Books

7 Personality Types

Discover Your True Role To Achieve Success And Happinness

ELIZABETH PUTTICK, Ph.D.

(Hay House, 2009)

Elizabeth Puttick, Ph.D., is a sociologist, trained counselor, and expert on personal development and comparative religion who currently works in the publishing industry. She is the author of Women in New Religions and leads seminars and lectures internationally. In this book she conveys the seven soul types identified in the Michael teachings (Server, Artisan, Warrior, Scholar, Sage, Priest and King) as seven “archetypes”. The book begins with a questionnaire to help the reader identify their own type. There then follows a chapter on each of the types (or Roles) which includes lots of useful information on how the role characteristically operates at home, at work and in relationships. Examples are also given of how the archetype has been portrayed in myth, fiction and film, and each chapter ends with a list of famous real-life examples.

See 7 Personality Types at Amazon.com

Character Styles

STEPHEN M. JOHNSON

(W. W. Norton & Company, 1994)

Stephen M. Johnson, Ph.D., a professor of psychology in Menlo Park, California, divides his time between clinical teaching and the private practice of psychotherapy. In this book he presents an integrated personality theory, showing how core existential issues from childhood underlie the spectrum of character styles in adulthood. Johnson explains how each personality pattern manifests along a continuum from functional to dysfunctional — from normal coping to the nagging symptoms of neurosis to the severe pathology of personality disorders. He also describes the inner experience that makes each dysfunctional pattern both unique and worthy of empathy.

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Character Strengths and Virtues

A Handbook and Classification

CHRISTOPHER PETERSON & MARTIN SELIGMAN

(Oxford University Press, 2004)

This groundbreaking handbook is the first progress report from a prestigious group of researchers who have undertaken the systematic classification and measurement of positive traits. Character Strengths and Virtues classifies twenty-four specific strengths (authenticity, persistence, kindness, and so on) under six broad virtues that consistently emerge across history and culture: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. Each strength is thoroughly examined in its own chapter, with special attention to its meaning, explanation, measurement, causes, correlates, consequences, and development across the life span, as well as to strategies for its deliberate cultivation. This book is not light reading for the layman, but it demands the attention of anyone interested in psychology and what it can teach about the good life.

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Transforming Your Dragons

How To Turn Fear Patterns Into Personal Power

JOSÉ STEVENS, Ph.D.

(Bear & Company, 1994)

The book outlines a unique, imaginative approach that helps you recognize your negative traits (“chief features” in the Michael system), understand their root causes, and work towards overcoming them. Psychotherapist Jose Stevens has been helping people overcome the fears that can cripple them for decades. He says: “you as an individual cannot transform yourself unless you personally face your own fears. Facing fear often means looking at the dark, shadowy side of yourself — not to feel guilty or shameful or to punish yourself, but to release the potential vitality locked up therein.” He describes the major fears and their manifestations as “dragons” — the dragons of arrogance, self-deprecation, impatience, martyrdom, self-destruction, greed, and stubbornness — and says they are “the cause of all human-created suffering.” Stevens explains how the dragons develop and gain their power (almost always in childhood), and how they impact adults. He then provides detailed instructions on how to “slay” each dragon. Numerous case studies reinforce his concepts. Readers wanting to regain their energy and know the power that comes from inner peace will find Transforming Your Dragons an excellent resource that’s full of practical help.

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The Adventure of Self-Discovery

Dimensions of Consciousness and New Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Inner Exploration

STANISLAV GROF

(State University of New York Press, 1988)

Stanislav Grof’s explorations of the human psyche began when he investigated the clinical uses of LSD at the Psychiatric Research Institute in his native Prague, Czechoslovakia. It quickly became clear that therapeutic LSD sessions were able to radically speed up the recovery process for many psychiatric disorders. It also became clear that what LSD revealed about the human psyche went far beyond the current understanding of mainstream, materialistic science.

After exploring LSD therapy for 20 years, and having moved to the United States, Grof spent a further 30 years using a natural alternative which he calls Holotropic Breathwork (a safe form of hyperventilation) to bring about the same therapeutic experiences.

