Soulmaking: Uncommon Paths to Self-Understanding

by Michael Grosso

Book Overview

IN EVERY LIFE THERE IS A HIDDEN PLOT, a story going on behind the scenes that wants to be told. And it?s often told in the language of dreams, coincidences, intuitions, and strange leaps beyond time... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1571740783
• ISBN13: 9781571740786
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing Company
• Length: 203 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Soulmaking - Practical Philosophy

With Soulmaking, GROSSO at first sight seems to offer an exotic approach towards the enigma of soul, which is far from being solved to date, as he stresses repeatedly. The term "soulmaking" is not the invention of a modern author trying to catch the reader with a smart book title. The poet JOHN KEATS used this term to describe the process which CARL GUSTAV JUNG, whose ideas GROSSO obviously admires a great deal, later called "Individuation". KEATS explained "soulmaking" as quoted by the author on page 31: "There may be intelligences or sparks of divinity in millions - but they are not Souls till they acquire identities, till each one is personally itself." According to GROSSO, both active and passive experience is the essence of soulmaking, especially but not exclusively in the course of self-reflection, philosophy, arts and paranormal or exceptional human experiences (EHE) which can force us to take a look over the fence of our inherited materialistic world view - as happened to the author more than once, as he tells us confidently in the many anecdotes of his private and professional life. As RAYMOND MOODY puts it in his short foreword, "This book is a good read". GROSSO succeeded in gripping me with his witty and lively writing style and the frankness with which his anecdotes are presented. Leaving the safe terrain of merely reproducing facts, the author has the courage to share some of the most intimate incidents of his life with the reader, who will feel personally invited to take part in the author's adventure of soulmaking. If GROSSO can be blamed for anything, it is not for fear of the public's reactions. Although they are not a main theme of this book, psychedelic experiences are addressed as possibilities to learn about the creative powers of the unconscious, which serve as a "Soul-Magnifying Glass", as suggested by the title of the respective chapter. However, the author is well aware of the reverse side of the coin: "Although scholars have studied sacred plants in shamanism and ancient religions, the history of drugs and the soul has yet to be written. (...) The complexion of things has changed nowadays. The demonic side of drugs seems to have taken over. The worst nightmares about drug abuse are coming true." (p. 71) The interface of psychedelic experience and the nature of a hypothetical afterlife may become clear by going back to the philological roots of the term itself: "In Greek it ('psychedelic') means soul clarifying. It occurs in a Platonic dialogue (...) where it is used to describe what happens to souls at death. Death, said Socrates, clarifies the soul; it reveals the hidden corruption, the secret deeds of unjust men who in life hid behind rank and prestige; it also reveals the beauties and virtues of just souls. Death, in short, is the ultimate 'psychedelic'." (p. 73) Now, what about the author's personal view of Life after Death? This is indeed the question which led the author to s