Courageous Souls: Do We Plan Our Life Challenges Before Birth?

Courageous Souls: Do We Plan Our Life Challenges Before Birth?
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Wonderful Life Lessons!

courageous souls-Do we plan our life challanges before birth?

Karma is more than payback

So that's why . . .

An Empowering Way to Reframe Painful Challenges in Our Lives

Courageous Souls: Do We Plan Our Life Challenges Before Birth?
Robert Schwartz
Manufacturer: Whispering Winds Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0977679454
Release Date: 2006-12-16

Book Description

Courageous Souls explores the premise that we are all eternal souls who plan our lives, including our greatest challenges, prior to birth for purposes of spiritual growth. The book contains ten true stories of people who planned physical illness, having handicapped children, deafness, blindness, drug addiction, alcoholism, losing a loved one, and severe accidents. Because very different life challenges are often planned for similar reasons, readers who have not faced these specific challenges will nevertheless see themselves - and their motivations as a soul - in these stories. As readers come to realize that they themselves planned their lives, suffering that once seemed purposeless becomes imbued with deep meaning. Wisdom may be acquired in a more conscious manner; feelings of anger, guilt, blame, and victimization are replaced by acceptance, forgiveness, peace, and gratitude.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful Life Lessons!.......2007-10-22

There are no words to describe the wonderful content of this book. There are important life lessons to be learned from reading it. I finished it quickly, but I was sorry when it ended. I want to read it many times, and I will refer to specific sections (which I underlined) again and again, I'm sure! - Charlotte Kennedy

courageous souls-Do we plan our life challanges before birth?.......2007-10-15

This book is FANTASTIC!
Everyone has a story and has things going on in their life.This book makes everything that happens to you make sense. It allows you to understand why you have ended up where you are in life.Why you have chosen certain paths.And allows you to understand and be at peace with other peoples choices and the way they live their life.
I just loved it.Everyone should have a copy.It is well written, easy to understand and informative.But above all..it just makes sense.And things seem alot more clear to me than they did before I read the book.I loved it.For anyone who needs alittle hope or clarity in their lives..read this book.

Karma is more than payback.......2007-10-11

This book really changed my perspective on my current life situation. I was quite negative about the situation I'm dealing with, feeling it was just the result of past lives in which I had incurred very bad karma and I would just have to live through it. But, after reading this book, I believe I am living this life because of contracts I made in the pre-birth planning. That changes everything for me - if I agreed to the challenges I'm working with because I wanted to help one I love, there can be no resentment, just gratitude for being able to help, and love for the one I'm struggling with. Thank you, Robert Schwartz, what a gift!

So that's why . . ........2007-10-08

If you ever want to get into the backside of your pre-birth planning of your life challenges, read Courageous Souls by Robert Schwartz. Want to know why you attract illness, accidents, birth defects? Want to know why you chose a life of alcoholism or drug addiction, or are around someone who has? Read this book. The stories, while may start out slow at first, are powerful and insightful. Just stick with them. Robert uses mediums who are able to access multiple guides at one time, and your primary guide and listen in on conversations between you and your soul group.

An Empowering Way to Reframe Painful Challenges in Our Lives.......2007-09-17

It has been said that asking oneself the question, "Who was I before I was born?" can teach us the most about our true spiritual identity -- yet few of us have been so enlightened as to have heard the full reply. COURAGEOUS SOULS takes this starting point one step further by exploring just how we may have crafted our entire life around all of our life circumstances -- both the high and the low points.

What sets Robert Schwartz's book apart from other books about spirituality, reincarnation and the afterlife is his organized use of intuitive readings as companion pieces to accompany the various life stories he includes. These intuitive sessions provide a deep sense of interconnectedness and unconditional love shared in our lifetimes which we sometimes lose sight of, as well as insights into how we continue learning life lessons from one life to the next. The stories include descriptions of people who have experienced tremendous suffering who are greatly inspired and relieved to see an underlying sense of purpose and meaning to all they have gone through.

COURAGEOUS SOULS is an exceptional book for anyone interested in exploring the true nature of their spiritual identity, who is willing to keep an open mind regarding the value of some of the most painful challenges we humans face in our lives on Earth; this is highly recommended reading for anyone seeking to reframe and find deeper meaning from the painful challenges, setbacks or hardships in their lives.

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Moral Issues and Christian Responses
Patricia Beattie Jung , and Shannon Jung
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0155058959

Book Description

The seventh edition of MORAL ISSUES AND CHRISTIAN RESPONSES provides an introduction to contemporary moral issues from decidedly, yet diverse, Christian moral perspectives. This popular anthology explores a variety of pressing topics, including sexuality, prejudice, biomedical ethics, the environment, terrorism, and war.

The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung

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Entertaining, informative yet highly biased .
Good Documentation
Richard Noll in the Right Dosage
the tune of those not in harmony
Jung's Public Shadow

The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung
Richard Noll
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0679449450
Release Date: 1997-08-26

Book Description

Carl Gustav Jung, along with Sigmund Freud, stands as one of the two most famous and influential figures of the modern age. His ideas have shaped our perception of the world; his theories of myths and archetypes and his notion of the collective unconscious have become part of popular culture. Now, in this controversial and impeccably researched biography, Richard Noll reveals Jung as the all-too-human man he really was, a genius who, believing he was a spiritual prophet, founded a neopagan religious movement that offered mysteries for a new age.

The Aryan Christ is the previously untold story of the first sixty years of Jung's life--a story that follows him from his 1875 birth into a family troubled with madness and religious obsessions, through his career as a world-famous psychiatrist and his relationship and break with his mentor Freud, and on to his years as an early supporter of the Third Reich in the 1930s. It contains never-before-published revelations about his life and the lives of his most intimate followers--details that either were deliberately suppressed by Jung's family and disciples or have been newly excavated from archives in Europe and America.

