The Lover Within, Julie Henderson
I’m reading Julie Henderson’s, The Lover Within. Ellie Epp, the embodiment adviser at Goddard College said the book is, “…ostensibly about sex, but is actually about tantric energetics… (Henderson)’s unusually clear and unflakey, has a PhD.”
Everybody in embodiment at Goddard seems to reference The Lover Within, and I understand it as a sort of embodiment bible. I never finished it, but I plan to, because look at this bibliography. I love sharp, chattily annotated bibliographies, and The Lover Within delivers. Most of her references are old, but many are recently reprinted and most are lovingly reviewed.
Alexander, Gerda. Eutony: The Holistic Discovery of the Total Person. New York: Felix Morrow, 1986.
This is an introduction to the profound work developed by Alexander over the last 55 years. Her work is not only a method of healing and treatment but also a Western meditation on being through the body. Emphasis on proprioceptive perception of body spaces, movement of energy (by intention and focus of attention), development of contactfulness and presence, voluntary modification of physical tonus.
Andersen, Marianne S., and Savary, Louis M. Passages: A Guide for Pilgrims of the Mind. New York: Harper and Row, 1972.
Guided, timed exercises with specific goals and intentions for the alteration of consciousness.
Baker, Elsworth F., M.D. Man in the Trap: The Causes of Blocked Sexual Energy. New York: Macmillan, 1967.
A discussion of character structure in vivid psychoanalytic jargon. Whether it is helpful or a laugh depends on the languages you speak.
Barker, Clive. Theatre Games. London: Methuen, 1977.
Physical, social, emotional games that make for more powerful, expressive, flexible actors-and do the same for other interested people.
Benjamin, Benjamin E. Are You Tense? The Benjamin System of Muscular Therapy. New York: Pantheon, 1978.
A system of deep massage and muscular therapy, as it says. If you are interested, study four or five dissimilar systems; then create your own to suit. This system includes a “Tension Test” to check yourself out.
Bertherat, Therese, and Bernstein, Carol. The Body Has Its Reasons: Anti-exercises and Self-awareness. New York: Avon, 1979. (First published in France, 1976.)
Like Alexander and Gorman, Bertherat has discovered that, in exercise and in movement, less is often more.
Briggs, John P., Ph.D., and Peat, F. David, Ph.D., Looking Glass Universe: The Emerging Science of Wholeness. Simon & Schuster, New York: 1984.
This book didn’t come out until after I wrote The Lover Within, but I include it in the bibliography because it is an absolutely first rate introduction to the thought of Bohm, Pribram, Prigogine, & Sheldrake. An exciting intellectual roller coaster ride into the “new” science.
Bubba Free John. Love of the Two-Armed Form: The Free and Regenerative Function of Sexuality in Ordinary Life, and the Transcendance of Sexuality in True Religious or Spiritual Practice. Middletown, California: Dawn Horse Press, 1978.
This is a very advanced text. Robyn Speyer showed it to me after I had already written The Lover Within. I would suggest you wait until you have a direct experience of what Bubba Free John calls “the Blissful Current of Life-Energy” (p, 15) before taking it on. You need also to be willing to deal with a fairly specialized vocabulary in which the variations from normal usage are not always obvious. Nevertheless, if you want to reach for the highest peach on the tree, this is a good book to have.
Capra, Fritjov. The Tao of Physics. (2nd ed.) Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala, 1983.
Relates Eastern and Western views of reality in the light of quantum physics.
Castaneda, Carlos. Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. New York: Washington Square Press, 1968.
Chekhov, Michael. To the Actor on the Techniques of Acting. New York: Harper and Row, 1953.
A brilliant work with very simple, effective exercises using body posture to influence emotion and energy distribution.
Douglas, Nik, and Slinger, Penny. Sexual Secrets. New York: Destiny Books, 1979.
Encyclopedic, coffee-table sort of book on tantra. Lots of pictures.
