The symptoms inherent in the mentally ill differ from the general population only in degree or intensity, not in their actual presence. This is why, in times of great turmoil, we would profit from taking a long look at the inner workings of our psyches, as well as that of our broader society. Rather than…
As children, we all had superheroes who captivated our attention. While I loved to watch Sesame Street and Spiderman cartoons, nothing captured my imagination like the pixie-dust wielding fairy called Tinkerbell. Her allure lay in the fact that she was light and agile; could flit in and out of situations at her whim and will; and…
For me, an event that looms as large and final as death is best framed in existential terms, where the death of a loved one becomes an object of our consciousness, and we become the conscious mind that must wrap itself around this object. Relationships play a fundamental role in the coherence of our psyches,…
When I was twenty-six years old we had a family crisis on the west coast of British Columbia, so I moved there to take full-time care of my niece until the situation sorted itself out. Two months into my stint, my truck insurance was about to expire, and I mentioned to my sister that I…
By the time I was in my late twenties, I had already been going to psychologists for a decade, had consulted numerous New Age healers, and read every self-help book I could get my hands on. I was still young, but desperate to figure out the root of my unhappiness before it threatened to extinguish…
A long time ago, in a universe far away, I was born into intergenerational trauma. I lived in the dysfunction of this for almost two decades, and then it took me two more to bring myself out of what I like to refer to as “the aftermath.” If you’re wondering what this aftermath looked like,…
The social engineering that we are barraged by every day systematically erases the normal healthy boundaries that human animals inherently possess and replaces these with the larger social agenda. In this way we let go of what we want and need, and begin to believe that we want what society tells us we want. In…
There is no more accurate representation of the fractured nature of the psyche than those balls you see hanging from the ceiling of the dance floor. Everyone’s psyche is fragmented to one degree or another, and the most important contributing factor to this by far is the environment we grew up in as children. If…
Of all the phases that one must go through on a healing journey, forgiveness is the most difficult as well as the one most fraught with misconceptions. To forgive is to “give away” the past, to cease allowing painful events to stay alive in the present. Another way of putting this is that you no…
“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a Butterfly.” – Richard Bach Personal transformation cannot occur while we are busy conforming to a status quo, because deep transformation happens in the wilderness of our psyches, in that place beyond the social programming of our culture. It takes courage to transform,…