![How I Learned About Transpersonal Psychology … and ‘How it [Really] Works’](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6514bf8796d2ce2bc28998b4/1696839593617-G94YDCTEJIFN031H6O98/image.jpg)
How I Learned About Transpersonal Psychology … and ‘How it [Really] Works’
I learned about transpersonal psychology after I spent slightly over a decade investing in a long-term, professional-level seminary education at the Graduate Theological Union on Holy Hill, in Berkeley, CA, where an interfaith consortium of loosely networked seminaries has been parked for well over a century. After several years, I had opened myself up in spiritual direction at the Chaplaincy Institute, which is affiliated with Starr King. The instructors there steered me into Sex Addicts Anonymous, both as a member dealing with problematic behaviors I had self-identified as “addictive,” and as a student of 12 Step spirituality.
3 Important Mistakes to Avoid if You’re New to Sex Addicts Anonymous
Checking out the 12-Step program Sex Addicts Anonymous? Don’t make these easy-to-avoid mistakes. Protect your privacy, anonymity, family, and future from predators in the circle.
The Subtext: What Every Member of Sex Addicts Anonymous Should Know About the 12 Traditions of SAA
The 12 Traditions are carefully crafted to conceal a toxic, predatory environment. When practiced together, they make each member vulnerable to subtle manipulation and increasing pressure. Over time, the collective begins to function as God in the conscience of every participant—whether or not they meant to submit to the SAA hivemind as their Higher Power.
What Makes Sex Addicts Anonymous More Dangerous than Other 12 Step Programs?
Sex Addicts Anonymous extracts highly sensitive data from its members in circles that feel confidential while exposing members to predation from unlicensed, unregulated specialists. Eventually, vulnerable members are targeted with classic gaslighting techniques, and pushed into episodes of psychological crisis where they are shamed into "sexual sobriety" and forced into compliance with the social values of the group.
Recovering from Intentionally Bad Advice in the COSA-SAA Fellowships
Members of the COSA program—open to anyone who has been negatively affected by compulsive sexual behavior, of any sort, at any time—may simultaneously attend SAA meetings with the intention to "stop addictive sexual behavior." In these meetings, they may share private advice of any sort with the family members, spouses, and romantic partners of any SAA members who attend.
Spiritual Emergencies in SAA: Gaslighting Addicts into Sobriety
The “anonymous” nature of the SAA program makes it an ideal stage for scripted “spiritual emergencies.” This means that members of the circle use sophisticated gaslighting techniques to shock and overwhelm vulnerable participants with the particular vices and sins which they so openly disclosed to the group.
Toxic Secrets and Broken Thinking in Sex Addicts Anonymous
As part of a program code of anonymity and trust, members of Sex Addicts Anonymous are pressured to keep the confessions of the fellowship to themselves, regardless of severity or criminality.
Real criminal acts of sex abuse are shielded from investigation and prosecution, inside a large fellowship of men and women confused by their own sense of compulsivity.
A Working Definition of “Transpersonal”
[unofficially] a field of reverse psychology discretely manufactured in the early 1960s, in order to mask and validate archaic practices of spiritual psychology wherein large groups target individuals with religious forms of collective manipulation, deception, and complex gaslighting.
Watch Your Steps: 5 Pro Tips to Surviving Your Recovery Program
When you’re trying to change your negative patterns of behavior, finding people you can trust is super important. There are all kinds of groups who are willing to offer you support. But some groups are safer than others. Not all groups are worthy of your trust.
“You Can’t Make Me Angry:” Typical, Terrible 12 Step Advice
Popular program advice says to ignore your healthy emotional instincts, and to just accept the bad things that happen to you. That's bad advice. Build healthy boundaries, reject shame and abuse, and tell the truth when you experience exploitation inside the 12 Step circle.
Transpersonal Psychology (Briefly) Explained
Transpersonal psychology is marketed as an esoteric or mystical field of psychology, one focused on the spiritual awakening of individuals in group settings. Really, transpersonal psychology is a sophisticated mask for cult psychology, producing atypical religious beliefs in the minds of clients, using methods where there is no "good" or "evil" and the chief goal is maximal profitability.