What is transpersonal psychology? A concise definition based on 20 years of research.

Abstract

Research on definitions of the field of psychology and themes in the literature of the field over a period of 20 years inform this description: Transpersonal psychology is a transformative psychology of the whole person embedded within a diverse, interconnected, and evolving world that pays particular attention to states of consciousness and developmental models reflecting expansion beyond conventional notions of self. Each element of this definition is examined, as well as the four phases of definitional development within the field from its founding in 1968 up to the present.

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International Journal of Transpersonal Studies International Journal of Transpersonal Studies
Volume 41 Issue 1 Article 4
2022
There's a Duwende on my Shelf: The Parapsychological Studies of There's a Duwende on my Shelf: The Parapsychological Studies of
Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao, SJ Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao, SJ
Carl Lorenz Cervantes
Colegio de San Juan de Letrán, Manila City, Philippines
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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation
Cervantes, C. L. (2022). There's a Duwende on my shelf: The parapsychological studies of Fr. Jaime C.
Bulatao, SJ.
International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 41
(1). https://doi.org/10.24972/
ijts.2022.41.1.1
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There's a Duwende on my Shelf: The Parapsychological Studies of Fr. Jaime C. There's a Duwende on my Shelf: The Parapsychological Studies of Fr. Jaime C.
Bulatao, SJ Bulatao, SJ
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International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 1
Parapsychological Studies of Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao
There's a Duwende on my Shelf:
The Parapsychological Studies of Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao, SJ
International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 41(1), 1–4
In the Philippines, paranormal experiences
are interpreted spiritually (Bulatao, 1980).
Documented cases of paranormal events imply
that the brain is simply a receiver of a larger,
shared consciousness, similar to how television
sets receive television signals (Beauregard et al.,
2018). The Filipino worldview understands this
intuitively; Filipinos recognize that the material and
spiritual intermingle (Bulatao, 1980; Demetrio, 1991;
Mercado, 1994). There is no distinction between the
physical and the world at large. Thus, the Filipino
projects onto the world various “spirits”, the names
of which align with folk stories of non-human
entities. Therefore, in order to better understand the
Filipino psyche, one must be knowledgeable about
the local spiritual framework (Bulatao, 1982). This
has implications on clinical approaches to client
experiences that involve supernatural entities. It may
also contribute to an understanding of indigenous
conceptions of psychological experiences, which
may have implications on the study of mental
illnesses in the context of Philippine culture. Further,
studying paranormal experiences through cultural
understanding of the phenomena may contribute to
the dialogue between transpersonal psychology and
parapsychology.
Filipino Spirits
The Filipino worldview is inherently
transpersonal (Bulatao, 1980). Individual
consciousness extends beyond the person and
is projected onto the world using various cultural
metaphors. These projections manifest as “spirits”
that may take the form of mythical creatures. To the
Filipino, the material has spiritual dimensions and
vice versa (Mercado, 1994). Spirits can affect the
tangible world in multiple ways. They can cause
psychological disturbances such as dissociative
trance states, called sapi or spirit possession, or even
poltergeist phenomena (Bulatao, 1986). Elsewhere,
paranormal experiences such as sapi might be
treated as mental illnesses. In the Philippines, these
dissociative states might be considered to be ways
through which an individual interacts with the spirit
world. It may, for example, be the result of sorcery
or an engkanto falling in love (Ang & Montiel, 2019).
Engkantos are non-human entities that
usually have European features. When they take a
liking to a human being, they may be possessive.
Engkantos may lure people into their world by
offering them food (Demetrio, 1991). There are
other creatures too, such as the duwende (a small
mischievous entity), tiyanak (a baby that has
In the Filipino transpersonal worldview, the mind is not contained within the brain, and is
often projected onto the world as “spirits”. Studying these cultural metaphors may allow for
a deeper understanding of the Filipino psyche. Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao, SJ, one of the founders
of the Psychological Association of the Philippines, studied the projections of the Filipino
psyche as they manifested in paranormal phenomena. Bulatao provides the metaphor of
eggs frying in a pan as a framework to understand this: the egg whites fuse despite the yolks
being far apart. It is in the dissolution of boundaries that transpersonal experiences occur.
This paper discusses possibilities for future research as well as the potential contributions of
transpersonal research to the eld of clinical psychology.
Keywords: altered states of consciousness, consciousness, culture, folklore, paranormal,
parapsychology, psychic phenomena, Philippine psychology, post-materialist psychology,
spirituality, trance states, transpersonal psychology
Carl Lorenz Cervantes
Colegio de San Juan de Letrán
Manila City, Philippines
https://doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2022.41.1.1

