Eastern and Western Perspectives in Transpersonal Belief Systems

Abstract

On the basis of performance on the East-West Questionnaire, 69 members of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology were Eastern in their thinking in that they tended to believe in the essential unity of reality and the contention that our society overemphasizes science, technology, rationality, and competition. At the same time they favored a democratic form of government, a free-enterprise economy, and a hereafter involving individual souls, beliefs which are more traditionally Western. Comparison of the transpersonalists with a group of 29 middle-management personnel indicated that the former answered all but 6 of the 68 questionnaire statements in a more Eastern way than the latter.