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I work as a psychotherapist with an emphasis on transformational learning - a blend of psychoanalytic and transpersonal approaches, and am the author of Self Actualization and Unselfish Love and co-author of Families Helping Families: Living with Schizophrenia, as well as Mental Illness as an Opportunity for Transformation. My interests and life have taken parallel courses, which together have woven a complex tapestry: spirituality and meditation on the one hand, and political psychology on the other. I have studied and practiced with Ram Dass, Jack Kornfield, Mata Amritanandamayi and Gurumayi Chidvilasanda, and continue a daily practice of meditation. My early political education began with the writings of the founding fathers. Over time this led to involvement in the anti-Vietnam war and anti-nuclear movements. I was interested in the powerful molding of prevailing political and economic dynamics by what C. Wright Mills called the military-industrial complex. In time I have come to the conclusion that, despite various interest groups' attempts to minimize or trivialize the concept, the deep state is a reality - decisively and covertly shaping events on both the domestic and international fronts. I am interested in an exceptionally promising alternative source of energy that has yet to see the light of day. I see the current period as a precarious form of initiation rite into the beginning of adulthood for our species, and hope to do whatever I can to help us reach this goal. Meanwhile, I seek daily to recall the reality that the same awareness (the Ever-Present-Origin) looks out through all of our eyes, and actualize this in my relationship with other beings.
(38 comments) SHARE Friday, September 24, 2021 Are we critical thinkers or "useful idiots?"
Contemporary politics provides numerous examples in which people fail to use critical-thinking. There are many obstacles to critical thinking including, overconfidence, obsession with fantasies, and disregard for truth, among others. Critical thinking opens doors to possibilities, helping us see possibilities in problems. Critical thinking helps us discover the essence of a problem, and explore viable solutions.
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(52 comments) SHARE Sunday, June 4, 2023 Flatland
Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness
Sri Aurobindo, who used his own consciousness as a laboratory, discovered and described the following levels of awareness, which he expected to flower as we evolve:
Ordinary egoic mind, Higher mind, Illumined mind, Intuitive Mind, Overmind, Supermind. Series: The evolution of human consciousness and culture (4 Articles, 7985 views)
(65 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 15, 2023 Seeds of the New: Species Forerunners -Tom Yeomans and an Application of Spiritual Psychology
"Everyone on earth shares the fate of the earth, and everyone has a contribution to make.
"To do this we need to learn to work deliberately on the process of inner transformation and the development of spiritual strength and vision in each person, young and old. We need to learn to support the spiritual maturation of individual, group, and species, so that we can... deal with the great challenges that face us today."--T.Y. Series: Species Forerunners (4 Articles, 13455 views)
(29 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 13, 2024 Imagining our Future" FORWARD INTO THE PAST - A New Birth: Interbeing
As we engage in the "struggle" to create a world that works for all living beings--those of us who feel called to contribute to the healing of the Earth can expect to be sorely challenged. My sense is that we can all benefit from an awareness of our family's historical roots. We will also need to draw sustenance by consciously recalling the wisdom of elders and allies. That way we will realize that we are not "in it alone". Series: Positive Visions of the Future (5 Articles, 16205 views)
(54 comments) SHARE Sunday, July 4, 2021 The Farther Reaches of Human Nature
Maslow broke radically new ground concerning human possibilities. He is considered a founder of Humanistic Psychology, which gave rise to a number of approaches to therapy, guided by the assumption that people possess the inner resources for growth, healing and optimal functioning and that the point of therapy is to help remove obstacles to individuals' achieving them. He brought to light the fact known as "Peak Experiences."
(16 comments) SHARE Friday, August 5, 2022 We Need a New Self-Help Group: "Humans Anonymous"
It will avail nothing if we stay the same and expect the world to change. There is plenty of work to do in the public sphere. However, we must not limit ourselves to focusing on the outer world. We also need to look inward, working on our own consciousness. We need to become willing to grow emotionally, mentally and spiritually - in essence, recreating ourselves to express transpersonal qualities - beyond the intellect.
(81 comments) SHARE Sunday, August 29, 2021 Death - the Final Frontier Pt.
These contemplations on death carry a particularly poignant truth today. Evolution always proceeds by way of extreme crises. These appear to be on the way. Andrew Harvey: "This allows me to accept all "horrific news... as necessary wake-up calls [dispelling] any false illusions... the darkness is indispensable to emergence, because only so biting and savage a [situation] could drive us to [the surrender of the separate ego."
(15 comments) SHARE Sunday, March 6, 2022 What is the Sacred Feminine? The Gospel of Mary Magdalene and the Secrets it Contains - Pt. 1
For the last several thousand years, the religious belief systems of our world have been patriarchal, which sanctioned societal ethics that elevated God the Father over Mother Earth and man over woman. It is time to balance the masculine and feminine principles within our belief systems, our religious doctrine, our cultural ethos and within ourselves. Universal order is maintained through balance and mutual respect.
(20 comments) SHARE Sunday, July 24, 2022 Maturity and the Soul
"I have come to use the word 'soul' to express...the core consciousness in each of us that holds the potential and pattern of our full unique, maturity. This soul is seeking realization and expression in everyday life and its presence is within us from birth - death. I am...using the word in its existential meaning of human vitality and depth, core qualities and values"and particularly life... purpose/direction."
Tom Yeomans
(20 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 22, 2021 The American Prison System, the Prison-Ashram Project and Other Alternatives Pt. 4
"" an offender has been subjected to unfair or excessive punishment and treatment more degrading than that prescribed by law, he comes to justify his act which he could not have justified when he committed it. He decides to 'get even' for his unjust treatment in prison, and take reprisals through further crime at the first opportunity."
Erving Goffman
(34 comments) SHARE Friday, October 8, 2021 Are We Learning Disabled? No Wonder our World is in Such a Mess.
Edgar Morin has been advocating a shift towards complexity thinking for many decades. In doing so he has laid down a tantalizing challenge to think more complexly about everything from self to society to planet, while suggesting a creative, dynamic view of the world. His contribution to the paradigm of complexity depends on the fusion of Western and Eastern thinking.
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(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 9, 2018 Jean Gebser and the Recovery of Humanity
Human consciousness has developed and matured in stages. We have entered the threshold of a new level of consciousness. How this will impact the "world probematique" remains to be seen. Nevertheless, seeing where we're come from may offer glimpses on where we may go, especially when it comes to the cul de sac in which we currently find ourselves.
(19 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 29, 2022 Facing Fear
"The third story is called the Great Turning...
"Whatever situations we face, we can choose our response. When facing overwhelming challenges, we might feel that our actions don't count for much. Yet the kind of response we make, and the degree to which we believe they count, are shaped by the way we think and feel about hope."
Joanna Macy
As systems theory states, we do n't know what ripples can flow out from our actions.
(8 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 2, 2022 "Humans Anonymous"
It will avail nothing if we stay the same and expect the world to change.
There is plenty of work to do in the public sphere. However, we must not limit ourselves to focusing on the external world.
We also need to look inward and to work on our own consciousness.
We need to become willing to grow emotionally, mentally and spiritually - in essence recreating ourselves to become able to express transpersonal qualities.
(13 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 25, 2018 Some Thoughts on our Collective Predicament -- The Recovery of Humanity
This piece is designed as an introduction to a series of occasional notes, based in the idea that we have become inured, and in a sense "addicted", to a worldview/paradigm that is ready to be outgrown. These ideas, of necessity, will be developed in a step by step format -- each step building on former entries.