Category Archives: Other

Birthday Gifts from Roberto Assagioli

Today is Assagioli’s birthday (he would have been 135 years young today). So why not buy yourself an Assagioli birthday gift — one or both of his newly published books!

I’m particularly happy to have been part of these two publications. Creating Harmony in Life: A Psychosynthesis Approach is a collection of Assagioli’s lectures from the 1930s and 1960s, published for the first time in English. I had the privilege of introducing, translating and annotating this book.

Psychosynthesis of the Couple is collection of lectures that Assagioli gave on the topic (mostly in Italian). Jan Kuniholm has synthesized these lectures into a highly readable composite essay. I was also able to contribute to the translations from the Italian.

Creating Harmony in Life: A Psychosynthesis Approach

Published by the Istituto di Psicosintesi, Florence
Available from Amazon
ISBN 979-12-21402-74-2

Originally published in Italian in 1966 as Psicosintesi: Per l’armonia della vita, this book provides a fundamental overview of psychosynthesis by bringing together the early lectures of Roberto Assagioli. These lectures explore what psychosynthesis is and how it can be applied towards the practice of personal and spiritual self-development.

A great book for anyone new to psychosynthesis, Creating Harmony in Life is also a treasure trove for experienced psychosynthesis practitioners, with Assagioli’s nuggets of wisdom waiting to be discovered, contemplated, and put into practice.


Introduction to Creating Harmony in Life


Psychosynthesis of the Couple

Edited with an Introduction by Jan Kuniholm
Available from Amazon

Jan Kuniholm presents this book, Psychosynthesis of the Couple a synthetic essay that gathers the teachings of Roberto Assagioli, MD, concerning marriage, couples, relationships, and “inter-individual” psychosynthesis, many of which have been translated to English for the first time. The title is edited with notes and an introductory essay by Jan Kuniholm, with a reminiscence by Piero Ferrucci.

Of particular interest are the many diagrams that Assagioli drew to symbolically represent his concepts regarding, for example, communication between couples, stages of union, and various types of man-woman relationships.

ψς of the Couple/ Mutual Integration/Self-realization / through the other/ The Couple as an Entity (Note by Assagioli)

Exploring Assagioli’s Archives – Sept. 16/17

Ahead of World Psychosynthesis Day on 20th September, I will be demonstrating a one-hour session via Zoom on how to navigate Assagioli Archives, home to approximately 19,000 notes and manuscripts from Roberto Assagioli, the founder of Psychosynthesis.  

Gruppo alle Fonti, part of the Instituto di Psicosintesi in Florence, has dedicated many years to making Assagioli’s notes available, creating this free resource online to share his work as widely as possible. They launched Assagioli Archives in 2015 and have recently added the printed publications of Assagioli’s writings. 

I will be introducing the archives and demonstrating how to navigate them with practical tips such as how to use the search engine and copy images. As a collaborator with Gruppo alle Fonti at the Istituto di Psicosintesi for many years, I have helped to catalogue and scan archive documents. 

Feel free to join me on either day (Note that both workshops are the same).

Friday 16th September 6.00 – 7.00pm (BST) for more information and booking, click here.

Saturday 17th September 12.00 – 13.00 (EST) for more information and booking, click here.

Books for Winter Nights

My garden is quiet now and the nights are long, so it’s a perfect time to sit on my sofa and snuggle down with a good book. Here are a few that have come to my attention that you might like to explore as well (alongside a hot cup of tea or mug of mulled wine!)

On Angels Wings – My Flight From Trauma To Grace

by Gloria Masters
To order, go to: https://www.gloriamasters.com/

This autumn, I had a visitor from the psychosynthesis community. We were chatting away while enjoying the beautiful clouds floating overhead when he shared how one of his clients had endured terrible sexual abuse as a child. When he had asked her how she had managed to survive, she said, “I heard the angels all around me. They are always singing the psalms.”

Not a week later, Gloria Masters – whom I had never met or heard of before – sent me an email telling me about her book. She too had endured sexual trauma as a child, and she too had found hope and resilience through her relationship with angels.

For me, this felt like a clear affirmation by the angels, whom I believe are constantly waiting for us to call on them for help and guidance. 

