The Reverberations of a Graduate Study Abroad Course in India

Abstract

Faculty in a transdisciplinary graduate program in holistic health studies, which is grounded in transformational learning led a study abroad course in India. The focus of the course is on perspectives of health and healing in India, including an understanding of Yoga, meditation, Ayurvedic medicine, and Tibetan medicine. The purpose of this phenomenological research is to describe the experiences of 13 holistic health studies graduate students who participated in this graduate study abroad course. Qualitative data were collected from students at the time of application to the course, 1 month after returning from India, and 1 year later. In addition, student applications, posttrip reflection papers, photographs, notes taken by faculty at a 1-year reunion, and results of an electronic survey were used as data. Results suggest that students experienced “mind, body and spirit” transformations with reverberations on personal, community, and global levels.

Keywords

holistic education transformative pedagogy social change

Introduction

Being in India has exposed me to a broad spectrum of healing from the self, to world conditions, to connection with God, and has given me a huge bija (Sanskrit for a seed that holds great potential) to bring home, let grow and let its effects ripple outwards. Profound changes, I feel more at peace with myself, the environment, and the human race as a whole.

We teach at a private Midwestern university in a graduate program in holistic health studies, one of the first in the country. Our program philosophy is based on a view that health is influenced by the interconnection of the physical body, emotions and thoughts, spiritual beliefs and rituals, cultural identity and practices, community, and environment. All living systems coexist in a web of relationships, inseparable from the whole (Holistic Health Studies, n.d.). Course work helps students make the radical shift from thinking in parts to thinking holistically. Our holistic transformational learning model integrates holistic theories and practices with transformational learning theory and methods (Anderson Sathe & Geisler, 2012). Our practice resides in the domain of holistic health studies, which is transdisciplinary—it transcends the disciplines exploring the philosophy, science, and art of the holistic model of health and healing. At the heart of the program is the belief that transformational learning that involves ongoing opportunities for personal empowerment and spiritual transformation prepares us to face today’s challenges and that as individuals are transformed, they, in turn, transform communities.

Our curriculum promotes the interweaving of reflection/action and theory/practice, valuing each in the benefits it brings to transformation and healing. We developed a graduate short-term study abroad course, Perspectives of Health and Healing in India, which is grounded in the theories of holism and transformational learning in the study abroad context providing a space for powerful learning. Short-term study abroad courses, grounded in transformative and experiential learning, can be valuable and transformative (Bennett, 2008; Kasworm & Bowles, 2012). We chose India, not for the “pursuit of exotica” but because many holistic systems of health and healing have their roots in India and surrounding areas (Woolf, 2007). In this course, we provide an overview of the philosophy and practice of health and healing in India. Students explore the concept of holistic health through the multiple lenses of culture, spirituality, economics, and social justice. The course is rooted in deep respect for the cross-cultural wisdom of numerous healing traditions, including Ayurvedic medicine, Tibetan medicine, Yoga, and meditation, and seeks to embrace many cultural perspectives and meanings that shape and influence individual and community health. Students use critical thinking, reflection, lively discussion, philosophical knowledge, scientific evidence, and personal experience to deepen their understanding and integrate their findings into both a personal and professional model of integrative health.

While there is a long history of undergraduate opportunities for study abroad as well as research on undergraduate study abroad experiences, both opportunities for and research on graduate study abroad experiences are sparse. In addition, holistic health studies is a rapidly growing area of study with many new graduate programs currently emerging in the United States. This study explores new territory: the intersection of short-term graduate study abroad opportunities in an emerging transdisciplinary field of holistic health. The purpose of this phenomenological research is to describe the experiences of holistic health studies graduate students before, during, and after a short-term study abroad course focusing on perspectives of health and healing in India.

Conceptual Framework

Our transdisciplinary master’s program pedagogy, and consequently the global studies course, Perspectives of Health and Healing in India, is grounded in the underlying philosophies of the theories of holism (Dossey & Keegan, 2013; Micozzi, 2015; Newman, 2008; Smuts, 1926; Thornton, 2013; Watson, 2012; Wheatley, 2006; Wilber, Patten, Leonard, & Morelli, 2012) and transformational learning (Boyd, 2008; Boyd & Meyers, 1988; Dirkx, 2008; Dirkx, Spohr, Tepper, & Tons, 2010; Freire 1974, 2000; Mezirow & Taylor, 2009; Newman, 2011; Taylor & Cranton, 2012). In addition, the study abroad context is integral to student learning in the course, Perspectives of Health and Healing in India (Lewin, 2009; Savicki, 2008, 2013; Selby, 2008; Vande Berg, Paige, & Heeming Lou, 2012). We provide an overview of these theories, and how they intersect in the study abroad context creating the conceptual framework for both course pedagogy and our research of student experience in the graduate course under study.

