Allan Combs

Combs attended Ohio University in the early 1960s, first studying physics and then switching to psychology. During these studies, he overcame impediments due to dyslexia, something he later noted would influence his thinking about psychology.{{cite book|last1=Combs|first1=Allan Leslie|editor1-last=Montuori|editor1-first=Alfonso|title=Journeys in Complexity: Autobiographical Accounts by Leading Systems and Complexity Thinkers|date=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317657248|pages=177ff|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1YdwCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT77|language=en|chapter=My Life in Chaos}}{{rp|178}}

He then restarted his graduate education in clinical psychology at the University of Georgia, and at the same time started taking courses and doing research on single-cell recordings of neurons, and mathematically modeled their activity on early versions of the computer.{{rp|179}} Through this time he was reading Carl Jung, European phenomenology, Eastern spirituality Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and John C. Lilly; he also participated in gestalt therapy and human potentials workshops.{{rp|179}}

After graduating he taught biology and psychology for a year at Earlham College in Indiana, then for about a decade at a small college in Missouri. While he was there he read Charles Tart and was inspired by his application of systems theory to psychology. In the early 1980s he moved to a college in North Carolina.{{rp|180}} In the mid-1990s he started corresponding and then collaborating with David Loye,{{Cite book|title=Creativity, consciousness, and the direction of human development. In D. Loye, (Ed.), The great adventure: Toward a human theory of evolution|author=Montuori, A.|author2=Combs, A.|author3=Richards, R.|name-list-style=amp|publisher=SUNY Press|year=2004|location=Albany, New York}} who invited Combs to join a group formed around the ideas of Ervin László.{{rp|183}} Reading László furthered his interests in systems and consciousness and he was soon invited to join László's General Evolutionary Research Group. In 1989 Combs learned of the work of Frederick Abraham, who was beginning to meld chaos theory and psychology, and worked with him to found The Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences.{{rp|185}}{{Cite book|title=Chaos theory in psychology|author=Abraham, F.D.|author2=Gilgen, A.R.|name-list-style=amp|publisher=Praeger|year=1995|location=Westporet, CT}}

As of 2020 Combs held appointments at the California Institute of Integral Studies,{{Cite web|url=https://www.ciis.edu/faculty-and-staff-directory/allan-combs|title=Faculty and Staff Directory|date=2017|website=California Institute of Integral Studies}} where he built the program in consciousness studies in 2015,{{citation needed|date=January 2021}} and The Graduate Institute in Connecticut.{{Cite web|url=https://www.learn.edu/consciousness-and-transpersonal-psy|title=Faculty|website=Consciousness Studies/ Transpersonal Psychology/ Master's Degree}} He also was Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina-Asheville.{{Cite web|url=http://catalog.unca.edu/content.php?catoid=12&navoid=706|title=Faculty|author=2017 University of North Carolina at Asheville|website=University of North Carolina - Asheville}}

As of 2020 he had authored over 200 articles, chapters, and books on consciousness and the brain. Much of his work has been accomplished in collaboration with colleagues Ervin Laszlo{{Cite book|title=Changing visions: Human cognitive maps, past, present and future|editor=Combs, A.|author=Laszlo, E.|author2=Artigiani, R.|author3=Csányi, V.|name-list-style=amp|year=1996|location=London: Adamantine Press; Westport, CT: Praeger}}{{Cite book|title=Dreamer of the Earth: The Relevance of Thomas Berry, prophetic visionary (1914-2009)|author=Laszlo, E.|author2=Combs, A.|name-list-style=amp|publisher=Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions|year=2011}} and Stanley Krippner.{{Cite book|title=Chaos, complexity, and the self-organizing brain. In R. Kay and K.A. Richardson (Eds.), Building and sustaining resilience in complex organizations: Pre-proceedings of the 1st international workshop on complexity and organizational resilience first international workshop on complexity and organizational resilience|author=Krippner, S.|author2=Combs, A.|name-list-style=amp|publisher=ISCE Publishing|year=2007|location=Mansfield, MA}}{{Cite journal|author=Krippner, S.|author2=Combs, A.|name-list-style=amp|date=2002|title=A systems approach to self-organization in the dreaming brain|journal=Kybernetes|volume=21|pages=399–412}} He is also known for his collaboration with Ken Wilber.{{Cite book |last=Combs |first=Allan |url=https://archive.org/details/radianceofbeingc0000comb |title=The Radiance of being: Complexity, chaos, and the evolution of consciousness. (Winner of the Scientific and Medical Network book of the year award.) |publisher=Paragon House |year=1995 |location=Edinburgh: Floris Books; 1996, St Paul, MN |page=[https://archive.org/details/radianceofbeingc0000comb/page/153 153] |isbn=9781557787552 |url-access=registration}}{{Cite book|title=Integral Spirituality|last=Wilber|first=K.|publisher=Shambhala|year=2016|location=Boston, MA}}

He is the founder, Academic Advisor, and President Emeritus of The Society for Consciousness Studies,{{citation needed|date=January 2021}} co-founder of The Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research{{Cite web|url=http://www.laszloinstitute.com/people/allan-combs/|title=Allan Combs|author=The Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research Website Admin|date=2017|website=The Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research}} and a member of the one-hundred member Club of Budapest.{{Cite web|url=http://opensciences.org/people/allan-combs|title=Open Sciences - Allan Combs|author=Campaign for Open Sciences|access-date=August 22, 2017}} He is the Senior Editor of Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century,{{Cite web|url=http://consciousness.arizona.edu/2016WorkshopCurriculum.htm|title=The Science of Consciousness Conference|last=University of Arizona|first=Center for Consciousness Studies|date=2017|website=University of Arizona}} co-editor of the Journal of Conscious Evolution,{{Cite web|url=http://cejournal.org/editors|title=Journal of Conscious Evolution|author=Saiter, Combs|date=2017|website=Journal of Conscious Evolution - A Journal of Transdisciplinary Scholarship|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170720083543/http://cejournal.org/editors|archive-date=2017-07-20|url-status=usurped}} Associate Editor of Dynamical Psychology.{{Cite web|url=http://dynapsyc.org/?page_id=13|title=Dynamical Psychology - Editorial Board|last=Hakim|first=Syahir|date=2017|website=Dynamical Psychology}}

Combs won the National Teaching Award of the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs for 2002/2003 and in the same year held the UNCA Honorary Ruth and Leon Feldman Professorship.

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• [http://www.sourceintegralis.org/ Source Integralis, Combs' website]

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Category:21st-century American psychologists

Category:1942 births

Category:Living people

Category:Ohio University alumni

Category:University of North Carolina at Asheville faculty

Category:20th-century American psychologists

Category:American parapsychologists