The Benefits of Spiritual Practice for Psychoanalysts
As I was editing the videos and producing this post on Spirituality and Psychoanalysis, two memories came into my mind that I thought were worth sharing.
The first was when Hameed spoke about the body being a body of light and how he often perceives people and external reality as such.
In her book My Stroke of Insight, Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. neuroscientist, describes her stroke experience. The stroke affected the functioning of one lobe of her brain, effectively shutting down part of its processing which resulted in her perceiving her body and the external world as plasmatic light.
To me, this speaks to the brain’s function of interpreting and constructing the reality of this world. More and more information is coming to light (no pun intended) from neuroscience and quantum physics on how the world is not what it seems.
Even Einstein stated that the world is not solid, but rather all energy with the appearance of solidity.
Here is the link to Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED Talk.
The other memory was of Ken/Kit Porter’s book, Apollo’s Lyre: The Art of Spiritual Psychotherapy.
Ken was a well-known and respected psychoanalyst from New York who was passionately involved in spiritual practice. He was a long-time meditator and explorer of spirituality and true nature.
As a student and teacher of the Diamond Approach, Ken is a great example of how psychoanalysis and spiritual practice work hand-in-hand in the evolution of consciousness and the living of a fulfilling life in this world.
Ken would have loved Hameed’s talk to the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California and probably would have shared it with many of his fellow psychoanalysts. If you haven’t watched the video, I highly recommend it. It is the best talk I’ve seen of A. H. Almaas articulating Diamond Inquiry™, certainly for its value to psychoanalysts and his debt to psychoanalysis.
On our journey of self-discovery, the symbiotic relationship between psychological inquiry and spiritual practice becomes increasingly evident. Many spiritual seekers find solace and deeper understanding through therapy or psychoanalysis, recognizing these modalities as invaluable tools for excavating the soul. Conversely, numerous psychoanalysts are drawn to spiritual development, often finding that it enriches their professional practice and personal lives. In this harmonious confluence of mind and spirit, we discover that the quest for enlightenment and the pursuit of psychological well-being are not mutually exclusive but are, in fact, two sides of the same luminous coin.