The transpersonal is a term used by different schools of philosophy and psychology in order to describe experiences and worldviews that extend beyond the personal level of the psyche, and beyond mundane worldly events.
The transpersonal has been defined as experiences in which the sense of identity or self extends beyond (trans) the individual or personal to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life, psyche or cosmos.
[1] In the Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology, Scotton[2] defined the term as "development beyond conventional, personal or individual levels."
[6][7] However, this early terminology, introduced by James, had a different meaning than the current one[7] and its context was philosophy, not psychology,[6] which is where the term is mostly used these days.
[6][8] However, the etymology, as it is currently used in academic writing, is mostly associated with the human potential movement of the 1960s and the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology; Anthony Sutich, Abraham Maslow and Stanislav Grof.
In addition to Maslow, Vich and Grof the movement was associated with the names of Ken Wilber, Frances Vaughan, Roger Walsh and Seymoor Boorstein.
Several of the academic profiles of the early transpersonal movement, such as Abraham Maslow and Anthony Sutich, had their background in humanistic psychology.
Other academic orientations, whose main focus lies elsewhere, but that are associated with a transpersonal perspective, include humanistic psychology and near-death studies.
[19][20] This expansion of the transpersonal concept resulted in an interdisciplinary situation, and a dialogue with such fields as social work, ecology, art, literature, acting, law, business, entrepreneurship, ecopsychology, feminism and education.