Transcendence Lab, an international NGO based in Cambridge, UK, 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. The initiative focuses on Substack writers, who have shown the most success with the approach, according to Education Director John Toomey.
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 that are less emotionally and cognitively evolutionary than they could be—and offers practical, repeatable in-person and online experiences designed to help participants discover the 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 are more than emotions; 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 and facilitating 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 human beings have something like an 'RDA'—a Recommended Daily Allowance—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,' says 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 over time into what became the Hero Award, which ranks at the top of search rankings for that term, even though more than 15 organizations offer a hero award. One participant described the cumulative effect of moving through the portals with a congenial 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.'
Transcendence Lab is a creator-centered community and facilitation group developing and sharing 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 also supporting personal growth, connection, and transformative experiences. For more information, visit the Hero Award Substack.