On Angels’ Wings is an extraordinary powerful story of how a young girl journeyed from darkness into light and a testimony to the unrelenting power of the human spirit.

The Machine Stops

by E.M. Forster
Free in the public domain.
Click here for pdf.
Click here for audio book.

I read The Machine Stops during lockdown and found it eerily familiar. Written in 1909, this short story takes place in a future(!) where people live underground in isolated cells, never see one another and communicate only via audio and visual devices. In this world, original thought and direct observation are discouraged—“Beware of first-hand ideas!” people are told. Humanity has been overtaken by “The Machine,” which provides all comforts and meets all needs—except the need for human contact. One young man, Kuno, pleads with his mother via Zoom-like technology, “I want to see you not through the Machine… I want to speak to you not through the wearisome Machine.”

The story is about his attempt to escape The Machine. Riveting, chilling and profoundly insightful of mass human psychology, it captures one person’s attempt to discover and hold onto his authentic inner voice.

Know, Love, Transform Yourself 

by Petra Guggisberg Nocelli
€27.00
To order via Amazon, click here.

Petra has once again brilliantly compiled a book full of valuable psychosynthesis theory, techniques and exercises. This book is the first volume in a two-volume series and provides psychotherapists, counsellors, coaches, trainers, leaders, and educators alike with priceless tools and information.

Of course, I’m partially biased as Petra invited me to contribute a chapter to this important work. Other contributors are: Bonney Gulino Schaub and Richard Schaub, Ann Gila and John Firman, Rozana Bažec, Dorothy Firman, Tan Nguyen, Birgit Haus, Joan Evans, Will Parfitt, Michael Wolde, and Ewa Danuta Bialek.

The Anger Makeover

by Walter Polt
€22.58
To order via Amazon, click here.

We all get annoyed and resentful, even with people whom we love. But how about giving your anger a makeover? This book gently guides you to unwind those feelings of anger and reshape them into relationships that are joyful, warmhearted, and honest.

The Anger-Makeover process helps transform the often-negative aspects of raw anger into a constructive resource for growth and healing. This very practical workbook offers an approach to the ‘management’ of anger, not through denial, repression or acting out – but through looking within to find the power locked underneath one’s emotional response.

Walter shows how to garner the anger energy and redirect it to good use – helping us to bring out our best selves.

Assagioli 2021 – Psicosintesi e Letteratura

€25.00
To order, contact: istituto@psicosintesi.it

Finally for those who read Italian, this collection of conference papers on Psychosynthesis and Literature is a rare gem. Contributors include Piero Ferrucci, who writes about the synthesizing aspects of music, and Lucia Bassignana, who gives us a wonderful tour through the artwork at Casa Assagioli. Other contributors are: Francesco Baroni, Katalin Orosz, Zsuzsanna Tóth-Izsó, Paolo Leoncini, and  Gianni Yoav Dattilo.

And then there’s yours truly! I also contributed an article on the spiritual philosophies of Rabindranath Tagore and Roberto Assagioli (in Italian).  You can download my article by clicking on:

CALombard «L’eterno straniero chiama» Estratto – Atti Budapest 2021

For English readers, this article has been accepted and will be published in 2022 by the Journal of India Philosophy and Religion. I’ll be sure to let you know more then.

Happy Reading!

Free and Wild Creatures Abound

Readers of A Free and Wild Creature have been sending me photos of themselves with my book. You too can become an Official Free and Wild Creature! It’s very easy, just send me a photo of yourself with the book or post your Official Free and Wild Creature photo to the Love And Will Facebook page. Here’s a few to inspire you…

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Thank you everyone!

When Desire Leads to Revelation

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The Journey of the Three Magi. Postcard from Assagioli’s Archives (ID# 010305)

Today is Epiphany, a celebration of when the three Magi, traveling from the far East in search of the Divine Child, finally find him and offer him gifts. Driven by desire, their search ends in Revelation.

Desire. It is a word that can evoke so many different images and feelings. Assagioli saw desire as an integral part of our psychological functioning, along with sensation, emotion, imagination, thought, and will. “Everyone is moved by a desire of some kind,” Assagioli said, “from sensual pleasures to the most idealistic aspirations.”

Continue reading

Books, Books and More Galore!

