Evidence is found in normative samples for the separation widely observed in qualitative individual and special group studies between transpersonal, growth-enhancing states of consciousness and more conflicted dissociated states. These two patterns of transformative states of consciousness are shown to be different manifestations of a background, bivalent dimension of absorption/openness to experience, identified in current personality research as a defining feature of individual variability. Further dialogue among transpersonalists, clinical psychologists, and personality researchers is needed if we are to better understand the relations between integrative versus disintegrative states of consciousness and their common rooting in normative individual differences.
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