Contextualising Mindfulness: Between the Sacred and the Secular

Friday 10th October 2014 - Sunday 12th October 2014 at Sunley Conference Centre, Northampton

18th annual conference of the Transpersonal Section of the BPS

From being topics at the margins of psychology fifteen years ago, meditation and mindfulness have spectacularly entered the mainstream over recent years. In terms of research and applicability their rise has been exponential. For those of us who have had long-standing interest in spiritual practices, these developments are to be welcomed.

The question to be addressed in this conference, however, concerns the context of mindfulness practice within the spectrum from sacred to secular.

• To what extent is mindfulness practice as promulgated in therapeutic and social contexts true to its roots in the spiritual traditions? Have the bounds of the term 'spiritual' become so elastic as to be of little value?
• What impact is the widespread incorporation of what is at core a spiritual practice having on contemporary society?
• And is the popularization of meditation practice leading to a distortion of the root traditions from which it has been extracted?

These are the kinds of questions that we believe to be critical as we move forwards beyond the mere acceptance of mindfulness and its health benefits towards a potential re-alignment of spiritual and transpersonal goals in contemporary society.

Call for Papers

Papers are invited that speak to this particular theme, or to the topic of transpersonal psychology more generally.

Papers may be on any aspect of transpersonal psychology (from theoretical to empirical, practice-based to original research). Non-members are welcome to submit papers for presentation at the conference although priority will be given to section members. The usual time allocated for each paper, including discussion, will be 45 minutes (up to 90 minutes for workshops or symposia). Speakers should aim to make papers readily understandable to a non-specialist audience and they should not simply read aloud an article intended for publication.

The extended deadline for the receipt of all submissions is Friday 25 July 2014. Submissions received after this date will be considered only in exceptional circumstances. Submitters will be notified of the outcome by Saturday 9 August 2014. Abstracts of all accepted submissions other than workshops will be included in the convention booklet, provided that they are received before the deadline.

All submissions must be submitted electronically using the submission form. They should be emailed, as attachments, to the Chair of the Program Committee, Prof. Chris Roe at crsrenrhmtna.khi.o@otapo.cu. Authors who are not online or who for some other reason can not meet these requirements should contact the Programme Chair via the Psychology Division, The University of Northampton, Park Campus, Northampton NN2 7AL [tel. +44 (0) 1604 892623, fax. +44 (0) 1604 720636].

If you have any queries please contact us via the event hotline on 01332 224507.