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The collective unconscious helped Jung account for the plethora of parapsychological phenomena—such as psychokinesis, clairvoyance, and synchronicity—that captivated him. If a person's psychic life is somehow linked to that of all humanity, then reports of apparently inexplicable events such as extrasensory perception are not quite so unintelligible.

The collective unconscious helped Jung account for the plethora of parapsychological phenomena—such as psychokinesis, clairvoyance, and synchronicity—that captivated him. If a person's psychic life is somehow linked to that of all humanity, then reports of apparently inexplicable events such as extrasensory perception are not quite so unintelligible.

==EXISTENTIAL-HUMANISTIC AND TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGIES==

==Existential Humanistic & Transpersonal Psychologies==

In the 1960s, transpersonal psychology emerged from its existential-humanistic and phenomenological roots as a movement devoted in part to the study of meditation and alternative states of consciousness. Though by no means representative of the mainstream of psychological research in the West, transpersonal psychologists are intrigued by the possibility that human beings possess transcendent powers of consciousness. Some speculate about the brain's untapped potential and hold a view of the universe as continuous with oneself, being both conscious and purposive. They are convinced that one can be motivated by broader and less-selfish impulses than physiological needs and egoistic emotions. For these psychologists, the most important motivations spring from a selflessness that revolves around the pondering of ultimate questions—questions about the meaning, purpose, and value of human life. Often influenced by the influx of Eastern psychologies and philosophies into the West, transpersonal psychology seeks to reverse what it considers the disproportionate attention given to psychological afflictions at the expense of great potentialities as human beings. This movement may be understood as an attempt to reconnect the science of psychology with the perennial metaphysical teachings of the spiritual traditions.

In the 1960s, transpersonal psychology emerged from its existential-humanistic and phenomenological roots as a movement devoted in part to the study of meditation and alternative states of consciousness. Though by no means representative of the mainstream of psychological research in the West, transpersonal psychologists are intrigued by the possibility that human beings possess transcendent powers of consciousness. Some speculate about the brain's untapped potential and hold a view of the universe as continuous with oneself, being both conscious and purposive. They are convinced that one can be motivated by broader and less-selfish impulses than physiological needs and egoistic emotions. For these psychologists, the most important motivations spring from a selflessness that revolves around the pondering of ultimate questions—questions about the meaning, purpose, and value of human life. Often influenced by the influx of Eastern psychologies and philosophies into the West, transpersonal psychology seeks to reverse what it considers the disproportionate attention given to psychological afflictions at the expense of great potentialities as human beings. This movement may be understood as an attempt to reconnect the science of psychology with the perennial metaphysical teachings of the spiritual traditions.

===Abraham Maslow===

===Abraham Maslow===

Two of the foremost models of consciousness in this vein have been proposed by Charles Tart, now a professor of psychology, emeritus, at the University of California at Davis, and Stanislav Grof, former psychiatrist at the Maryland Psychiatric Institute. Tart, a parapsychologist, psychedelic researcher, and personality theorist, in a series of pioneering works in the 1960s and 1970s proposed that the framework of traditional science was sufficient only for an understanding of the rational waking state. Newer forms of science were required that were internally consistent with and exclusive to the state of consciousness in which they were applied. Tart's call for the development of state-specific sciences was accompanied by the assertion that scientists needed to have experienced the particular conditions they were studying as a necessary prerequisite for objectivity. Grof undertook a variety of different investigations of altered states of consciousness, including the recovery of birth memories, the study of transformative religious visions, and shamanic states of healing, especially in non-Western cultures.

Two of the foremost models of consciousness in this vein have been proposed by Charles Tart, now a professor of psychology, emeritus, at the University of California at Davis, and Stanislav Grof, former psychiatrist at the Maryland Psychiatric Institute. Tart, a parapsychologist, psychedelic researcher, and personality theorist, in a series of pioneering works in the 1960s and 1970s proposed that the framework of traditional science was sufficient only for an understanding of the rational waking state. Newer forms of science were required that were internally consistent with and exclusive to the state of consciousness in which they were applied. Tart's call for the development of state-specific sciences was accompanied by the assertion that scientists needed to have experienced the particular conditions they were studying as a necessary prerequisite for objectivity. Grof undertook a variety of different investigations of altered states of consciousness, including the recovery of birth memories, the study of transformative religious visions, and shamanic states of healing, especially in non-Western cultures.

==Contemporary Neuroscience, Neurophilosophy, & Neurotheology==

==Contemporary Neuroscience, Neurophilosophy, & Neurotheology==

Neurotheology refers specifically to modern attempts to study religious experience using the techniques and theories of the neurosciences, which include neuroimaging of meditative and contemplative states of consciousness. Neurotheology in this sense is an extension of the more recent term neurophilosophy, in which cognitive scientists, such as Daniel Dennett, Patricia Churchland, Paul Churchland, and Robert Searl, have dominated the discussion about the philosophical implications of the biology of consciousness. Here again, however, is the paradox that the neuroscience revolution is generating humanistic implications that demand a return to the kind of philosophical discussions long banned from the discourse of reductionistic science. The problem is that the new breed of scientific philosophers are all trained in cognitive behaviorism and Aristotelian and Kantian thought, the very epistemologies that the scientific revolution in consciousness is fast transcending, and if these so-called neurophilosophers know any philosophy at all, it is the analytic philosophers from Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell through Ludwig Wittgenstein to Rudolf Carnap, Herbert Figel, and Willard van Orman Quine, whose overemphasis on the logical ordering of sense data alone may become the approach in science most vulnerable to extinction.

Neurotheology refers specifically to modern attempts to study religious experience using the techniques and theories of the neurosciences, which include neuroimaging of meditative and contemplative states of consciousness. Neurotheology in this sense is an extension of the more recent term neurophilosophy, in which cognitive scientists, such as Daniel Dennett, Patricia Churchland, Paul Churchland, and Robert Searl, have dominated the discussion about the philosophical implications of the biology of consciousness. Here again, however, is the paradox that the neuroscience revolution is generating humanistic implications that demand a return to the kind of philosophical discussions long banned from the discourse of reductionistic science. The problem is that the new breed of scientific philosophers are all trained in cognitive behaviorism and Aristotelian and Kantian thought, the very epistemologies that the scientific revolution in consciousness is fast transcending, and if these so-called neurophilosophers know any philosophy at all, it is the analytic philosophers from Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell through Ludwig Wittgenstein to Rudolf Carnap, Herbert Figel, and Willard van Orman Quine, whose overemphasis on the logical ordering of sense data alone may become the approach in science most vulnerable to extinction.