In her first book, Jauregui attempts to guide readers through the intricate realms of self-exploration and scientific explanation. Each short chapter delves into an existential question—What is a person? What was Freud’s true intention? Can quantum mechanics help explain human consciousness? What is the mind?—as Jauregui briefly touches on everything from Einstein to Hawking and psychotherapy to physics. Passionately and intelligently, Jauregui, a psychotherapist in Berkeley, Calif., compares the mathematical field of fractals to the human condition, and recounts stories of patients whose personal revelations have brought them joy in the face of great pain. In this book’s case, however, brevity does not equal simplicity: the narrative jumps too quickly from one topic to the next and often it’s a stretch to understand how each chapter relates to the previous. Though both the scientific anecdotes and the tales of healing Jauregui relates are compelling, they sometimes make odd bedfellows.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Praise for
Epiphanies:"Magic happens—unbidden—suddenly transforming our lives and the way we think about the world. Finally, a book that breaks the taboo on speaking about these grace-filled moments.
Epiphanies, as Dr. Ann Jauregui shows, reveal that the world at heart is kinder and more benevolent than we have recently supposed.
Epiphanies is a powerful antidote to the deadening materialism of our day."
— Larry Dossey, M.D., author of
Healing Beyond the Body and Reinventing Medicine"A powerful and delightful account of the mind's ability to gain spontaneous insight and to reorganize information in therapeutically successful ways. Such events invariably reduce stress and elevate emotional tone toward joy. This is the stuff of conscious evolution."
— Edgar Mitchell, Sc.D.; founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and author of
The Way of the Explorer: An Apollo Astronaut's Journey Through the Material and Mystical Worlds"Ann Jauregui writes with real intimacy, poetry, and an original panache, and what she has to say about the evolution of the human personality is as bracing as it is profound."
— Andrew Harvey, author of
The Direct Path"Splendid glimpses into the sacred space in which therapist and client are willing to wait for the liberating truth that surprises them both."
— Sylvia Boorstein, author of
Pay Attention, for Goodness' Sake"Ann Jauregui draws with great imagination upon modern physics and cosmology to reconfigure the most basic assumptions of psychology. She not only enhances the healing techniques of her field but deepens the ethical mission of therapy."
— Theodore Roszak, author of
The Voice of the Earth and
The Devil and Daniel Silverman"We are taken to the far side of science, which—according to Jauregui—bears a remarkable resemblance to what she refers to as 'epiphanies,' moments when the ineffable finds words for itself—the miracle of the new. With bravura, she passes from personal reminiscence to 'tales of psychotherapy' to the history of recent science and back again as if the only borders that separate these domains are nothing more than speed bumps."
— David Epston, coauthor with Michael White of
Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends, and with Jennifer Freeman and Dean Lobovits of
Playful Approaches to Serious Problems: Narrative Therapy with Children and Their Families"Until now, Annie Dillard held my award for the most balanced left/right-brained person I knew. I have been challenged more than once to bring my spirituality into my work life, and I have taken the conservative path. I think Silver Bay has changed my life forever."
— Joan Herrick, M.A., psychotherapist, cofounder with Virginia Satir of Avanta, and past president of the Association of Family Therapists of Northern California
"In these stories, personal to each and all, I experience a clear and astonishing reminder of the beauty and oneness of the universe. This is a powerful collection of tales about how healing happens, written by a wise and loving psychotherapist."
— Jane Loebel, M.A., cofounder of the Women's Therapy Center and past president of the Association of Family Therapists of Northern California
"Answers to questions that wake you up at night."
— Neil Levy, author of
The Last Rebbe of Bialystok"What an illuminating, integrating, and soothing gift! In
Epiphanies, Ann Jauregui has helped me to locate myself as a member of a postmodern scientific community. She applies her penetrating and synthesizing mind-rays to some of the most important human concerns there are. She's given me the wherewithal to answer why psychotherapeutic and spiritual pursuits have never seemed disparate and why questions have always been my favorite form of dialogue."
— Nina Ham, M.A., cofounder of the Women's Therapy Center
"
Epiphanies is an important book. Ann Jauregui evinces her lifelong fascination/torment with the question of the continuity and coherence of the universe. As a young child contemplating the night sky, as a psychotherapist listening deeply to her clients' search for meaning, and as a postmodern thinker integrating the new paradoxes of mutual influence and fluid uncertainty, she teaches us about wholeness. In supple prose filled with compelling personal narratives, she offers us a rare integration of the cognitive, emotional, and spiritual aspects of being a conscious human being as we turn into the third millennium."
— Ellen Zucker, Ph.D., psychotherapist and cofounder of Russell House, a center for psychotherapy and training
