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Jorge N. Ferrer

Participation and the Mystery: Transpersonal Essays in Psychology, Education, and Religion Hardcover – May 1, 2017

by Jorge N. Ferrer (Author)

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A groundbreaking and hopeful new look at contemporary spirituality, transpersonal psychology, integral education, and religious diversity and pluralism.

Print length

386 pages
Language

English
Publisher

SUNY Press
Publication date

May 1, 2017
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

1438464878
ISBN-13

978-1438464879
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Ferrer’s new book is no doubt a critically important read for all students engaged in transpersonal and integral learning and research … [and] an epoch-making resource to introduce/re-introduce his pioneering participatory vision for all those who wish to deepen their understanding of the diversity of metaphysical, ontological, and epistemological implications of his work.” ― Journal of Transpersonal Psychology

“The book is clearly written and quite accessible.” ― CHOICE

“…these brilliant new essays are required reading for anyone seriously interested in spirituality, psychology, religion, mysticism, philosophy of science and education … the volume is highly stimulating and thought-provoking in articulating a participatory perspective across a number of disciplines and challenging us to become more integral, embodied and responsible.” ― Paradigm Explorer

“…a fine book, serving as a compelling addition to Jorge Ferrer’s distinctive approach to transpersonal psychology. For those who are unfamiliar with the field, this volume might well serve as an initiation to further reading. For those conversant with transpersonalism, there is a rich and wide-ranging engagement here with relevant fields of research, and Ferrer advances and elucidates his previous work in a number of new and valuable ways.” ― Reading Religion

“The range of ideas expressed in this compelling series of papers is extensive.” ― Journal of Analytical Psychology

“In Participation and the Mystery, we are given the opportunity to dive into the engaging, provocative, and stunningly erudite thought of Jorge N. Ferrer, arguably one of the premier transpersonal theorists of our time. Building on the key essays written after the publication of his seminal work, Revisioning Transpersonal Theory, Ferrer shows us how his compelling and extremely fertile participatory model can be applied, with intriguing and rewarding results, to multiple, highly distinct fields of discourse. Read this book if you want your worldview to be both challenged and enriched.” ― G. William Barnard, author of Living Consciousness: The Metaphysical Vision of Henri Bergson

“Ferrer is a leading figure in transpersonal psychology. His participatory perspective explains both the deep commonalities and the creative diversity of spiritual traditions. It provides a way to understand the general phenomenon of spirituality without falling prey to ideological dogmatism or the tendency to privilege one’s own spiritual tradition or practice over others. Ferrer’s work deserves to be widely read.” ― Michael Washburn, author of Transpersonal Psychology in Psychoanalytic Perspective

“This is an important collection of essays from one of the leading contemporary thinkers in transpersonal studies. Ferrer’s participatory approach represents the most significant development in transpersonal theory and practice to have emerged this century, and this book is the ideal introduction to Ferrer’s work. It will become required reading for all students of transpersonal psychology, as well as for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of transformational practice, transpersonal education, spirituality, and religion.” ― Michael Daniels, author of Shadow, Self, Spirit: Essays in Transpersonal Psychology

“Rich and thought-provoking, this book ranges widely through Ferrer’s reflections on the participatory worldview in relation to psychology, education, and religion.” ― Andrew O. Fort, Texas Christian University

About the Author

Jorge N. Ferrer is Professor of East-West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is the author of Revisioning Transpersonal Theory: A Participatory Vision of Human Spirituality and the coeditor, with Jacob H. Sherman, of The Participatory Turn: Spirituality, Mysticism, Religious Studies, both also published by SUNY Press.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ SUNY Press (May 1, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 386 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1438464878
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1438464879
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #5,521,771 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #605 in Transpersonal Psychology (Books)
- #1,868 in Psychology & Religion

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Jorge N. Ferrer

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Jorge N. Ferrer, PhD, was born in Barcelona, Spain. After studying Clinical Psychology at the University of Barcelona and the University of Wales, College of Cardiff (U.K.), he travelled to the USA to obtain his Ph.D. degree under the auspices of the prestigious 'la Caixa" Foundation Fellowship Program (Catalonia, Spain). He was professor of psychology for more than 20 years at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), San Francisco, where he also served as chair of the Department of East-West Psychology. He is the author of LOVE AND FREEDOM: TRANSCENDING MONOGAMY AND POLYAMORY (Rowman & Littefield, 2021), REVISIONING TRANSPERSONAL THEORY: A PARTICIPATORY VISION OF HUMAN SPIRITUALITY (SUNY Press, 2002), and PARTICIPATION AND THE MYSTERY: TRANSPERSONAL ESSAYS IN PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATION, AND RELIGION (SUNY PRESS, 2017), as well as coeditor of THE PARTICIPATORY TURN: SPIRITUALITY, MYSTICISM, RELIGIOUS STUDIES (SUNY Press, 2008). His work on alternative intimate relationships has been featured in journals such as Sexuality and Culture and Psychology and Sexuality. In his international private practice, Jorge offers professional counseling to individual and couples focused on the management of jealousy, infidelities, sexual incompatibilities, open relationships, and the design of more satisfying intimate relationships. He was selected to become an advisor to the organization Religions for Peace at the United Nations. Learn more at www.jorgenferrer.com.