Richard Noll traces the influence on Jung's ideas of the occultism, mysticism, and racism of nineteenth-century German culture, demonstrating how Jung's idealization of "primitive man has at its roots the Volkish movement of his own day, which championed a vision of an idyllic pre-Christian, Aryan past. Noll marshals a wealth of evidence to create the first full account of Jung's private and public lives: his advocacy of polygamy as a spiritual path and his affairs with female disciples; his neopaganism and polytheism; his anti-Semitism; and his use of self-induced trance states and the pivotal visionary experience in which he saw himself reborn as a lion-headed god from an ancient cult. The Aryan Christ perfectly captures the charged atmosphere of Jung's era and presents a cast of characters no novelist could dream up, among them Edith Rockefeller McCormick--whose story is fully told here for the first time--the lonely, agoraphobic daughter of John D. Rockefeller, who moved to Zurich to be near Jung and spent millions of dollars to help him launch his religious movement.

As Richard Noll writes, "Jung is more interesting . . . because of his humanity, not his semidivinity." In giving a complete portrait of this twentieth-century icon, The Aryan Christ is a book with implications for all of our lives.

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining, informative yet highly biased ........2007-08-10

I loved reading the book (thus the 3 stars) yet the authors politically correct bias and penchant for sensationalism made the book somewhat irritating at times. The Author doesn't even try to "just present the facts" and write a biography in which Jung's life and works speak for themselves. I have nothing against Noll pointing out the possible implications of Jungs views mind you I didn't like the PC moralizing. Anything remotely "volkish" or that takes into consideration the importance of race ( especially Jung's view that race plays a part in the psychological make up of a person ) is blasted by Noll as "unscientific", "unenlightened" , "Dangerous. He also seems to have a lurid fascination with Jung's sex life.

Good Documentation.......2007-06-17

To some of us who have read widely and been around a long time, the "revelations" in this book consist less in its main theses than in the detailed evidence provided by the author. Jung's affections for the Nazis have been extensively documented elsewhere, so this is perhaps the least surprising of the major points Noll describes. In fact, the Jung Institute itself issued a book--Jung's Shadow--in an attempt to defuse at least some of the dismay arising from information dribbling out from behind the Archetypal wall.

For some, the fact that Jung was more pagan than not in his spiritual leanings, will be hot stuff; to me, it's old hat; the interest, as I said, is in the specifics provided by Noll. The fact that Jung was not monogamous may similarly upset--or titillate--some people coming for the first time to know the man behind the mask, but once again, it's no great excitement to those who have read widely in psycho-spiritual literature.

That Jung regarded himself as having been initiated and elevated to the rank of a god, depends on how 'god' is understood...and Noll does a good job of showing that this was intended in a pagan sense, and not a Judeo-Christian one.

All in all, this is an informative book, one that provided documentation and detail--both things the Jung Archives try to prevent by keeping The Great One's original works and personal correspondence controlled and under seal.

Richard Noll in the Right Dosage.......2006-10-11

As might be expected this book, The Aryan Christ, has caused considerable controvery in the US and in Europe. The argument is convincingly presented that Carl Jung's scientific description of the psyche and pyschoanalysis are based more on volkish notions prevalent in the late 19th century, coupled with assumptions from the likes of Max Muller about the truth of a deep "sun religion" behind the plethora of world religions, and all ginned up with allusions to Wagner's Parsifal and the Knights of the Holy Grail. Noll does well to present a plausible explanation of how Jung's theories were generated in the context of Jung's rather voracious reading in a range of fields including, not just comparative religion as it was construed in his day, but also the altogether wacky "fields" such as Theosophy, alchemy, and astrology.
Naturally, this is just the problem for those who would like to keep Jung on his pedestal: it seems to be the case that Jung was VERY MUCH a man of his times and to read Jung and take away the sense that he represents a universally valid account of human subjectivity is to be nothing but silly. Put otherwise, Noll has significant evidence that Jung "found" in the unconscious a wide variety of things that were also found in his library (see p. 133 where Noll writes: "If so, the collective unconscious may still be said to exist, but only on the shelves of Jung's personal library"). And this seems to me to be critical for the 21st century to understand: Jung read a lot of half-baked accounts of religions around the world and then claimed, in good faith or otherwise, that he was finding just these same elements, themes, and symbols in his patients. Beside the audacity/arrogance to interpret and explain the Other, for all time, and in all traditions, there are two pressing problems: first, no credible figure in Religious Studies would hold up the 19th century works of Max Muller et al as reliable information; so, the specific elements that Jung is discovering to be universally relevatory of the deep truth of humanity are based on "scholarly" information that has long been discredited: in effect, Jung appears to have read a lot of books on religions, "found" these same symbols in his patients (many of whom were reading the same books), and then wrote a lot of books about just these symbols claiming, adamantly, that they didn't come from their reading. Thus, just like the joke that communism is the fastest way between capitalism and capitalism, Jung's writings are the fastest way between shoddy scholarship on religion and shoddy scholarship on religion. Second, if reading books is how this kind of religious symbolism is getting passed around, then the unconscious in the Jungian sense is a useless idea since what is getting passed around is a body of fadish symbols that both patient and doctor agree are deeply significant. Jung's theories will fall flat if it can be shown that the unconscious and the analysis that uncovers it are really a refraction of the best seller list of spiritual hits at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, in league with contemporaneous assumptions about the Germanic people and the dehumanizing effects of Judeo-Christianity, effects that stand in the way of Germans recovering their original identity.
That said, I find Noll's qualities as a historian troubling in places. Let's agree for the thousandth time not to write about what other people are supposedly thinking or feeling, especially when we weren't there. Then, Noll doesn't do himself any favors when he seems to use Jungian categories to talk about Jung's troubled invention of Jungian analysis. Similarly, even if a book is being written for a popular audience, no one needs to read chapters that start with sentences such as " Without her, he might never have succeeded."
And, also on the topic of Noll's sense of historiography, how about some admission of negative evidence? Is it just as Noll has it in this book, or are there spaces for doubt? Wouldn't the book have been stronger to let in some doubt about the narrative that Noll constructs for Jung's life, along with some room to debate the selection and interpretation of evidence? History _is_ interpretation, of course, with the substantiated facts and footnotes in view. And, in my opinion, I think Noll goes too easy on Jung's anti-semitism -- it's appalling what Jung said and wrote about Jews (and Christians for that matter), not to mention evidence presented in the French reviews of this book that Jung went on the radio in support of Hitler in 1932 or 1933. Arguably, this story could have been cast even darker than Noll has it.
At the end of the book, I am left with the two sentiments. First, Noll has done us all a favor -- I read Jung in my early 20's and didn't know what he was talking about or how to contextualize him -- now, with Noll's assistance, I have a way to situate Jung in the milieu of the likes of Ernst Haeckel and Ernst Junger. Second, Jung now, justly, appears as a symptom of his time: another German writer desparate to recover his Germanness at any cost, and fired up with Goethe, Nietzsche, and Max Muller, hopes that the unconscious and Jungian analysis will be his highway to the Teutonic soul and salvation -- a rather pathetic and truly atavistic hope, all in all.
Three questions remain: 1) why it took nearly 100 years to figure this out; 2) why modern readers find Jung so captivating - the answer isn't going to be flattering; and 3) what to do next in light of the deep influence that Jung has had on the formal study of religion in America and Europe, especially as refracted through the works of Eliade Mircea which, though tilting Jung's project somewhat away from the Germanic focus (Eliade's relation in the 1930's to the Romanian fascist group, the Iron Guard, is another matter to be dealt with), still share much of the basic plan of recovering archaic man and his chthonic spirituality in a quasi-Jungian effort to return to primitive homo religioso. Don't we really need to understand this phenomenon of "reactionary modernism" and see how problematic it really is? And, similarly, shouldn't we awaken the likes of Karen Armstrong and other who draw so heavily on Jung and Eliade, to the troubled tradition to which they belong, even as they promise to save us from ourselves?
In sum, though I wish Noll wrote history with less purple prose, I am sure that his work will continue, deservedly, to be part of the self-evaluation that Religious Studies, at least in America, began roughly a decade ago.
And, for the prospective buyer who has read my lengthy review: buy the book!

