Abstract:

This study was conducted to determine the effects of participation in a dream discussion group on the transpersonal growth and development of individuals sixty years of age and older.

There were sixty-five subjects in this study. They self-selected themselves into one of three groups: the Experimental Dream group, the Control-I and Control-II groups. Experimental and Control-I groups were led by the same transpersonally oriented facilitator. The topic of the discussion sessions for the Control-I group was, "Single At Seventy." The Control-II group consisted of classes in French language, stitchery and choral singing. They were led by non-transpersonally oriented leaders.

As there was no instrument available to adequately measure transpersonal growth based on Wilber's four levels of consciousness and the five domains of transpersonal psychology identified and used in some transpersonal psychology programs (e.g., California Institute of Transpersonal Psychology), an instrument was developed containing a total of sixty questions. The levels of transpersonal development included were ego development, ego functioning, transpersonal development and transpersonal functioning. The five domains of growth included were affective, intellectual, spiritual, psychosocial and physical. Two tests of reliability were computed for all scales, providing an alpha coefficient of .80. The test-retest alpha coefficient was .68. Most of the scales correlated significantly with each other. High inter-item correlation (0.80 for the sixty item total scores) suggested the scales were measuring the same construct.

An analysis of variance of the main effect of treatment of the groups revealed a significant difference among the three groups (p < 0.002). The Experimental Dream Group and the Control-I group were both significantly different from the Control-II group (p < 0.05). This reflects a change in their level of transpersonal development. The influence of dream discussions alone on transpersonal growth was not statistically significant. A negative change in growth and development occurred in the Control-II group. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)