Customer Reviews

The Healing Art of Storytelling: A Sacred Journey of Personal Discovery

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Storyteller Richard Stone relates specific
steps to bringing the richness of storytelling
to our lives. With personal examples and many
exercises, he leads the reader down the ancient
road of story. This road leads past the quick
fix mentality of the '90's and the stuckness of
pop psychology toward the creativity which
has sustained cultures for generations. Buy
this book to help you reconnect to your story
and the story of those around you.

From "The Healing Art of Storytelling" Richard Stone writes,
"When we recognize that our deepest aspirations cannot be satisfied by a culture that has reduced life's meaning to a smorgasborg of the senses and material possessions, we must search for new sources of meaning, struggling with the same questions that challenged our ancestors" (Page 3).
"Our longing to find our place in this world is more than just a feeling." (Page 3)

If all these self-help books did what they claimed to do,
I would be at peace with myself, with my family, and even with my enemies, but this is not the case. We in the West have forgotten our philosophical roots: "Know thyself."

In order to bypass my rational mind where I have formed certain prejudices, I need stories to help me slip past the "rational" guards standing there protecting my ego.

Initially, my quest toward using stories to heal began with James Hillman's book "Healing Fiction." Richard Stone in his book "The Healing Art of Storytelling" offers a simpler and more understandable approach.

I certainly appreciate Mr.Hillman motivating me to look to fiction to aid me, but his critical and academic approach confused my simple layperson's mind. Mr. Stone's approach is more understandable because he offers his views in simple everyday language.

I am a realist at heart. I do not expect Romantic endings in life, but I do expect to find my way in and out of circles and through the many mazes of mysteries in my life. Richard Stone's book "The Healing Art of Storytelling" could be an aid for those looking for satisfaction that materialism has not been able to acccomplish or will ever able to do.

Thank you Mr. Stone.

Stone's book allows readers to gain a better perspective into our lives through the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and stories about those around us. Stone helps us get a better, larger grip on those stories--particularly the unexamined stories that we carry around with us like so much old, unopened baggage.

The book is also a great starting point for those who want to interview family members for oral history purposes. Stone's book has dozens and dozens of questions, grouped by various themes or topics in people's lives, that can serve as the basis for interviewing family members, friends, etc.--anyone we have an interest in.

I have the Hyperion Press version of the book from 1996. I'm not sure if this version is a revision or simply a reprinting by another house.