As implied by the foregoing quote, there has always been a strong spiritual component to the transpersonal counseling approach, especially as that element relates to interpersonal relations and relationships. However, Adams (1996) reports that in the current decade, the spiritual element of transpersonal psychology is becoming stronger and is increasingly being examined from a research perspective. For example, in his own study, Adams examined the experience of the sacred using empirical research methods with a sample of two males and two females between 33 and 39 years of age. Subjects were from diverse cultures.

Methods involved conducting in-depth interviews and analyzing data using phenomenological methods. Based on findings, it was noted that the experience of the sacred, even across diverse cultures, contains certain common components including: revelation and awareness of an essential, and inter-permeating communion between self and world. In all cases, there was said to be a metamorphosis from an egoic to transpersonal self-sense and way of being.

One particularly interesting trend in contemporary transpersonal psychology has been its increasing connectedness with information technology. In this regard, Lukoff, Lu, Turner and Gackenbach (1995) report that transpersonal practioners and researchers are more and more often using the Internet in their research on religio

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Document Type: JOURNAL ARTICLE; SYMPOSIUM/CONVENTION PAPERS Discusses the modern history (the last 130 yrs) of the development of theorizing in experimental psychology, outlining developments in the positivistic (gestalt, classic behaviorism, psychoanalysis), the neo-positivistic (neo-behaviorism, empirical constructive theories, integrative psychology), and the post-positivistic (humanistic, marxist, radical behaviorism, mainstream) periods. A systematic classification of some representative psychological theories, based on a comparative metatheoretical taxonomy called systematology, is presented. Three patterns of preference or paradigms (empiristic, rationalistic, and intuitionistic) are discussed in terms of frame of reference, patterns of preferences, the mind-body problem, the cognitive status of theories, hypothetical terms, and the data language.

In terms of clinical practice, Hunt (1995) states that early emotional trauma, to the extent that it is internalized as part of the mother-child dyad underlying symbolic and diagloic consciousness, can debilitate spiritual growth as it relates to experiencing altered states. However, meditation, when combined with counseling intervention, can operate to release the individual from this inhibition and allow him or her to achieve these higher states of consciousness. As implied from Hunt's discussion, meditation is now being increasingly used as part of the counseling process in the transpersonal psychology of the 1990s, and it is being employed using a developmental framework.

One of the more current trends in counseling using gestalt strategies has been to examine the possibility of effectively using the gestalt approach in the care of people with HIV/AIDS. For example, Siemens (1993) discussed and evaluated a research project in which the gestalt approach was used in a support group for male homosexual