the tune of those not in harmony.......2006-09-14

This book is an example of Richard Noll's self loathing. One writes a negative, critically dissective, slanderous account of another if and only if that individual has certain secrets or behavioral predilections that conjure an amount of resentment and regret in that individual's Self. Perhaps Noll's feminine half, his anima, or shall we say, his own aryan-poking-fun unconscious, meant to flash a slight knowing smile admitting such - while his self-righteous, or perhaps self-emulating, conscious half, and he is surely a half, not a whole, constructed this work of laughable fiction attempting to damage the personality of a man who understood more than Noll ever will.

However, I'm sure Jung appreciates, as do I, a serious wannabe humorist. Who wouldn't? It is clear that Noll himself does not understand the projection of his own Aryan obsession though the character of Jung. Perhaps, one might suspect, Noll does not grasp the fact that Jung himself is an archetype, and his connect-the-dots method of observing himself as such was what gave him his objective/subjective analysis of reality.

Of course Jung is limited; he is limited as anyone is by the personality by which others record the physical presence. Yet Jung admits this himself - frequently he refers to psychology as a modern version of alchemy. Jung persists in acknowledging that psychology is the beginning and the end of grasping the human psyche and what comes after. Words after all are words, and where ever you go, there you are. I'm sure Noll twists his lip at Wilhelm Reich as well.
This is a good comedy.

Jung's Public Shadow.......2006-07-21

As you can see from the diversity of viewpoints expressed both here and in reviews of Noll's "The Jung Cult", this is a highly controversial history of Jung's work with an emphasis on aspects that Noll claims have been suppressed. When I was debating whether or not to buy this book, I found one seemingly scholarly review that called it "bad history" and, just now wondering whether I should say what I am about to write, I did further searches and found several other, seemingly reasonable reviews which take Noll to task for bad scholarship. So, as one should always, I will try to remain open to the possibility that I have been misled. But the diary extracts, letters, and other source material from which Noll's conclusions are drawn are carefully footnoted and mostly gleaned from libraries where anyone could easily show deception if that were the case. So, for the moment, Noll has convinced me that there is a dark side (both in the Jungian and conventional sense) to Jung.

I came to this book with a very high regard for Jung and seeing him as a guardian of truth in standing up to Freud's dogmatic insistence on the sexual basis of all neuroses. I still regard Jung as brilliant and having made extremely important contributions to humanity, but I now see a more balanced picture. Freud may have been too focused on sexuality, but apparently so was Jung, although in a much more personal way. Noll provides a convincing picture of Jung as being secretly dogmatic that a form of free love is essential to psychological health. Jung's sexual relationships with patients and coworkers, and his advice to patients to have extramarital affairs seem incontrovertible based on the evidence presented here.

I suspect that much of the criticism of Noll is based on his evidence that Jung was heavily into an Aryan world viewpoint, which immediately conjures up Nazi stereotypes in our minds. Noll repeatedly tries to counteract that understandable tendency, saying for example (last paragraph of the Introduction) "But the most troublesome part of this story comes from asking you, the reader, to do the morally impossible: to imagine a world - fin-de-siecle German Kultur - in which the words "Hitler" and "Nazi" and "Holocaust" do not exist."

Along these lines, it helps to remember that many intelligent, respectable, well-meaning Americans (e.g., Lindberg, Joseph Kennedy Sr.) were early Nazi supporters, just as many were early Communist supporters. The horrendous evils perpetrated in the names of Aryanism and Communism were not present in their early philosophies. It also helps to remember that anti-Semitism and racism in general were the cultural norm througout the world until well into the 1960's or 1970's. It was almost impossible NOT to be prejudiced in Jung's time. (A related book that touches on psychoanalysis and anti-Semitism and that I highly recommend is Bakan's "Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition.")

Another problem concerns Noll's evidence that Jung disparaged Christianity and secretly reverted to (as well as secretly proselytized for) an ancient, pagan, Aryan religion. Such a move will be seen through a highly distorting filter if viewed in the context of today's Christianity. Again, it is hard, but important, to view Jung's choices in terms of the dogmatic Swiss-German Christianity of the late nineteenth century.

As with most movements that believe they have the secret to saving the world, many Jungians idealize their prophet and make him into a kind of god. In contrast, the picture that emerges from "Aryan Christ" is of a brilliant man -- but a man not a god and therefore with all the attendant human frailties. The danger is in forgetting Jung's humanity.

