Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Life-Altering Experience, October 14, 2008
Reviewed by Kam Aures for RebeccasReads (10/08)
"Frameshifting: A Path to Wholeness" follows the author's journey to break free from his ego and expand his field of consciousness. He also provides tools and instruction in the book allowing those that wish to alter their life in a similar way the knowledge to do so. Banner begins the book with a brief autobiographical account of the pivotal events in his life that brought him to where he is today. I found his personal stories to be extremely unique. Throughout the rest of the book he includes many more examples from his personal life as illustrations of the main points that he is making. The inclusion of his experiences definitely makes the book more engaging and appealing. He has had some quite interesting ones!
After his introduction, Banner moves on to discuss the ego. He explains to us how "our ego-based sense of self and its dream state has cost us dearly in terms of happiness and personal security." (p.3) He then goes on to look at the different levels of development that we, as humans, progress through. After citing examples from Abraham Maslow, Carol Gilligan, and others, he centers on Claire Graves' model of Spiral Dynamics. In this model, there are eight levels. The six levels in the first tier are called the subsistence levels. These levels are labeled with the colors beige (archaic-instinctual), purple (magical-animistic), red (power gods), blue (mythic order), orange (scientific achievement), and green (the sensitive self). After these six levels there is "a monumental leap in consciousness," according to Graves (p.18), to levels #7 yellow (integrative) and #8 turquoise (holistic). The lower levels focus on self-centeredness while the upper levels focus on whole-centeredness.
Unless we are able to make this leap to the higher level, the world's future is uncertain. In "Frameshifting" Banner presents us with tools and advice based on his experiences to help let go of the self-centered self, develop more empathy, and expand our overall consciousness. He takes some very complex ideas and presents them in an easy to understand format. Each concept or idea presented is backed up with detailed explanations or examples that proficiently illustrate his point. For instance, while explaining the different points on the Enneagram, he uses people that we are all familiar with (like Katie Couric and Jack Nicholson) to describe the types of personalities. Having real-life examples was very helpful in aiding my comprehension of the subject matter.
"Frameshifting" is truly a life-altering book as it changed my views in many ways and increased my overall sense of awareness. I think that anyone who reads this book will find it beneficial in aiding him or her to lead a more fulfilling life.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Growing into Wholeness, October 12, 2008
David Banner's FrameShifting: A Path to Wholeness is one man's full-immersion journey on the spiritual path. Banner shares his tale of a lifetime of in-depth explorations of roads to fuller states of consciousness, and their remarkable effect on his psyche, as ego falls away bit by bit, and new awareness, insight and often radically different (and enlightening) perspectives about self and world emerge.
The voyage described here is imbued with a sense of joy and wonder at every turn, and Banner is eager to share what he has learned, not necessarily for others to follow his particular path, but as a highly useful conceptual model for change and an inspiration to all who set forth to find their own unique way. His approach is that of one who forthrightly encounters the events in his life, even (or perhaps especially) when difficult times put forth a steep and rocky path, and Banner finds the lessons to be learned and the growth to be gleaned from the experience.
In short, FrameShifting is a delightful read, a view altering experience, and a rich resource for those seeking a more fully developed consciousness.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
FrameShifting , February 27, 2009
It's so very easy to get stuck in a rut. We live our lives and rarely venture out of our comfort zone. We become judgmental, believing that others should act as we want them to do.
Then, something dramatic happens in our lives. It may be a divorce, illness, or the death of a loved one. Suddenly, our lives are turned upside down. Our black and white thinking turns very grey.
Dr. Banner calls this process FrameShifting, changing our perspective and becoming open to the possibilities that someone else's truth might not resemble yours. They may have entirely different goals, beliefs, and attitudes. What might be very important to you might not even register in their minds. This happens not because the person is trying to irritate you but because he or she is an individual.
There are a number of different ways to begin and develop the process of change. FrameShifting summarizes a variety of techniques and programs that he has tried over the years. He notes that one of the most useful is enneagram, a psychological personality test which places individuals according to their base needs. Unconsciously, fulfilling these needs becomes the primary drive in daily life. The system is surprisingly accurate and is particularly useful for self exploration and understanding purposes.
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