readers are likely to face by opening to a wider horizon of
“knowing” that couples a rigorous effort to bolster the validity of their
inquiry without reducing human experience to fit positivistic epistemologies.
Integrating their philosophical views, methodological expertise, examples from
current applications, and vision for the role of transpersonal inquiry in our
diverse, globalized, and ecologically challenged world, the authors invite an
inward turn in attitude toward research in the human sciences and humanities by
emphasizing the value of a multi-sensorial, praxis-oriented discovery that is
meditative, mindful, intuitive, imaginative, and embodied.
In the Preface to their book, Anderson
and Braud offer an in-depth consideration of the nature and value of inquiry
into human experience when researchers intentionally apply transformative
skills and practices that permit more expansive and inclusive insight and
target more than reason and analysis. The reader is reminded of or awakened to
the possibility that scientific inquiry can be personally transformative, not
only due to its findings, but inherently through research as a self-actualizing
experience, particularly through the direct impact on all who partake in it or
are exposed to its unfolding and/or final presentation (the scholar, research
participants, audience, colleagues, and others in the researcher’s social
milieu). In Anderson’s and Braud’s own words:
We are emphasizing individual and personal transformation.
We are suggesting that under certain conditions, planning, conducting,
participating in, or learning about, a research project can be accompanied by
increased self-awareness, enhanced psycho-spiritual growth and development, and
other personal changes of great consequence to the individuals involved . . . a
qualitative shift in one’s lifeview and/or worldview . . . one’s perspective,
understanding, attitudes, ways of knowing and doing, and way of being in the
world. It may be recognized by changes in one’s body, feelings and emotions,
ways of thinking, forms of expression, and relationships with others and with
the world. (Anderson & Braud, 2011, pp. xvi-xvii)
As noted earlier, the authors divide
their book into two main sections. Section 1, inclusive of the first three
chapters, is dedicated to the teaching via praxis of three transpersonal
methods (intuitive inquiry, integral inquiry, and organic inquiry). Each
chapter, respectively, weaves experiential exercises and practices to help the
reader gain intimate knowledge of the various structural aspects of the
presented method and provides useful skills that can serve as vehicles to
inform and guide the research process through all its phases with integrity and
depth.
Chapter 1 presents Intuitive Inquiry.
This method is hermeneutical in nature, with emphasis on the value of an
intuitive approach. The method carries the researcher through five iterative
cycles: a) clarifying a research topic via imaginal dialogue, b) identifying
one’s existing-understanding through engagement with the literature, c)
gathering data and descriptive findings, d) interpretation of findings and
transformation through the understanding of others, and e) integration of one’s
discovery with the existing literature. Intuitive inquiry invites the
researcher to honor his/her own voice, to be fully attuned to subtle nuances
and synchronicities of internal and external experiences, and to employ
imaginal and psychic processes, sensory/embodied awareness, empathic
identification, and knowing through our wounds as valid modes of understanding
the essence of human experience.
Chapter 2 presents Integral Inquiry. This
method aims to blend qualitative and quantitative modes of knowing in a manner
that values the unique contribution of integrated approaches toward a more
inclusive understanding of human experience. It values the multiple facets of
research topics: their historical and conceptual contexts; their process
oriented nature; and their outcomes and implications. This approach encourages
the researcher to be informed by multiple disciplines (conventional and
innovative—involving ordinary and nonordinary states of consciousness). It
allows the tailoring of a particular blend of methods to suit the study’s topic
and purpose (including linear/ analytical, as well as nonlinear/intuitive and
imaginative approaches). Integral inquiry emphasizes the importance of ensuring
that the research findings are accessible to a variety of audiences through
multiple styles of data presentation.
Chapter 3 presents Organic Inquiry. This
method is based on the gathering of rich narratives, often pertaining to
psycho-spiritual growth, where the researcher’s personal connection to the
topic is central to the study’s motivation, and where the researcher’s
identity, psyche, and subjective, unique ways of knowing facilitate the organic
evolution of the research process. In this approach to research, information
and transformation are inseparable, through the integration of thought,
sensations, feelings, and intuition. The researcher is encouraged to pay
attention to liminal and spiritual influences throughout the study. The method
employs a three-step process as part of a gradual unfolding, beginning with
preparation, through inspiration and, finally, integration—as a whole,
intending to inspire a transformative experience for the researcher,
participants, but more importantly for the readers or those exposed to the research
findings.