The typical breathwork session begins with physical and emotional tensions surfacing. Continued fast, deep breathing brings intensification of physical and emotional pain until the suffering reaches a climax, followed by sudden release, with subsequent deep relaxation and even bliss. During the termination phase, any residual tensions can be released by massage of the painful area.

In early breathwork sessions, most people dramatically relive their birth. Later sessions bring transpersonal experiences such as past life traumas, Kundalini release and mystical oneness. There is a definite trend over many breathing sessions from difficult, negative episodes to more positive, healing experiences.

In this book, Grof has collated the variety of “holotropic” (towards-wholeness) experiences which underpin his advanced model of the human psyche. There are many vivid and startling examples to enjoy.

See Adventure of Self-Discovery at Amazon.com

See also:

• Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research ~ Stanislav Grof
• LSD: Doorway to the Numinous: The Groundbreaking Psychedelic Research into Realms of the Human Unconscious ~ Stanislav Grof
• Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death, and Transendence in Psychotherapy ~ Stanislav Grof
• The Stormy Search for the Self: A Guide to Personal Growth through Transformational Crisis ~ Christina Grof & Stanislav Grof
• Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes A Crisis ~ Stanislav Grof & Christina Grof

The Pathwork of Self-Transformation

EVA PIERRAKOS

(Bantam, 1990)

For more than twenty years, Eva Pierrakos was the channel for a spirit entity known only as the Guide. Combining rare psychological depth and insight with an inspiring vision of human possibility, the Guide’s teachings, known as the Pathwork, have influenced many. Here, the core teachings of the Guide have been collected in one volume synthesizing its essential wisdom. Many people have described this book as life changing. There are certainly very few books that delve as deeply into the inner workings of the unconscious and how the lower self (the shadow and its various masks) interacts with the true, higher self. Paragraph after paragraph in these teachings provide a lifetime’s worth of insights.

See The Pathwork of Self-Transformation at Amazon.com

See also:

• Fear No Evil: The Pathwork Method of Transforming the Lower Self ~ Eva Pierrakos
• Surrender to God Within: Pathwork at the Soul Level ~ Eva Pierrakos
• Creating Union: The Essence of Intimate Relationship ~ Eva Pierrakos

Children’s Past Lives

How Past Life Memories Affect Your Child

CARIOL BOWMAN

(Bantam, 1998)

When her young son’s hysterical fear of loud noises is cured by past life regressionist Norman Inge, and her daughter’s fear of house fires is likewise laid to rest, Bowman, who had already been regressed by Inge, began to explore past-life regression techniques and theories, particularly as they relate to young children. Part memoir, part guidebook for parents, part summation of the works and philosophies of such respected authorities as Jungian therapist Roger Woolger, psychologist Helen Wambach and psychiatrist Ian Stephenson, among others, this book argues passionately for the existence of past lives and for the special abilities of young children to recall their pre-birth memories. Topics covered include death accounts by children, the way phobias may be connected with death in a past life, particularly a traumatic death, and the signs that indicate that a child is struggling with an unresolved past-life burden. An inspiring and ground-breaking book.

See Children’s Past Lives at Amazon.com

See also: Return From Heaven: Beloved Relatives Reincarnated Within Your Family ~ Carol Bowman

Journey of Souls

Case Studies of Life Between Lives

MICHAEL NEWTON, Ph.D.

(Llewellyn, 1994)

Destiny of Souls

New Case Studies of Life Between Lives

MICHAEL NEWTON, Ph.D.

(Llewellyn, 2000)

After stumbling upon a special hypnosis technique to reach the higher consciousness of his therapy clients, Dr. Newton discovered some amazing insights into what happens to us before birth and after death. Journey of Souls and its follow-up Destiny of Souls are based on the amazingly consistent memories of 70 different clients in Newton’s private practice who recalled their souls’ experiences between human lives. We learn many fascinating things about death, rebirth, reincarnation, the spirit world, and the nature of the human soul, each illustrated with accounts of first-hand experiences. I cannot recommend these books highly enough.

