I was asked: Who influenced you the most, in your own inner work, and how? I invite you you the reader to consider also what influenced you the most? This is part 2 of my answer.

Important Books

There have been many books (I read a lot), but a few stand out as truly adding to who I am as more than intellectual content (citations are listed in the Media page of my blog, and I will only briefly comment here). These books represent much more than intellectual content for me; they have modified my worldview, how I function in the world.

• (~1960) Stapledon, Starmaker: the basis of my spirituality.
• (~1975) Bucke, Cosmic Consciousness: affirmation of profound mystery.
• (~1985) Fowler, Stages of faith: a focus to my spirituality.
• (~1985) Peck, The road less traveled: the nature of love.
• (~1986) Bennis & Nanus, Leaders: clarity on leadership.
• (~1987) Smuts, Holism: the nature of systems.
• (~1987) Vaihinger, Philosophy of as-if: the nature of beliefs.
• (~1987) Watzlawick, Change: learning playfulness.
• (~1988) Crosby, Living with Purpose When …: a value system.
• (~1988) Doherty, Poustinia: I am a poustinik.
• (~1990) Ross, Dancing with a ghost: the nature of paradigms.
• (~1992) Carse, Finite & Infinite Games: Wow! Such richness.
• (~2009) de Quincey, Radical knowing: panpsychism, now my ontology.
• (~2016) Herman, Future primal: the nature of democracy.
• (~2016) Schmookler, Parable of the tribes: the nature of power.

Mentors

There have been six individuals who influenced me deeply, each one because of their authenticity (their own personal growth) and their skill in working with people, all of whom I came to regard as friends (except one, who died shortly after I knew him.) From each, I learned much more than knowledge. In order of occurrence in my life:

Clark Reed (Transactional Analysis): with whom I first began therapy, wherein I had my first introduction to subpersonalities, which later became my metaphor Sailors On A Ship.

Jorge Rosner (Gestalt Therapy): a man of great authenticity and compassion, with whom I first trained and who taught me much.

Gerry Jud (Shalom Mountain): who challenged me and with whom I did most of my depth work of changing my sad story.

Arthur Kilmurray (Yoga): from whom (together with another body worker Tom Myers) I learned much about body awareness.

Ed Friedman (Family Systems): a man of vast emotional intelligence, wherein I learned of emotional triangles and the nature of play.

Christian de Quincey (Consciousness Studies): my research advisor for my PhD, teaching me much of the nature of consciousness and the inconsistencies of modern scientific materialism.

Who am I?

Overall (like everyone else) I am a complex creature:

• a polymath (many gifts),
• a poustinik (a hermit who is available when asked),
• a Gestaltist (in action with life),
• a server ( I have been exploring service for the past few years, initially taking a year of study in Hospitality)
• I am still learning about relationship and about how to interact with complex systems, amongst many other areas.

I seek to live that playfulness is the highest skill of human beings. Here I follow two adages:

• The most successful person is the one who is having the most fun.
• There is much evidence that life is painful; there is no evidence that it is serious.

Enjoy!