Section 2 (chapters 4-7) is highly
relevant to all fields of qualitative research in the human sciences and
humanities, as it presents skills (i.e., quietude and slowing; intentional,
attentive, and mindful observing of both conscious and unconscious processes;
sensorial and imaginal skills; play and creative expression; as well as
intuition, embodied awareness, and direct knowing), which can accompany various
research methods, not only the ones that originated through engagement with
transpersonal topics of inquiry. When
first reading this book and introducing it to students, I viewed Section 1 as
structured, compartmentalized, and somewhat separate from the more exploratory
and intricately threaded second section. With my intimate knowledge of the
methods and skills, as a past student of Rosemarie Anderson and the late
William Braud at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, I wondered why the
authors chose to open the book with a methodological section, rather than offer
it after they introduced the many skills that are integrated into these
methods.
But after a brief time of working with
the book and gaining further appreciation of its full arc (including the final
chapters on an expanded view of validity and the authors’ transformative vision
for research and scholarship), I realized that immersing in the methodological
conceptualizations and applications of transpersonal approaches to research in
Section 1 and understanding their rationale and thoughtful structure, indeed
set the stage for a more purposeful utilization of the practices in Section 2.
For this reason, when teaching a course named Integral Research Skills
(originally developed by Braud and Anderson and taught by various faculty over
the past decade at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology—now Sofia
University), where the second section of Transforming
Self and Others through Research serves as a main text, I ask students to
begin their reading with the introduction to Section 1 and their choice of one
of the three first chapters as a way to dive with their whole being into the
deep waters of transpersonal research methods. Only then, do they gradually
explore and exercise the transformative potential of what Braud and Anderson
called integral research skills, by considering their own research topics and
all phases of their envisioned study through the various lenses of multiple,
interwoven, and integrative ways of knowing.
Observing my own experience of working
with the integral skills, as well as witnessing their effect on others, I can
attest to the resultant transformation researchers undergo in their
relationships with inquiry topics, methods, designs, participants, data,
findings, and readers. When working with graduate students at Sofia University,
who are called to research human experiences of a vast and complex nature, yet
attempt to pursue them within the limited scope of a doctoral dissertation, I
noticed how rapidly they form an intimate connection with their topics, when
introduced to Anderson’s and Braud’s integral research skills and transpersonal
approaches to research, and how they access their questions in a vulnerable,
sensitive, and deeply insightful ways.
I have used the book with two cohorts
since its release in the Fall of 2011. The first group of students has since
went on to write their proposals and begin their dissertation studies. For the
purpose of this review, I inquired with two students from that cohort, who are
in different phases of their research, as to how their dissertation processes
benefitted from having been introduced to this book. One of them, who is
researching the meaning and significance of crisis as it leads to transcendence
in the evolution of an artist, continues to draw on the book’s philosophy and
applications a year after she was introduced to it. She wrote:
The use of integral, intuitive, and complementary methods
allows [my] process to remain loosely woven, to breathe and intermingle. The
transpersonal research methods and skills that Rosemarie Anderson and William
Braud offer enlist the tenets of wonder as question and answer simultaneously,
and still acknowledge that all perceptions have a certain degree of correctness
and incorrectness. . . . In order to present conclusive interpretation about
the evolutionary process of an artist, perceiving the artist as process (from
ego to crisis to transformation) I am reminded that the interpretation will
merely be my perception of the artist’s perceptions in hindsight. Containing
this process within theory and method dangerously risks derailing the creative
process, confining and imprisoning it in old interpretations, or perhaps
completely extinguishing the flame. There is danger of suffocating the breath
or the spirit from the inquiry, danger of robbing it of God. (D. Meyer, personal
communication, December 12, 2012)
Another student, who
is now in the process of data gathering for her dissertation on the
transformational aspects of postpartum depression, resonated with Braud’s
(2011) assertion that “finding recent ideas in these very early sources can
help foster an attitude of humility.
. . that certain ideas were present for others, even long ago, and that one is
often simply rediscovering what has gone before” (p. 95). She has written about
incorporating creative expression into her literature review process, to more
fully explore the importance of honoring the historical context of current
literature:
[In addition to comparing past and present literature], I
have worked with this by doing photo collages of women and their children from
different points in history. These collages serve to ground my intention, pique
my intuition, and externalize a sense of awe and gratitude for everyone touched
by my topic throughout time. . . . Anderson’s and Braud’s exercises on working
with imaginal, visual, and intuitive listening have been of significant help.
My topic is very difficult material. The interviews are not easy. And it is the
imagining of what I am intuiting that serves my wellbeing as a researcher, and
I believe serves the topic. Where words fail, images fulfill the essential
expressive need. (W. Karraa, personal communication, December 11, 2012)
Similarly, in the
most recent offering of the Integral Research Skills course, a student
described the flowing nature of considering her intention for a dissertation
topic when incorporating visualization into her contemplation. She reflected:
Intention is a powerful tool that Anderson and Braud (2011)
discuss in regard to investigating a research topic. I have always found the
process of setting intention to be a powerful motivator.
