Abraham Abulafia was a Kabbalist from the 13th century. Born in Spain, he travelled extensively and was active, for the second part of his life, in Italy. Open to all cultures, he introduced his students to specific forms of meditations, that conjugated the wisdom of the Sefer Yetzirah with the thought of Maimonides. His work influenced Pico della Mirandola. Abulafia’s meditation techniques can be used as a doorway to wider intrapersonal, interpersonal, transpersonal experiences.
Transpersonal Psychology integrates modern psychology with the spectrum of human experiences that, often have been ignored or considered detrimental by the mainstream circles. That includes peak experiences, but also spiritual development, ecstatic experiences, altered states of consciousness, etc. Psychosynthesis is a form of Transpersonal Psychology. It was developed by Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli, well before Transpersonal Psychology as a whole. It is an open approach to intrapersonal and transpersonal integration, guided by awareness and skillful will. It offers both theoretical frameworks and practical exercises, but it is not bounded by neither. While these specific approaches were not available during the Renaissance, they address the perennial questions that, as humanity, we have been asking across the centuries.