Holism

Smuts (1926), a South African statesman, coined the word holism as an ecological concept to counter the Newtonian theory of reductionism. He proposed that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and the parts cannot exist or be understood except in relation to the whole. Holistic theories and practices have evolved since 1926 and involve the physical body, emotions and thoughts, spiritual beliefs and rituals, cultural identity and practices, community interconnectedness, and environmental influences and acknowledge these relationships are both interrelated and inseparable (Dossey & Keegan, 2013; Newman, 2011; Watson, 2012; Wilber et al., 2012).

A holistic view of the person in health and healing recognizes the interconnection of all aspects of the person as integral to healing. The World Health Organization defines health holistically as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization, 1946). As with any self-correcting system, one of the underlying premises of holistic health is that “each person heals himself or herself” (Micozzi, 2015, p. 5).

Our holistic approach to teaching places the student at the center of the experience and takes into consideration all aspects of the person’s life. This integrated approach allows for deep learning that recognizes the needs of the whole person including the mind, body, spirit, community, and environment. When given the right learning environment, the student becomes their own authentic self, in a way of both self-correction and growth.

As we as individuals heal and learn, we in turn influence the larger systems within which we interact. O’Sullivan (2012) suggests that complexity theory is a way of viewing holism, “we must learn to attend to our surroundings as whole persons in the web of life” (pp. 173–174). When changes happen in one human system, it affects all other systems in a constant interplay of adapting, changing, and becoming. In this way of viewing change and transformation, holistic theory and practice are closely aligned with adult transformational learning.

Transformational Learning

Blending the work of adult learning and transformational theorists like Freire (1974, 2000) and Mezirow and Taylor (2009), who focus on critical thinking and reflection, with the work of Boyd (1989, 2008), Dirkx (2000, 2008) and Dirkx, Spohr, Tepper, and Tons (2010), who examine the emotional and spiritual dimensions of learning, transformational learning theory supports the principles of holism. The underlying theme of transformational learning theory is change and growth. Transformational learning means that people change the way they interpret their experiences and their interactions with the world. Cranton and Taylor (2012) describe that:

transformative learning theory is based on the notion that we interpret our experiences in our own way, and that how we see the world is a result of our perceptions of our experiences. Transformative learning is a process of examining, questioning, and revising those perceptions. (p. 5)

Transformational learning also encompasses an integration of the emotional and spiritual components of students’ interpretation of their experiences. Dirkx (2001) describes, “I argue that personally significant and meaningful learning is fundamentally grounded in and is derived from the adult’s emotional, imaginative connection with the self and with the broader social world” (p. 64). From a holistic perspective, a change in a student’s awareness is an essential component of transformational learning. Ettling (2012) describes in her chapter, Educator as Change Agent of Transformative Learning, the importance of creating a learning space with both a worldview and introspection that promotes awareness of oneself and one’s social or work reality. Ettling (2012) argues that “New awareness is, in itself, a change” (p. 539). Our holistic view values students’ internal shifts as a beginning for broader change. It recognizes transformation as dynamic, interconnected, and occurring in multiple levels (individual, group, organization, community, society, world, and earth) at the same time. As individuals are transformed, they in turn transform the communities in which they work and live.

The Study Abroad Context

The integration of holistic and transformational theories in the study abroad context creates a container to hold student experiences. Experiential learning as a component of both holistic and transformative theories is a common theme in global studies literature. While there may be various purposes of a study abroad course, Brewer (2011) suggests that students should acquire content knowledge, develop interculturally, and learn experientially. Wagenknecht (2011) describes the tension of finding the right balance between academic and experiential learning in study abroad courses. While study abroad courses must maintain academic rigor and be held accountable for academic content, based on the very nature of the experience of travel and cultural immersion, they must also support and facilitate experiential learning. Pagano and Roselle (2009) explain that the combination of academic and experiential learning can provide the opportunity for students to be “affected by the experience in a way that encourages critical questioning and making connections with course content and context” and ultimately applying this knowledge to their world (p. 221). Itin (1999) describes experiential learning as:

Carefully chosen experiences supported by reflection, critical analysis, and syntheses, [which] are structured to require the learner to take initiative, make decisions, and be accountable for the results through actively posing questions, investigating, experimenting, being curious, solving problems, assuming responsibility, being creative, constructing meaning and integrating previously developed knowledge. Learners are engaged intellectually, emotionally, socially, politically, spiritually, and physically in an uncertain environment where the learner may experience success, failure, adventure, and risk taking. (p. 93)

Although some may argue that short-term study abroad programs cannot impact the student, Ritz (2011) contends that they can be “pedagogically designed to provide significant learning experiences and opportunities to practice holistic education and to promote transformative learning” (p. 165). A component that might influence the student’s experience is the integration of holistic and transformational learning theories. Taylor (1994) was an early initiator for using transformational learning theory to account for the learning process of intercultural competence and suggests that critical reflection is a key component. In addition, Savicki (2008) gives credence to the growth and transformation approach to study abroad, focusing on noted changes in student motivations, attitudes, self-identity, and values after a study abroad experience. Lyon (2002) reviewed the literature that describes the experiences of people who studied abroad. She identified and analyzed interconnections between transformative learning and cross-cultural adaptation. Through this process, she discovered key transformative points in students’ journeys. She coined the terms “departure trigger” and “reentry trigger” to describe these disorienting dilemmas both in terms of situational and chronological contexts. It was these key points in the process that instigated a change for the students, where shifts in motivations, attitudes, self-identity, and values were analyzed and often reinterpreted.

Dirkx (1997) suggests that transformational learning “is understood as a process that takes place within the dynamic and paradoxical relationship of self and other” (p. 83). This is an important piece in developing new knowledge that takes into consideration the knowledge production of the other. Reilly and Senders (2009) suggest that developing competence is a balancing act “between on one hand, understanding another culture through our own projections, and on the other, through that culture’s self-explanation. Neither is adequate” (p. 262). Rodriguez (2006) suggests that the American binary mode of thinking about difference “tends to silence other ways of interpreting cultural difference and to ignore the fact that others at the sites we go to are also producers and consumers of text about which they too are trying to figure out difference” (p. 43). As students begin to understand and integrate a broader perspective of the world, they can gain an appreciation for global issues of social justice. Barbour (2012) argues for “the reassertion of a social justice-oriented definition of global citizenship and for educational models that foster self-criticism and the decolonization of knowledge” and dismantles the student–consumer model in higher education that reinforces corporate motives for travel (p. 3).

Conceptual Framework of Holism, Transformation in the Study Abroad Context

Our conceptual framework is at the intersection of holism and transformational learning in the study abroad context. This creates a broad container for student learning and supports the integration of the mind; body; spirit; community; and whole systems thinking and movement toward growth, wholeness, healing, and wisdom. We start with the individual journey and create space for students to look introspectively. At the same time, we encourage students to look externally, critically assessing themselves and the world around them and become aware of emerging worldviews and opportunities for justice and healing. By immersing students in a study abroad experience, we expand their opportunities for both self-reflection and global awareness.

Method

This yearlong longitudinal study describes the mind, body, spirit transformations of 13 holistic health studies graduate students in a study abroad course in India. We conducted the research from a phenomenological culture of inquiry, where we sought to understand the lived experience of the study participants. We explored the common meaning for the 13 graduate students, as they studied perspectives of health and healing in India.

Course Description

Perspectives of Health and Healing in India is a three-credit elective graduate course in our holistic health studies program. We met as a class once prior to our departure to India, spent 2 weeks traveling together in India, and met 3 times upon return (2 weeks, 6 weeks, and 1 year after returning to the United States). Content areas included cultural sensitivity, social justice, spirituality, and the healing practices of Ayurvedic medicine, Tibetan medicine, Yoga, and meditation. In India, we stayed in hotels, at an ashram, and at a rural university campus, and travelled by private motor coach. We visited cultural, spiritual, and historical sites, including the Akshardham Hindu Temple, Raj Ghat—Gandhi’s burial site, the Red Fort, India Gate, Qutb Minar, the Manju-ka-tilla Tibetan Refugee Camp in New Delhi, a Tibetan temple, BPS Mahila Vishwavidyalaya University, Khanpur village projects, Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama ashram, aarti, and Jeevan Dhara Ashram. We also spent a day in an “Art of Joyful Living” workshop taught by the faculty at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama in Rishikesh. We used a variety of teaching methods including daily practice of awareness/interconnectedness, guided discussion, guest lectures, site visits, and reflection papers. Much of the student learning was through experiential learning led by teachers in India. We helped students integrate and synthesize what the on-site teachers presented.