Dowman, Keith, trans. Sky Dancer: The Secret Life and Songs of the Lady Yeshe Tsogyel. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984.
This is an alternative translation of the same text as Mother of Knowledge. The book includes learned essays.
Dowman, Keith, trans. The Divine Madman: The Sublime Life and Songs of Drukpa Kunley. Clearlake, California: Dawn Horse Press, 1980.
A “secret” life from the vajrayana tradition, Le., it includes references to sexuality as a part of the road to awakening. It doesn’t talk about how it works; that’s up to Drukpa Kunley. We should all be so lucky as to meet him somewhere.
Downing, George. The Massage Book. New York: Random House, 1972.
Introduction to Esalen-style massage by one of its designers.
Erickson, Milton H., M.D. The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson on Hypnosis, vols. I-IV. Ernest L. Rossi, ed. New York: Irvington Publishers, 1980.
Erickson in all flavours.
Erickson, Milton H., M.D., and Rossi, Ernest L., Ph.D. Experiencing Hypnosis: Therapeutic Approaches to Altered States. New York: Irvington Publishers, 1981.
As with everything of which Erickson was author or co-author, the best approach is to read it once trying to put together all the “too much” information linearly until your brain fogs, and then read it again without trying. Is it more important to know-or to know that you know? The older Erickson is never communicating only what he seems to be communicating. Get out of his way as much as you can and let him teach you.
Erickson, Milton H., Rossi, Ernest L. Hypnotherapy: An Exploratory Casebook. New York: Irvington Publishers, 1979.
Another introduction to how to alter consciousness for healing that is both more and less than itself depending on your own state of consciousness while reading it. Erickson, Milton H., Rossi, Ernest L., and Rossi, Sheila I. Hypnotic Realities: The Induction of Clinical Hypnosis and Forms of Indirect Suggestion. New York: Irvington Publishers, 1976. Erickson teaching induction by doing it. His remarks on himself are lovely and often full of hidden humour.
Feldenkrais, Moshe. Awareness Through Movement. New York: Harper and Row, 1972.
Exercises (in my terms) to learn how to let the body talk to the body and to let the body re-educate itself.
Gendlin, Eugene T., Ph.D. Focusing. New York: Everest House, 1978.
An entire book devoted to noticing proprioceptive effects of communication from “body” to “mind” and back.
Geba, Dr. Bruno Hans. Breathe Away Your Tension. New York: Random House, 1973.
Combines deep breathing and autosuggestion to influence energy flow and states of mind.
Gorman, David. The Body Moveable. Blueprints of the Human Musculoskeletal System: Its Structure, Mechanics, Locomotor and Postural Functions, Vols. I-III. Vancouver, B.C.: Kromonium Productions, 1981.
This is my favorite anatomy book. Gorman has great humor and tenacity and even greater insight into intention, consent, and freedom of movement.
Guenther, Herbert V. Tibetan Buddhism in Western Perspective. Emeryville, California: Dharma Publishing, 1977.
This is a scholar’s book; they don’t come any better than Guenther, but you really have to want to read it.
Gunther, Bernard. Energy Ecstasy and Your Seven Vital Chakras. (2nd ed.) Los Angeles: The Guild of Tutors Press, 1979.
Visualisation, breath and sound for moving energy and as the basis for meditation.
Gunther, Bernard. Sense Relaxation: Below Your Mind. New York: Collier Books, 1968.
A classic introduction to enlivenment of and through the body. Exercises and hints on touching.
Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang. Clear Light of Bliss: Mahamudra in Vajrayana Buddhism. London: Wisdom Publications, 1982.
One of the very most advanced of all spiritual tantras. If you are convinced you know what’s real, try this. Lovely to discover that, of the three categories of beings capable of achieving enlightenment, human beings have the best chance. A very advanced practice from a world view in which energetic realities are perhaps more fully incorporated than they are anywhere else.
