Jorge Ferrer, PhD, is former chair of the department of east-west psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is currently a core faculty member there. He is author of Revisioning Transpersonal Theory: A Participatory Vision of Human Spirituality, and Participation and the Mystery: Transpersonal Essays in Psychology, Education, and Religion. He is the coeditor of an anthology titled, The Participatory Turn: Spirituality, Mysticism, and Religious Studies. He is known as a leading proponent of the “second wave” of transpersonal theorists.

Here he notes that many people have reported contacts with spiritual entities of both a positive and negative nature. He describes several of his own experiences. He also acknowledges the difficulty in determining if these experiences involve autonomous entities, independent of his own consciousness. He advocates a post-colonial research approach in which scientists will work together as equals with indigenous shamans and other experiencers.

(Recorded on September 21, 2018)

Published on October 22, 2018