Description of Participants

Fourteen female graduate students in the holistic health studies program, aged 24–49 years, participated in the study abroad course, Perspectives of Health and Healing in India. One student was an alumna and one student was enrolled in another graduate program. After receiving institutional review board approval and requesting participation from students after the course was completed and grades were turned in, 13 of the 14 women agreed to participate in the study.

Data Collection

Participants consented to have their pretrip interview responses, posttrip reflection papers, photographs (students and faculty had taken photos and posted them on a common website), and notes (from our 1-year reunion) used as data. Pretrip interview questions included items such as tell us about your prior international experience(s), if any, give us an example of your ability to be flexible in a group, what happens for you when you get stressed out? Tell us about a time when you were immersed in (exposed to) a culture that was different from your own and what happened? How did you handle it? In the posttrip reflection paper, students were asked to reread their private journals and write a paper about their learning and how they may have been transformed by their experiences. In addition, they were asked to address how their learning/transformation might influence their application/practice of health and well-being. Students posted thousands of photos on a web-hosted site, so that everyone had access to them. Electronic surveys with 10 questions (e.g., How has the experience in India impacted you? How have you made meaning out of the experiences in India? What do you now know about healing as a result of this course? What changes have you noticed in yourself 1 year after returning from India?) were e-mailed to 14 students 1 year after the course. Six students completed the survey. Researchers jotted notes during the 1-year reunion and later compared notes with each other.

Data Analysis

From a phenomenological perspective, we used thematic analysis to analyze the data, moving from codes to themes which described the elements of “what the individuals experienced and how they … experienced it” (Creswell, 2012, p. 79). First, we individually read the pretrip interview responses and posttrip reflection papers and surveys and wrote codes in the margins. Next, we went through the documents together, identifying common and agreed upon codes for all the data. We then used mind mapping to create a diagram of the codes from which to develop a framework for the themes.

Considerations of Rigor

Williams (2009) suggests the benefits of collecting qualitative data in a multidimensional collection process. We collected qualitative data over a 15-month period (from pretrip interview responses for the course to a 1-year posttravel follow-up survey) from multiple data sources (pretrip interview questions, course assignments, group meetings, and surveys), which allowed us to triangulate the data. Our interdisciplinary research partnership, with our backgrounds in education, sociology, nursing, and psychology, provided multiple lenses through which to analyze and interpret the data, helping to broaden our mutual understanding and reduce bias.

Results

What emerged from the data were descriptions of multifaceted and interconnected journeys for each individual and the group as a whole. The journeys were both linear, moving forward in time from application to 1 year after returning to the United States, and introspective, moving into an inner landscape and greater consciousness. The journeys and phases of the journeys can be described in the following categories: preparation, time in India, introspection, reimmersion into the U.S. culture, and a deepened life.

Preparation

I ache to go on a trip for growth, educational, and spiritual reasons and this seeking isn’t a response outside ourselves but a still small voice within.

As part of the pretrip interview questions for the course, students described a spiritual preparation for the journey through descriptions of synchronicity, openness, intuition, and a calling both internal to themselves and from India herself. “My intuition has known for some time that I would take this journey. Every part of me, is saying this is it, it is time.” Several made remarks such as “it drew me in,” as if the course was calling to them. They had an intuitive sense that the course was about more than the content on the syllabus and that it would have a profound impact on their lives. A student projected:

I hope that the learning and growth that happens can be mutual and that what we all carry back into our own lives will help to balance the energy globally as well as promote understanding and acceptance of differences while also recognizing our similarities.

Students also had a sense that this course was more than a “tourist trip.”

The timing seemed to be right in the participants’ life journey. As a student explained, “I am interested in going to India at this time in my life because I believe I have been preparing for the past few years by the journey I have been on.” Another student described it on a more cosmic level, “when I discovered this course in India, I felt as though the planets were aligning, for years I have been meaning to plan a trip to India.” A feeling that India herself called them, “drew [them] in,” as though they “were each trying to understand or discover a part of [themselves] and … were not sure what or why, but India had somehow called each of [them].” A sense of gratitude was prevalent in their pretrip interview responses as a student expressed, “Thank-you for the opportunity to open doors for exchange on multiple energetic levels, both personally and professionally.” This spiritual beginning prepared them for the physical journey of traveling in India.