Hanna, Thomas. The Body of Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980.
An introduction to the “soma”-the body alive and moving in space and time. Tom Hanna trained with Feldenkrais and, I think, has gone beyond his teacher.
Heckler, Richard Strozzi. The Anatomy of Change: East/West Approaches to Body/Mind Therapy. Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala, 1984.
Heckler, Richard Kent. The Body/Mind Interface. San Francisco: Freeperson Press, 1975.
An interesting collection of essays on the body/mind marriage. Heckler teaches at the Lomi School and heads an aikido dojo.
Hessel, Sidi. The Articulate Body. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1978.
Exercises specifically to release and realign joints. Since many interruptions of energy flow occur at joints, these exercises can be very helpful if you have a specific joint in mind.
Houston, F. M., D.C. The Healing Benefits of Acupressure. New Canaan, Connecticut: Keats Publishing, 1974.
Very clear visual presentation of the location of pressure points and some remarks on what they influence. Knowledge of these points can increase the effectiveness of your touching. I recommend you practice on yourself and see if you agree with the observations of this (or any other) author on the effects of pressure on these points.
Houston, Jean. The Possible Human: A Course in Extending Your Physical, Mental, and Creative Abilities. Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher, 1982.
An extension of her earlier work (with Robert Masters) exploring mind and body. Emphasis here on integration and expansion of faculties.
Hover, Robert Harry. How to Direct the Life Force to Dispel Mild Aches and Pains. La Mirada, California: The Hover Company, 1979.
Taking an entirely practical and pragmatic approach, Hover deals with such practices as inner vision and the energetic constructs associated with discomfort and illness: how to see them and how to remove them. The techniques derive from the author’s lengthy experience of vipassana meditation.
Ichazo, Oscar. Arica Psychocalisthenics. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976.
lchazo’s basic system of movement meditation for psycho-physical integration, alteration of mood, and so on.
Jung, C. G. Mysterium Coniunctionis: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis ofPsychic Opposites in Alchemy. Trans. by R..F. C. Hull. Bollingen Series XX. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1963.
This monumental work, often regarded as monumentally obscure, makes a lot more sense if regarded from the perspective of energetic movement towards union-intrapersonal, interpersonal, transpersonal.
Kaplan, Helen Singer, M.D., Ph.D. The New Sex Therapy: Active Treatment of Sexual Dysfunctions. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1974.
A very condensed and competent presentation of the medical/ behavioural approach to sexuality and sex therapy. (It was the failure of this approach to identify or relieve my own frustrations that prompted me to re-examine my direct experience and which led finally to a vocabulary of experience that made sense of what I felt and wanted.) I approve of this book though it suffers conceptually (in my view) from the lack of such concepts as charge.
Kaplan, Helen Singer, M.D., Ph.D. The New Sex Therapy, Vol. II: Disorders of Sexual Desire and Other New Concepts and Techniques in Sex Therapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1979.
The first discussion (I know of) of desire as a focus of sex therapy. “With some exceptions ISD [inhibited sexual desire] patients … have a relatively poor prognosis with all treatment methods currently employed.” (p. 56) Energetic and bioenergetic approaches, of course are outside her view and so are not considered. ‘
Keleman, Stanley. In Defense of Heterosexuality. Berkeley, California: Center Press, 1982.
Right now, Keleman and Boadella are the most exciting theoreticians of the relationship between experience, development, and somatic structures that I know of.
Keleman, Stanley. Somatic Reality: Bodily Experience and Emotional Truth. Berkeley, California: Center Press, 1979.
Keleman, Stanley. The Human Ground: Sexuality, Self and Survival. (Revised and expanded ed.) Palo Alto, California: Science and Behavior Books, 1975.
Keleman, Stanley. Your Body Speaks Its Mind. Berkeley, California: Center Press, 1975.
Kent, Caron. The Puzzled Body: A New Approach to the Unconscious. London: Vision Press, 1969.
