From Boys to Men: Spiritual Rites of Passage in an Indulgent Age [Paperback]

Bret Stephenson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 5, 2006

A guide to restoring the successful models used by ancient cultures the world over to raise adolescent boys

• Explains the negative effects of Western youth culture and how it can be transformed

• Offers instructions for integrating basic rites of passage into modern family life and youth programs

For tens of thousands of years all across the globe, societies have been coping with raising adolescents. Why is it then that native cultures never had the need for juvenile halls, residential treatment centers, mood-altering drugs, or boot camps? How did they avoid the high incidence of teen violence America is experiencing, and how did they prevent their youth from relying on drugs and alcohol, the use of which has become so prevalent in Western society?

In From Boys to Men, Bret Stephenson shows readers that older cultures didn’t magically avoid adolescence; instead they developed successful rituals and rites of passage for sculpting teen boys into healthy young men. From Aleutian Eskimos to Polynesian Islanders, from tribal Africans to Australian Aborigines, each culture found archetypal ways to initiate their boys into the adult community. Stephenson explains the basics of rites of passage and offers insight into how to reintroduce these successful practices and traditional understandings into modern family life and programs for youth. He discusses the damaging effects of our youth culture and the negative teen products that are fueled by corporate America and reveals how we can counteract these negative forces by using meaningful rites of passage to create a society with happy and healthy adolescent boys.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“From Boys to Men is a crucial read for parents, teachers, grandparents, and everyone who makes policies about young men. Bret Stephenson is masterful in his presentation of how to help boys “slay the dragon” and thus find a contributive, healthy, and successful manhood. I highly recommend this book!”
(Michael Gurian, author of A Fine Young Man, The Wonder of Boys, and The Wonder of Girls )

“[Stephenson] offers practical models, methods, and activities for changing problematic behavior that draw on a wide range of transition rites that he has recreated for the modern teenage boy. A broad audience will find this a fascinating and hopeful glimpse into the contemporary struggles of American boyhood.”
(Religion Bookline, Dec 2006 )

“If the vast sums currently spent on trying to keep teenagers in a failed and punishing school system were spent on projects such as this, a major step toward social health would unfold. Buy this book, put it to use and spread the word.” 
(Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of Magical Child and The Biology of Transcendence )

“This book builds a much needed bridge between contemporary knowledge and the wisdom of indigenous elders, utilizing tools that are familiar to the western experience and infusing them with ancestral spiritual wisdom.” 
(Malidoma Somé, author of Healing Wisdom of Africa and Of Water and Spirit
)

“Bret Stephenson takes a hard look at how we are raising boys and explores how ancient wisdom and traditional practices can be used to help adolescent males become healthy young men and active members of the community.”
(Aaron Kipnis, Ph.D., author of Angry Young Men: How Parents, Teachers, and Counselors Can Help "Bad Boys" Become Good Men. )

"Society needs to know these ideas and practices."
(Ralph Metzner, author of Maps of Consciousness and The Unfolding Self )

"A brilliant and practical resource and guide for stewarding adolescent boys into responsible leadership and manhood . . . a must for parents, teachers, leaders, and managers."
(Angeles Arrien, Ph.D, cultural anthropologist and author of The Four-Fold Way and Signs of Life )

"[This book] offers up something different: a book which blends cultural and magical insights with parenting and youth reflections for maximum benefit. Any who want an alternative way of coping with adolescents will find FROM BOYS TO MEN packed with spiritual and social insights taken from older cultures versed in rites of passage."
(Diane C. Donovan, California Bookwatch, Feb 2007 )

"This book should be read by all parents of male children in the affluent world." (
Curled Up with a Good Book )

From the Back Cover

PARENTING / YOUTH

“From Boys to Men is a crucial read for parents, teachers, grandparents, and everyone who makes policies about young men. Bret Stephenson is masterful in his presentation of how to help boys “slay the dragon” and thus find a contributive, healthy, and successful manhood. I highly recommend this book!”
--Michael Gurian, author of A Fine Young Man, The Wonder of Boys, and The Wonder of Girls

For tens of thousands of years all across the globe, societies have been coping with raising adolescents. Why is it then that native cultures never had the need for juvenile halls, residential treatment centers, mood-altering drugs, or boot camps? How did they avoid the high incidence of teen violence America is experiencing, and how did they prevent their youth from relying on drugs and alcohol, the use of which has become so prevalent in Western society?

In From Boys to Men, Bret Stephenson shows readers that older cultures didn’t magically avoid adolescence; instead they developed successful rituals and rites of passage for sculpting teen boys into healthy young men. From Aleutian Eskimos to Polynesian Islanders, from tribal Africans to Australian Aborigines, each culture found archetypal ways to initiate their boys into the adult community. Stephenson explains the basics of rites of passage and offers insight into how to reintroduce these successful practices and traditional understandings into modern family life and programs for youth. He discusses the damaging effects of our youth culture fueled by corporate America and reveals how we can counteract these negative forces by using meaningful rites of passage to create a society with happy and healthy adolescent boys.

