Integral Reading is a reading method and praxis for reading differently that is both cognitive and contemplative by design, that is initiated with specific intentionality, and that facilitates deeply engaging the reader with the text in such a profound way that the reader embraces, embodies, and enters an informative and transformational dialogue with the text. The focus of this exploratory study has been to examine the exceptional experience of reading Sri Aurobindo's discourse differently, and how that exercise has drawn on theoretical correlates with lectio divina, an ancient liturgical reading method for reading scripture. The study explored the notion that the exceptional experience of reading differently might reveal to the reader exceptional avenues of communication that surpassed the reader's immediate consciousness, knowledge, knowing, and inherent wisdom. What has it meant, from a human science perspective, for the reader to approach the act of reading differently, as originally suggested by Sri Aurobindo to his students?

This research was approached through the application of human science qualitative research method relying on the principles from hermeneutic and phenomenological inquiry, along with the introduction and development of two new data analysis instruments: trans-psych free imaginative variation and trans-psych descriptive thematic data analysis. Findings indicated that the inward processes of Integral Reading, discrete altered states of consciousness (d-ASCs), were inspiring and inspirational, instilling a sense of transformation and transcendence, resulting in definitive therapeutic and life-changing effects. Emerging empirical themes highlighted the explicitly relevant theme "lived experience of reading Sri Aurobindo differently," and the tangentially relevant themes, "seeking the sublime," "mapping one's journey," and "facing one's obstacles."

The importance of this exploratory research for transpersonal psychology, and for psychology as a science, is that it has provided a means for reading texts in a uniquely different and expanded way with potential for life-changing effects.