The Physical Journey

“India was indescribable. It really was. It was a strange mix of old ways and new ways, abundance and poverty, feeling and experiencing, empowering and humbling—all at the same time.” In describing their journey while in India, students focused on a sense of universal connection (or humanity) and cultural awareness that they experienced through the community of women in the class and with women in India, as well as the paradoxes, spiritual essence, and healing practices of India. Students valued the experience of connecting with the community of women that they journeyed with. One student reflected that, “Connecting with the women on this journey were some of the most reflective and inspiring moments of the trip for me.” They could see that the group of students they were traveling with represented its own culture. A student discovered, “I was immersed into a new culture both in India and within this new group of people that I was now spending my every waking moment with.” This connection to and awareness of women expanded to include the women of India. A student shared, “One observation I made while visiting the village is that women and girls in the village kept themselves in the background.” While another student explained, “I realized the importance of the need to embrace womanhood with other women.”

India was filled with paradoxes and contrasts for the students. One student stated,

Everywhere you go there are contrasting forces. The old is mixed with the new, the traditional is mixed with the modern, the hot is mixed with the cold, etc. There are splashes of rich color on a neutral canvas. A pile of garbage can be next to a beautiful building, can be next to the slums, can be next to a modern billboard, can be next to a fire, can be next to a temple, can be next to a homeless man, can be next to a man in a business suit, etc. Although these opposing forces exist everywhere it all seems to flow together effortlessly.

They learned more about their own privilege:

I was endlessly fascinated at the constant stream of souls on foot, on bicycles, living in makeshift lean-tos. I was aghast at the line of sleeping bags under the freeway, and a dead body just lying on the sidewalk. It made me ponder the uniqueness of every individual—everyone different—like snowflakes, and the infinite possibilities of human life. I couldn’t keep my eyes off it all. And at the same time, it also made me question why I am among the privileged few that waltz past the armed guards at the hotel and the upper caste rest stop. What makes me so special?

Students valued studying healing practices in India where they originated because as one student realized, “to really give credit to the history of these healing practices…it is necessary to see it in its actual place of origin.” The learning was embodied as they were immersed in the discipline of the ashram schedule. One student described the schedule as, “From 5 o’clock in the morning to 9 o’clock at night, we sweated spiritual bullets as we prayed, chanted, meditated, practiced Yoga, ate silently, and adhered to a militantly spiritual schedule.” They learned about the broader connections and benefits inherent in Yoga.

The ashram experience was healing for me and I was able to find solutions that are good for everyone through meditation, peace, and being true to self. This personal transformation will heal my family, my community, my profession, my nation, and tap into the consciousness of world peace.

Students also gained new perspectives about themselves and their worlds:

I dreamt before leaving for India that I was cleaning a thick film of dirt off my camera lens. Not only did this provide a clear answer to my dilemma as to whether or not to bring my “big” camera along, but in retrospect, it also serves as a metaphor for many aspects of the trip. I see now that it was like I was cleaning a haze off the lens in order to see the world and myself in new ways.

India offered her spirit to those open to it and the learning tapped into students’ spirit. “I think the spiritual nature of India offered herself to those of us who were willing to accept her.” Students felt the spiritual nature of India through her beauty, energy, and rituals. One student described her experience, “I was hypnotized by the beauty of nature found in the gardens at the ashram, the ancient trees growing along the streets and within the villages, the spectacular Himalayan Mountains, and the (surprisingly) clear Ganga River.” The energy in India was simultaneously powerful and peaceful. One student explained, “I felt the powerful energy when first arriving in India, and in Rishikesh it hit me 10-fold! There was a huge connection there with something much bigger than myself.” The rituals in India brought forth spirit and an appreciation for the universal consciousness. As a student describes,

The best experience of culture, community, and spirituality contributing to wholeness was traveling in Rishikesh to the Ganges River for aarti ceremony. This important spiritual place and daily ritual for purification was so beautiful. I took the opportunity to sense the river and the energetic vibration was unbelievable, all the way up my arms and into the heart energy center. I believe that we all participate in this kind of daily ritual in one way or another, we pray different, our rituals are different, but we have a universal consciousness about sunrise, sunset, purification, and spirituality.

The physical journey in India provided the impetus for introspection and a desire for a deeper understanding of themselves and their own true nature.

