International NGO Transcendence Lab today announced the expansion of its 'Creating for Healing & Growth' project, a protocol designed to help visionary creators share their work with wider audiences while making the process transformative for both creator and reader. According to Education Director John Toomey, the initiative focuses on Substack writers, who have shown the most success with the method.
Unlike typical creator-growth advice that emphasizes tactics and hacks, Creating for Healing & Growth is built on the premise that building a subscriber base can coincide with meaningful emotional and cognitive growth. The program addresses what the team describes as a modern shortfall—many people living lives less emotionally and cognitively evolutionary than they could be—and offers practical, repeatable in-person and online experiences to help participants discover feeling-states that change this.
At the heart of the initiative are six core 'Portals': gratitude, laughter, awe, group brainstorming, storytelling, and novelty. Transcendence Lab describes these as gateways into expanded experience, emphasizing that they involve 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 something like a Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for beneficial emotional experiences that have supported mental health for centuries, and whether modern tools such as AI, social platforms, video, and online group gatherings can help people 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 noted that one portal-based practice—the 'mini-Hero's Journey'—expanded into the Hero Award, which ranks at the top of search rankings for that term, even though more than 15 organizations offer a hero award. The Hero Award is a key outcome of the project.
One participant described the cumulative effect of moving through the portals with a congenial group—either live or via Zoom—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.'
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. The Lab's work aims to help creators grow their audiences while supporting personal growth, connection, and transformative experiences.