Although it may not be set as a goal per say, it is a
motivating force. I find that whenever I have set intentions in my life that I
begin to carry them around within a mental construct as well as emotionally. My
attention is drawn to it often even in moments when I’m not even fully aware. .
. . There seems to be a mix of great excitement, yearning, anticipation,
attention, and unknown all mixed in one. As I contemplate my research topic, I
find I am filled with the aforementioned emotions and thoughts. A great mix of
it all. I hold the intention to research the connection between the embodiment
practice of Hatha yoga, in particular, yoga therapy, in increasing and
deepening levels of mindfulness. In framing an intention for my topic, the
following words arise: awareness, body, yoga, movement, mindfulness, compassion
for self and others, embodiment, program, spirituality, oneness, stillness,
contemplation, space and sympathetic joy. I envision this as a spiral of different
colors swirling around. As I see it I can see that one color stands out more
than the next in some moments and others in other moments. I am sitting with
this as a lesson in not predicting outcome or goals right now but rather
staying in a “watching” phase. (A. Saffi Biasetti, personal communication,
September 20, 2012)
About a month into working with the text, she added:
I was used to research always being approached in one way
and it feels so freeing to think creatively with my topic. I feel it has
already opened up so many doors for me to explore. I am excited each week to
sit with the experientials waiting to see what unfolds (A. Saffi Biasetti,
personal communication, October 18, 2012).
A student, who expressed interest in
researching trauma and PTSD, shared the following response to one of the first
group of exercises of slowing down and quieting the mind to allow a research
question to authentically emerge with intentionality.
In exploring the exercises Intention, Quietude and Slowing,
Attention and Mindfulness in Anderson and Braud (2011), I found a new dimension
of thinking in terms of my intended research topic. . . . After deep, slowing
breaths, I turned my attention to mindfulness of the breath and found myself
drifting into thoughts. I felt tension and a closed sensation in my abdominal
Tan Den area, and my throat. I began to breathe into these chakras and tried to
allow for an expansion and spaciousness to develop. (S. Hutton-Metheney,
personal communication, September 28, 2012)
Detailed images (too many to mention in this review) emerged
in the course of this student’s meditation, which she subsequently made note of
and remarked: “After this meditation exercise, I felt deeply relaxed and calm.
The following [question] manifested in regard to my research topic: Can
applying mindfulness techniques help trauma and PTSD patients cope and recover
from their trauma?” (S. Hutton-Metheney, September 28, 2012). This student is
an experienced therapist and an adept meditator, who has obviously entered deep
trance states of consciousness many times before, and so she readily took to
harnessing these skills as beneficial to approaching her research topic in a
new way. For example, one of the images that arose in her initial meditation
was of children engaged in painting, which prompted her to consider the
possibility of focusing her PTSD topic on family dynamics and utilizing
creative expression as one of her vehicles for data gatherings. Following this
imaginal meditation, she wrote: “the narratives of family and relationships
within the scope of trauma could lead to deeper understanding of the effects of
trauma, perhaps the origin of trauma, and the healing of trauma individually,
systemically, and communally” (S. Hutton-Metheney, September 28, 2012). She
continued with framing the following intentions:
I intend that within the creation of my research project,
Trauma: Effects of Mindfulness and the Nature of Emptiness on PTSD, images,
thoughts, ideas, and fresh inspirations will arise effortlessly and naturally.
I will be able to articulate and communicate these images and ideas cohesively
and thoughtfully in order to add new information to the field of transpersonal
psychology and trauma therapy. This will lead to a deeper understanding of
mindfulness and trauma and will benefit the society and the whole planet for
the betterment of humanity. (S. Hutton-Metheney, September 28, 2012)
Interestingly, the
ease with which students engage with the integral skills in their daily lives
is not necessarily predictive of their comfort and ability to bring these
practices into a research project. Another student commented:
One of the biggest gifts of the course is that I am
witnessing how much difficulty I am having integrating traditional methodology
with more organic ways of knowing. I am also witnessing myself fearful of not
knowing. This is interesting for me to observe as in other realms of my life,
this does not seem to be a predominant issue. What I am also gaining from this
course is how we have the freedom and access to various ways of knowing (A.
Charest, personal communication, October 24, 2012).
