Dear Friends,
I hope you’ve had a good September. I’ve had one of the busiest, most-travelled months I can remember. At the beginning of the month, I went to Brazil for the International Transpersonal
Conference, where I gave a lecture and a workshop. It was a wonderful occasion - I was amazed at how much interest there is in transpersonal psychology in Brazil (much more than in the UK or US). It was my first ever “keynote presentation” (which means that you’re one of the main speakers, and also that the organisers pay your expenses!). I’ve never spoken to such a large audience before (about 600 people) and really felt the intense positive energy which can come from a large group of people.
Brazilian people are so open and enthusiastic - it was a joy to experience their spiritually-centered culture. It was also great to spend time with my good friend Stan Krippner, and to meet other transpersonal psychologists whose work I’ve admired, such as Harry Hunt and Glenn Hartelius. There was talk of me being invited to speak at a conference in Mexico next year (where TP is even more popular apparently) and also doing a workshop in Portugal…But next year I already have two trips abroad
planned (both to the U.S.) so I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to fit in. It’s about time I had a double, who could do some of these activities on my behalf. If you look and sound like me, and would like to do some talks and lectures, let me know.
After that I was in London to spend the evening with a spiritual teacher friend of mine, who was in the UK to do a talk. A couple of days later I was in Birmingham for the Mind, Body, Spirit Festival,
where I did another talk and workshop. Then on to Leeds, to a recording studio where I began recording the audio book of The Calm Center.
Finally, last weekend I attended the British Transpersonal Psychology Conference in Yorkshire, which is always a lovely experience. This year I gave a presentation on my recent theorising and research on ‘transpersonal purpose’, and the topic of purpose in general. This is an exciting new avenue for me, and
the positive reception to my ideas was very encouraging. I’m working together with a quantitative psychologist at my university, Dr. Jim Morgan, to test for different types of purpose, and to find out how they correlate with well-being and other factors.
If you would like to see the powerpoint presentations to either (or both) my Brazil lecture, or my presentation on purpose at the British conference, reply to this e-mail.
So now thankfully my travelling is over, and I can rest awhile. My being is definitely telling me to take things slowly for a few days, and to do as little as possible. After too much activity, my body sometimes “shuts down” and forces me to be inactive. So now I’m spending a lot of time lying or sitting down, reading and/or listening to music. And it feels great!