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8 global ratings

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Mike Lee

An important read for Transpersonal thinkers

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 10, 2023

Verified Purchase

This book is a grand summary of Ferrer’s Participatory Spirituality and Transpersonalism. A valiant response to the neo-perrenialism dominating much of the transpersonal literature. A worthy read for serious students of transpersonal thinking.

Helpful

Boris Sanchez

Incongruent, problematic practices, lack of ground

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 14, 2021

Verified Purchase

I reviewed the book for a class at a school where the writer worked, and I also met the writer when he was promoting the books. Unfortunately, I do not recommend his book or any of the others he's written. Please read on

He sponsored and coordinated the practices he describes in the book, and a group he follows from Spain. As a Latinx student in the US who's also gay, I found it to be very problematic over the course of time and afterward. He organize these groups for the practices/approaches and teachers of his, he describes in the book. The practices compromise overall well-being and physical health and further isolated me socially in damaging ways. The people he sponsored from northern Spain and their so-called approach were described as “integral” and as one of the few methods that existed worldwide, and they would at the same demean traditional medicine. He described the approach as more effective than most approaches and even cured cancer. The problem was that it was extremely confusing what they were doing and wouldn’t even define a problem per se, but instead, the approach was more about doing their practices without questioning. That dynamic was problematic because what they do is very hands-on, and sexually explicit even for California standards, and they don't ask for written consent before engaging their hands-on, which usually came after their long practices with music.

During the time I attended those groups, I found the so-called practices they did to be extremely intrusive especially as a Latinx student. For one, I was enrolled in a program to do counseling work in California, and the teachers were presenting themselves as therapists while also being teachers in the groups, and other times in different roles. But they weren’t licensed in California even didn't work as contemporary therapists in Spain and very often would contradict the work I was doing in social services and non-profit where I worked with regular licensed therapists and psychologists in nonprofit settings. Colleagues I worked with were usually seasoned therapists and well known in their fields who didn't have spiritual groups on the sides, writers, including sex therapists. In other words, it was with help from work overtime I started to realize how deceiving the practices and the groups were.

Over time the approaches the author promotes became extremely problematic because of their constant emphasis on their experiences and once you start attending the group they enact their sex and touch-based approaches though with an emphasis on “the body” and “the experience” which is based on their own viewpoints and philosophies. For instance, they’re extremely individualistic throughout the groups, and even when dealing with personal crises, they tell you very matter of fact that you have to do it all alone which is a stark contrast from what he writes. I have that documented in my effort to address it through the school that sponsored them. When I had relatives ill, the counselor JF just told me not to travel because what I was doing here is more important. Later on, I found myself in a state of emergency, and the counselor sponsored Marina then wrote a letter. By then it was too late and my regular provider put me on a medical leave. The counselor put down in a letter that I had a whole crisis and wrote down this lengthy report that not even my regular MD at my network liked. Furthermore, that counselor flat out told me to travel to Latin America after a personal emergency to do social work increasing my personal guilt about any events. The way they enacted what they call verbalizations was problematic because they wouldn't make rooms for explanations, questioning, etc because it was deemed "on the mind"

They too advertised themselves as all integral and best than most approaches and during the sessions I had with the people he sponsored (who weren’t licensed or trained as therapists in California or others had very different professions), the leader he sponsored repeatedly talked to me in ways that were disrespectful about the very difficult circumstances and my own culture of origin. For example, they used a different name than my own which came off from one of their sessions because they felt my real name "didn't embody the resonances of their work". It was over time that colleagues and others at work started to ask me any questions about the name that I started to realize it was inauthentic.

