The transpersonal vision

What are the limits of religious emotion, of the capabilities of human consciousness, even of aesthetic perception? How often do we impose limits on ourselves? What are saints and sages but humans pushing the limits of certain potentials of service and wisdom? Transpersonal psychology interests me very much because of its concern with certain "outer" limits of human experience. One of the founders of the transpersonal movement, Anthony Sutich, summarizes the field in the first issue of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, from the spring of 1969:

TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY is the title given to an emerging force in the psychology field by a group of psychologists and professional men and women from other fields who are interested in those ultimate human capacities and potentialities that have no systematic place in positivistic or behavioristic theory (“first force”), classical psychoanalytic theory (“second force”), or humanistic psychology (“third force”). The emerging Transpersonal Psychology (“fourth force”) is concerned specifically with the empirical, scientific study of, and responsible implementation of the findings relevant to, becoming, individual and species-wide meta-needs, ultimate values, unitive consciousness, peak experiences, B-values, ecstasy, mystical experience, awe, being, self-actualization, essence, bliss, wonder, ultimate meaning, transcendence of the self, spirit, oneness, cosmic awareness, individual and species-wide synergy, maximal interpersonal encounter, sacralization of everyday life, transcendental phenomena, cosmic self-humor and playfulness, maximal sensory awareness, responsiveness and expression, and related concepts, experiences, and activities. As a definition, this formulation is to be understood as subject to optional individual or group interpretations, either wholly or in part, with regard to the acceptance of its content ans essentially naturalistic, theistic, supernaturalistic, or any other designated classification.