Have you ever had an inexplicable experience that left you wondering what on earth was that? Something so bizarre it defied logic? But something you’ll never forget?

An experience that was more like a shift in consciousness, a sneak peek behind the material realm, or into a spiritual dimension?

Life is strange! And it’s full of wonder. And sometimes, we have experiences that, because modern science can’t explain it, we’re reluctant to share with other people. You know, those experiences we don’t share with our work colleagues in case they think we’re mad or crazy. And because no one talks about them, we think we’re the only ones.

Well, today, we’re going to explore these strange and unfathomable experiences and learn how we can use them to transform.

TRANSPERSONAL THEORY AND TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY

As a transpersonal psychologist, I’m fascinated with experiences that go beyond the usual. That’s the beauty of transpersonal psychology, a lesser-known branch of psychology that’s been around for over fifty years. The transpersonal perspective adopts a unique approach that isn’t based on the same foundations as modern science.

Transpersonal psychology doesn’t take matter to be primary in this world. It’s more interested in the mystery of consciousness. This means nothing in our experience of being human is off the table for discussion and exploration. Transpersonal psychology, like humanistic psychology, is interested in what we actually experience. Not what fits neatly into modern-day science theory.

So, what kind of experiences am I talking about here? Are you really in good company?

Like I said, nothing’s off the table, so let’s dive into the world of exceptional and transpersonal experiences.

TRANSPERSONAL EXPERIENCES

Transpersonal experiences are those experiences that transcend our everyday awareness and consciousness. Experiences that transcend the physical plane and our physical beingness. Experiences that connect us to something more fundamental within ourselves or connect us to other beings, times and places.

I’m talking mystical experiences, kundalini experiences, psychic phenomena, out-of-the-body experiences, alien encounters, near-death experiences, past-life memories, entity encounters, visionary, psychic healing, dream premonition, transcendence, flow state, divine intervention, nature entities and so much more. These experiences often involve altered states of consciousness that provide profound insights into our existence.

So, no, we don’t think you’re crazy. There’s no shame here.

There’s so much more to being human than modern science and culture allow for. Here, in the world of transpersonal psychology, you are at home!

As transpersonal psychologists, we’re comfortable with inexplicable experiences that defy science. We embrace the mysterious, the curious, and the totally bizarre. We know there is more to life than what today’s science can explain.

EXCEPTIONAL EXPERIENCES

In transpersonal psychology these experiences are sometimes called Exceptional Experiences (EEs) or Exceptional Human Experiences (EHEs). Paranormal psychologist Rhea White studied hundreds of reports of people’s stranger-than-fiction experiences. And while they’re difficult to study experimentally, they’re also difficult to deny when so many people report them. In the 1990s, Rhea White coined the term Exceptional Experiences to describe our experiences that, up until then, were thought of as more pathological or as mental health problems. Finally, a home for the weird and wonderful experiences and an open door to researching such experiences. She classified them into five types of experiences;

Psychic
Mystical
Encounter
Death related
Enhanced “normal”

Psychic Experiences

Psychic experiences are experiences relating to our psyche. Things like telepathy, pre-cognition, clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, and psychometry fit into this category. Psychic ability is always involved in these experiences. We all have this ability. It’s like our sixth sense. But most people have never developed it.

If you’re interested in developing this ability, I highly recommend Arthur Findlay College in England. I have been going to Arthur Findlay College for about twenty years, and it's one of my favourite places in the world. It’s where I developed my psychic abilities.

If you’ve ever thought of someone you haven’t seen in a while, moments before they sent you a message or rang, you probably were tapping into your psychic abilities. Because it’s an innate potential ability in all of us, psychic experiences often happen spontaneously.

Mystical Experiences

Rhea White’s classification of mystical-type experiences includes a wide variety of overlapping experiences;

Mystical experiences
Enlightening experiences
Non-dual experiences
Transcendent experiences
Awakening experiences
Religious experiences
Expansive awareness experiences
Oneness experiences
Divine presence experiences
Ego-death or ego-dissolution experiences

If you would like to understand more about the differences between these mystical-type experiences you can check out my spiritual experiences glossary.

