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Facing the Dragon: Confronting Personal and Spiritual Grandiosity

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When you take a look around at this latest rising wave of darkness in our world, there are few voices speaking with clarity about the fundamental psychological and spiritual sources of that darkness, and, what can realistically be done on both an individual and global scale about it. Many are talking naively or in terms of divisiveness out of their own grandiosity. Robert Moore's new book, Facing The Dragon, is a wonderful insight into the full spectrum of grandiosity and how it functions to create both great peace and beauty, and, great evil and chaos when not faced on a personal and global scale. Dr. Moore synthesizes many sources of understanding: psychology, religion, spirituality, and culture, and brings his perspective and research together with real examples to clearly help the reader see how grandiosity works in their lives, their families, their churches, and their governments. I highly recommend this book to anyone in academia, government, religious or spiritual study, business, or anyone otherwise on a personal spiritual journey. The book is yet another in a cohesive series of works Dr. Moore has given us intended to bring our collective psychology closer together as a planet. Thank you Dr. Moore for this continued work. I can't wait until The Dragon rears its head in the next book, Riding The Dragon! David Merkel

Men in recovery - or anyone actually who has ever had to adjust some personal behaviour to save their own life - eventually comes to realize that the time has come to face the Dragon. Or the devil within, or the beast within, or whatever you want to call it. And whatever it was that you were avoiding with the substance or behaviour ingested - it is exactly that Dragon which must now be faced. Be it anger, fear, lonliness, what hve you. This is generally not good news. And despite the wealth of revovery material available in the world today; there is not nearly enough which approach these problems from this perspective. This is an important work.

Dr. Moore discusses how narcissism demands that others think and behave like us. It's something I struggle with daily. He draws out this and many other hidden patterns (sizes, shapes and colors) of ideological fundamentalism. To me this is an important idea for developing imagination or an open heart.

I have been invited to review this book, which I found to be one of the most lucid, cogent and passionate accounts on the important subject of 'dragon energy' I have come across. It is not fresh in my mind - I read it around 8 months ago - but nonetheless, my huge enjoyment of the book, and the fact I feel honoured to have been invited by the author to review it, compels me to action. I won't do it justice because the contents are not fresh in my mind and off the page. Please accept what follows as my best job with the 8 month gap!!

In this book Professor Moore explores the dynamics of our human life forces as they play out in various private and public arenas. He names as 'dragon energies' the facet of the self developed in childhood which negotiates power and identity competitively.

He describes 'dragon energy' as something possessed of a numinous brilliance capable of god-like genius, which distorts itself in the face of perceived threat into something insiduous and toxic.

He draws on the work of other psychologists to unfold the ways our 'dragon energies' evolve from child to adulthood as we learn to manipulate and control our environment, so that we get to stay in our 'safety zones'.

He demonstrates over and over that our idea of safety from an egoic standpoint completely flies in the face of 'safety as a project' for the mature, evolved and evolving human race...

He is not afraid to ask of the clergy whether they might be jealous of the gold they perceive in another spiritual tradition, and whether they might be responsible for deploying 'dragon energy' to subvert, denigrate or appropriate some of this gold for themselves...

How refreshing to have someone from the clergy dare to raise such questions directly to the representatives of our world religions...(Many of the chapters are transcripts of lectures delivered at multi-faith conferences world wide.)

Professor Moore, as a Jungian and a Christian spans an intersting gulf - namely what is often considered 'pagan' versus what is traditionally viewed as 'Christian'. In looking at what works when confronting the 'distorted dragon' he is willing to recommend carrying a personal talisman, or deploying the clean, resonant energy depicted in archetypes such as the King, Warrior, Lover or Magician.

He also begins the book with a list of how to be able to spot the devil at work in the world. As someone from a Buddhist background, tending towards a non-dual interpretation of reality, to encounter this list has brought a significant richness to my level of enquiry and my depth of understanding...One sign of the devil, asserts Moore, is to respect no limits...How apt to draw this to our attention in a world so consumed by growth on every level!

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It should be read by politicians, gurus, therapists, architects of war and architects of peace, developers and bankers, it should be read by teachers helping young people to understand why we engage in the pursuits we engage in...

If we can harvest the rich wisdom found in the pages of this book, we will surely begin to deploy our numinous, undistorted dragon energies... Maturing into human beings who are a 'blessing force', we find we can turn towards the lives we really want to live, rather than lives lived by default, when the unexamined insecurities of our childhood hijack our actions on the world stage.

As I was reading this book I assumed the author had some personal experience of the "Great Self Within" and it wasn't until I finished reading the book that I realized the author had made no mention of mysticism, altered states of perception, or direct experiences of the transpersonal. Without such an experience you are likely to underestimate just how god-like the psyche can be. It is mystics who struggle the most with spiritual grandiosity because they've had privileged, personal experience of the sacred and the numinous.