International NGO Transcendence Lab has expanded its 'Creating for Healing & Growth' project, an approach designed to help imaginative 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 concentrates on Substack writers, who have demonstrated the most success with the protocol. Unlike typical creator-growth advice focused primarily on tactics and hacks, Creating for Healing & Growth is built on a core premise: 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 is a set of six core 'Portals'—gratitude, laughter, awe, group brainstorming, storytelling, and novelty—described by Transcendence Lab as gateways into expanded experience. The Lab's founders use the term 'Portals' to emphasize that these 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 and consistently. '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. The award program is detailed at https://theheroaward.substack.com/. 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's work aims to help creators grow their audiences while also supporting personal growth, connection, and transformative experiences. The expansion of the Creating for Healing & Growth project represents a significant development in how creator platforms can be leveraged for both professional success and personal development, particularly for the growing community of Substack writers seeking more meaningful engagement with their work and audiences.
