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INTRODUCTION This book covers many topics different from the ones discussed in other books already written about Rebirthing. In addition, it gives my personal views about some of the topics these other books discuss. In my first few months of involvement with Rebirthing, I studied with its innovator, Leonard Orr, and with such other early and famous Rebirthers as Sondra Ray, Phil Laut, Bob Mandel, Fred Lehrman, Bill Chapell, Bobby Birdsell, Diane Hinterman, Lucy MacDowell, C.W. Light, Usha Sunshine, and Steven and Trina Kamp. I learned lots from all of them. And I have read all the books written by Rebirthers, especially by Leonard Orr, Sondra Ray, and Phil Laut. I've learned lots from all these books, too. But these other Rebirthers were very young people when I first met them, and they were all people whose experience and training were radically different from mine. Unlike them, I'm a well-trained psychologist and psychotherapist, scientist, teacher, and writer-and I'm also a much older person However well-known and well-loved they may be, and however interesting and attractive their ideas about Rebirthing are, most other Rebirthers lack the formal, academic, professional credentials that tend to substantiate anyone's claims about Rebirthing. So skeptics, especially the huge audience of therapists and educators, have remained unconvinced that Rebirthing is effective and safe. I want everyone who deals with human development to know about and to give serious consideration to Rebirthing, to using it to heal their clients and teach to their students. Writing this book is an extension of that purpose, presenting my ideas of what works and what doesn't work in Rebirthing. I seek to answer questions and clear up confusions about Rebirthing, the logic of Positive Thought, and the basis for effective healing. I hope everyone reading this book will be as fascinated by the process that Rebirthing initiates and sustains as I have been. I want you to enjoy thinking about the connection between the breath and the spirit. I hope you respect my opinion enough and trust my judgment enough to be not only actively curious about Rebirthing, how it works, why it works, and what it can do, but also to be inspired to experience and practice it yourself. I came to Rebirthing after more than twenty-five years of practicing professional psychology. Fortuitously, my pre-Rebirthing scientific and professional experience in physiology and psychology is all directly related to understanding and teaching Rebirthing, evaluating its effects, and extending its theoretical base to psychological and philosophical considerations. My earliest academic training in physiology and biochemistry and my teaching specialty, physiological psychology, all enable me to deal with questions about how Rebirthing works, biologically. I still keep up to date in the fields of neurophysiology and psychopharmacology on new findings about what goes on in the body, especially the brain, when a person is doing what we call thinking and feeling. So I'm in a good position to offer an informed opinion about what's happening biologically during Rebirthing. After getting a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago and doing research in endocrinology, I trained as a clinical psychologist and received my Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1953. As a graduate student, I had the opportunity to be an analysand in classical psychoanalysis for several years. I also had the privilege of learning from and working with several leaders in humanistic psychology, especially Dr. Carl Rogers, and became well-acquainted with client-centered, non-psychoanalytic therapy. Immediately after receiving my doctorate, I spent a year as Chief Psychologist at Dr. Bruno Bettelheim's Orthogenic School, working with psychotic children. I then did a lot of management psychology, as well as teaching at the University of Chicago for seven years, until moving to Los Angeles where I practiced crisis therapy for several years. I taught at UCLA for a year, then at Los Angeles City College for twenty-six years, retiring in June, 1992. So I feel well able to compare Rebirthing with other traditional psychotherapies. In 1971, I first became involved with feeling therapy and with body work. I worked with Dr. Arthur Janov at the Primal Institute for a year, and then spent the next seven years using Primal Therapy in my private practice. I then became involved with Rebirthing. During these past nineteen years of being a Rebirther, I have continued to study other innovative forms of psychotherapy, including Neuro Linguistic Programming, Voice Dialogue, and Holotropic Breath Work, the form developed by Dr. Stanislav Grof. I have also studied and experienced many different forms of body work, including Rolfing (Structural Integration), Postural Integration, Trager work, Orthobionomy, Shiatzu, and Feldenkrais work. So I feel well able to compare the innovative feeling therapies as well as the New Age bodywork therapies with Rebirthing. I also believe my personal experience of giving birth to my three daughters and my son and participating in the natural births of two of my eight grandchildren adds immensely to my understanding of many of the forces involved with birthing and Rebirthing. This book deals with how birth is connected with later life experiences in love, work, parenting, and health. It deals extensively with how to use affirmations, usually referred to as Positive Thought. I have also included detailed information on running a Rebirth business, servicing individual clients, conducting group Rebirths, and organizing and leading workshops and trainings. To make this a complete book about my years with Rebirthing, I have included several articles of mine that have been published, even reprinted, before, identified as such and located in the Appendices. Throughout, to make the distinction between child and mother clear, I refer to the infant as "he." I hope this won't disturb you or make you think I'm some kind of chauvinist-I'm not. I like using the Socratic method of making a point by analogies, metaphors, and stories. Please forgive me if I seem to be rambling-I'll come back to the point eventually. Remember-as I was told by a very old lady on a bus in India- "The lesson is always Patience." Those of you who know me know that I'm earnest, well-intentioned, good fun, willing to listen to an argument, and always willing to think a new thought in order to follow someone's argument. I'm what is called a fair-minded person. So, please feel free to write to me with any comments or arguments you want to share with me. I welcome the opportunity to examine new ideas, and I'll do my best to reply to you. Also, if you have any questions about Rebirthing not covered in these pages that you think I might be able to answer, please feel free to write or phone me at my home address. I look forward to hearing from you. I hope after reading this book that you'll answer, Yes, to the question the Beatles once asked: "Will you still love me, will you still need me, when I'm 64?" Only change that to 74. In Truth, Simplicity, and Love,
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The Logic of Magical Thought and The Dance of the Breath CHAPTER
TWO CHAPTER
THREE CHAPTER
FOUR CHAPTER
FIVE CHAPTER
SIX CHAPTER
SEVEN CHAPTER
EIGHT CHAPTER
NINE CHAPTER
11 CHAPTER
12 CHAPTER
13 CHAPTER
14 CHAPTER
15 CHAPTER
16 CHAPTER
18 CHAPTER
19 CHAPTER
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