If someone wanted to do a self-designed course on social research issues in SL, here is the SLurl for the Social Simulation Research Lab: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hyperborea/210/83/23/
Based in Nottingham England. A full library of pertinent articles.

Toward defining our primary learning conversation: Well, dang, I thoght I saved an email to a friend in SL in which I expanded a chat we were having about Transformative Learning, but nope. It may not even deserve caps since it is a normal part of life, this learning. I see it as an experience that occurs (or is kept from occuring) when one gets information that challenges, refutes, or expands one's worldview, in small or large ways, in general core beliefs, or in one facet of one's life. It is characterized by a three part experience documented by Victor Turner in his studies of initiation ceremonies in traditional societies.
First there is an ending experience: "Nothing will ever be the same" Then there is a middle or Liminal period, in which things don't make sense and it's hard to know anything for sure. Aspects of life that used to feel solid now don't feel that way. Finally, there is a Return, in which an area of knowledge, a relationship, a worldview, etc. forms which is novel and unexpected and is more expansive and inclusive than the one before it. The crucial stage is the middle, because it is uncomfortable--many people shut down this process if they don't understand or want to undergo it. It helps to have mentors or a community to support and contain the process. This is what we are proposing to become in Second Life.

Recommending a book called "Higher Creativity" by Willis Harmon. He discusses how most breakthrough ideas happen in a state of "non-trying" after a period of intense trying. Waking up from a dream, getting off a bus, etc. I'm thinking that these ideas formed after the person had exhausted themselves and were in a kind of liminal place, after which the breakthroughs popped. I have experienced times of overwhelm and confusion in SL, and have just hung in there and suddenly a new context for the world opens up that I couldn't have predicted. Recently this happened where the intensity I felt with SL became too much and I was confused and had feverish dreams about it. Then suddenly the spiritual practices I do in RL became applicable to SL, and I've had much more integration between the two experiences.

Integration is wht keeps emerging for me in my expereinces between SL and RL.
these events and situations are numerous. They are present in my dream imagery, places I see in RL, and most predominantly.
in my thoughts and feelings. I have profound emotional experiences in SL
including friendships, romantic love and loss, all of which have their effect in RL.
The images of SL continually provoke my wonder and questions. How is it that I feel the relaxation in my RL body when my AV climbs into the hot tub at the end of the night? What is the effect when I really am ROFL at my computer desk? or when I wake up after a romantic evening and carry that sense of well-being throughout the RL day? These are glimmerings of a transformational potential for emotional and cognitive shifts that most of us havent even begun to consciously explore yet.
As a humanistic and transpersonal psychologist, I understand the profound effect that imagery has on the brain. When images are connected to strong emotions, they are stored as memories and it is unclear that the brain discriminates with great clarity between these kinds of memories. What does differentiate imagery and actual expereinces are sensory and emotional stimuli. This is a rabbit hole down which we could travel great distances talking about who, how and when (part of an on-going conversation the institute is dedicated to holding.)
It is clear to me in my own life and experience that SL is changing me, that I am learning to live in this world and culture in new ways, and I am changing this world and being changed by it.
Can I use it as a tool towards greater self-awareness and actualization? My immediate answer is yes, I see and feel the results in my RL. So how do i hone that skill and direct that use towards what I can achieve and create in RL
alongside SL.