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Amazing Photos

Patterns Of The Earth
Bernhard Edmaier , and Angelika Jung-Huttl
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Aerial Photographs of the World's MostUntouched and Beautiful Places"Edmaier raises the art of aerial photography to new heights." -NaturalHistory Magazine"The abstract, painterly images show a shrinking national environment thatcries out for preservation." -Photo District News Science meets art in the new book PATTERNS OF THE EARTH by BernhardEdmaier, a fascinating exploration of the earth's surface by one of theworld's top aerial photographers.This compact collection featuresstunning pictures of natural phenomena such as volcanoes, glaciers, coralreefs, dunes, rivers, craters, canyons and salt flats, revealing the beautyof the dwindling unspoiled areas of our planet.PATTERNS OF THE EARTH features over 400 color photographs, many previouslyunpublished, of "off the beaten path" regions such as the Bahamas, Iceland,New Zealand, Ecuador, Greenland, Ethiopia, The Maldives, Canada andYellowstone National Park and Bryce Canyon in the USA.Grouped in chaptersaccording to pattern, the images make us look at the world in a new way, byshowing us surprising similarities and unexpected links between differentparts of the globe. Traveling to uninhabited and remote areas, Edmaier's photographs offer aunique view of these extraordinary locations.He takes his images from ashigh as 20,000 feet in the air, far higher than most aerial photographers,exposing natural patterns and documenting the geological processes at work. Originally a geologist and engineer before turning to photography, he hasa rare gift for catching the aesthetic side of our dynamic earth.PATTERNS OF THE EARTH quietly acknowledges the effects of global warming. With rising temperatures, areas of permafrost are melting as are someglaciers and ice sheets in Alaska, Canada and Siberia.The book providesamazing photographs of these locations and more, providing a newperspective from above revealing the effects of the natural and humanforces that shape our future. PATTERNS OF THE EARTH is divided into five chapters: Bands, Stripes,Ripples; Circles, Spots, Grains; Forks, Branches, Webs; Curves, Ribbons,Swirls; and Spikes, Grids and Cracks.Each image is accompanied by a briefcaption by science writer Dr. Angelika Jung-Huttl, describing the locationof the pattern depicted and where and why a variety of these formationsoccur in nature. This is Bernhard Edmaier's second book with Phaidon. His first book,EARTHSONG was an oversize collection of his aerial photographs, firstpublished to great acclaim in 2004, followed up by EARTHSONG POSTCARDS. PATTERNS OF THE EARTH is a fascinating source of inspiration for thoseworking in creative industries as well as environmentalists, scientists,photographers and armchair travelers who marvel at the world around them.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing Photos.......2007-05-10

It is hard to believe that the photos in this book are real earth photos and not paintings. My only regret is that the book is too small to really appreciate the incredible detail and massive scope of the pictures. It would be a good idea to list the overall size of books, espically art-type books such as this one.Patterns Of The Earth

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Nilsson as a Warm, Funny, Unpretentious Woman
For the Operafile, Wagnerite or Nilssonite, this is for you!!!

La Nilsson: My Life in Opera
Birgit Nilsson , Georg Solti , and Peggy Tuller
Manufacturer: Northeastern
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1555536700

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First published to wide acclaim in Sweden (1995) and in Germany (1997), the autobiography of opera legend Birgit Nilsson (1918-2005) is finally available in an English translation. From her humble roots in rural Sweden to her artistic triumphs in Stockholm, Bayreuth, Milan, and the Metropolitan Opera House, this candid and utterly charming memoir reveals the personality behind one of the great voices of the past century.

Gracefully weaving together the private and professional, Nilsson chronicles her idyllic childhood in Vastra Karup, the early recognition of her unique natural abilities, and her first tentative steps into a wider artistic world. After achieving national acclaim in Verdi's Lady Macbeth, she went on to establish herself as the dominant Wagnerian soprano of her generation, appearing at the Bayreuth and Munich Festivals, and the Vienna and Bavarian State Opera Houses, creating, along the way, definitive performances of Sieglinde, Bruennhilde, and Isolde. The book details her rise to international stardom with behind-the-scenes recollections of her phenomenal triumph as Turandot at La Scala in 1958 and her headline-making Met premier in Tristan und Isolde the following year.

Nilsson's long and illustrious career (she performed until 1984), her celebrated professional and personal relationships, her friendships and rivalries, are all recounted with a down-to-earth wit and an engagingly odd admixture of ego and selfeffacement. She tells it all: the legendary quips, the often prickly relationships with Met impresario Rudolph Bing and conductor von Karajan, the infamous story of the stalker "Miss N," and the touchingly rendered relationship with her beloved husband, Bertil Niklasson.

What emerges from these pages is a diva in the old mold: a giant voice matched by an oversize personality, a professional who expected the same level of perfection from others that she demanded of herself, and a woman who loved and lived life with joy and good humor . . . and oh, that voice.

Includes 56 photographs and a discography.

Customer Reviews:

Nilsson as a Warm, Funny, Unpretentious Woman.......2007-09-13

This autobiography by Birgit Nilsson was originally published in Swedish in 1995 and in German two years later. This 2007 English translation of the German edition is by Doris Jung Popper, an American who was herself a former Wagnerian singer in Europe. It is for the most part in graceful, witty and seamless prose which catches the informal and down-to-earth way Nilsson spoke. We are taken from Nilsson's life as a farm girl in Sweden through her discovery locally, her schooling in Stockholm, her first breakthrough there and then internationally and her acclaim as the greatest Wagnerian soprano since Kirsten Flagstad. We get backstage stories about performances in New York, Milan, Stockholm, Vienna, London and, of course, Bayreuth. We read about her long happy marriage to Bertil Niklasson, a veterinarian. She shares funny and warm stories about her colleagues, not sparing those with whom she crossed swords -- most notably Rudolf Bing and, much more so, Herbert von Karajan, for whom she is particularly disdainful while admitting that he could draw magnificent music from his performers. She relates the details of her having to deal with her stalker, Miss N., a story well-known in opera circles but which may come as a surprise to some readers. One senses that Nilsson withholds some details in the interest of sparing the feelings of some opera world luminaries who are still with us. This reflects positively on her genuine concern for the feelings of others but might disappoint those who are looking for 'dirt.' There is a discography and a detailed chart outlining events in her life, as well as a compendious index. As well, there are over 60 black-and-white photographs from all periods of her life.