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies
2Cervantes
transformed into a monster), kapre (a large, hairy
being who smokes cigars and lives in old trees), and
tikbalang (a creature that is partly human and partly
horse). When crossing a grassy area or taking a bath
in a river, one must always ask for permission from
the spirits who live there (Demetrio, 1991). There
are various spirits, but they generally have similar
qualities and temperaments.
The Qualities of Filipino Spirits
Demetrio (1991) collected local beliefs
and customs around the Philippines. In a section
on engkantos and spirits, they listed down some
instructions on how to respectfully interact with
them.
Spirits only appear at sundown, usually after
6:00PM, so children should not be playing outside
at night. Spirits also often appear in dreams. There
is a belief that when a person sleeps, their spirit
wanders off to do mystic errands, which are seen
in dreams. When a person does get to see them,
that person must remain silent. This is especially
true when one is in an unfamiliar place and strange
things are experienced. The person must not say
anything about it; they will not be able to nd their
way home. That said, noise and curse words can
drive spirits away.
When engaging with nature, one’s intentions
must be made known to the spirits that live there.
For example, one must ask for permission before
bathing in a river or throwing rocks. To avoid
accidentally stepping on nature spirits, one must
say “Ta bi ap o,” to avoid incurring their wrath. Spirits
are not always angry; they can also fall in love. But
even their love can leave lasting damage: the object
of their affection may get sick or die. If befriended,
however, spirits may be helpful in times of need.
There are, of course, a myriad of other
beliefs. In general, these experiences seem to reect
a kind of spiritual relationship with nature. The spirits
of nature may reect what Bulatao (1980) called a
transpersonal worldview.
The Transpersonal Worldview
Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao, SJ was a Filipino
psychologist who studied paranormal phenomena
in the context of Philippine culture. He was one
of the founders of the Psychological Association of
the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University’s
department of psychology. He passed away in 2015.
Bulatao utilized a psychological perspective in
order to understand the paranormal experience of
Filipinos, using the metaphor of frying eggs (Bulatao,
1992). He said that the mind is like an egg yolk. Eggs
frying in a pan may have yolks that are separate
from one another, but the egg whites fuse. The egg
whites represent transpersonal consciousness. The
individual projects their personal selves onto nature,
and they use cultural metaphors to explain these
projections. To Bulatao, transpersonal experiences
reect a common humanity (Montiel, 2015).
Bulatao (1992) differentiated between
the materialist and transpersonal perspectives,
as follows. To the materialist, all of reality must
be measurable. Human experiences that are not
measurable might be discarded as illusions. The
mind exists only within the brain, as a function of
the biological processes that occur within. In the
transpersonal worldview, the mind can go beyond
the limitations of the brain and interact with the
material world. For example, certain illnesses are
attributed to the work of spirits (Bulatao, 1980;
Demetrio, 1991). Trance states can be interpreted
spiritually (Ang & Montiel, 2019). However, whereas
in the West these possessing spirits might be viewed
as malevolent, in the Philippines they can take the
form of religious gures such as the Santo Niño
or the Virgin Mary. Duwende are also capable of
possessing people (Bulatao, 1980).
Further, Bulatao (1986) differentiated
between the objective and subjective mind.
Whereas the objective mind operates on logic and
reacts to reality, the subjective mind uses metaphors.
Hypnotic methods may allow for communication
with the subjective mind. While the objective mind
is silent, the subjective mind can emerge, just as the
stars can be seen only after the sun sets. Bulatao
(1986) also made it clear that the subjective mind is
capable of creating physical events, in the form of
poltergeist phenomena. Parapsychologists call this
“recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis,” or RSPK
(Pratt & Roll, 1958, as cited in Alvarado, 2018).
Nevertheless, the observer must still have
some objective distance from what is observed and
not jump to conclusions as to what the experience
was. As long as the reality of spirits has not been