BRET STEPHENSON is a counselor of at-risk and high-risk adolescents and a men’s group facilitator. In addition to serving as executive director at Labyrinth Center, a nonprofit organization in South Lake Tahoe offering classes and workshops on adolescent issues for teens and adults, he is currently designing and implementing employment and entrepreneurial projects for teens. He has been a presenter and speaker at the United Nations World Peace Festival and the World Children’s Summit. He lives in Lake Tahoe, California.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Park Street Press (November 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594771405
• ISBN-13: 978-1594771408
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #600,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Biography
Bret Stephenson M.A. is the author of From Boys to Men: Spiritual Rites of Passage in an Indulgent Age. He has been a counselor of at-risk and high-risk adolescents for twenty-one years. Bret has worked in residential treatment, clinical counseling agencies, group homes, private counseling, foster parent training, Independent Living Program, and managed mentoring and tutoring programs. He has been a presenter and speaker at numerous national and international conferences and workshops, including the International Transpersonal Association's Youth Conferences in America and Ireland, the United Nations World Peace Festival, and the World Children's Summit. 



Presentations at the Association of Transpersonal Psychology's annual conferences have included Transpersonal Approaches to Working with High-Risk Youth, and Western Adolescence: Shadow of the Patriarchy. He has been a presenter at the National Foster Parent Association annual conference and multiple California State Foster Parent Association conferences as well as the Indiana and Iowa Foster Care annual conferences. He is a Global Program Faculty Mentor for the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. As a men's group facilitator, he has also led workshops in the U.S. as well as Switzerland. Bret has worked with teens from more than 100 countries.

Bret was recently Director of Special Projects for Foster/Kinship Care Education and the Independent Living Program at Lake Tahoe Community College. He pioneered the use of Internet based systems intended to deliver distance education classes for rural providers and group home staff, and previously launched a teen web project through the Independent Living Program in which the web content and construction of the web page was completed by ILP teens only.

He designed and taught on-line classes on Understanding Adolescence, Reactive Attachment Disorder, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Bret is currently also working with the California Conservation Corps, providing anger management training and case management services. He is currently a case manager for Rite of Passage, Inc. in Nevada where he is the founder and director of the Str8 Up student-business project. Bret is an Advisory Board member for My Journey Home in Reno, a project assisting prison inmates and their families through reintegration back into society. In addition, he is on the Global Passageways Intergenerational Advisory Council project based in Washington DC mentoring youth activists and assisting in trying to create initiation and rites of passage models for modern youth.

In June 2004, Bret once again headed the teen module of the International Transpersonal Association's Youth Conference in Palm Springs. In July 2005 he headed the teen component for the Institute of Noetic Sciences' first Youth Conference in Washington DC. Bret is the founder and Executive Director of Labyrinth Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to adolescent services and programs. Bret and Labyrinth Center are currently creating youth employment and youth entrepreneurial models.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ancient wisdom for modern times, September 22, 2007

By 

petrarchslaurie (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From Boys to Men: Spiritual Rites of Passage in an Indulgent Age (Paperback)

A necessity for people who work with at-risk kids! Bret Stephenson has found a way to make the wisdom of ancients accessible and practical for this era. He reminds us that other cultures don't seem to have some of the same problems with their adolescent boys that we in America do and asks some tough questions (and proposes some answers) about why that is. He then shows that through meaningful ritual, important rites of passage, and judicious application of responsibility and respect, today's boys can earn their manhood instead of guessing whether they are men and sailing through the doldrums of adolescent hell. His writing is accessible, peppered with real-life examples of his own experiences with at-risk boys. Excellent!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Social Survival Guide, September 17, 2009

By 

G. Campbell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: From Boys to Men: Spiritual Rites of Passage in an Indulgent Age (Paperback)

All tribal societies intuitively knew without initiation for puberty age boys there could be no long term survival. Our society tragically does not know this - much to our on-going social and climatic disasters.
Although the author writes from his experience of working with deeply troubled boys what he does must become
a widely accepted part of our social fabric if we are to have any authentic hope of social survival. As a man
I am sorry to admit profound male maturity is almost non-existent. This book is at least a necessary step in that direction.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ushering boys into healthy manhood, January 15, 2008

By 

Greg Womack (Arkansas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: From Boys to Men: Spiritual Rites of Passage in an Indulgent Age (Paperback)

An excellent resource for a guy who is trying to figure out how to give his son a great shot at healthy masculinity in a confused culture.