| The Primal Scream | Arthur Janov | Seminal and powerful. Sadly Janov seems to think that his therapy is the only truly valid one. he also claims that most practitioners of so called Primal Therapy are not doing it right. Fills in basic concepts about how the emotions seem to work with clarity. |
| I'm OK you're OK | Dr. Thomas A Harris | Can really change your life, dedicated to the cause of honest healthy relationships. What self esteem really means before the phrase got a bit over used. |
| Games People Play | Eric Berne | Tour of some of the absurdities of human behaviour, it can be heavy going, solely because of the sad truths it reveals. |
| In Search of the Miraculous | P.D. Ouspensky | Spiritual supercharge, although perhaps Gurdjieff's teachings have had their day, this is the best single book on the Work. |
| The Divided Self | R.D. Laing | Idiosyncratic, yes, but the root perspective is so humane.. that all madness ultimately tells a real story about the inner self. |
| Memories, Dreams and Reflections | C.G. Jung | Great introduction to the art of self exploration and living meaningfully. |
| Dibs in Search of Self | Virginia M. Axline | Magical - how happy endings can become real with real love and understanding |
| The Road less Travelled | M. Scott Peck | gerat personal |
| A Safer Place to Cry | Brian Roet | By the talented Hypnotherapist, Dr Roet, with whom I had the priv of working |
| Psychosynthesis | Roberto Assagioli | A complete system, with tools and techniques to unify the separateness of the minds parts. |
| Optimum Nutrition | Patrick Holford | One of the new wave of nutritionists who believe and can prove that many ailments traditionally regarded as needing drug treatment, respond well to nutriotional treatments. |
| Learning how to learn | Idries Shah | A spiritual blockbuster. Deep analysis and insight from the Sufi tradition, though you shouldn't start with it, better "The Sufis" for that. The Sayed Idries was a scholar who proved his great flexibility by reaching an understanding of the west that most westerners possibly don't have ! |
| The Anointed | Z'ev Ben Shimon Halevi | A Kabbalistic novel about religious boundaries and people who try to break them down. |
| The Occult | Colin Wilson | Huge tome, excellent overview and as ususal with Wilson, unique perspectives and treatment. Readable. |
| Supernature | Lyall Watson | A biologist defends the existence of the supernormal. |
| The Seth material | Jane Roberts | Predecessor of Lazaris, Seth is a channelled entity who urges peopleto accept that "you create our own reality" |
| The Female Eunuch | Germaine Greer | Part of history now. A help for all therapists who help women, or who are women (even !) |
| Shakti Woman | Vicky Noble | Reconnects women with Goddess power, female magic and mysteries. The book contains much powerful art and imagery connecting us to the past of so much that has been hidden and denied. |
| The Second Sex | Simone de Beauvoir | Vital reading, things have changed for women now, but if you don't read that book, you can't see where we have come from. A milestone on the journey. |
| The Sufis | Idries Shah | An overview of the dervish tradition. Can't beat being in a real school, I would hope, but good if "mere book learning" is what you are after. |
| The Master Game | Robert De Ropp | By a Gurdjieffian, good book to persuade people that the drug experience should be superceded by "the Master Game" ( a life based around inner work) as a means of transcendence. |
| People of the Lie | M. Scott Peck. | A disturbing yet necessary analysis of the worst things people can do in personal relationshipsand why they do them. |
| What do you say after you say hello ? | Script Analysis (part of TA - transactional analysis) the bees knees on really understanding patterns and themes in people s lives, and if they are negative, taking steps to allow the individual to move beyond them. | |
| Bodymind | Ken Dytchwald | The Body/mind link and how to work with creating personal growth through understanding the signals our bodies give us. |
| The complete Herbal Encyclopedia | Dr Donald Law | I've referred to this hundreds of times over the last decades. |
| Play therapy | Children are masters at it, and yes, adults need to do it too. How play can be used to help self understanding and access levels unavailable to rational means. Applying this can bring a lovely spontaneous quality to therapy. | |
| Combatting Cult Mind Control | I've used this as a primer on helping people who had small involvement with cults, more in depth work would need a lot of professional consultation and more research. | |
| Bizarre Sex | Roy Eskapa | Amusing and it sheds light on myth-ridden and less often revealed aspects of the psyche. |
| Listen Little Man | Wilhelm Reich | Technically a "rant", but nonetheless a rant which most therapists would resonate with a little. It's sad though that Reich had reached such despair about the hopes for humanity. |
| Meetings with Remarkable men | George Gurdjieff | Readable story about how 'G' searched for knowledge as a young man.His optimistic resolve to find answers led to its goal, all seekers should learn from this. |
| The Courage to Heal | We sometimes need to find this, especially if we are 'hanging on' to our illness(es). | |
| Families and how to survive them | John Cleese and Robin Skinner | This book comes mainly from a behavioural/cognitive viewpoint, which is different to my emphasis, but as an introduction to that perspective it is good, light reading. |
| Mechanics of the Mind | Colin Blakemore | Written by a Psychologist this will fill you in on some aspects of mind/brain function, although it may fuel further questions in a field of which it would take an awful lot of work to get an overview. |
| Notes to Myself | Hugh Prather | Different approach, written by a man who set out very systematically to observe himself,as he strove to be himself, and relate as himself. |
| The Inner Guide Meditation | Steinbrecher | This book is a whole way of life that people I know have put into practice globally across their personal spheres. |
| Dianetics | L. Ron Hubbard | Although Hubbard is controversial, this is a very good model of how we can be influenced by our pasts, and how some degree of freedom from this is achievable. Recommended.(No I'm not a Scientologist, just a person who examined the model and found some good in it.) |
| The Continuum Concept | Jean Liedloff | Powerful, although the book was accused of being "regressive" by David Wasdell, British Primal Therapist. Inspiring, but it can bring a painful awakening too, such as its description of how hard it can be being a baby. |
| The Silva Mind Control Method | Jose Silva and Philip Miele | This book really did change my life. A complete course in the most powerful variety of creative visualisation. It can heal anything if you really want it to. |
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List of Publications on Cymatics