This study describes the system of Transpersonal Psychology of spiritual philosopher and Zen teacher, Richard Rose. He calls this teaching the Albigen System, which has as its core the set of principles of mental inquiry referred to as the Psychology of the Observer.
The aim of this work is to approach Reality. The system recommended provides ways and means towards this goal through the purification of one's state-of-mind and self-definition. Based on his own experience, Rose claims this process of inner and outer work will lead the seeker to Enlightenment or Self-Realization, if diligently followed out to the end.
Rose considers this search for ultimate sanity to be the real work of psychology. His system is a practical, common-sense approach to Validity and incorporates esoteric principles dealing with the correction of the mundane, human psyche, as well as the navigation through the more transpersonal aspects of the mind-dimension. A methodology is offered for the transmutation of energy in the process of "becoming the Truth." The goal of the work is to arrive at the absolute state-of-being, which is said to forever answer all questions and resolve all desires.
This study presents Rose's teaching in an organized, systematic manner, explaining the meanings of and interrelationships among the principles involved, and ties in relevant material from similar spiritual doctrines, such as Advaita Vedanta, Gurdjieff's Fourth Way, Vipassana Buddhism, Kundalini, Jnana, and Raja Yogas, and Zen.
Rose's transpersonal "map," called Jacob's Ladder, is the central framework of his introspective system and is described in detail, including both its therapeutic and mystical aspects in refining the definition of Self as the final observer.