Editor's note.Welcome to this issue of the Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies as we complete our sixth year of publication. We are pleased to present these articles which present the intersection of Heart-Centered therapies with spirituality in three quite different perspectives: Christian, Buddhist, and shamanic. Heart-Centered therapies are located within the traditions of deep experiential psychotherapy, and existential-transpersonal psychology. The lead article is Heart-Centered Therapies and the Christian Spiritual Path by Rev. Neil R. D. Gladen. It presents a detailed analysis of how healing and growth in Heart-Centered therapies can be a significant aid in growth on the Christian spiritual path. Gladen relates Jim Marion's work on Christian spiritual development to the developmental model used in Heart Centered therapies. The work of Paul Tillich Noun 1. Paul Tillich - United States theologian (born in Germany) (1886-1965) Paul Johannes Tillich, Tillich and Thomas Keating For the famous art forger of the same name, see Tom Keating. Fr. Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O. (b. 1923) is a Cistercian monk and priest. He was born in New York City, and attended Deerfield Academy, Yale University, and Fordham University, graduating in December 1943. also shed light on the Christian tradition Christian traditions are traditions of practice or belief associated with Christianity. The term has several connected meanings. In terms of belief, traditions are generally stories or history that are or were widely accepted without being part of Christian doctrine. . Gladen, a Lutheran pastor, suggests a strong resonance between the goals and underlying assumptions of Heart-Centered therapies and the goals of Christian spirituality. The goal of the Christian spiritual path, i.e., the Kingdom of God, is presented as the highest possible level of consciousness, which is at hand in the here and now, more than a state of being after physical death. The paper discusses this goal in relation to the goals of Transformational Healing through Heart-Centered therapies, namely (1) acceptance of oneself; (2) the "death of the ego"; and (3) preparation for a conscious and enlightened physical death through self-actualized full participation in life. The second article is Deintegrate, Disintegrate, Unintegrate: A Buddhist Perspective in Heart-Centered Therapies by David Hartman David Hartman may refer to:
adj. Transcending or reaching beyond the personal or individual. . The personality traits contributing to openness operate on the first level through the ego's navigation of (1) a realignment re·a·lign tr.v. re·a·ligned, re·a·lign·ing, re·a·ligns 1. To put back into proper order or alignment. 2. To make new groupings of or working arrangements between. of the twin ideals of ego ideal ego ideal n. In psychoanalytic theory, the part of one's ego that contains an idealized self based on those people, especially parents and peers, one admires and wishes to emulate. (yearning for perfection) and ideal ego (inflated sense of self, and (2) successive deintegrations (Fordham) to accommodate newly consolidated growth. Deconstructing the ego occurs in the context of delicately balancing the ideal ego and the ego ideal to avoid either ego inflation or deflation. Openness to experience Openness to experience is one of five major domains of personality discovered by psychologists (Goldberg, 1993; McCrae & John, 1992). Openness involves active imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for variety, and intellectual curiosity or ego permissiveness connotes a reduction of ego control in the interests of self expression and growth. For some, however, the experience of letting go feels too undefended, unstructured, unbounded, too open, and is equated with annihilation: ego-chill, angst, or in Zen Buddhism the "Great Death." The experience of openness expands into the existential level of ego transcendence with non-defensiveness to the "existential vacuum": fear of life and fear of death (Rank), and acceptance of living in a world of miracles, and operating right at the edge of system disintegration, balancing the challenges of deintegration and the sublime peacefulness of unintegration (Winnicott). Finally openness expands into the transpersonal level, ultimately to non-defensiveness toward the transpersonal anxiety of "spiritual exile" on earth, and receptivity to unintegration, the vast openness of unstructured being. Another article, In Search of the Authentic Self: Using Plants of Wisdom as Healers by Edwin Lainhart, discusses Heart-Centered therapies' commonalities with a different form of spirituality: The Santo Daime, a blend of South American shamanism shamanism /sha·man·ism/ (shah´-) (sha´mah-nizm?) a traditional system, occurring in tribal societies, in which certain individuals (shamans) are believed to be gifted with access to an invisible spiritual , African shamanism, Christianity and other traditions. It is a religion whose origins are in the Amazon rain forest of Brazil, and utilizes the Ayahuasca a·ya·hua·sca n. A hallucinogenic brew made from the bark and stems of a tropical South American vine of the genus Banisteriopsis, especially B. tradition of the Inca Indians, who used the ayahuasca plant to aid them in their spiritual life. This heightened state of awareness opens up the doors of perception in the healing process so that we can begin to discern clearly the illusions of the ego, patterns of addictive behavior, and what does not serve our highest good. Consider submitting a manuscript for the March, 2004 issue of the Journal, and share your clinical experiences with other readers! David Hartman, LCSW LCSW Licensed Clinical Social Worker Editor-in-Chief Heart-Centered Therapies Association, Issaquah, WA USA |
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