Suissa, D. (2018). An intuitive inquiry into a lived experience of transformation of students on the postgraduate online programme of Consciousness, Spirituality & Transpersonal Psychology [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. Alef Trust & Middlesex University.
This study is an inquiry into a lived experience of transformation of students in an online postgraduate course of Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology. The research was carried out using intuitive inquiry (Anderson & Braud, 2011), a reflective process based around five iterative cycles of interpretation, which builds on both intellectual rigour and intuitive ways of knowing. Seven participants were interviewed using a semi-structured interview, five of them also engaged in drawing a mandala symbolically capturing their learning journeys, which further enriched the researcher’s insights. The data were analysed and presented using Moustakas’ (1990) heuristic approach, which aims to understand, describe and explore the meaning of an experience, while personally involving the researcher. The themes presented as a composite depiction were then compared to the researcher’s initial understanding of the topic prior to data collection. Consequently, this process translated itself into an expanded interpretation. It involved two new lenses: the readiness to be transformed and duration of engagement in transformative learning as conditions for a transformative experience to occur on the course. It also involved four refined lenses: the course being experienced as a path to continuous self- transformation, transformative learning being experienced as a process of letting go and letting come as well as generative of shifts in being and doing, and transformative education as a set-up cultivating these shifts in being and doing. The conclusion of the study was three-fold. First, it concluded that there are many transformative elements to be honoured about the course. Second, it also suggested directions in which the course could evolve. Finally, the study became a transformative vehicle in its own accord for both the researcher and the participants.