 

At first glance, you might think that life coaching, shamanic soulfulness, short stories about Japan, and a textbook on psychosynthesis might not have much in common. But they do! All have come into my hands (literally) during the last year in the form of books, and I would like to share them with you now.

In addition, I am planning to publish a series of short books based on my blogs. So this list ends with a preview of my first book in the series. But before we peek inside all these book covers, I would first like to introduce you to a wonderful new resource… Continue reading

From Pencils to Cosmic Love

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What better day than St. Valentines to explore Assagioli’s thoughts on Love from a psychosynthetic point of view? But first we have to start with pencils…

In his dialogs with Bruno Caldironi, Assagioli described the process of reflective mediation. This type of meditation is a synthesis of many elements, most notably attention and concentration. The idea is to consciously direct your thoughts to an idea, problem, or concept and note how your thoughts connect, interpenetrate, and link themselves together into a new understanding.

In Assagioli’s careful didactic way, he first gave the simple example of how you might meditate on a pencil.  You might begin like this:

“What’s a pencil? It’s for writing. It’s of wood. It has lead inside…”

Continue reading

The Doctors are In!

012373 Freud's confusion between sexual and sensuous

“Freud’s confusion between sexual and sensuous.” Assagioli’s note from his archives

As many of you probably know, Roberto Assagioli was the first psychoanalyst in Italy. However, not long after presenting his doctoral thesis on psychoanalysis, he found Freudian thought to be limiting and went onto becoming the visionary founder of psychosynthesis.

Undoubtedly, Assagioli had great respect for Freud as a pioneer of modern psychology, but he also believed that psychoanalysis actually forced you to live in only two dimensions as opposed to psychosynthesis, which opens up a third, higher dimension of the psyche. Continue reading

Free Will – Fantasy or Saving Grace?

hamburger over truthLast week I heard Robert Sapolsky being interviewed on the radio. Prof. Sapolsky is apparently a renowned and popular U.S. scientist. He is Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University, and a big shot in the world of neuroendocrinology. The New York Times has called him one of the finest natural history writers of our time.

Despite all his knowledge, talent, expertise and fame, Prof. Sapolsky left me chilled when he said:

“Free will is what we call the biology that we have yet to study.”

Continue reading

Places of the Higher Self

Five-day Journey Through the Green Heart of Italy

September 18-23, 2017

Assagioli at camadoli

We will visit the Camaldoli Hermitage near Florence. Here is a photo of Roberto Assagioli (fourth from the left) outside of this same hermitage (courtesy of Fernando Maraghini).

In our everyday lives we are often too busy, distracted, or caught in the mundane to be open to the places of the Higher Self. Throughout history and across cultures, our ancestors have always created ritual space and time for the transpersonal to enter into the ordinary. Such holy places are often located on mountaintops and deep inside caves, in silent havens and in nature. Churches, temples, and mosques have been built to hold the polar tensions of spirit and matter, inner and outer space and light, as well as the community that shares the transcendent experience. As an expression of beauty, awe, and awakening, art has also always played a great part along this journey to our Higher Self.

La Verna, Italy

La Verna, Italy

Continuing with the theme of “Synthesis,” after the International Meeting at Casa Assagioli, we embark on a Journey to the Higher Self. Starting from Florence, we travel east to visit medieval churches and mountain hermitages, allow our souls to soar from La Verna, discover beautiful villages and, of course, enjoy the cucina locale. During this five-day journey, you will have a chance to discover places of transcendence in the green heart of Italy – in the forest-covered Tuscan and Umbrian Apennines, the home of many generations of seekers and saints of the transpersonal.

The journey is especially meant to be an open voyage of discovery and a direct personal experience of all that presents itself during its various stages. We will go slowly and quietly, allowing you the time and space necessary to directly experience the reality of the Higher Self, the key part of you that connects the personal with the transpersonal and, hence, the personal with the universal.

DSC01520This journey promises to be a fonte of inspiration for anyone seeking the Higher Self in the natural beauty and surroundings of Italy. We hope to provide you with a journey that might help transform and strengthen you when you ultimately return to your daily life.

This trip is organized and hosted by Catherine Ann Lombard and Kees den Biesen, the guides and facilitators.

Cost: € 985.00 per person. For more information and registration, see A Journey to Places of the Higher Self.