What does transpersonal actually mean?

Quite often the transpersonal is explained in spiritual or religious language. Which means that if we don’t understand that language then we don’t understand what is being said.

Even if you read secular texts such as those of  transpersonal psychology is it any  easier to understand what is being said?

Is there a simple way of explaining it?

This is a perspective.

If you take a piece of wood what is it made out of? Cells?

Ok what are cells made from? Molecules

What happens if we keep going with this?

Ok so atoms, and then we start getting down to elementary particles

 to protons, neutrons and electrons (elementary particle)

quarks and gluons, (elementary particle)

so what now? Ok , for ease just assume that string theory is correct

and that elementary particles are made from vibrating strings of energy.

So a sting is composed of pure energy

Pure energy is not an object, is not a thing.

So if your forgive my possibly spectacular simplification and poor grasp of physics

Using this logic our stick is made of energy.

If a stick is made of energy, who determines its boundary, where the stick starts and ends, what is stick and not stick.

And the answer to that would be the mind. Objectively speaking there is no stick, well, outside of the human mind anyway.

If we split reality into phenomenon and noumenon and take phenomenon to mean reality as experienced by the mind and the noumenon to mean some objective reality outside the mind, could there ever be such a thing as a stick?

Ok so another leap not of bad physics this time but into bad neurobiology.

Left brain, right brain.

Left brain responsible for subject/object duality, the world of things,…or sticks

Right brain, closer to experience of the noumenon, nonverbal unity, a non-conceptual boundarylessness.

According to hemisphere theory our subjective experience of reality can be one of subject/object where objects have very firm boundaries and there is little of no experience of the numinous or unity.

A more right brain dominant experience may be one of experiencing reality as a boundaryless continuum or loving unity.

So assuming that we have an optimum sized corpus collosum and we are able to integrate these two experiential realities we may experience a reality where we experience ourselves as things but with softer more compassionate boundaries with an awareness of or connection to a loving unity. This may equate to a believe in an anthropomorphic god.

If we accept this rather clumsy model then there will be a part of ourselves that is considered thing, and a yet an awareness of boundaryless unity which is also us.(even if that is outside of awareness).

And so I suggest that the transpersonal is our self as a thing’s awareness of, or connection too experiences happening in the “not us” space, with or without the understanding that we are also that space.

There is no inside and outside of what we are. There is only awareness itself and mind generated objects within that awareness.

Did that make any sense at all?