Introspection

“Self-awareness and breath, to look for our own triggers of empathy, and to work at obtaining a higher consciousness …. For when we shift from within, we affect change around us.” The inner journey was difficult for students to describe. It offered inner power, freedom, and healing as in a rebirth. This journey began during the time in India and continued through the year after our return. While it was difficult to pinpoint exactly what had happened and to describe it, it was clear that something had happened. “For me, there was no one significant life changing event or moment, but rather the whole experience has widened my perspectives and slowly seeps into my consciousness, expanding me and teaching me what it will.” Students were also unclear about why internal transformation was happening, but it seemed to be connected to spirit. A student explained:

I don’t really understand why all this transformation happened. I think it was partly because I was ready for it—and I was open to the experience. The trip was more of a spiritual experience than I expected and I feel like that has been a starting point for much of my internal transformation.

The healing that students experienced was deep and personal. As one student describes, “I felt as if some old scars had been taken off my heart.” Student’s internal journey was often emotionally and physically painful. One student described:

I literally couldn’t stomach it. The last day of long bus travel, I got a frontal headache that forced me to close my eyes. What a great lesson in how emotions are held in the body, and that the body will not tell a lie.

Another student describes her emotional experience in this way:

Sitting for my meditation I struggled with pain in my back. I asked one of the teachers about this and he said something to me that I will never forget. He said, “What are you holding on to that you can’t let go of?” I broke down into tears when he said this because I realized a tremendous potential for healing and transformation. I was holding on to something. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what that was, but it was there. I felt it. My reaction to his words proved it. It was the beginning of my very own emotional purification.

Another student described the internal journey as returning to forgotten parts of herself:

I had so many experiences on this trip that resonated in me that felt like the pure truth. It was like I was remembering something I once knew and every time it was manifested in words, someone’s presence, someone’s eyes, someone’s love, I felt it resonate in my soul and it made me weepy. It was like connecting to something deep inside of me that I can’t quite understand yet. I have learned so much about myself on this trip, things that I maybe already knew but just needed some confirmation. The discoveries I made are just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg.

Reimmersion into the U.S. culture was challenging for students, as they emerged from deep introspection and internal shifts.

Reimmersion Into the U.S. Culture

“My fear is that I’ll fall back into the role and forget what I’ve learned in India, but I’m convinced that regardless of what the mind does (forgets/remembers), my heart knows. My heart wants more and needs more.” Students found that they had experienced transformation and that their previous life seemed different, foreign. They hoped to retain the personal changes they had begun in India and to retain a global connection and awareness. Students struggled with reentry into their lives in the United States. While transformation had happened internally in India, students were not sure how to incorporate these changes into their life in the United States. They expressed both hope and fear. Tension existed between what their lives were like before and what they might be like in the United States. One student described, “I find my life being thrown back to what my life was before, but it just has not quite arrived back to the life it was before (because I do not want it to).” Many students talked about the difficulty of returning to their old routines and their jobs. Sharing their experiences with others was challenging. One student expressed her frustration, “Trying to put into words for others about the trip has been nothing short of a challenge, and I definitely did not think it would have been as hard to transition back as it was.” Students attempted to adopt the tools such as breathing, Yoga, and meditation into their daily lives upon return:

Our time was more experientially and educationally oriented, which offered many ideas for continuing a home practice. Meditation has been on my to-do list for years. Using a mantra was new to me and I had interesting experiences with feeling energy in my body at the ashram during meditation that I had never experienced before which made me more curious about practicing at home. The question still for me is how do I take the leap?

Taking the leap often meant more than figuring out how to incorporate a meditation practice into daily life. Many of the students experienced significant life changes such as ending a major relationship, quitting a job, changing careers, discarding material belongings, cancelling cable television, or training to be a Yoga teacher. Although many of the changes and transformations were difficult, students talked about the resulting changes positively, and some want to visit India in the future. A student returned to the metaphor of a new lens:

So, WOW, what sights I saw after dusting off my camera lens! In some ways I think going to India was, for me, a little like giving birth. It was tough in a lot of ways, I came back very sick and with many tough images in my head and heart. However, as I tell my tales, share my photographs with family and friends, and reminisce about it with my newfound friends, all the lovely things are what stand out. Those are what I will remember, and I will want to visit again—for all of India’s brilliant rewards!

As students reflected on their experience a year later, they continued to be grateful for the experience and all India had to offer. One student offered this expression of gratitude, “Thank-you India and its people for inviting me into your world and as a result, providing me with greater insights into mine.” As a way of bringing together the preparations, the physical experience of India, the introspection, and the reimmersion into the American culture, students discovered that their life was filled with a deeper meaning.

A Deepened Life

I feel like I became a little more connected with my true self on that trip, and the ripple of transformation was making the changes necessary to feel more comfortable being more of my true self all the time, rather than selectively.