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 3
Parapsychological Studies of Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao
conrmed, Bulatao (1992) said that it is best to simply
say that it is “as if” they existed. The question now
is whether these experiences are merely illusions or
proof of different levels of reality.
Interpreting Phenomena
When understanding paranormal
phenomena, the researcher must differentiate
between the experience and the potential
explanation for it (Bulatao, 1986). For example,
sapi might be interpreted as a dissociative trance
state triggered by traumatic experiences (Ang &
Montiel, 2019; Gingrich, 2006). Interpretations may
be based on one’s cultural context or scientic
worldview. One must also be careful about
potential bias towards certain perspectives. Butzer
(2020) has observed a bias among those within
the eld of psychology towards the materialist
perspective, which asserts that reality is only
composed of matter. As a response, Beauregard
et al. (2014) suggested that researchers adopt a
“post-materialist” perspective, which postulates that
the mind goes beyond the brain and can interact
with matter. This also be a potential framework to
explain well-documented paranormal phenomena
(Sheldrake, 2013). The “post-materialist” paradigm
has the potential to destigmatize mental illness in
light of indigenous conceptions of psychological
experiences (Beauregard et al., 2018). Although this
paradigm is relatively recent, it seems to align with
Bulatao’s (1980) transpersonal worldview.
Implications in Parapsychological Research
The Asian mind, Bulatao (1992) said,
responds well to stories. Though anecdotes by
themselves do not make science, they do provoke
thinking and encourage further research (Bulatao,
1992). In studying paranormal phenomena, a non
judgmental approach may open the door to a
deeper understanding of the nuances of human
experiences.
Research into the paranormal experiences
of Filipinos may add to the literature on the cultural
manifestations of transpersonal experiences. It
may be useful to clinicians faced with disturbing
experiences expressed through cultural metaphors.
Previously, Ang and Montiel (2019) explored how
healers from different elds understood spirit
possession in the Philippines. Further study may
add to their ndings and help bolster the foundation
of scientic literature on which an indigenous
understanding of psychological experiences might
stand. In particular, it may provide a glimpse into
how Filipinos might dene mental health and
mental illnesses from their perspective.
This kind of cultural research may also bridge
the gap between transpersonal psychology and
parapsychology, since transpersonal experiences
often involve paranormal phenomena and vice
versa. Today there is increasing recognition of
overlap between these two elds and that one
might learn from the other (Friedman et al., 2021).
Interestingly, this simply afrms what Bulatao had
said decades prior.
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About the Author
Carl Lorenz Cervantes, MA, completed his master
of arts degree in counseling psychology in Ateneo
de Manila University in Quezon City, Philippines.
He has published a book of essays on personal
experiences of spiritual and psychic phenomena
titled, “Deep Roots.” Carl has taught cognitive and
developmental psychology to college students in
Colegio de San Juan de Letrán in Intramuros, Manila
in the Philippines. His research interests include
spirituality and parapsychology in the context of
Philippine culture. Email: ginooncervantes@gmail.
com
About the Journal
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the largest and most accessible scholarly periodical
in the transpersonal eld. IJTS has been in print
since 1981, is published by Floraglades Foundation,
sponsored in part by Attention Strategies, and
serves as the ofcial publication of the International
Transpersonal Association. The journal is available
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