International NGO Transcendence Lab today announced the continued expansion of its 'Creating for Healing & Growth' project on Substack, a protocol designed to help imaginative creators share their work while fostering personal transformation for both writer and reader. Education Director John Toomey noted that Substack writers have shown the most success with the approach, which diverges from typical creator-growth advice focused on tactics and hacks.
Instead, the initiative is built on the premise that building a subscriber base can coincide with meaningful emotional and cognitive growth. It aims to address what the team describes as a modern shortfall—many people living lives less emotionally and cognitively evolutionary than they could be—by offering practical, repeatable in-person and online experiences that help participants discover feeling-states that catalyze change.
At the core of the program are six 'Portals': gratitude, laughter, awe, group brainstorming, storytelling, and novelty. Transcendence Lab describes these as gateways into expanded experience, involving a complex blend of feelings and thoughts that can be intentionally cultivated in online groups with the help of AI. The Lab has been developing these experiences since 2016, with 'vast improvements' following the arrival of widely available AI tools in 2022–2023.
A central question guiding the work is whether humans have a 'Recommended Daily Allowance' for beneficial emotional experiences that have supported mental health for centuries, and whether modern tools like AI, social platforms, and online groups can help access them more efficiently. 'Most platforms help you broadcast,' said Collaborations Coordinator Amy Chang. 'What we do helps you bond—and it succeeds because so many heart-centered, sensitive, forward-thinking creators are already on Substack, looking for a way to grow alongside others.'
Teams Director Soani Gunawan highlighted that one portal-based practice, the 'mini-Hero's Journey,' evolved into the Hero Award, which ranks at the top of search rankings for that term despite competition from over 15 other organizations. One participant described the cumulative effect of moving through the portals with a group as 'like graduation day from a school where you made many friends, learned a lot about others and yourself, and experienced many transformations… you fall in love with being human.'
For more on the Hero Award, visit theheroaward.substack.com. Transcendence Lab is a creator-centered community and facilitation group developing protocols that help people cultivate beneficial feeling-states through social media, online gatherings, and AI.
