In Peak Experiences, Marshall sets out on a far more personal and far-reaching journey: to discover how our modern estrangement from the natural world has affected our mental well-being.".

"One of the most foremost spokesmen for the Third Force movement in psychology, Abraham H. Maslow, here articulates one of his prominent theses: the "religious" experience is a rightful subject for scientific investigation and speculation and, conversely, the "scientific community" will see its work enhanced by acknowledging and studying the species-wide need for spiritual expression which, in so many forms, is at the heart of "peak experiences" reached by healthy, full functioning persons." -- back cover.

The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology promises to be a landmark in the resurgent field of humanistic psychology and psychotherapy. Their range of topics is far-reaching--from the historical, theoretical, and methodological, to the spiritual, psychotherapeutic, and multicultural. Students and professionals are looking for the fuller, deeper, and more personal psychological orientation that this Handbook promotes.

This book engages the problem of how, in the 21st century, we are to speak about experiences of the extraordinary/anomalous/extreme which occur on a transhistorical and transcultural basis. Critical re-readings of seminal texts show how 20th-century theoreticians in the humanities sought to erase madness from their irrational subjects. This propensity to sanitize madness in the study of religions was mirrored by the instinct of psychiatrists to degrade religious experiences by reducing mad consciousness to psychosis or dissociation. Richard Saville-Smith introduces explanatory pluralism as a way of recognizing these disciplinary biases and mad studies as a way of negotiating this understanding. The disproportionate significance of madness in shaping the fabric of the human story can then be recovered from both erasure and dismissal to be given the recognition previously denied - as acute religious experiences. Acute Religious Experiences divides into three sections, beginning with re-readings of William James's pathological programme, Rudolf Otto's numinous, T. K. Oesterreich's possession, Mircea Eliade's shamanism, Walter Stace's mysticism, Walter Pahnke's psychedelic experience, and Abraham Maslow's peak experiences. These ideas are shown to constitute the beginnings of a fractured discourse on the irrational. In part two, contemporary psychiatry's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) and Foucault's History of Madness are re-read to reposition madness as not necessarily pathological. This opens the way for the identification of acute religious experiences as a new holistic and post-colonial approach through which religious data can be organized and addressed on a comparative basis. In part three, The Gospel of Mark is re-read as a case study to demonstrate the novel insights which flow from the identification of acute religious experiences. Richard Saville-Smith draws on his own experiences of madness and his PhD from the School of Divinity at The University of Edinburgh to elucidate his research.

Journeys of Faith examines the contributions of the leading figures of the humanistic psychology movement, with particular attention to their spiritual journeys. Rising to prominence in America during the post–World War II years, humanistic psychology is experiencing a resurgence in the present day in response to the need for a psychological approach that addresses meaning and purpose in life. The key players—Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Erich Fromm, and Rollo May—all rejected the orthodoxy of their religious inheritance in favor of a more humanistic approach and, in the process, discovered a renewed spirituality that, they hoped, would address the concerns of a world yearning for something to believe in. While the humanistic psychologists confronted the world’s problems through the lens of psychology, other thinkers, such as the evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley, approached them through different, though equally humanistic, perspectives. Others still, such as Paul Tillich, Martin Buber, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, confronted the times through a religious lens. The influence of the centuries-long Jewish tradition of scholarship and social justice and the frequent examples of friendship and professional cooperation between the secular and the religious worlds provide critical subthemes for the lasting appeal of humanistic psychology.

Towards the end of the twentieth century books proclaiming the “closing” of America’s mind, the “collapse” of her communities, and the “end” of her art, literature, education and more, began appearing with regularity. The underlying theme in all such works is the loss of those experiences that give our lives meaning. In The End of Meaning: Cultural Change in America Since 1945, readers learn to recognize these experiences, realize how prominent they were in the postwar period (c. 1945–65), understand the forces that have brought about their extraordinary decline (in our families and communities, universities and religious institutions, films and popular music, fine arts, labor and more) and realize the implications of this loss for our society and our humanity. In doing so the book provides a way of thinking about a vital subject—one which, despite its enormous importance, has never been examined in a broad and systematic way capable of generating real understanding, discussion and debate.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1978.

Developed in almost thirty years of classroom experience, this book is designed to introduce students and other readers to the psychological study of religion. Robert W. Crapps deals with the major questions and figures that have dominated the psychological study of religion over the past century, dividing the discussion into four parts. Two chapters in part one suggest the problems and possibilities for the psychological study of religion in light of the nature of religion and the scientific method. Part two sketches the contributions to the study of religion of three intellectual currents in contemporary psychology: psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and humanistic psychology. part three explores the relationship between religion and human development, while part four directs attention to religious lifestyles and that weave differentiated parts of human experience into a cohesive whole. -- Publisher description.

In Six Stages on the Spiritual Path, we learn about spirituality and its stages as well as how spirituality helps to reduce our suffering and create more love. Writings from ancient to contemporary mystics across the world provide us with practical and spiritual wisdom that will make our lives happier and more loving. In the first stage on the mystic way, children experience awe and wonder, but they do not realize that this is a spiritual experience. While all indigenous people recognize awe as a mystical experience, only some adults and most artists do. When parents and religious leaders teach children about God, they cause their spiritual growth to flourish or to become stunted at an elementary school level. Awakening is an experience of the Divine that helps us realize that the Sacred Spirit is within us and loves us. Awakening produces love for our neighbors and ourselves. Then love nurtures more awakenings. Illumination and union are deeper mystical experiences that the Holy One is not only within all of us and all of creation, but also that we are within the ONE. Illumination creates more love for all people and all the universe.

Why do people study religion? How have they studied it in the past? How do we study religion today? Is the academic study of religion the same as religious education? These and many other questions are addressed in this engaging introduction to the discipline of religious studies. Topics include Definitions of religion Perspectives in the study and teaching of religion How religion began to be studied: Traditional perspectives—philosophical and theological How people experience religion: Perspectives in the study of religious consciousness and perception—phenomenological and psychological Studying religion within communities: Social and cultural perspectives—anthropological, sociological, political, and economic Judging religion: Critical perspectives—feminist approaches, the interaction of popular literature and religion Contextual perspectives—historical and comparative Themes, theories, and current directions The thoroughly updated second edition encourages students to think critically about the theories and methods presented. Students will find arguments for the strengths and limitations of these approaches, understand connections among religious studies and other intellectual movements, and develop their own ideas of how they might want to go about the study of religion. Summary boxes, discussion questions, a glossary, a chronology of key figures and texts, and other pedagogic aids help students grasp key concepts.