Frameshifting: A Path to Wholeness

By David K. Banner

Book Overview

Ever wonder why certain events allow you to expand your consciousness or alter who you think you are beyond what you normally experience? Through the power of Frameshifting, I'll show you how you can... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932690557
• ISBN13: 9781932690552
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Loving Healing Press
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

FrameShifting

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.

A Life-Altering Experience

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.

Growing into Wholeness

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.

A map for the Path

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.

Realize who you are

Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (6/08) One month ago, while praying, I decided to surrender certain aspects of my life that I felt I had no control over. Things started to get easier for me. Yesterday afternoon I realized that I was doing better, so I decided to surrender more aspects of my life I felt I wanted to lose control of. This is not easy to do, but it is easier once it is done. Then last night I picked up "FrameShifting: A Path to Wholeness." The timing was perfect; of course. In "FrameShifting," Dr. Banner shares his personal journey of self-exploration with us. He tells about the tools that he used that were valuable to him. This is what makes the book so interesting. Even though we all have our own stories and paradigms from which we view our lives, many of the tools to help us overcome our egos can be shared by all. It is our egos that seem to hold us bound in fear. Our false ego identity keeps us separate. Our ego uses fear to control us. I found it interesting to read what the ego really fears is the death of itself. If we overcome our egos, we find our True Self, which is connected to everything. Dr. Banner states, "...one of the main messages of this book is, that, to gain real happiness, the ego must be transcended and an identity in Spirit must be experientially realized." One of the main tools he used on his journey is Enneagram work. This is a method of self-inquiry. This is not something I have used for myself, but I can definitely see the benefits of using it. He also cites the works of many remarkable people. It was interesting to see how the work of some of my favorite guides, such as Don Miguel Ruiz, affected Dr. Banner's thought processes and aided his journey. Making a list from his references, I also have a new group of works to explore. Dr. Banner writes "FrameShifting" in a way that is interesting and easy to read, yet he still imparts a tremendous amount of knowledge and research to the reader. The book will draw you in, teach you, and yet not overwhelm you with intellectual verbosity. Dr. Banner states, "The goal of FrameShifting, if there is one, is to become more and more empathetic, consciously aware of ourselves and others, and to "'live deliberately.'" I really liked the emphasis on how helping ourselves helps others. It does not promote a selfish, retreat into yourself type of journey. This is an awesome book and I am so happy to have discovered it when I did.