The gender/sexual orientation part aspect and how they address is was unprofessional. I came out in a supportive environment when I was in Colorado for Jorge's teacher to be so disrespectful to say I'll be bisexual by the time I was 45 and another time in a very ungrounded way say someone in her group was my soul mate. but it didn't feel right and the other person was clearly puzzled by that claim. The author also doesn't clarify the methods he sponsors are completely alternative. He tries to present them on par with contemporary methods even to Spanish-speaking audiences and that's problematic not only to mention they encourage to try out the practices on "the easiest people" I encourage everyone to do their research before engaging the practices and associates of his work. It turned out they were recreating the groups they had in Spain while also charging students fees for individual counseling. They needed to have organized themselves firsts, do other regular jobs like other therapists moving to the area do, instead of creating spiritual groups to promote their own ideas and earnings. Also with me personally as a Latinx student he never talked to me about professional interests. it was about their groups

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Elizabeth M. Teklinski, PhD

Jorge N. Ferrer's Participatory World View: A Deep and Ample Multidimensional Cosmos

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 27, 2017

Transpersonal theorist Jorge N. Ferrer has spent much of his career exploring the implications of a participatory world view to questions central to transpersonal psychology, integral education, and religious studies (e.g., comparative mysticism, religious pluralism, interreligious dialogue; see Ferrer, 2002, 2008; Ferrer & Sherman, 2008; Ferrer, Romero, & Albareda, 2005). Ferrer’s (2017) newest book, Participation and the Mystery: Transpersonal Essays in Psychology, Education, and Religion, invites scholars and practitioners alike from various disciplines to lend their ears and voices to thrust participatory thinking into the farther reaches of human inquiry—charting, in this reviewer’s assessment, an even more stunning turn for transpersonal psychology and related fields than the one arguably catalyzed by his seminal Revisioning Transpersonal Theory: A Participatory Vision of Human Spirituality (Ferrer, 2002).

To state it somewhat dramatically, Ferrer’s (2017) Participation and the Mystery could play a significant role in informing major paradigm changes to come through the “merging of pragmatic science and spiritual concerns” (Lahood, 2007, as cited in Ferrer, 2017, p. 23). In this context, Ferrer’s (2017) work is of utmost academic and psychospiritual importance, as it builds a synthesizing bridge toward uniting the naturalistic and supernaturalic shores separated perhaps by a nearly four-centuries-old Cartesian-Kantian divide. As Ferrer (2017) put it, the gulf of the “Kantian mentalist dualism of a merely phenomenal world and an always inaccessible noumenal reality” (p. 54) might be best overcome by a participatory approach that embraces “a more liberal or open naturalism—one that is receptive to both the ontological integrity of spiritual referents and the plausibility of subtle worlds or dimensions of reality” (p. 69).

In this reviewer’s opinion, Ferrer’s (2017) latest work represents the first of its kind to explore the uncharted waters of a “deep and ample multidimensional cosmos” (p. 211), one where consciousness is not confined to neither the brain nor the material or natural world. While Participation and the Mystery offers up more questions and possible new directions for participatory thinking than final answers, Ferrer’s new book is no doubt a critically important read for all students engaged in transpersonal and integral learning and research. It is well worth the effort for readers, particularly Ferrer’s final Postscript, where he sums up the most important conceptual changes in his work since the publication of Revisioning Transpersonal Theory (Ferrer, 2002).

Overall, Ferrer’s Participation and the Mystery represents, dare I say, an epoch-making resource to introduce/re-introduce his pioneering participatory vision for all those who wish to deepen their understanding of the diversity of metaphysical, ontological, and epistemological implications of his work. As Ferrer (2017) celebrated, “a participatory sensibility to spirituality and scholarship can and does manifest in a rich multiplicity of ways” (p. 1).

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Martin E. Schmidt

The Big Questions Explored at the Level of Scholarship

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 26, 2018

Several years ago I was overtaken by Philip Shepherd’s article, “Out of Our Heads,” which convincingly makes the case how civilization has erred since moving its center from the gut to the head. I was physically energized simply by reading Shepherd’s interview, and ever since have sought out books on embodiment. This came to mind when I read Ferrer’s book, the unusual scholarly work that I couldn’t put down, taking themes commented on by Shepherd and exploring them at the level of scholarship. The essays provide a full range of exploration – from the philosophical to implementation – of what a participatory approach to transpersonal psychology means. I had the feeling as I was reading the book that I perhaps have found my epistemological home: openness to the horizontal and vertical dimensions of life; balanced acceptance and critique of religious traditions; openness to mysticism, while asking to what degree are these experiences mediated by language and culture; the importance of actively co-creating the world in all its visible and invisible dimensions; and, most importantly, inclusion of all types of knowing, including bodily intelligence. I also appreciate how Ferrer critiques two other authors I am well-acquainted with, Ken Wilber and A.H. Almaas, which promises to move the conversation forward in the future.

7 people found this helpful

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Participation and the Mystery: Transpersonal Essays in Psychology, Education, and Religion Hardcover – May 1, 2017

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