research briefs meet the researcher i

RESEARCH BRIEFS
M EE T T H E R E S E A R C H E RI
Laura Boggio Gilot
Rome, Italy
Laura Boggio Gilot is a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist,Vedanta meditation
instructor, and researcherwho has been actively involved in clinical and transpersonal work for the past 35 years. She is the founder and president of the Italian
Association of TranspersonalPsychology (AIPT), co-founder and past-presidentof
the EuropeanTranspersonalAssociation (EUROTAS), and co-founder and president
of the European TranspersonalPsychology Association (ETPA). She is also on the
Board of Editors for the International Journal ofTranspersonal Studies. ,
Laura's research and published work'is extensive and covers a wide array of
transpersonaland humanistic topics. For example, her first published book Modern
Man and Neurosis (1980) is an analysisof existentialneurosisin the materialistic era.
Subsequentto this, based upon her Vedanta-basedmeditative investigations into
consciousnessand non-ordinary states, and influenced by a personal near-death
experience,she published (all in Italian; see referencelist for Italian titles) Psychosynthesisand Meditation (1983), Form and Developmentof Consciousness(1987),
and The Transpersonal Self (1992). Finally, and most recently, she has published
Principles of Transpersonal Psychology (1995), Growing Beyond Ego: Principles
and methodsof transpersonalpsychology (1991), Suffering and Healing: Transpersonalpsychology and spiritual tradition (1999), andTime of the Soul (2001). In addition to her books, Laura's researchand clinical findings have been describedin about
100 articles, lectures, and presentationsat national and intemational conferences.
Laura has been a seminal figure in her efforts îo organize the transpersonalpsychological movement in Europe and to disseminate transpersonaltheory and research.For instance, in addition to the founding of three associations(e.g., AIPT,
EUROTAS, ETPA), she edited the EUROTAS annual publication Eurotas News
from 1994to 1998.Shehas also organizedseveralkey conferences(and subsequently
edited and published the proceedings),including Italian transpersonalconferenceson
"Suffering and Healing" in the early 1990s, "The Inner Path" in 1995, and the
European transpersonal conference "Time of the Soul" in 2000. Further, she
organized and completed a number of important seminars including the 2001 ETPA
seminar "Depression: An Integral Approach," rhe 2002 ETPA International
Symposium on Depression, and a currently ongoing series of Italian research
seminars conceming psychotherapy and meditation which feature such topics as
"Awareness,Discrimination, Listening: Three Ways of Accessto the Transpersonal,"
"Ego Integration and Ego Transcendence:The Stagesof Development," "Meditation
in Psychotherapy:AwarenessPractices," "Death: Suffering, Faith, Knowledge, and
Experience," "Meeting of the Ways: From Suffering to Liberation," and "Narcissism
and Spirituality: The Integral Approach Between Psychotherapyand Meditation."
The Journal ofTranspersonal Psychology, 2003, Vol. 35, No. I
6l
She is also an active researcher and teacher at two AIPT institutes: the Institute of
Meditation (founded to engagein the study of consciousnessand the psychology of
meditation) and the Instifute of Transpersonal Psychology (founded particularly in
order to foster and spread the teachings of Ken Wilber and to offer professional
training to psychologists,psychotherapists,and health professionals).She notes that
for AIpT, as well as the newer ETPA, the importance of transformative spirituality is
stressedthrough service and meditation with particular attention given to the need for
a transformation of motivation and egocentric habits of life in order to reach
transpersonalstatesof consciousnessand optimal menÎal health'
Laura's researchorientation is in line with Ken Wilber's All Levels All Quadrants
integral model which is séen by her as combining objective observation of states of
consciousnessin clinical casesand meditators, and subjective apprehensionof the
researcher'sown inner experiencesand changesin consciousnessarising from deep
involvement in a meditative path. In both instances,attention is given to all aspects
of consciousnessincluding perception,emotion, cognition, and behavior and to their
implications for the various developmentallines identified by Wilber (e-g., identity'
motivation, morality) and for physical, social, and culfural systems. For her, integral
research offers an extraordinary avenue for experiencing and comprehending the
growth, the
developmentincluding obstaclesto ffanspersonal
stagesof transpersonal
rationalistic
from
a
shifts
consciousness
which
in
mÍrnner
the
and
nature of suffering,
mode of understandingto one which is intuitive, superconscious,and spiritual.