It’s important to understand that the term mystical experience can point to Rhea White’s category of mystical-type experiences or to the more specific mystical experience which is a special type of altered state of consciousness that tends to have great spiritual significance for the experiencer. In research, a mystical experience is specifically defined as having five elements, and all five must be present for it to be explicitly classed as a mystical experience. They are unity and oneness, noetic, time and space transcendence, and ineffable. This is especially true within psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy when investigating psychedelic mystical experiences.

Encounter Experiences

Encounter experiences describe experiences where people encounter other entities or beings. For example, alien encounters, angel sightings, nature spirits, and ghost encounters. These experiences can be the hardest for people to share when they have them.

I’ll never forget a taxi driver in Miami telling me about his alien encounter. He felt safe sharing it, as I’d already opened the conversation to the weird and the wonderful. But he told me he’d only ever told his wife, and he had had this experience many years before.

Many people have encounter experiences when they do psychedelics for ritual, spiritual or healing purposes. For example, during Ayahuasca ceremonies, people often encounter Mother Ayahuasca and during DMT experiences, people often see what’s known as machine elves or hyperdimensional beings.

Death-related Experiences

These are experiences that involve death, the process of dying, or a sense of connection with the deceased. These experiences often prompt deep existential inquiry into the nature of life and death. For me, this is a fascinating category of extraordinary experiences. It includes things like near-death experiences (NDEs), deathbed visions, otherwise known as end-of-life experiences and after-death communication, also known as mediumship experiences.

Some people have developed their mediumship ability. It's an ability inherent in all people. We just haven’t explored or developed it. Again, if you’re interested in developing this ability, Arthur Findlay College should be your first port of call.

While NDEs can be pretty rare, mediumship experiences are quite common. Many people feel that they’ve had some sort of communication with their loved ones who’ve passed over to the other side.

Enhanced Normal Experiences

This category of exceptional experiences describes experiences that are so normal we don’t think anything of them. These experiences can extend our perception and understanding of everyday reality. Things like peak performance and flow state fall into this category. As does synchronicity and moments of exceptional clarity or creativity. These experiences might not happen every day, but they’re frequent enough to be more normal than some of the other categories of exceptional experiences.

I believe we can train our brain to have more of these experiences just as we can develop our psychic and mediumship abilities. And there is some science to back this up.

ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Many exceptional and transpersonal experiences involve altered states of consciousness. In Western society, we are very cognicentric, meaning we like to live in our cognitive brains, and our default network is very busy. That's the part of our brains that's responsible for our inner chat or monkey mind.

But when we have an exceptional or transpersonal experience something changes in our brain. Our default mode network tends to quiet down, we can lose track of time and even lose our egoic self. Our state of consciousness is altered in that moment. And if we're not used to being in altered states of consciousness, our experience can show us that there are other ways of being in the world and that can be scary.

TRANSPERSONAL EXPERIENCES CAN BE CHALLENGING

Exceptional and transpersonal experiences can be fascinating, exciting and wonderful, but they can also be scary, unnerving and confusing. They can challenge our understanding of reality and ourselves. They can make us feel isolated and lonely. We can even feel shame about our experience or embarrassment. Even when the experience itself is positive, it often brings up intense emotions that can be challenging to navigate. Often, it can be difficult to find information or support after an exceptional experience. So we try to ignore it or forget about it. But we have these experiences for a reason. Transpersonal psychologists help people to navigate these experiences and provide a safe space to explore them.

Transpersonal psychology and transpersonal psychotherapy focuses on understanding how we process, integrate, and grow from these transpersonal experiences. For fifty years, transpersonal psychologists have studied the complexities of living with such experiences, the crises they can cause, and the benefits they can offer for human evolution and growth.

EXCEPTIONAL EXPERIENCES AS A DEVELOPMENTAL PATH

We call these experiences exceptional, extraordinary and bizarre, but the truth is they’re just part of the human experience and everyday life. It’s what makes us human. And, I think they’re such an essential part of being a human being that they are not only part of a developmental path but that we can train our brains to have more of them.