See Journey of Souls at Amazon.com

See Destiny of Souls at Amazon.com

See also:

• Memories of the Afterlife: Life Between Lives Stories of Personal Transformation, a compilation of cases edited by Michael Newton.
• Life Between Lives: Hypnotherapy for Spiritual Regression ~ Michael Newton

Your Soul’s Plan

Discovering the Real Meaning of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born

ROBERT SCHWARTZ

(Frog Ltd, 2009)

Schwartz investigates the conversations and decisions that take place between lives. Interviewing about a dozen people who have experienced loss, illness, accidents, and addictions, and with the help of some talented spiritual mediums, he explores the idea of agreements made before birth to learn and experience certain life lessons. A deeply insightful guide as to why our lives unfold as they do and how to direct them to a deeper place. Highly recommended to anyone trying to understand the suffering, tragedy or loss that has caused them to question life, death and/or God.

See Your Soul’s Plan at Amazon.com

Life Before Life

Children’s Memories of Previous Lives

JIM B. TUCKER

(St. Martin’s Griffin, 2008)

This popular examination of research into children’s reports of past-life memories describes a collection of 2,500 cases at the University of Virginia that investigators have carefully studied since Dr. Ian Stevenson began the work more than forty years ago. The children usually begin talking about a past life at the age of two or three and may talk about a previous family or the way they died in a previous life. Their statements have often been found to be accurate for one particular deceased individual, and some children have recognized members of the previous family. A number have also had birthmarks or defects that matched wounds on the body of the deceased person. Life Before Life presents the cases in a straightforward way and explores the possibility that consciousness may continue after the brain dies. It is a provocative and fascinating book that can challenge and ultimately change readers’ understandings about life and death.

See Life Before Life: Children’s Memories of Previous Lives at Amazon.com

Messages From Michael

CHELSEA QUINN YARBRO

(Berkley Trade, 1995; first published 1979)

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s four Michael books are among the best examples of channelled wisdom … ever. Messages From Michael, the first in the series, tells the story of how the Michael teachings first came through a Ouija board to a shocked group of San Francisco residents in the 1970s. The source describes itself as a teaching entity residing on the causal plane of existence, and goes on to explain the nature of the soul and its evolution through reincarnation. The wisdom is remarkable for its clarity and detail: there are seven types of soul, there are five distinct stages of reincarnation, and there are various personality patterns known as overleaves, each of which comes in seven flavours. Once you understand soul type, soul age and overleaves, you will forever look at everyone, yourself included, in a completely different light. Suddenly, it is possible to understand every other human being on the planet in terms of their soul and personality. And, above all, in terms of the choices they make. For if there is one message that Michael bangs on about it, it is this: all is chosen.

The writing style is not to everyone’s taste — do we really care who ate what cookies in the middle of a reading? — and to be honest there are more readable introductions to the Michael teachings (see below). But this is the original and arguably the best in terms of capturing the essence of the Michael group entity and their teachings.

See Messages From Michael at Amazon.com

See also the three other books in this series:

• More Messages From Michael ~ Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1986)

• Michael’s People ~ Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1988)

• Michael For The Millennium ~ Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1995)

The Michael Handbook

A Channeled System For Self Understanding

JOSÉ STEVENS and SIMON WARWICK-SMITH

(Warwick Press, 1990)

This book presents the complete system of knowledge that make up the Michael teachings in a way that not only makes perfect sense, step by step, but is also fun. It describes how souls evolve and how their personalities operate through roles, goals, attitudes and chief features. It explains soul ages and how the number of lifetimes you have had affects the way you see the world. The authors provide easy to understand examples including famous people and amusing drawings.

See The Michael Handbook at Amazon.com

See also:

• Tao to Earth: Michael’s Guide to Relationships and Growth ~ José Stevens
• Earth to Tao: Michael’s Guide to Healing and Spiritual Awakening ~ José Stevens

Book Reviews

• Ask And It Is Given by Esther & Jerry Hicks — and Abraham
• All You Need Is Love by Jewelle St James
• Your Soul’s Plan by Robert Schwartz
• Are We Our Past Lives? by Marie Gates
• Dying To Be Me by Anita Moorjani