Personality Trait of Self-Transcendence
Steven Kotler: 3 Distinct yet Related Components
2 min read · 13.7.2025
TCI Personality Profile
“In the years since Csikszentmihalyi did his research, scientists looking further into flow states and their relationship to spirituality have begun utilizing more advanced personality profiles like the Temperament and Character Inventory created by Robert Cloninger, a psychiatrist at the University of Washington.
“Cloninger's TCI is one of the most widely respected and often utilized personality profiles, designed to consider not simply the psychological factors of personality but social, environmental, biological and neurochemical components as well.
“It comes at personality profiling with mathematical rigor that had long been missing from traditional psychological testing.
“The TCI was also one of the first personality profiles to measure a trait known as self-transcendence. The term is used to describe spiritual feelings that are independent of traditional religiosity.”
3 Components of ST
“Self-transcendence is composed of three distinct but related components.
“The first two components are known as transpersonal identification and mysticism, with transpersonal identification being a form of empathy writ large.
“It's a willingness to identify not just with fellow humans but with plants and animals and even the planet itself.
“Mysticism is pretty much what it sounds like: a measure of one's willingness to be interested in things that cannot be explained by rationale and reason.
“The third component, and possibly the most important, is known as self-forgetfulness.
“Those of us who are more self-forgetful have an easier time getting lost in the moment, being absorbed in art and music and sport, in achieving Csikszentmihalyi's flow state.
“So, flow states are not just at the heart of much of human performance - but also a crucial component of our self-transcendence.”
Reference:
Steven Kotler. The Intersection of Elite Performance and Spirituality. Newsletter 11.7.2023.
