Eugene Pustoshkin

Eugene Pustoshkin is a licensed clinical psychologist in Russia and a specialist in clinical counseling and psychological correction. In 2010, he graduated with the specialist degree from the Faculty of Psychology (St. Petersburg State University).

Spheres of his interests include: global citizenship; cooperation between Russia and the Western and Eastern countries (USA, EU-states, India, China, etc.); transdisciplinary research of structures and states of consciousness and their influence on culture and society; Russian transpersonalism and integralism (V. V. Nalimov, V. M. Bekhterev, G. S. Pomeranz, A. F. Losev, and others). Official website: http://pustoshkin.com/

In 2003—2004, Eugene lived and studied in Virginia, USA, as an exchange student of the Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX), a scholarship program administered by the U.S. Department of State through funding from the Freedom Support Act. The FLEX program was initiated in 1992 by the U.S. Congress to develop closer relations with the emerging countries of the former Soviet Union, and to provide the youth of these countries with a cross-cultural living experience and the opportunity to learn about American society and government. The program is coordinated by the American Councils for International Education. Eugene is the author of the initiative on promoting development of the identity of global citizens within the State Alumni project, an online community of alumni of U.S. government-sponsored exchange programs.

Since 2006, in the context of his practical and theoretical interests in academic research of consciousness and its altered states he has been collaborating with Dimitry Spivak, PhD (senior research fellow at N. P. Bechtereva Human Brain Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences; director of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Institute for Cultural Research; and chairman of the UNESCO Chair for Comparative Studies of Spiritual Traditions, their Specific Cultures and Interreligious Dialogue in St. Petersburg, Russia). As a result of this collaboration in 2009 under the auspices of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR grant 09-06-00012A) and in cooperation with A. Khlopushin he launched the first Russian online project devoted to academic studies of altered states of consciousness (with D. Spivak as the academic advisor of the project). The goal of the project is supporting and informing about research in this field. Since the summer of 2010 the website transforms into an international bilingual web portal, receives recognition from the leading researchers in this field (C. T. Tart, S. Krippner, F. Echenhofer, and others), and can be accessed in the English and Russian languages at http://altstates.net.

In 2008—2009, he initiated and facilitated dialogue between the leaders of the Western community of integral theory and practice (K. Wilber, M. Murphy, S. Esbjorn-Hargens, S. Cook-Greuter, B. Sharma, J. Ritchie-Dunham, T. O’Fallon and others) and representatives of the Russian society who are interested in the prospects of implementing integrative technologies in reforming business and civil society. The events and meetings within this initiative were held in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, and Amsterdam.

Since 2008 he has been attending practical training in the Integral Psychology program under the guidance of S. Kupriyanov, M.D., in Helsinki, Finland. This program is aimed at developing skills of pragmatically applying the models of multidimensional communication and states & structures of consciousness dynamics towards everyday life, psychotherapy, business communication, cross-cultural dialogue, and sociocultural transformations. The foundations of this program consists in exploration of methodological aspects of implementation of the notions found in various psychological and spiritual schools of the West and the East with the possibility of their practical application towards a wide spectrum of aims.

In 2009—2010, Eugene conducted his university graduation research on the topic «Features of self-consciousness in patients with psychotic depression» under the guidance of St. Petersburg State University’s professor L. I. Wasserman, MD, on the basis of various clinical departments at the V. M. Bekhterev Psychoneurological Research Institute (St. Petersburg, Russia). It was a pilot investigation that was conducted in collaboration with the team of psychologists and physicians at the Psychoneurological Research Institute and was theoretically grounded in an integrative synthesis of biopsychosocial paradigm, dialectical approach towards self-consciousness studies, latest breakthroughs in the field of academic research in the field of states of consciousness and experimental psychosemantics. The research brought forth important data about the features and dynamics of self-esteem in the structure of self-consciousness in patients with psychotic (major recurrent and bipolar) depression and the importance of religious attitudes in the structure of the patients’ self-consciousness (in press). An important conclusion of this theoretical and empirical pilot research was that depression of the psychotic spectrum is characterized by stabilization of a pathological state of consciousness. This pathological state of consciousness leads to forming of especially severe disorders of self-consciousness (depersonalization and derealization).

Since 2010, Eugene has been co-leading an international initiative called Courage to Change within the Global Dialogue: Russian Contribution program. Pilot projects of this Program have been held at the World Economic Forum (Davos), Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, U.S. Congress, Harvard University, etc. The goal of this initiative is to articulate and establish international recognition of the value of the Russian perspective in the sphere of personal growth and spiritual search. The mechanism of the Program’s realization includes forming of the stories of change, personal growth and spiritual transformation of the «pragmatic people» (businesspeople, managers, administrators, leaders of social and cultural initiatives) who are embodied hosts of the Russian contribution to global dialogue. These individuals have been effectively applying innovative approaches towards their own development and development of their organizations. These people are characterized by the capacity to find sources for energy of creativity and effective solutions to world’s challenges based on the recent discoveries of the human sciences and practices of personal and spiritual development.

These individuals participate in various forms of experience exchange, «action inquiry,» personal development trainings, business coaching, and so on; and they extensively apply innovative transdisciplinary approaches: K. Wilber’s integral framework; S. Grof’s holotropic model; altered states of consciousness theories (C. T. Tart, L. I. Spivak, D. L. Spivak, S. Krippner, and others); Japanese practice of kaizen; Scandinavian ideas of «funky business»; New England’s technology of «self-learning organization»; Yogic breathing exercises; Tibetan meditative practices (Dalai Lama; Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, and others); Christian contemplative practices (hesychasm of the Orthodox Christianity; father T. Keating’s centering prayer; integrative religious approach of D. Steindl-Rast, and others); American technologies of risk management and the system of stress management through mindfulness regulation (which brings together Eastern practices of meditation and classical Western psychology), and others.

The Courage of Change initiative is based on the idea that in the today’s situation of global crisis of mutual trust meetings of this kind of people, their joint initiatives and exchange of innovative solutions are essential for themselves, their companies, local communities and states which they represent as well as for the world at large. A high level of mutual trust which is grounded in similarities of these individual’s experiences of spiritual growth, in respect towards pioneering decisions is a catalyzer that is capable to magnify the effectiveness of cooperation in various areas of tackling global challenges. Positive examples of these people as well as the openness of their events, projects, and initiatives for co-participation and co-authorship bring global dialogue and international synergy towards a completely new level.