Introducing transpersonal phenomenology: The direct experience of a sudden awakening

Abstract

This paper introduces a transpersonal approach to conducting phenomenological research with the emphasis on illuminating a first person account of a sudden awakening. Although within Eastern cultures awakening is typically understood as the purposeful undertaking of spiritual or religious practices toward transcending the ego, liberating the self, contacting the divine, or becoming consciousness itself, the unsuspecting Westerner who suddenly finds himself or herself without a self may not have the reference to ground such a radical shift in identity. This was the case for the first author in this study. Through our transpersonal inquiry (i.e, dwelling and beholding, noetic reduction, noumenal parsing, and recognition) we were led to understand that a sudden awakening can involve psychological upheaval, terror, mental collapse, a search for balance and integration, and an understanding of how to trust existence in the absence of a permanent self-orientation.