A very interesting book by a mainstream psychotherapist who let himself notice the physical changes in the body that take place as part of (chicken following egg following chicken) psychological change and growth.
Khanna, Madhu. Yantra: The Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity. London: Thames and London, 1979.
A book flourishing with illustrations, the images that have arisen in the tantric tradition investigating the movement of union with life.
Krieger, Dolores, Ph.D., R.N. The Therapeutic Touch: How To Use Your Hands to Help or To Heal. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1979.
A fine introduction to perception and direction of energy for healing. Helpful anecdotes and exercises.
Kurtz, Ron, and Prestera, Hector, M.D. The Body Reveals. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1976.
The best introduction there is to reading the structural language of the body. Lots of pictures and silhouettes that help to see experience in the body.
LeBoyer, Frederick. Loving Hands: The Traditional Indian Art of Baby Massage. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976.
Great pictures of a great principle in action: loving touching grounds us lovingly in the flesh. A lifelong gift for any baby or for healing touch of anyone feeling small.
Leonard, George. The End of Sex: Erotic Love After the Sexual Revolution. Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher, 1983.
A popular look at the effects on people of separating “sex” from life and intimacy. It calls for a renewed appreciation of the erotic.
LeShan, Lawrence. Alternate Realities. New York: Balantine Books, 1977.
A speculation on our capacity to alter the “rules” that make Reality real.
LeShan, Lawrence. The Medium, The Mystic, and the Physicist. New York: Viking Press, 1974.
LeShan, Lawrence, and Margenau, Henry. Einstein’s Space and Van Gogh’s Sky: Physical Reality and Beyond. New York: Macmillan, 1982.
An expansion of the earlier book on alternate realities in collaboration with the physicist who catalysed it.
Lowen, Alexander, M.D. The Betrayal of the Body. New York: Macmillan, 1967.
Lowen, Alexander, M.D. Bioenergetics: The Revolutionary Therapy That Uses the Language of the Body to Heal the Problems of the Mind. New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghagan, 1975.
The fullest single exposition of Lowen’s system of developmental character structures revealed in physical structure.
Lowen, Alexander, M.D. Depression and the Body: The Biological Basis of Faith and Reality. New York: Penguin, 1972.
Lowen, Alexander, M.D. Fear of Life. New York: Macmillan, 1980.
Lowen on Oedipal conflicts and our general withholding from life - the risks of aliveness.
Lowen, Alexander, M.D. The Language of the Body. (originally published as Physical Dynamics of Character Structure.) New York: Macmillan, 1958.
Early Lowen. Lowen has written so much, so regularly, and with such impact in his area-creating a whole therapeutic approach, in effect-that it is difficult to sum up. He is one of the principal theoreticians after Reich.
Lowen, Alexander, M.D. Love and Orgasm. New York: Macmillan, 1975.
I find Lowen’s limitations - and we all have them - more disturbing in this book than anywhere else, partly because of his emphasis on pathology, partly because of his biases, which conflict with mine.
Lowen, Alexander, M.D. Narcissism: Denial of the True Self. New York: Macmillan, 1983.
Image opposes self-experience and creates unreality and horror. I find this a muddy book in the general context of character structure, but others love it.
Lowen, Alexander, M.D. Pleasure: A Creative Approach to Life. New York: Lancer Books, 1970.
Lowen, Alexander, M.D., and Lowen, Leslie. The Way to Vibrant Health: A Manual of Bioenergetic Exercises. New York: Harper Colophon, 1977.
Just what it says: a collection of the most commonly used bioenergetic exercises for moving energy and re-distributing it. They are effective for many “blocks” of energy in the voluntary musculature. For smaller scale interruptions of flow, I have found the Kum Nye exercises of Tarthang Tulku preferable.
Mahler, Margaret S., Rine, Fred, and Bergman, Anni. The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant: Symbiosis and Individuation. New York: Basic Books, 1975.