Warmly recommended.

Scott Morrison

For the Operafile, Wagnerite or Nilssonite, this is for you!!!.......2007-07-25

Nilsson writes a readable and enjoyable book about her career.

Those who have followed her will already be familiar with some of the stories but there are more details... One story she recounts which I had never heard or read anywhere was one that she tells of being pursued by a relentless stalker.

I myself worked with her professionally and can vouch for the fact that she was a warm and funny person who despite her self-assuredness onstage could express vulnerability when she was with you in a one-to-one setting. The book has moments that give the reader this sense.

She doesn't "tell all" but does "tell some" quite nicely. She was unique.

Spiritual Pilgrims: Carl Jung and Teresa of Avila

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Individuation & the Interior Castle

Spiritual Pilgrims: Carl Jung and Teresa of Avila
John Welch
Manufacturer: Paulist Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Interior Castle
The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth
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ASIN: 0809124548

Book Description

The meaning of the spiritual life illuminated by the great depth psychologist and the mystic saint.

Customer Reviews:

Individuation & the Interior Castle.......2004-06-25

A humbly masterful introduction to the parallels between Jung and Christian mysticism by a savvy Carmelite formerly president of the Carmelite Institute. Highly recommended.

Contents ~ Foreword by Morton T. Kelsey ~ Introduction ~ Finding Images For Our Story ~ The Castle, An Image of Wholeness ~ The Deep Waters of the Inner World ~ A Map For Life's Journey ~ Serpents and Devils in the Shadows ~ The Marriage of Masculine and Feminine ~ Christ, Symbol of the Self ~ Through the Castle, One More Time ~ Selected Bibliography - Index

Beside Ourselves: Our Hidden Personality in Everyday Life

Average customer rating:

Great overview
An excellent (and necessary) follow up for MBTI lovers
Excellent book on the nature of the inferior functions
Bridging the Gap
Type study: solidifying the basics, and beyond

Beside Ourselves: Our Hidden Personality in Everyday Life
Naomi L. Quenk
Manufacturer: Consulting Psychologists Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Was That Really Me?: How Everyday Stress Brings Out Our Hidden Personality
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In the Grip: Understanding Type, Stress, and the Inferior Function
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I'm Not Crazy, I'm Just Not You: The Real Meaning of the Sixteen Personality Types

ASIN: 0891060626

Book Description

Illuminates the hidden side of personality revealed in out of character responses. how these illuminate personality.

Customer Reviews:

Great overview.......2004-02-25

I am not a psychology or mental health professional, but I found this book fascinating. It uses enough theory to be credible, but didn't get me lost in terminology or assumptions. Not only did I find this book to be beneficial for understanding myself, but as a business consultant I find it a great tool for helping organizations understand their personalities.

An excellent (and necessary) follow up for MBTI lovers.......2002-12-07

Until I began reading Beside Ourselves, I had really only thought of the Myers-Briggs types as defined by the dominant functions. In other words: being an ENTP, I thought that my personality was dictated and defined by extraverted intuition (my dominant function). After reading Quenk's insightful work, however, I realized that my actions are equally a result of my inferior function (introverted sensing).

For me, Beside Ourselves is a guide to recognizing the importance of our "hidden personalities" and recognizing why we can act in ways that seem foreign even to ourselves when "in the grip" of our inferior functions, as Quenk puts it. This book shows that there is (obviously) value to accepting and understanding the "dark side" of our personalities, and that true equilibrium can usually be reached when we learn to deal with and even embrace the "eruptions" of our hidden inferior functions.

In my opinion, grasping the concepts found in this book will require that the reader has an understanding of personality type as defined by Jung, Keirsey, Myers-Briggs, etc. In order to understand the hidden personality, or inferior function, readers should have a strong understanding of the dominant function, which is essentially the personality we feel best describes us under "normal" circumstances. Highly recommended!

Excellent book on the nature of the inferior functions.......2002-06-29

This book explains the nature of the eight functions in their inferior roles when they're exerting an uncharacteristic influence on a person. It briefly summarizes the nature of the functions when they're in the dominant role for purposes of contrast, but that's not the focus of the book. This is to my knowledge the definitive book on the nature of the inferior functions, and together with Lenore Thomson's "Personality Type" which deals with functions in their dominant role, it covers the most important aspects of personality theory. If you're new to personality theory, I recommend reading Lenore Thomson's book before this one. They're both roughly the same quality (excellent), but knowing the nature of the inferior functions isn't as urgent as knowing the nature of the dominant functions. These two books are a must read for anyone interested in personality theory. Naomi L. Quenk (the author) is INFP. I am INTP.

Bridging the Gap.......2001-12-14

This book is super! Here, Naomi Quenk bridges the gap between Jung's psychology of the shadow, "Keirsey's" temperament, and MBTI.

While not for the novice (some of the themes are contextually difficult to understand the first read through), this book offers startling insight into how MBTI and Jungian psychology play into our own (and others) personality makeup.

The focus is, of course, what happens to us when we are at our worst - when we are "beside ourselves". That is, when our least developed aspect of personality comes out full force - much like an 8 year olds temper tantrum.

While one would expect to see remarkable similarities between people "in the grip" of their least experienced emotional state, Naomi Quenk gives us both insightful, scientiic, and experincial data to show that personalities express their least developed parts in vastly dissimilar ways.

This is yet another book which I believe shoud be "required reading" for anyone looking to get a better view of personality, temperament, MBTI, and character. Of course I will always refer people to Keirsey's work for the basic principles, along with "Games personalities play" (authors name escapes me). All of these offer a very good view of how the interactions of personalities play out in everyday life.

Naomi Quenk's book is superb. In the appendix, she offers selected quotations by Jung (on which a preponderance of her work is based it seems). This book is well worth your money! I thouroughly enjoyed it.

