BioSpirituality: Focusing As a Way to Grow (Paperback)

~ (Author), Edwin M. McMahon (Author)
Key Phrases: gift dimension, bodily knowing, bodily felt sense, New Testament, Number One, Eugene Gendlin (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This book provides a simple, step-by-step process to develop a mental and physical availability to whatever is real inside us--the heart of healthy spirituality.

Product Details

• Paperback: 213 pages
• Publisher: Loyola Press; 2 Sub edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0829409378
• ISBN-13: 978-0829409376
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #291,977 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended -- a classic, October 10, 2004

By	Daniel J. Benor "DB@wholistichealingresearch... (Bellmawr, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

The body can be connected with emotions, mind, relationships (with other people and with environment) and with spirit.
"Focusing," an approach developed by Eugene Gendlin, directs us to attend to the felt sense of what is going on inside our body. This is the intuitive, right-brained way our unconscious mind brings to our attention the rightness and wrongness of what we are doing; the itch that says (my words), "examine what you are experiencing, because there is something out of harmony, out of alignment, misdirecting us from our proper life course."
Gendlin teaches that "the direction toward a felt sense is always into and through the feeling, never away from it." Feelings and emotions change only when we identify the felt sense associated with the feeling and seek out the roots behind this - for these are what anchor the feeling in our psyche and prevent its release.
Campbell and McMahon take Gendlin's work into spiritual dimensions.
Campbell considers prayers that substitute positive feelings for negative ones, such as anger. In a particular prayer he cites, whenever anger is felt, the love of Jesus is substituted for the anger.
They warn, however, that spirituality can function in the same way as any addictions, such as intoxicating substances, sex or work.
This classic has grown in popularity over time. I cannot recommend it highly enough. My only criticism is that this otherwise excellent book lacks an index.

5.0 out of 5 stars Finding Your Look-Out Point In the Universe...., August 2, 2009

By	David C. Young "David C. Young, LCSW" (Colorado Springs, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Frs. Drs. McMahon & Campbell write, in their "Introduction": "There is an awareness within our bodies that leads beyond ourselves. A bio-consciousness. Bio-presence. It does not confine us to what we can figure out and control with our minds, but it turns, instead, toward an openness within bodily knowing."

"...each of us is an integral living cell within the evolution of some Larger Body Process. The maturation of this awareness, however, does not occur by reason of what we do, but by virtue of a wholeness we allow to break through inside ourselves.... It is not so much thinking as resonance. The tuning fork of evolution strikes an inviting chord within the organicity of ourselves."

Quite the statement, eh? And they go further, providing practical, learnable steps - based on Focusing, a psychotherapeutic, healing process discovered & made teachable by Eugene Gendlin. [...]

This is a beautiful & powerful book, filled with breath-taking quotes & memorable, heart-warming stories, as well as practical "how to" details on many levels. "Bio-Spirituality", now continuously in print for almost 25 years, is one of the four classic "learn how to Focus" books.[...]and, with Barbara McGavin, her two volume "The Focusing Student's and Companion's Manual"[...]

Disclosure: I learned Focusing, first, on my own from Gene's book in 1981. In 1983, my wife & I became trainers in his workshops. In 1984, we became trainers in Ed & Pete's workshops. We're friends of Ann's, and contribute to her newsletter, "The Focusing Connection", which is *the* way to keep track of new Focusing developments. This past year, I was an invited contributor to the 30th anniversary edition of the Focusing journal, "Folio". I've used Focusing-oriented therapy in my counseling & psychotherapy practices since I started Focusing. Etc.

In the 1970's, Gene teamed up with Ed & Pete, finding ways to teach Focusing in workshops. As they separated - quite amicably -- Gene concentrated on psychotherapeutic healing & development, Ed & Pete - Catholic priests -- developed a spiritual expression & steps for Focusing. Both continued to point toward Focusing's power for social change & evolution. Ed & Pete: "There is a felt truth, a felt meaning, a felt direction within each of us, an embodied sense that can free us and guide us into the future. In-touch living connects! It allows values and behavior to change. That is what we mean by bio-spirituality."

Their approach is not a "just Catholic" spirituality: "...we emphasize an openness to the potential for connecting in a bodily way with the `gift dimension of life,' as well as with a spiritual `More' or `Transcendence' that is implicit within the Focusing process. What began as a purely therapeutic psychological tool has... the potential to become a widespread and accessible cross cultural, spiritual path for ordinary people... that can help Christians and non-Christians alike...."

Gene, by the way, is secular Jewish. Many within the worldwide Focusing community come from Buddhist, Moslem, Shinto, Protestant and more traditions. Most recently, Focusing combined with the Moslem "guest" tradition & the poet Rumi in a successful community wellness program now spreading in war-torn Afghanistan, this developed by at least one Quaker. (For more, see focusing.org, tribute "Folio" edition, the article by Omidian & Lawrence, who've developed workshops to help people translate their approach into other cultures & traditions.) Many have taken insights from Ed & Pete.

More of my favorite quotes:
"Beyond diverse doctrines, religious interpretations, language, ethnic, cultural, and social variations, the one reality that we all share in common... is the human organism... This is the ultimate common ground and foundation for lasting peace."
"The way ahead... lies within ourselves. But... [this] means learning to be in each day, in each passing moment according to the truth and actuality of its connectedness. To find this spiritual dimension within ourselves we must first know the truth of how we really feel about things, people, and events. We must touch those deeper meanings that our bodies express."
"People out of touch with themselves have no real alternative than to constantly prepare for war. Anyone in conflict with himself or herself must inevitably view the world in exactly the same manner.... Multiplied over and over, the momentum of massive inner frustration becomes, finally, ...the horror of... nuclear holocaust."
"Focusing can address this critical issue of thwarted human meaning. It unveils an inner spiritual resource... compatible with the unitive teachings and goals of most world religions and philosophies."
"The felt sense of Greater Awakening... [is] aimed not at the mind's purely rational understanding of truth but at some deeper organismic knowing based on the integration of body and mind."

As I mentioned above, "Bio-Spirituality" also has wonderful stories. Chapter 4, alone, "Humor, playfulness, and surprise," has Pete's childhood experience of "the horse knows the way home" and is worth the price of the book & the time to read it!

I strongly recommend the 1997 2nd edition. This has four new appendices. One is an updated version of how they teach the Focusing steps. Another, Ed's "Ten Learnings from Bio-spirituality," discusses how Bio-Spiritual Focusing can help people toward a more psychologically healthy spirituality. Pete's appendix on "Process-Skipping" is an excellent, even essential guide for Focusing in any style, this based on ideas from Gene's, "A Theory of Personality Change" (This article is freely available at focusing.org, "The Gendlin On-Line Library".)

Should you want more, read Ed's [...]which develops many themes presented in "Bio-Spirituality". Go to their website, [...]which has more resources, including many DVD's. Currently, they're concentrating on helping children Focus. (See, too, Ed's [...], and my review -- a children's picture story book, introducing Focusing.) And through this website you can, perhaps, find Bio-Spiritual Focusers near you. For 30+ years, Ed & Pete gave workshops worldwide.

Am I biased toward this book and Ed & Pete? Yes, of course. But as a psychotherapist concentrating on "high risk" clients, mine is an experienced bias, one covering many years & many people from many spiritual traditions or none, who come to me in great distress, even despair from abuse, war, poverty, discrimination & hate, and long-standing depression & anxiety. I know & use many approaches - family therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, solution-oriented therapy, medical-model therapy, and more. My bias is based here: I've often found Bio-Spiritual Focusing, in whole or part, to help, to heal where little or nothing else has.