The result of twenty years of observation and research with normal infants, this book describes the processes by which young children learn to create boundaries and be separate.
Masters, Robert, Ph.D., and Houston, Jean Ph.D. Listening to the Body: The Psychophysical Way to Health and Awareness. New York: Dell, 1978.
Masters and Houston move to include the “body” in the “mind”, mostly via Feldenkrais.
Masters, Robert, and Houston, Jean. Mind Games: The Guide to Inner Space. New York: Dell, 1972.
A classic of programmed learning exercises for the alteration of consciousness.
Miller, Roberta De Long. Psychic Massage. New York: Harper and Row, 1975.
Includes the energy body in touching and being touched. Some nice hints for stretching the range of your perception of touch.
Mishkin, Julie Russo, and Schill, Marta. The Compleat Belly Dancer. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1973.
A full range of exercise for areas we generally leave out.
Montagu, Ashley. Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin. (2nd ed.) New York: Harper, 1978.
Invaluable.
Morris, Eric, and Hotchkis, Joan. No Acting Please. Burbank, California: Whitehouse/Spelling Publications, 1977. “
Acting is the art of creating genuine realities on a stage.” (p. 1) Exercises to shake mind, emotions, and body out of a rut and into chosen movement. Morris is rather flamboyant, with a tendency to balloon.
Namgyal Rinpoche. Body Speech and Mind. Ottawa, Ontario: Crystal Staff Publications, 1983.
This is the best introduction I know to Tantric, or Vajrayana, Buddhism. It’s a very practical, experiential approach to alteration of the bases of being, put together from talks by a Canadian teacher who was “recognized” as a Tibetan incarnation by the sixteenth Gwalma Karmapa (what varied realities all on one planet). English is his first language, which helps enormously.
Nam-mKhai snying po. Mother of Knowledge: The Enlightenment of Ye-shes mTsho-rgyal. Tarthang Tulku, trans. Berkeley, California: Dharma Publishing, 1983.
The story of one of the great Tibetan spiritual heroines. Part of the story has to do with mystical sexual union as a teaching method, but you are expected to learn from a teacher.
Ostrander, Sheila, and Schroeder, Lynn. Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1970.
Padget, Desmond. Transcendental Sensuality. New York: Lancer Books, 1973.
Despite its suspect title, this is a rather fine introduction to simple tantra, seen as the extension and refining of sensation and perception through all the senses. Focuses on sex, but the exercises are directed to all sensory pathways and are not all sexual in intention. No direct energetic exercises.
Pagels, Heinz R. The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics as the Language of Nature. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.
An exciting book on its subject. Unlike The Dancing Wu Li Masters or The Tao of Physics or The Medium, the Mystic and the Physicist, Pagels stringently denies any significance of quantum mechanics outside the world of particle physics, but (I find) is constantly and unconsciously undermining his own position. For me, this adds to the interest of the book.
Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree. The Book of Secrets, Vols. 1-V. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.
This is Rajneesh’s commentary on the “Vigyana Bhairava Tantra”-112 methods of meditation (i.e., altering consciousness and moving energy) attributed to Shiva. Tantric but not specifically sexual.
Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree. Only One Sky: On the Tantric Way of Tilopa’s Song of Mahamudra. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1975.
A commentary on the classic Tibetan tantric poem. The commentary itself is tantric in orientation, that is, is oriented towards acceptance of life and being in all its aspects.
Reich, Wilhelm, M.D. Character Analysis. (3rd, expanded ed.) New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1967.
Introduces the then-revolutionary notion that the body reflects character and that therefore the body must be dealt with in psychotherapy. A classic, still exciting to read. Some flavor of the Young Turk.
Reich, Wilhelm. Cosmic Superimposition: Man’s Orgonotic Roots in Nature. Orgonon, Rangeley, Maine: Wilhelm Reich Foundation, 1951.
