia) were we got acquainted with “rebirthing” and HB; interest in Rudolf Steiner and Eastern philosophy and meditation, had a few retreats on Dzogchen teaching with Namkai Norbu Rinpoche. o We had our activity in transpersonal paradigm, especially in self- and community transformations education through parenthood and natural childbirth courses based on M.Odent, S.Ray, F.Leboyer, Ch.Griskom and I.Charkovsky ideas and practice. We participated at European Conference “For Free Childbirth” in Toulouse (France) in 1993. o Talking about our Holotropic Breathwork practice in Moscow, St.Peterburg and Lithuania with Vladimir Maikov (Russian TPA), we completed: Egle o Three 2-days seminars; o 6-days seminar in St.Peterburg with S.Grof and GTT staff in 2001; Arturas o Four 2-days seminars (two as facilitator); o Three 6-days seminars; o 6-days in St.Petersburg with S.Grof and GTT staff in 2001; o One-year academic postgraduate course of Transpersonal Psychology program (630 hours) at Moscow Technology Academy Psychology Faculty. o Also we participated at conference with Stan and Cristina Grof in Moscow in 2001, at conference of Russian Transpersonal Psychology and Psychotherapy Association in 2003 and at the EUROTAS Conference hold in Romania in 2003. o Now we both have started doing M.A. in Educology with integration of transpersonal perspective into adult education, making closer collaboration possibility with Vytautas Magnus University, Education Studies Centre, Lithuanian Adult Education Association, National Association of Folk High Schools and individuals of different professions with transpersonal interest; 12-14 December we’ll have a seminar with V.Maikov. We would like to ask about a possibility of who and when from EUROTAS team could put into their schedule a trip to Lithuania as we talked with Pia, Rumold and Kati. P.S. The information you think is suitable for Newsletter could you please decide on your own. Warmly, Egle and Arturas to all Sinaia meeting Friends Egle Bujauskiene,
Project Assistant
4. A note from Frank Visser from the Netherlands Amsterdam, November 15 2003 Hi Eurotas friends of Ken Wilber. Mark Edwards, a frequent contributor to the Reading Room of the "World of Ken Wilber" website, wrote a 50 page, 2-volume essay on the integral theory of states of consciousness and their relation to spirituality. Wilber's recent statements on this topic on the Kosmic Consciousness CDs urged him to propose an alternative view. AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW ON STATESHe has noted a tension in the integral view between seeing the universal human dream and deep sleep states as proof that everybody has "access" to the transpersonal (subtle and causal) dimension, and the older, more exclusivist view that holds the transpersonal to be a rare experience, attained by only a few so far. "This essay begins with four quotes from Ken's writings on infant spirituality. All of the quotes concern the relationship of infants to the experience of transpersonal spirituality. Two of them assert that infants have "authentic" access to those realms and two of them assert that they don't. In the following I simply try to work out which two are valid and which two aren't. If all four of them are correct then the current integral theory of states is in need of some very serious house cleaning." In the second part of his essay, Edwards summarizes the current research findings on sleep and dreaming, and argues the recent integral view is at variance with this research. As always, Edwards writes in the spirit of increasing the coherency of the integral viewpoint: "There is much that I do not agree with in Wilber's theory of states simply because it does not conform to some core Integral theory principles. And, as usual, I offer these criticisms in the spirit of trying to improve the internal consistency of the model. None of this will detract one jot from the profundity of the poetic and instructional aspects of his writings on states, but then words could never get in the way of communicating That in any event." Available now in the Reading Room, and as always, through the Latest Additions page! Frank -- xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Frank Visser, Waterpoortweg
279, 1051 PV A'dam, Netherlands xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
5. News from Portugal How are all you friends since our Sinaia Conference? All the Alubrat (portuguese transpersonal association) board, especially Prof. Mário Simões and Prof. Vitor Rodrigues, send you our best compliments. We wish to have the email lists of some of the participants (I am arranging this shortly – JD) Our best, personal and transpersonal, compliments. We hope to see you at the next Eurotas meeting in London.