-Regards

Type study: solidifying the basics, and beyond.......2001-08-15

MBTI is becoming everyday more popular, more of a tool for business. Also, it is more and more misused as people settle for the quick fix approach of the system, the labelling of people and an expected (or rather hoped for) predictability of people's attitudes and reactions. Some of us amateurs understand that this is not a labelling tool, but a sophisticated tool to understand some of the aspects of human thought process; and that it is not easy to always assert the psychological type of the person that we are dealing with. Naomi Quenck offers us another way to look at the role of type in our lives, by looking at the obscure side of psychological type, the side that "generalists" gloss over pretending that we are all great and beautiful. We are not. She clearly explains that under grip experience, or Jungian shadow as you might have it, the negative side of our personalities can act up. The understanding of this dark side of course helps us in our individuation process. And also help us in understanding some of the reasons that bring our loved ones into trouble, perhaps allowing us to help them more effectively without any of the sentimental language that we find in so many "help and self help" books. Also we can use the examination of grip experiences to ... the true type of the people that surround us and for whom we cannot get a clear idea of their actual type, be it due to their secretiveness, their need to conform to society's norms or any other reason. Grip experiences do not lie. It is to the credit of Naomi Quenck to have written a book that does not sugar coat what type is about, yet of easy access by its organization and good redaction.

The Symbolic Life: Miscellaneous Writings (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 18)

Average customer rating:

Very Detailed Insights for Understanding Jung
Full of the Wisdom of Life
Miscellaneous Writings, CW18
intriguing miscellany

The Symbolic Life: Miscellaneous Writings (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 18)
C. G. Jung , Gerhard Adler , and R. F.C. Hull
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0691098921

Book Description

This volume is a miscellany of writings that Jung published after the Collected Works had been planned, minor and fugitive works that he wished to assign to a special volume, and early writings that came to light in the course of research.

Customer Reviews:

Very Detailed Insights for Understanding Jung.......2005-09-03

This is an extremely long and disorganized collection of Jung's work, but it's very insightful and provides very detailed explanations of his experiences. I highly recommend it to anyone with a sincere interest in Jungian psychology; discussion of archetypes, the unconscious, and the psyche in general can be very vague and confusing but I find this collection very helpful and specific.

Full of the Wisdom of Life.......2004-11-30

This book is an absolute gem. Yes, it was pieced together as an addendum of sorts to the Collected Works, but the quality speaks for itself. You can read the other volumes first and utilize this one as a sort of conclusion, but you could also read it first as a sort of introduction or overview of what lies in store for you in the other volumes. It doesn't matter: the material speaks for itself. I chose 46 quotes from it for my collection. There actually is a unifying topic, the symbolic life-which Jung makes the object of human development-the life an individuated person leads. Thus, this book covers lots of ground regarding the way we view the world and the main life roles and arenas we build our lives around:

THE NATURE OF THE SYMBOLIC LIFE-[the individuated person]
pp. 282-3 the very fact that you live the symbolic life has an extraordinary civilizing influence. Those people are far more civilized and creative on account of the symbolic life. People who are only rational have very little influence; it is all talk, and with talk you get nowhere.
p. 605 The majority of normal people (quite apart from the 10 per cent or so who are inferior) are ridiculously unconscious and naïve and are open to any passing suggestion...The more people live together in heaps, the stupider and more suggestible the individual becomes.

THE RELATION OF SCIENCE TO INTUITION AND SYMBOLS-[science & scientists]
p. 251 In all the higher grades of science, imagination and intuition play an increasingly important role over and above intellect and its capacity for application. Even physics, the most rigorous of all the applied sciences, depends to an astonishing degree on intuition which works by way of the unconscious processes and not by logical deductions, although it is possible to demonstrate afterwards what logical procedure might have led to the same result...Intuition is almost indispensable in the interpretation of symbols.
p. 252 Nothing is more vulnerable and ephemeral than scientific theories, which are mere tools and not everlasting truths.

THE VALUE OF RITUAL-[religion]
p. 271 we should not change anything in a ritual. A ritual must be done according to tradition, and if you change one little point in it, you make a mistake. You must allow your reason to play with it.

HOW TO PRACTICE PSYCHOTHERAPY-[psychology]
p. 276 I talk the language of my patients. When I talk with lunatics, I talk the lunatic language, otherwise they don't understand me. And when I talk with neurotics, I talk neurotic with them.

PARENTING-[parents and children]
p. 485 The behavior of the parents, whether they have open or hidden conflicts, etc., has an incalculable effect on the unconscious of the child. The causes of infantile neuroses are to be sought less in the children than in the parents or teachers. The teacher should be more conscious of his shadow than the average person, otherwise the work of one hand can easily be undone by the other. It is for this reason that medical psychotherapists are required to undergo a training analysis, in order to gain insight into their own unconscious psyche.

POLITICS-[government and legislation]
p. 564 99 per cent of politics are mere symptoms and anything but a cure for social evils. About 50 per cent of politics is definitely obnoxious inasmuch as it poisons the utterly incompetent mind of the masses...we are exasperatingly careless when it comes to the even more dangerous collective diseases of the mind.
p. 625 no rules can cope with the paradoxes of life.
p. 630 reality consists mainly of exceptions to the rule.

Miscellaneous Writings, CW18.......2001-02-12

This is just what it says; it is a hodge-podge of Jung's writings, everything from a seminar to the preface and introductions to other's books. There are some real gems in here, like the section on Symbols and the Interpretation of Dreams and The Symbolic Life, to name a few, but this volume is primarily for those who have plowed through the other 17 volumes and can't get enough Jung.

intriguing miscellany.......2000-06-02

Although rather disorganized, this book is stuffed with insightful bits and pieces of Jungian wisdom. It's best read after one finishes with the Collected Works, or at least its major volumes.