Reich’s study of the spiral form and movement in man, nature, and the cosmos. Compare to Schwenk’s Sensitive Chaos and Reich’s own works of a slightly later period when he had begun to lose his personal ground.
Reich, Wilhelm. The Function of the Orgasm: Sex-Economic Problems of Biological Energy. New York: Bantam Books, 1967 (written 1926).
Another classic, which really stirred the waters at the time. The reflexive nature of orgasm. Orgasmic redistribution of energy as the “energy economy” of the body. Reich is said to have felt physically unwell if he went two days without orgasm, which may have influenced the strength of his view.
Reich, Wilhelm. Listen, Little Man! New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1948.
Reich talking to himself and to us privately (not originally intended for publication), trying to work out his angers and conflicts over social and personal suppression of life and flow.
Reich, Wilhelm. The Murder of Christ: The Emotional Plague of Mankind. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1953. Written June-August, 1951.
Discusses the effects-social and personal-of living an armored life: hatred of that which lives fully. Reich identifies with Christ.
Reich, Wilhelm. Selected Writings: An Introduction to Orgonomy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1961.
Bits and pieces from practically every area of Reich’s work. A good place to start a study of his work.
Reich, Wilhelm. The Sexual Revolution: Towards Self-Governing Character Structure. (4th ed.) New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1967. (First copyright, 1945.)
Sex and society. Social and sexual repression closely related.
Rosen, Sydney, M.D., ed. My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. (includes commentaries by Rosen). New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1982.
The most approachable book there is on Erickson’s teaching through stories. The stories are great, too.
Rosenberg, Jack Lee. Total Orgasm. New York: Random House, 1973.
Catchy title. An admirable introduction to bioenergetic exercises which effect energy flow and charge, specifically to increase sexual pleasure. Rosenberg discusses union as confluence and has a chapter on spirituality and orgasm. He doesn’t deal with how to influence energy flow directly, though, of course, all the exercises are intended to affect charge, flow, and surrender.
Rush, Anne Kent. Getting Clear: Body Work for Women. New York: Random House, 1973.
One of the first books for women on reclaiming their physical beings.
Schwarz, Jack. Human Energy Systems. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1980.
Another approach to direct perception of human energies-and what to do about it. Schwarz is famous for his voluntary control over physical energetic processes.
Schwartz-Salant, Nathan. “Archetypal Factors Underlying Sexual Acting Out In the Transference/Countertransference Process.” Chiron, 1984.
A Jungian approaching issues of energetic union from his own experience and within a Jungian vocabulary.
Schwenk, Theodor. Sensitive Chaos: The Creation of Flowing Forms in Water and Air. New York: Schocken Books, 1978. (First published 1965.) .
Spirals and waves, waves and spirals, everywhere in form and movement. Striking book, especially for the pictures. Compare Young’s Reflexive Universe, Tohei on aikido (where the spiral and the wave are embodied), and Reich on orgone in the individual and the cosmos (Cosmic Superimposition).
Smith, David. The East/West Exercise Book. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976.
Many exercises that can be explored from the perspective of attention and presence. All of them have effects on energy distribution and emotional “flavor” of being, as well as on physical strength, flexibility and tone.
Spolin, Viola. Improvisation for the Theater: A Handbook of Teaching and Directing Techniques. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1963.
A basic text on the creation of realities through physical imagination. Spolin’s methods directly influenced some of the most creative and convincing actors of the current crop (e.g., Alan Arkin, Nichols and May).
Stevens, John O. Awareness: Exploring, Experimenting, Experiencing. Lafayette, California: Real People Press, 1971.
Lots and lots of Gestalt exercises for noticing what’s happening inside and outside. Could easily be an introductory acting text. Or a Western meditation similar to vipassana.
Swami Jyotirmayanda. Meditate the Tantric Yoga Way. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1973.