A student, who is planning to research
the experience of psycho-spiritual wholeness during single motherhood wrote:
I feel so grateful that this beautiful language about
research is here to support us as we brave new territory as transpersonal
students and researchers. What would it have been like if I had this kind of
guidebook in earlier academic settings? . . . Autogenic Training and breath
work come very naturally to me as I have been engaged with these practices for
a very long time. . . . My biggest challenge will be to remember to incorporate
them while I’m working on my research! (T. Page, personal communication,
September 29, 2012)
Practice, however, is key to ground general affinity to this
approach to research in experiential knowing of its value. The same student
reflected on her embodied experience during a slowing and centering exercise in
the following comment:
I automatically slow down when I read this book. The
cadence in which it is written affects a somatic response and my breathing
slows. Also, I have to note, the finding a peaceful uncluttered space to “be”
was nothing short of amazing for me. For the very first time in my life I have
my own space, free of children, noise, clutter and distractions. I am filled
with gratitude before I even begin, my eyes are slightly teary. I’m sitting in
my new home, a beautiful old Victorian, in the living room, next to a bay
window where I hear the birds outside and my heart is bursting with love for
this moment. There is truly space for me, just me, and my soul becomes
expansive and quiet. (T. Page, personal communication, September 29, 2012).
She went on to link this awareness of self with her
relationship to her future study’s participants:
Once my eyes closed, my focus flowed to my heart. It seems
this coming year is going to be all about my heart. . . . When in doubt, go
back to my heart. After all - that is what got me through and that is what
drives me in my research now. The love I have in my heart for single mothers
doing the good work, raising the next generation, is all about love. (T. Page,
personal communication, September 29, 2012).
Transforming
Self and Others through Research is grounded in a global worldview, with
awareness of and recognition for the mutual, reciprocal, and collective nature
of our human existence and the relevance of this paradigm to our present and
future approaches to research. In their last chapter, A Transformative Vision
for Research and Scholarship, Anderson and Braud call on researchers to
consider the urgent need for positive individual, communal, and worldwide
transformation. They convey that in order to promote such change through
scholarly inquiry, researchers must begin with more inclusive approaches to
inquiry—honoring cross-cultural wisdom psychologies, with reverence for humans’
interdependence on one another and the natural world, and respect for
authenticity and diversity in all species.
Anderson and Braud suggest, and I agree,
that Transforming Self and Others Through
Research can be included as a whole text or select chapters in advanced
undergraduate and graduate research courses, particularly in disciplines such
as psychology, counseling, education, and various allied health professions.
The book also engages seasoned researchers in the above fields, who are open to
acknowledge the shortcomings of conventional research methods, namely the
attempt to claim objectivity by employing various controls in the studies’
design, researchers’ involvement, and participants’ contribution. I believe
that it should be a required text for research students and a must-read for all
researchers in fields such as transpersonal studies, humanistic psychology,
spiritual direction, religious studies, the arts, creative-expression
therapies, and transformative education, since these disciplines call for
approaches to research that recognize the subjective and inter-subjective
nature of human experience and expression, and the individually constructed
meaning that accompanies attempts to inquire about them.
What I value most about this book is that
the authors do not ask their readers to take their word for the value of this
more expansive attitude toward ways of knowing; they wisely remark that not all
approaches will suit all researchers and that some research topics might call for
alternative means of understanding more than others. Most importantly, they
provide a myriad of examples to illustrate their approaches, and detailed
exercises to explore and choose from—each carefully crafted to hone various
skills, such as awareness, attention, and intentionality—activating intuitive,
imaginative, embodied, and creative ways of knowing through all phases of the
study. These skills and practices are commonly associated with personal and
psychospiritual development, person-centered therapies, and education, but they
have significant influence on the process and outcome of inquiry, when applied
in conjunction with established qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods,
or as integral to the transpersonal research methods described in the book. In
this manner, Anderson and Braud provide a roadmap for researchers to connect
with their topics, participants, and research audiences through processes that
lead to a deeply felt and personally meaningful understanding of human
experience.
I close this review by referring to
Anderson’s and Braud’s message, with a heartfelt recommendation of this book to
all who seek a pathway to engage in conscious, healing and harmonizing inquiry:
be it through interdisciplinary collaborations, integration of spiritual and
indigenous insights, methodological pluralism, or the simple but profound
appreciation of the transformative qualities embedded in the researcher’s
passion to inquire and be of service, transform awareness, and influence change
toward health and well-being, peace and harmony, compassion and kindness,
integrity and truthfulness.
References
Anderson, R., &
Braud, W. (2011). Transforming self and
others through research: Transpersonal research methods and skills for the
human sciences and humanities. Albany, NY: State University of New York
Press.
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