The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation: Or the Method of Realizing Nirvana through Knowing the Mind

Average customer rating:

A mistaken interpretation of Dzogchen and Tibetan Buddhism
backward-foreword
One of the best
The 4th book in the Tibetan Series by W.Y.Evans-Wentz
Ian Myles Slater on: Still Worth It, But Check Competition

The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation: Or the Method of Realizing Nirvana through Knowing the Mind
C. G. Jung
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines: Seven Books of Wisdom of the Great Path, According to the Late Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup's English Rendering
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Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa: A Biography from the Tibetan being the Jetsun-Kabbum or Biographical History of Jetsun-Milarepa, According to the Late Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup's English Rendering
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ASIN: 0195133153

Book Description

The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, which was unknown to the Western world until its first publication in 1954, speaks to the quintessence of the Supreme Path, or Mahayana, and fully reveals the yogic method of attaining Enlightenment. Such attainment can happen, as shown here, by means of knowing the One Mind, the cosmic All-Consciousness, without recourse to the postures, breathings, and other techniques associated with the lower yogas. The original text for this volume belongs to the Bardo Thodol series of treatises concerning various ways of achieving transcendence, a series that figures into the Tantric school of the Mahayana. Authorship of this particular volume is attributed to the legendary Padma-Sambhava, who journeyed from India to Tibet in the 8th century, as the story goes, at the invitation of a Tibetan king. Padma-Sambhava's text per se is preceded by an account of the great guru's own life and secret doctrines. It is followed by the testamentary teachings of the Guru Phadampa Sangay, which are meant to augment the thought of the other gurus discussed herein. Still more useful supplementary material will be found in the book's introductory remarks, by its editor Evans-Wentz and by the eminent psychoanalyst C. G. Jung. The former presents a 100-page General Introduction that explains several key names and notions (such as Nirvana, for starters) with the lucidity, ease, and sagacity that are this scholar's hallmark; the latter offers a Psychological Commentary that weighs the differences between Eastern and Western modes of thought before equating the "collective unconscious" with the Enlightened Mind of the Buddhist. As with the other three volumes in the late Evans-Wentz's critically acclaimed Tibetan series, all four of which are being published by Oxford in new editions, this book also features a new Foreword by Donald S. Lopez.

Customer Reviews:

A mistaken interpretation of Dzogchen and Tibetan Buddhism.......2005-01-02

This text has now been published as "Self-Liberation Through Seeing With Naked Awareness" translated by John Myrdhin Reynolds and published by Snow Lion. This edition by Evans-Wentz is basically a misinterpretation of Tibetan Buddhism in general and of Dzogchen in particular. In the book "Self-Liberation Through Seeing With Naked Awareness" over forty pages are given to a detailed discussion of Evans-Wentz and Jung's basic misunderstandings. This alone is well worth reading so you can make up your own mind before (if) you decide to get the Evans-Wentz version. I have found the translation by John Myrdhin Reynolds to be far superior and truly inspirational.

backward-foreword.......2004-07-12

Having returned to this marvelous work recently after an incident in my life required it, I was shocked to be reminded of the disturbing foreword, which detracts from the majesty of the actual work and Evans-Wentz's accompanying interpretations.

Without dwelling too long on the foreword, written by Donald S. Lopez, Jr., let me say that it strikes me as one of the most long-winded, derogatory and self-serving forewords I have ever seen in a book; not to mention the fact that the foreword is advertised on the cover of this edition. Donald Lopez insults Evans-Wentz on every page and goes on to tear down Jung, as well.

There are genuine reasons for why marvelous works by men such as W.Y. Evans-Wentz stay in print, and they go far beyond the bruised egos of stoic/pedantic academics like Lopez. When so-called Buddhist scholars, such as Lopez and Thurman, project themselves as arrogant intellectuals, it contradicts everything that Evans-Wentz stood for.

Oxford University Press should be ashamed for pulling in a voice so anti-thetical to the spirit of this work. The work, itself, is awesome and is hindered only by the hypercritical Lopez touch.

One of the best.......2004-05-06

This is one of the earliest and still one of the best volumes to come out of the still-intact Tibetan region into the English language. Lots of Voltage.
It's interesting to see in these reviews how many people want to show off what they know.

Best Wishes

The 4th book in the Tibetan Series by W.Y.Evans-Wentz.......2003-11-27

This is the forth and final book in the Tibetan series from W.Y.Evans-Wentz. Although this book can be used as a stand-alone book it is certainly not best read that way. Basically this is part of a developing series. The first book in the Tibetan series - The Tibetan Book of the Dead, is the fundamental book of the series which describes Buddhist philosophy, psychology and metaphysics. It is the best translation out there and the original! The second book in the series is called Tibets Greatest Yogi Milarepa and is the story of a great yogi who puts into practice most of what we learn from The Tibetan Book of the Dead. It is through the story of Milarepa that we learn more about The Tibetan Book of the Dead. In the story of Milarepa the yogi studies the Seven Books of Wisdom of the Great Path as taught to him by his gurus. Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines, the third book in the series, is an expansion that explains those wisdoms and describes the yoga that is used to achieve them.

The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation is a three act book which ties together everything learned from the other three books. Essentially the start of the book develops a clearer understanding of the metaphysics associated with the first three books in the form of a general introduction. The book then lays out the premise for a type of yoga practice called the Supreme Path or Mahayana, that was created to serve as an INSTANT ENLIGHTENMENT yoga. It is mostly psychological. The middle section of the book is devoted to the guru Padma-Sambhava who brought this yoga to Buddhists in the eighth century. The latter part of the book expounds on that yoga in a full translation.

Make no mistake about it. This is the ORIGINAL and best work because this was the man who brought the work to the occident! These texts are ancient and old but have served millions since their inception. The work that Evans-Wentz has done here is substantial if not some of the most important Tibetan Buddhist concepts ever seen by the occident - all directly translated by master gurus whom which Dr. W.Y.Evans-Wentz was a student for years.

There is nothing wrong with the translation. Forget those who seek to play down the originals so that they can sell their new version. This book has stood the test of time. It was first published in 1954! The original book in the series was published in 1921! Evans-Wentz was in Tibet at the turn of the century learning under these gurus! He is held is highest esteem by Oxford University for his endeavors!