Meditations with sound and visualization involving the major chakras (energy centers) in the body. A nonsexual, Indian approach, which is nevertheless intended to arouse shakti (the primal energy of being, regarded as female) and move to union with it.
Tarthang Tulku. Kum Nye Relaxation, vols. I-II. Berkeley, California: Dharma Publishing, 1978.
Far and away the most effective and powerful exercises collected anywhere (that I know of, in English) for the balancing and integrating, stimulating and transforming of energies. The exercises were developed by Tarthang Tulku over a period of years working with Western students; they are based on tantra and Tibetan medicine. I use them all the time myself and with others. I usually recommend that in the beginning people make expressive sounds as part of the exercises and let silence come gradually.
Thie, John F., D.C. Touch for Health. (Revised ed.) Marina del Rey, California: DeVorss and Company, 1979.
This is a practical introduction to applied kinesiology and acupressure as a form of treatment for physical and mental discomforts. I see it as a fine way to explore the intelligence of the body and its willingness to communicate meaningfully, e.g., through muscle-testing. In fact, muscle-testing can be used “hypnotically”-without obvious alterations of consciousness-to communicate directly with the unconscious mind.
Thirleby, Ashley. Tantra: The Key to Sexual Power and Pleasure. New York: Dell, 1978.
Another suspect title on a very usable book (out-of-print, unfortunately). Visualization, sound, concentration in exercises to increase energy level. The increased charge can be used for sexual pleasure, but Thirleby is equally interested in collecting sexual energy and channeling ling it to other goals. Does make the false assumptions, however, that most people know how to charge themselves-sexually or otherwise.
Toben, Bob, and Wolf, Fred Alan. Space-Time and Beyond: Toward an Explanation of the Unexplainable. (New ed.) New York: E. P . Dutton, 1982.
A pleasant way to loosen assumptions about how things are and can be.
Tohei, Koichi. Book of Ki: Co-ordinating Mind and Body in Daily Life. Tokyo: Japan Publications, 1976.
One of the few books related to a martial art (aikido) that offers something helpful to the uninformed reader. Better yet, try ki practice in aikido, t’ai chi, or some other martial art with emphasis on energy m movement.
Watzlawick, Paul. How Real Is Real? Confusion, Disinformation, Communication: An Anecdotal Introduction to Communications Theory. New York: Random House, 1976.
Absolutely splendid. Playful, knowledgeable, approachable.
Watzlawick, Paul. The Language of Change: Elements of Therapeutic Communication. New York: Basic Books, 1978.
A lucid, brilliant discussion of how language makes meaning and how to alter the attitudinal realities we hold in metaphor.
Wilbur, Ken. No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth. Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala, 1981.
Wilbur is one of the most prolific of the current theoreticians of transpersonal psychology. Here his discussion of the relativity of boundaries is very helpful.
Wilson, Robert Anton. Prometheus Rising. Phoenix, Arizona: Falcon Press, 1983.
Riding the line between speculative fiction and flaky thinking in a very productive and “Ericksonian” way, Wilson sets out to dislodge assumptions about what is and what we perceive. Exercises for altering your reality.
Windels, Jenny. Eutonie mit Kindem. Munchen: Kosel-Verlag, 1984.
Original in Dutch, no English yet. This lovely book by a leading student of Gerda Alexander is full of exercises that support awareness in the body and integration of “self” and “body”. Many of them develop presence and contactfulness. Discussion of their use with children.
Young, Arthur M. The Reflexive Universe: Evolution of Consciousness. Delacorte Press, 1976.
Zeig, Jeffrey K., Ph.D., ed. A Teaching Seminar with Milton H. Erickson, M.D. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1980.
A whole lot of Erickson direct from transcript. If you know what Erickson sounds like (there are tapes available), you can alter your state of consciousness and hear it right off the page as you read.
Zukav, Gary. The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics. New York: William Morrow, 1979.
Story of the origins and continuation of the radical change in our understanding of how things are.