Students simultaneously felt a deepened connection to their true self and to the larger global community, which fueled their passions and vocation. They described a profound sense of spirituality, transformation, and healing. Students developed a realization that they are part of something bigger than themselves and their immediate community. A student shared, “… as I appreciate that I have a part to play in this wonderful universe, I become more conscious of my actions, words, and even thoughts as they all inform our world order.” By seeing how others live, students could see ways to change their perspective. One student speculated, “maybe my glasses have changed; my perspective has been altered due to seeing another way of living.”

Students held an awareness of taking time to process the learning and that in some ways, this is the beginning of a greater transformation. A student realized, “I will be processing and learning from this trip for years to come” and “to not only dwell on but also see and experience the spirituality of India’s people through their education, healing, and daily living left me much to unravel and discern.” While another student explained, “To summarize the learning from this trip is very difficult as I feel this will also be a learning experience that will continue to reveal itself to me.”

This transformation stirred their passions and stimulated their vocation. A student shared, “this trip will continue to form my vocation … this seeking isn’t a response outside ourselves but a still, small voice within.” A student reflected on the inspiration she received from a wise woman in India who is both a Catholic nun and a swami, “I was moved by her expression of a beautifully integrated spirituality. I will carry the vision of her faith experience with me forever. She has ignited in me a passion for furthering the effort of interreligious dialogue and acceptance.”

For another student, the desire for community emerged:

So the idea of sathsang—of being with like-minded people, in communion with our truth sounds so lovely to me. I think I need to create more opportunities in my life to be with like-minded people so I have the support to fully develop into my true self and can support others to do the same.

Their perspective of community broadened to include a global community. A student realized, “I was really struck that humanity is humanity wherever we are, despite the ways that our cultures have grown different.” This global connection promoted a common feeling about humanity. A student shared:

The experience has raised many questions for me about life and its meaning and what influences our beliefs about everything. At the same time, it affirmed the universality of humanity. We may live on opposite sides of the planet in a very different lifestyle, but we still can connect through a look or a smile or a touch, and maybe that is what it is all about.

Another student described a feeling of being more connected to the world, “I think it would be hard to pinpoint the changes from just the India trip, but I feel like I have experienced another culture and, in a way, it makes me feel more connected to the world.”

The students’ transformations from the entire experience will have many reverberations. One student summed up the experience this way:

The Ashram experience was healing for me and I was able to find solutions that are good for everyone through meditation, peace, and being true to self. This personal transformation will heal my family, my community, my profession, my nation, and tap into the consciousness of world peace.

Discussion

“For me, there was no one significant life changing event or moment, but rather the whole experience has widened my perspectives and slowly seeps into my consciousness, expanding me and teaching me what it will.” This study abroad course in India offered a holistic and transformational learning experience physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually for those who engaged in the journey. Results suggest students experienced mind, body, and spirit transformational healing with reverberations on personal, community, and global levels. We describe these reverberations using the metaphor of drumming: The vibrations can be both heard and felt and extend beyond the students themselves.

The combination of being in a country with deep spirituality, cultural perspectives new to the students, a pedagogy grounded in the theories of holism, and transformational learning in the study abroad context provided expansive space to go inward, setting the stage for gaining wisdom about perspectives of health and healing in India, and profound transformation and healing for graduate students. This research contributes to the existing literature on holism and transformational learning in the global studies context in the way that the theories are interwoven to create a powerful learning experience for graduate students in a global studies course. The outcome of the alignment of these theories into the course, Perspectives of Health and Healing in India, is described in the following three points of discussion: (1) all aspects of the course are interconnected and contribute to the overall learning experience for the students, (2) there was great value in the process of the group learning, and (3) students returned with new worldviews about health and healing and awareness of an overall sense of spirituality and interconnection.