*** The other books in the series are - The Tibetan Book of the dead - Tibets Greatest Yogi Milarepa - Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines - all before this one, the final book in the Tibetan Series. ***

Ian Myles Slater on: Still Worth It, But Check Competition.......2003-11-27

The title text of this collection of translations has recently appeared in a significantly clearer and better-annotated translation, as "Self-Liberation Through Seeing With Naked Awareness." Like the other three books in W.Y. Evans-Wentz's "Oxford Tibetan Series," it suffers from a dependence on Tibetan translators working at time when few clear guidelines for translating technical terms had been developed, and from Evans-Wentz's own lack of familiarity with Mahayana Buddhism and its various schools. (Which apparently has not prevented it from achieving its own canonical status with some readers; a process not unknown in the history of translations, from the Christian adoption of the Septuagint in place of its Hebrew original, to some Chinese -- and Tibetan -- renderings of Buddhist Sanskrit texts.)

As Lopez points out in his introduction to this new edition (part of an end-of-the-century reissue of the series, in which the publisher formally acknowledges over a half-century of additional scholarship), Theosophy and Hinduism are the real points of departure. There is a commentary to the translation offered by C.G. Jung, which is of great importance to students -- but of Jung, not of Tibetan Buddhism. The historical significance, and sometimes impressive literary quality, of the translation series is enduring; its value as a set of primary sources is not.

However, a large section of the book is given over to an (abridged) translation of one of the traditional biographies of the *Lotus-Born Guru*, the "Apostle to the Tibetans." In western terms, it is a mix of popular hagiography (like "The Golden Legend"), heroic romance, and supernatural thriller. So far as I have been able to determine, it is the only English-language version of this particular text (there are other Tibetan treatments of the subject, a number of which have been translated), and it makes fascinating reading, simply as a piece of story-telling.

The translation of the story has extensive, and sometimes obsolete, annotations which attempt to tie down the places and times mentioned, but which also recognize that portions, at least, are intended to be symbolic or allegorical (which does not mean that the original audience would not have regarded them as literally true, as well). Padma-Sambhava, besides introducing advanced forms of Buddhist Yoga, is supposed to have written, and concealed for future generations, a number of important texts, including, besides the one translated as "The Great Liberation," the so-called "Tibetan Book of the Dead" (Evans-Wentz's catchy, but potentially misleading, title). He also appears as a major character in some versions of the Tibetan "Gesar" epic.

The presence of this fascinating piece of Tibetan literature may account for the interesting fact that Snow Lion, the publisher of the competing "Self-Liberation Through Seeing With Naked Awareness," offers this book in its catalogue as well (as of Summer 2003).

Those who find this portion of the book interesting will probably also enjoy the traditional "biography" of a Tibetan holy man, in "Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa," another volume edited by Evans-Wentz. (It is a companion volume in the Oxford Tibetan series). It presents itself as its hero's own account of his progression from black magician (to avenge his family) to Enlightenment. (There are several editions of the translation available; the 1999 Oxford paperback reprinting, uniform with the present volume, including a new introduction, should be in print at this writing.)

Archetype Revisited: An Updated Natural History of the Self (Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian)

Average customer rating:

Recommended for Students of Jungian Psychology
A welcome contribution to Jungian Studies reading lists
The Overdue Marriage of Darwin and Jung (Updated)

Archetype Revisited: An Updated Natural History of the Self (Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian)
Anthony Stevens
Manufacturer: Inner City Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Archetypes & Strange Attractors: The Chaotic World of Symbols (Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian Analysts)

ASIN: 1894574060

Customer Reviews:

Recommended for Students of Jungian Psychology.......2005-11-20

Much of Dr. Anthony Stevens' life work has been attempting to connect Jung's theory with the achievements of modern biology, psychology, and sociology and showing the relevance of Jung's ideas to modern science.
In Archetype Revisited: An Updated Natural History of the Self Dr. Stevens succeeds in doing just that. The main premise of the book is that Carl Jung was well ahead of his time, and that Jungian theory, in author's opinion, has been, for the most part, validated by scientific research in the last forty years.
The ideas presented in the book are complex, but their understanding is made easy by Dr. Stevens' impeccable style and clearly presented arguments. In the best Jungian tradition, the author is not shying away from applying theoretical considerations to contemporary mores, which makes for valuable practical lessons, as well as welcome and refreshing commentaries.
It may well happen that this and other books of Dr. Stevens (most notably Evolutionary Psychiatry written with John Price) will be viewed ultimately as what brought Jungian theory out of relative obscurity and into the mainstream of psychology and biological science.
I found this book very interesting and useful for understanding the key ideas, practical implications, and contemporary scientific proof of Jungian psychology. I highly recommend this book to anyone (especially someone with medical or biological background) interested in Carl Jung and his theory.

A welcome contribution to Jungian Studies reading lists.......2003-09-18

Insightfully written by Anthony Stevens (a Jungian analyst, and psychiatrist of 30 years' experience), Archetype Revisited: An Updated Natural History Of The Self is now in a greatly expanded and updated edition. Dr. Stevens provides Jungian students and scholars with a thorough exploration and stimulating study of the connections between archetypes of the fields of ethology and sociobiology, while addressing archetypes in practice such as the family, the mother, the father, masculine and feminine images and more. Archetype Revisited is a worthy and welcome contribution to Jungian Studies reading lists and reference collections.

The Overdue Marriage of Darwin and Jung (Updated).......2003-08-30

Fabulous! "The findings of the two new disciplines, evolutionary psychology and evolutionary psychiatry, in no way contradict or supersede Jung's original insights into the nature and influence of the archetypes which make up the human collective unconscious. On the contrary, they corroborate and amplify them. They confirm that human experience and human behavior are complex products of environmental and hereditary forces . . . . What evolutionary psychology is studying is the psychic unity of humankind. This is not, as some critics have suggested, a reductive universalism but an attempt to establish those psychic structures and functions, those strategies and goals, which we all have in common by virtue of our humanity. Far from diminishing our uniqueness as individuals and rendering us prisoners of our genes, this perspective enables us to celebrate with deeper appreciation the ways in which people living in widely different environmental circumstances work out variations of great complexity on similar sets of archetypal themes . . . . In the presence of pervasive cultural uncertainty, it becomes a matter of urgency to understand the basic archetypal needs and resources of humankind."

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