Laura's integral approachto researchrelies upon a number of specific practicesand
spiritual traditions including (a) Yoga-Vedanta and Christian wisdom traditions
wherein the teachings of wisdom are realized in a concenffative and contemplative
manner, (b) the Vedanta practice of self-observation (i.e., witness oi observing
consciousness)with emphasis given to its value in differentiating the elements of
experience and integrating conscious and unconscious aspects of perception, (c)
meditative practices of mental purification involving concentration, visualization,
evocation of sacredarchetypes,and use of silence and solitude, and (d) the Karma
yoga practice of service. Incidentally, Laura notes that the orientation towardé
service without compensation or attachment has served as the basis of her involvementwith the creationand maintenanceof the AIPT and ETPA'
Laurahas applied her integral approach to research to psychotherapy with attention
given to the use of spiritual practices and meditative techniq-uesin facilitating the
healing process.More recently, she has conductedresearchon the role ofnarcissism
in hampering the development of conscioúsnessand in fostering psychopathology
and is currentlycompletinga book on integralpsychotherapywhere she engagesin
a comparisonof the forms of narcissismwith the various expressionsof disfurbances
in the stagesof development. In this book, tentatively entitled Integral Approach to
Narcissism: Psychology and Meditation, she argues how narcissism underlies the
developmental arrest îhat is seen in all forms of mental pathology'
jn the area of psyNotwithstanding her book-in-progress,Laura's researchefforts
chotherapy and meditation afe ongoing and serve as the basis of new psychotherapeutic strategies which are adopted in the practice and professional teaching
at boih AtrT and efpn. Sheis presentlyexpandingher areaof researchinvolvement
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Psychology,2003,Vol. 35, No' I
TheJournal of Transpersonal
of her integral
from the integral study of psychology and meditation to the application
approach to education and social life.
c. corvisieri 46,00162 Rome, Italy or
Laura can be reached by mail at AIPT-Via
The AIPT website is <http://www.aipt.it>
by email at ([email protected]>
REreneNcss
\
'
autopsicoterapia [Modem
Boccro Gnor, L. (1980). tlomo moderno e nevrosi-Autoanalisi e
manandneurosis:Self-analysisandself-psychotherapy].Milan:EdizioniPaoline.
and meditationl' Rome:
Boccro Gnor, L. (1983). Psicosintesí e meditazione lPsychosynthesis
Edizioni Mediterranee.
B occro Grror,L .(|98 7) . For m aes v iluppodellac os c ien z a l F o r m a n d d e v e l o p m e n t o f
consciousnessl.Rome: Edizioni Asram Vidya'
self]. Rome: Asram vidya'
Boccro Gnor, L. (lgg2). It sé transpersonale[T\e transpersonal
of transpersonal
transpersonale
[Principles
psicologia
(1995).
di
Principi
Boccro Gnor, L.
psychologyl. Rome: Edizioni AIPT.
e metodi di psicologia transpersonale
Boccro Gn-or, L. (1997). Crescere oltre t'io-lrincipi
[Growingbeyondego:principlesandmethodsoftranspersonalpsychology]'Assisi:
CittadellaEditrice.
B oc'cro Gno r,L.(Ed . ) . ( 1999) . Sof f er enz aeguar igion e : P s i c o l o g i a t r a n s p e r s o n a l e e
tradizíonespirituale[Suffering*at'"uti''g'Transpersonalpsychologyandspiritual
traditionl. Assisi: Cittadella Editrice.
B oc croGro r,L.(Ed .) . ( 2001) . I lt em podell, anim n[ Tim e o f t h e s o u l ] . T o r i n o : L i b r e r i a
Editrice Psiche.
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