The elder as sage, old age as spiritual path: Towards a transpersonal gerontology

Abstract

In 1990 and again in 1994 the author called for a new field, ‘‘transpersonal gerontology,’’ that would integrate transpersonal psychology and gerontology and would ‘‘include such topics as personal and ultimate meaning and purpose for late-life existence, late life spirituality, life after death, spirituality and life span development, spiritual autobiography, wisdom and compassion, and the Elder-Child’’ (1994, p. 98). In the fifteen plus years since the publication, the need to further define and develop transpersonal gerontology has accelerated, given the continuing and even growing lack of meaning and purpose of the later years, especially in terms of positive, growth oriented, and spiritual models and the Baby Boomers beginning to reach retirement age. This article addresses elements, applications, and practices of and possibilities for late life spirituality to establish a knowledge, research, program and practice base for transpersonal gerontology predicated on the premise that our later adult years provide special and ideal conditions for such psycho-spiritual development.