Mário Resende
6. The Ian Gordon Brown Commemorative Lecture The first Ian Gordon Brown Commemorative lecture will be given by Professor David Fontana at 5.00 pm on Thursday 19 August during the London EUROTAS Conference. It will be ten years almost to the day since Ian ran the Third EUROTAS Conference at the same venue in Regent’s Park. Many of you will remember it well and we hope that you will come to the Lecture even if you cannot come to the conference to honour him and his contribution to the transpersonal movement in Europe. More details later 7. News of new books written by speakers at the London Conference. Jorge Ferrer and David Lorimer David Lorimer and Jorge Ferrer will be speakers at the EUROTAS London conference next August. David will talk on “Citizenship and Consciousness” and Jorge on “Participatory Spirituality and the Future of Religion” David will also give a workshop on: “Inward Bound – the work-life balance.” The title of Jorge’s workshop will be: “Embodied spirituality; A Participatory Approach." Jorge book is called: Revisioning Transpersonal Theory, by Jorge N Ferrer, SUNY Press 2002, 273 pp., $20.95 p/b ISBN 0 7914 5168 2 David Lorimer writes: “Some of you may recall seeing the foreword by Richard Tarnas in last December's Network Review (it is still available on the Eurotas.org website). This book is every bit as important as Rick claims, and is the most significant book I have read for at least five if not ten years! Subtitled 'A Participatory Vision of Human Spirituality', the first part is a deconstruction of existing assumptions in transpersonal psychology connected with the perennial philosophy, while the second advances a new participatory vision. I found my views radically challenged by the book, which is making me completely rethink my understanding of experience as 'inner empiricism', the separation between epistemology and ontology, circular reasoning in perennial philosophy, the subject-object divide presupposed by Cartesianism (and not reflected in transpersonal experience). More specifically, Ken Wilber's approach is challenged on a number of grounds and the transpersonal field is situated within developments connected with the philosophy of mysticism (e.g. the tension between contextualism and universalism). The author teaches at CIIS and, although he wrote the book at the age of only 34, seems to have read everything in the field! There are 30 pages of references and over 30 pages of detailed footnotes. David Lorimer’s new book is called: “Radical Prince –the practical vision of the Prince of Wales.” The Prince of Wales is a thinker with a holistic approach and this book illuminates the range, depth and consistency of his thought and vision in the areas of ecology, organic agriculture, holistic health, religion, architecture and education. This excellently written readable book shows, often in his own words how the Prince’s ideas are linked by an underlying spiritual and ecological philosophy. The book has had considerable success as the first serious and very readable attempt to put over the Prince’s views to a wider audience. Radical Prince by David Lorimer. Floris Books 2003 427pages £20 ISBN 0-86315-431-X.
8. A note from Chris Hall about the website The Eurotas website continues to grow and receive more attention from all corners of the world. The website has been instrumental in linking our organizations with related associations in North and South America and in the Far East. While the information contained on the website serves as a useful promotional and reference tool for all Eurotas members to spread their messages to the online community, it would be a good time for all members to review their individual sections on the EUROTAS site to ensure a timely and relevant presence is maintained Please continue to keep your contributions, stories and pictures flowing to webmaster@Eurotas.org. Over the next few weeks you will see considerable changes to the site as we add a discussion board and a members only section where Eurotas members will be able to post non public information. We look forward to your continued participation. Best wishes, Chris Hall
9. Stillness at the end of the Year Greetings to you at the end of this year and my thoughts and best wishes to you for your new projects and visions. You come from many different countries, cultures and occupations, but there is a uniting vision that many of us share. May I leave you with the following which I have sent you before, but which I should really write on all the mirrors in my house! Living and Partly living - the information society. We had the experience but missed the meaning.
"The endless cycle of idea and action, — TS Eliot Choruses from "The Rock" 1934, Ist Stanza
Love John
John Drew, Newsletter
Editor
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