The students’ journey was much more than the physical trip to India. It began before, with a process of preparation (sometimes years in advance), and involved an exploration of students’ inner landscape, a recognition of culture through the process of reimmersion in the United States, and an enriched life path. It is important to look at the entire experience as an integrated whole rather than a reductionist focus on individual activities or assignments. From a holistic view, the sum total of the experiences created a seminal point in the students’ life journey, one that caused enduring shifts in their consciousness or, as Ettling (2012) describes, in their awareness. While we recognize Lyon’s (2002) work on key transformative points in the students’ journey, it was the cohesive whole of the course from beginning to end that allowed for student learning and transformation. The experiences, planned and unplanned, during the time in India provided valuable learning and it was the opportunities for critical reflection throughout the course that helped students integrate their learning and make shifts in their thinking. Pagano and Roselle (2009) describe that critical reflection is an important aspect of study abroad courses and it is integral to transformational learning theories beginning with the seminal work of Mezirow (1981). The course as a whole can be described by Mezirow’s (1991) concept of a disorienting dilemma—a juncture where one’s life or worldview is no longer the same and where learning occurs through critical reflection and integration. Opportunities for student critical reflections included a reflection paper prior to leaving for India on how they were preparing for the journey, journal entries while in India to reflect on what they were noticing and how they were interpreting it, a reflection paper when they returned to make meaning of their experience and explore possible implications for their practice, and a final integration paper that integrated their personal discoveries within the context of existing literature on perspectives of health and healing in India. In addition, through ongoing formal and informal dialogue, group members encouraged and challenged each other in their thinking. The group process involved in traveling as a group was another key element in the transformative process.

Although in many ways the phases of their journeys were unique for each person, there were common themes and patterns in how they interpreted and described their experiences. Students reported an expression of gratitude, an awareness of paradoxes, a sense of universal connection with humanity, and a different orientation to time as common threads that influenced both the internal and external aspects of their journeys. Themes of spirituality, healing, and transformation are intertwined throughout the students’ interpretation of their experience. These themes were important components of both the individuals’ and the group’s experience. Each student described her personal experiences which often coincided with the other members of the group. As each individual was changing, the group as a whole was also changing. As a consequence, the group continually evolved while also providing support for individual transformations. Schapiro, Wasserman, and Gallegos (2012) describe that “The qualities of a dialogic group provide a unique container for transformative learning, in that the norms and directional force of the relationships foster critical self-reflection, brought on by members’ commitment to the group” (p 357). In this global studies course, where students spent copious amounts of time together, the commitment to the group was strong. In addition, students felt a connection to the broader community in India. The power of community was also evident in promoting global connectedness and facilitating an expanded consciousness for individuals, the group, and greater cosmic shifts.

Seeds were planted for transformational changes on a personal level, with rippling effects outward to local and global communities. Ken Wilbur describes, “transformation requires each of us to look within, reflecting on our own purpose and meaning. From this position, we are better able to take the action needed to change our worldviews” (2005, p. xlii). Students returned with a new perspective about themselves and the world around them based on a new sense of social justice and the need for healing. It was the dual process of looking within themselves and assimilating the new experiences in India that allowed the students more information to, as Cranton and Taylor (2012) describe, examine, question, and revise previous perceptions. In particular, India’s spiritual essence was essential to students’ healing and transformation. Students recognized the significance of their own healing journey in their role as a healer. They referenced the theory taught in the Art of Joyful Living workshop at the ashram in which one can only heal others at the level of one’s own healing. Through their own expanded awareness of healing, they were able to integrate these discoveries to enhance their own personal and professional practices. They made shifts in their lifestyles and relationships, impacting both their immediate communities and the connections they had made globally. This rippling effect is, as O’Sullivan (2012) explains, a part of being whole persons in the web of life.

While this course pedagogy would be effective for all graduate students, we also recognize the importance of particular characteristics of holistic health studies students. They had an emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual preparation for the course as a result of being students interested in a program in holistic health studies as well as the preparation established in the foundational courses that they took in the beginning of the program.

Conclusion

The integration of holistic and transformational learning in the study abroad context can create an infrastructure for student transformational journeys on multiple levels. An integral aspect of the course was a holistic approach to teaching that recognizes the needs of the student as a whole including their mind, body, spirit, community, and environment. Setting the intention of the course to engage in learning about the healing practices in India, where they originated, created a context for deep learning about broader worldviews of healing as well as shifts in students’ awareness of their own healing. The course is valuable for individual healers to heal themselves, to enhance their practice, and to promote global connections and awareness. It is in this way that the impact of their transformational journeys can have reverberations that extend beyond the students themselves.

Further research is needed to understand the long-term implications of these changes on individuals and their communities as well as their ongoing need for support to maintain these changes. Being educators and change agents, as Dorothy Ettling (2012) describes, requires careful course planning. Looking at the course with the lenses of holistic and transformational learning in a global context allows pedagogues to look at the synergy of the course as a whole, the multidirectional influence of the group, and the impact of the global context on students’ expanded worldview. Future research might include developmental aspects of such a course, rather than the student interpreted outcomes, for those who design and lead global studies courses.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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