Dr Roby Abeles' recommended reading:
Full Catastrophe Living: Jon Kabat-Zinn
Based on the highly acclaimed stress reduction program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre , this excellent book discusses the practical use of mindfulness meditation as a means to help people cope with stress, anxiety, pain and illness.
A Path with Heart: Jack Kornfield
A born storyteller, Kornfield offers this excellent guidebook on living with attentiveness, meditation, and fully focussed compassion.
The Seat of the Soul: Gary Zukav
This wonderful book is one of a series by Zukav on how to become more spiritually aware and mature.
Man's Search for Meaning: Victor Frankl
Written by a Jewish psychiatrist about his experiences in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. This book looks at why - and how - people are able to survive terrible trauma.
The Road Less Travelled: M. Scott Peck
Another classic, this warm, wise book examines the human experience with practical compassion.
A Course in Miracles: Marianne Williamson
The writer explains simply and clearly, with warmth and wisdom, the power of love and Spirit to heal and transform lives.
The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times: Pema Chodron
The writer has been described as 'the kind of person you'd like to have with you when things fall apart'. This Tibetan nun offers sharp, incisive tools and concepts to transform anxieties and negative emotions into positive living.
Greg Moran’s recommended reading and viewing.
BOOKS
The Hero With a Thousand Faces: Joseph Campbell
This book changed my life and answered many of the spiritual and philosophical questions that I had been battling with. It put my religious upbringing into a broader context and enabled me to redefine my spiritual beliefs.
Campbell’s insights into religion and mythology enabled me to gain a deeper spiritual understanding and perspective of the world and the ability to love others and myself unconditionally.
The Way of the Superior Man: David Deida
David Deida is acknowledged worldwide as one of the most insightful and provocative spiritual teachers of our time.
Through his work, David has revolutionized the connection between spirituality and sexuality. His teachings focus on a radical non-religious spiritual practice that has been hailed as one of the most original and authentic contributions to personal and spiritual growth in the past century.
The Way of the Superior man has many useful insights and tips for men to understand their partners and be fully present in their relationships. It is one of his many books and audio CD’s that put sex and relationships into a spiritual context and encourage spiritual awakening of mind, body, and heart.
This book is mostly addressing heterosexual relationships, though it refers also to the masculine and feminine energy within each partner. He has a wide variety of books to choose from each with a different focus.
Molecules of Emotion: Candice Pert
Intrigue at the "Palace": back-stabbing, deceit, shunning, love affairs. This is not the plot to I, Claudius but the account Pert gives of her time working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a.k.a. the Palace. Yet her time at NIH is not the central point here. Nor are the molecules of the title, although they do get due coverage.
Pert offers mainly an account of her journey from a conventional scientist to one who also embraces complementary and alternative medicine. The journey is long and not without price. She was passed over for the Lasker and Nobel prizes for her work on opiate receptors while colleagues were recognized; she believes that her development of a potential AIDS drug was thwarted owing to scientific dirty pool as well as her being a woman in a man's world.
Along the way, she took control of her career, her life, and her personal mission. This is an eye-opening book for anyone who thinks that people with medical degrees act more civil or are more altruistic than the rest of us, though Pert also shows that some do rise above the fray.
The Hearts Code: Paul Pearsall
Tapping the Wisdom and Power of Our Heart Energy: The New Findings About Cellular Memories and Their Role in the Mind/Body/Spirit Connection by Paul Pearsall This book covers much material that is not new, but which is interpreted in a new way. Other authors have written about forms of intelligence and learning that don’t seem to depend on the brain or intellect.
Larry Dossey’s concept of non-local consciousness, and Rupert Sheldrake’s “morphic fields” arise from the same anecdotal evidence that Pearsall presents in this book. The difference is that Pearsall attributes this unexplained knowledge source to the heart, the most powerful organ in our bodies. Pearsall believes he has found evidence that the heart (as well as other cells in our bodies) retains memories about us and possibly about other people with whom we are close (and maybe holds ancestral memories as well).
DVDS
Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth.
This is a six part series of conversations between Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell. Moyers’ insightful questioning makes this one of the most revealing and successful explorations of Joseph Campbell’s teachings.
Campbell combines mythology, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, modern science and the arts into an enlightening package that is very grounded. I would particularly recommend it to anyone with a religious background as his vast knowledge of all religious faiths and world mythologies puts religious beliefs into a context that is rational and understandable without demeaning its spirituality.
It’s a great place to start if you are new to Campbell as some of his books can be heavy going.
What The Bleep Do We Know.
What the Bleep is an attempt to bring science, religion, and psychology together to explain how and why we perceive and experience the world as we do and to let you know that you have far more say and control over your life and reality than you may have realised.
Some have questioned whether Quantum Physics says exactly what many of the scientists interviewed say it does, which is understandable as this is a very new field of science that alludes to a lot but does not yet always give definitive answers.
I think What the Bleep Do We Know rather successfully deals with this huge topic and although heavy going in parts it is well worth watching and very thought provoking.
The Secret.
The message of The Secret can be a useful tool. It has many interesting and inspiring speakers talking about the power of positive thinking.
It is a good beginning and there is far more to creating what we want than just thinking about it. Many people have issues, which are bigger than positive thinking alone can overcome. This is because deeply held beliefs and strong emotional triggers will override positive thinking and can only be healed for most people through incorporating other therapeutic techniques.
Therefore I suggest for people to watch it, and use the tools it offers as part of your toolkit, with the knowledge that there are other options and tools available as well.
Touching the Void.
This is an inspiring must see for all. It’s a dramatisation of a remarkable true story of survival under extreme conditions. It shows the power of choice, the wisdom in having very focused small, and achievable goals and decision-making. No matter how dire your circumstances may seem or how hard a choice may be ~ making the choice that serves you best, will inevitably support others and by making these Catch22 decisions one can achieve the unimaginable.
Dunston Baby Language.
Dunstan Baby Language claims that across cultures and linguistic groups there are five sounds, each with a meaning, that are used by infants during the beginning of the language acquisition period. The hypothesis was developed by Australian former mezzo-soprano, Priscilla Dunstan, and has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
I brought this for my pregnant sister in law who said she found it very useful.
BackTalk.
This is a totally biased promotion for a 10 min short film of mine, which I hope gives humorous insights into the challenges and paradoxes of being disabled.
At the 2002 Picture This…Film Festival in Canada ‘BackTalk’ won the Best documentary under 10 min.-film on disability:
They Described it as:
"funny, irreverent work!" "educational in an unconventional way" "very humourous and entertaining" "a refreshing, bold look at disabilities" "bloody good fun" "look out Callahan…"
To order please email Greg Moran: gregm(at)thesanctuarylanecove.com