Jorge Ferrer is chair of the department of East-West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies

California Institute of Integral Studies

California Institute of Integral Studies is a private institution of higher education founded in 1968 and based in San Francisco, California. It currently operates in three locations just south of the Civic Center district...

. He is also the author of Revisioning Transpersonal Theory

Transpersonal psychology

Transpersonal psychology is a form of psychology that studies the transpersonal, self-transcendent or spiritual aspects of the human experience....

: A Participatory Vision of Human Spirituality, and co-editor of The Participatory Turn: Spirituality, Mysticism, Religious Studies.

Ferrer received a Licenza Psicologia Clinica in 1991 from the University of Barcelona

University of Barcelona

The University of Barcelona is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia in Spain. It is a member of the Coimbra Group, LERU, European University Association, Mediterranean Universities Union, International Research Universities Network and Vives Network...

. In 1999, he received a doctorate in East-West psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. In 2000 he received the Fetzer Institute

Fetzer Institute

-The Institute:The Fetzer Institute is a mid size operating foundation based in Michigan, United States, founded by John E Fetzer.Since its founding, the Fetzer Institute has been interested in individual and community health and wholeness, from our early days of mind-body health research to its...

’s Presidential Award for his work on consciousness studies.

With Jacob Sherman, Ferrer co-edited an anthology of original writings on participatory spirituality entitled The Participatory Turn: Spirituality, Mysticism, Religious Studies. According to a review in Tikkun

Tikkun (magazine)

Tikkun is a quarterly English-language magazine, published in the United States, that analyzes American and Israeli culture, politics, religion and history from a leftist-progressive viewpoint, and provides commentary about Israeli politics and Jewish life in North America...

 magazine,

The question of whether or not we can preserve the ontological integrity of religion, spirituality, and mysticism without sacrificing the integrity of modern critical scholarship lies at the heart of The Participatory Turn...Their basic project is the integration of religious experience

Religious experience

Religious experience is a subjective experience in which an individual reports contact with a transcendent reality, an encounter or union with the divine....

 and practice with modern critical thinking

Critical thinking

Critical thinking is the process or method of thinking that questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, or sometimes true and sometimes false, or partly true and partly false. The origins of critical thinking can be traced in Western thought to the Socratic...

 and postmodern epistemological insights about the constructed nature of human knowledge

Constructivism

Constructivism may refer to:* Constructivist epistemology, the philosophical view* Constructivism in international relations* Constructivism , a philosophical view on mathematical proofs and existence of mathematical objects...

.

Ferrer is also the editor of a monograph

Monograph

A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...

 of the journal ReVision

ReVision

ReVision: A Journal of Consciousness and Transformation is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary quarterly journal issued by Heldref Publications. Topics covered include religion and spirituality, consciousness studies, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, ecology, science, and the arts...

 on "New Horizons in Contemporary Spirituality" (Fall 2001). He is on the editorial board of The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology

Journal of Transpersonal Psychology

The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology is a semi-annual, peer-reviewed academic journal which is published by the Association for Transpersonal Psychology...

, ReVision: A Journal of Consciousness and Transformation, and Archai: The Journal of Archetypal Cosmology.

Ferrer was featured in the 2006 film Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within, a documentary about rediscovering an enchanted

Disenchantment

Disenchantment is a term in the social sciences used to describe the cultural rationalization and devaluation of mysticism apparent in modern society...

 cosmos in the modern world.

External links

• Participatory Spirituality: An Introduction
• SUNY Press site on The Participatory Turn: Spirituality, Mysticism, Religious Studies
• "Integral Transformative Practice: A Participatory Perspective" (Journal of Transpersonal Psychology
  Journal of Transpersonal Psychology
  The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology is a semi-annual, peer-reviewed academic journal which is published by the Association for Transpersonal Psychology...
  
  )
• "Embodied Participation in the Mystery: Implications for the Individual, Interpersonal Relationships, and Society" (ReVision
  ReVision
  ReVision: A Journal of Consciousness and Transformation is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary quarterly journal issued by Heldref Publications. Topics covered include religion and spirituality, consciousness studies, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, ecology, science, and the arts...
  
  )
• Integral Transformative Practice: A Participatory Perspective" an essay by Ferrer at Integral World