For example. When we engage with spiritual practices like meditation, we change our brain and train our default mode network to be less active. This, in turn, opens the door for more flow-state experiences and more transcendent mystical-type experiences. I’d go as far as to say that a regular mindfulness meditation practice might heighten the likelihood of having any type of exceptional transpersonal experience.

At the same time, the more exceptional experiences we have, the more likely we are to have them. And if we engage with them and reflect on them, we can integrate them into who we are as people. A process of development. Rhea White suggested that integrating them makes them Exceptional Human Experiences.

EXCEPTIONAL HUMAN EXPERIENCES (EHEs)

We can have wild and wonderful experiences like elemental encounters, nature spirit encounters, premonitions, lucid dreams, past-life memories, oneness experiences, shifts in consciousness or paranormal activity, but if we stuff them down, deny them or feel shame about them, they’re of no use to us.

By embracing these experiences, engaging with them, and reflecting on them, we can evolve and develop as people. Research suggests by Rhea White and Susan Brown suggests that when we work with our transpersonal experiences or exceptional experiences, they can have many benefits.

On a personal level, paying more attention to our inexplicable experiences can expand our perspectives and consciousness, develop greater self-awareness, and foster personal growth and transformation.

On a social level, paying more attention can make us less judgemental and accepting and more empathic and understanding.

On a global level, by normalising these experiences, we could push the boundaries of modern science and raise the collective consciousness of humanity.

Rhea White believed that when we work with our exceptional and transpersonal experiences, they become Exceptional Human Experiences or EHEs, which means that we become more human. The process changes us in some positive way, and we evolve.

EXCEPTIONAL HUMAN EXPERIENCES PROCESS (EHE PROCESS)

In investigating hundreds of accounts of exceptional human experiences, Rhea White and Susanne Brown noticed a shared process of integration that seems to take place. This is referred to as the Exceptional Human Experience process and is marked by five stages;

The initiating event/experience
Search for reconciliation
Between two worlds
In the experiential paradigm
A new way of being in the world.

INTEGRATING EXCEPTIONAL EXPERIENCES AND TRANSPERSONAL EXPERIENCES

So, if you've ever had a transpersonal experience, I encourage you to embrace it, grow from it and evolve from it. These encounters can lead to profound personal insights and transformations. Our personal identity can change for the better.

By embracing my mystical experiences, I gained a unique perspective on the nature of reality and consciousness and human nature. I was able to see my egoic tendencies, my shadow self and my irrational behaviours. I'm by no means perfect, but I dread to think where my life would have gone had I not had my mystical experiences and embraced them. I am a better person for it.

Sometimes, the integration process can be really difficult. It often involves confronting and integrating difficult thoughts and emotions, a new sense of self and reality, and adjusting our lives accordingly. This can be isolating and confusing, not just for ourselves but for those around us. If your experience was really profound, it can be a bumpy ride.

After intense transpersonal experiences where people have gained profound insights and a deeper sense of self, some people have changed everything in their lives. From their career, walking away from relationships and moving to different locations. If you are one of these people, you're not alone. These experiences can have profound and irreversible effects on our personal identity.

TRANSPERSONAL EXPERIENCES ARE NORMAL

If you take anything away from this blog, I hope it’s that you’re a normal human being and your experience is normal. These experiences continue to be a significant part of the human experience and everyday life. While it may still be taboo, and you may not want to shout about your experience from the rooftops, having these experiences is all part of the human experience. And you are not alone.

Because this is my thing, I talk about it a lot. I’ve done several research studies into mystical-type experiences, and I help people integrate and understand their exceptional and transpersonal experiences. That means it’s front of mind, and I’m not afraid to talk about it openly as a profession. And whenever I do, someone is keen to share their experience, knowing I won’t think they’re crazy.

Over the years, I’ve realised just how common these experiences are. It’s science and cultural taboo that stops us from openly sharing them, but that doesn’t mean we’re not all having these extraordinary experiences.

Exploring Transpersonal Experiences and Transformative Realms