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Transcendent Experience



Transcendent experiences are moments when we “transcend ourselves” or lose our sense of self in a feeling of oneness with the universe, the Divine, or other form of greater consciousness. These are often described in a similar way to religious experiences, but approached or considered outside of a traditional religious framework. Transcendent experiences can occur with or without the aid of chemicals (such as psychedelics) or physical rituals such as trances or chanting. Some people experience them out of the blue or when struck by a particular awe-inspiring moment in nature.

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Andrew Harvey at Shantivanam Ashram in Tamil Nadu, South India

In this video, taken at Shantivanam Ashram in Tamil Nadu, South India, Andrew talks about his awakening experiences and tells us the answer to his burning question, "what is awakening for, in this time".

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The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit

In The Biology of Transcendence Joseph Chilton Pearce examines the current biological understanding of our neural organization to address how we can go beyond the limitations and constraints of our current capacities of body and mind--how we can transcend.

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Dissolving the Ego

You don’t need drugs or a church for an ecstatic experience that helps transcend the self and connect to something bigger

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FindCenterMake peace with silence, and remind yourself that it is in this space that you’ll come to remember your spirit. When you’re able to transcend an aversion to silence, you’ll also transcend many other miseries. And it is in this silence that the remembrance of God will be activated.

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18:17

Jonathan Haidt: Religion, Evolution, and the Ecstasy of Self-Transcendence

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt asks a simple, but difficult question: why do we search for self-transcendence? Why do we attempt to lose ourselves? In a tour through the science of evolution by group selection, he proposes a provocative answer.

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Exploring The Crack in the Cosmic Egg: Split Minds and Meta-Realities

In this classic follow-up to his bestselling The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, Joseph Chilton Pearce explains the process of acculturation and the mechanisms that create our self-limiting “cosmic egg” of consensus reality.

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William James on Consciousness and the Four Features of Transcendent Experiences

Our normal waking consciousness . . . is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.

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FindCenterThus, the direction of evolution is toward the maximization of goodness, especially if we maintain that the incarnation is the goal of evolution. If Jesus Christ is truly creator (as divine Word) and redeemer (as Word Incarnate) then what is created out of love is ultimately redeemed by love.

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Psychedelic Therapy Needs to Confront the Mystical

Many people have a spiritual experience on psychedelics. How they make meaning of it could be influenced by the metaphysical beliefs of their therapists.

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Maslow’s Forgotten Pinnacle: Self-Transcendence

Abraham Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs is depicted as a triangle with self-actualization at the very top. Right before his death, Maslow wanted to add another to the hierarchy: Self-transcendence.

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Religious Experience