The Path of a Reluctant Metaphysician

The book, The Path of a Reluctant Metaphysician, is one metaphysician’s "coat of many colors" that is passed on to the reader to help you on your journey through the seasons of your life. My hope is that from listening to my story, you will learn how to weave your unique coat of many colors to pass on to posterity. Like Joseph, each of us does not want to be sold into “the slavery of life” or suffer various wounds and betrayals due to the way of being in which we are cloaked, but from such experiences the fabric of each Reluctant Metaphysician's life is woven.

As a Reluctant Metaphysician, I have woven my integral “coat of many colors” from the following,

• The Metaphysics of Myths: To extract primordial wisdom from mythic tales to help us navigate distressing times.

• Age-old, Energetic Metaphysical Traditions: To become initiated into time-tested practices, such as Tai Chi and Qigong to keep our sense of equanimity.

• The Metaphysics of Bodymind Healing and Psychotherapy: To learn self-healing methods to deal with times of crisis and to find our life stance.

• Astrological Metaphysics: To become aware of the cosmological synchronicities of our current times, and of our personal  lives, so that we open to the awe of the great mystery play of life (no belief in the correspondence between celestial sphere and our lives is necessary.)

• Political Metaphysics: To draw from the world behind the world to help us cope with, and develop political actions for, the troubled times in which we live.

The Path of a Reluctant Metaphysician speaks to the importance of a holistic spiritual philosophy in our current times of the “great unraveling” of our political, economic, cultural, and ecological world.  Here you will find an approach to finding your life stance in such troubled times. The metaphysical path is an “all vector approach” that incorporates both “spiritual” and “soulful” pathways, traditions of postural initiation such as Tai Chi, mythology, depth psychology, bodymind healing methods, a non-deterministic approach to astrology, and a multi-dimensional approach to the political sphere.

I hope you’ll pick up the book The Path of a Reluctant Metaphysician to discover how to weave your tapestry of metaphysical traditions to help you find your center (axis mundi) in troubled times.

About Michael Mayer

Michael Mayer is a reluctant metaphysician and storyteller who uses ancient sacred wisdom traditions to help people find healing pathways through troubled times. Dr. Michael Mayer is a psychologist in private practice, author of twenty publications, including  six books and various peer-reviewed articles on bodymind healing. He does workshops on his integrative approach at professional  conferences, universities, hospitals, and various workshop locations such as Esalen Institute. For a more complete bio click here.

Dr. Michael Mayer has helped numerous people through his knowledge of psychotherapeutic principles, internal martial arts practices, and life style enhancement. Readers of this book will find Dr. Mayer's personal story an engrossing one, and may be motivated to recast their own beliefs and behaviors, even reluctantly, into a metaphysical mode. 

—Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.
Alan Watts Professor of Psychology, Saybrook University
Co-author, Personal Mythology

For more testimonials see "What Others Are Saying."

Get Involved in the Dialogue

Comment on the book, engage in community discussion.

You can also e-mail Dr. Michael Mayer directly at drmichael@reluctantmetaphysician.com.

Follow

Transforming Energy Psychology into a Comprehensive Transpersonal Psychotherapy

Click here to see the solicited Blog Article, Transforming Energy Psychology into a Comprehensive Transpersonal Psychotherapy, that the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology conference organizing committee asked me to write for annual The Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology Conference, 2015. It is a seminal article that calls for the integration of the fields of Energy Psychology and Transpersonal Psychotherapy It speaks to the need for a new origin myth for the fields of energy psychology and for transpersonal psychology; and it gives a far-reaching definition for Transpersonal Psychotherapy.

* I recently did a one-day, pre-conference training on this form of transpersonal energy psychotherapy at the annual ACEP Conference in Reston, VA, May 28, 2015. Click here to hear my 2 hour presentation on Energy Psychology and Transpersonal Psychotherapy: Expanding Treatment Options.

Follow

How are you doing with living your life's purpose today? According to "The Path of a Reluctant Metaphysician," our lives are about making interesting and healing stories from the people and the issues we meet...and finding our life stance towards the problems with which we deal on the Path.

"Each soul’s purpose is to take the joyful and painful stories of our lives, and from those experiences to weave a “coat of many colors” that will be passed on to our children or future generations. Each of us weaves together our unique quilt from the threads of various spiritual traditions we have explored (blue threads), the light hearted moments we have experienced (golden threads), the wounds we have suffered (red threads), the places in nature that have become our sanctuaries (green threads), the people we have met (uniquely colored threads), and from our dreams and visions (purple threads). "

Ph.D., Michael Mayer,. The Path of a Reluctant Metaphysician (Kindle Locations 841-845). Booksurge.

Wouldn't it be a better world if those corporate executives who are maximizing profits while advocating for deregulating environmental laws were focusing on the life stories that they are leaving in their wake? Have you been listening to the Rachel Maddow show where she is showing how the recent chemical spills in West Virginia and North Carolina were caused by subterfuge of environmental laws and environmentalist's actions? What kind of political action, signing petitions, sharing relevant information etc., can each of us do to our part in living our life stories?

Follow

Title: Bodymind Healing Practices for Psychotherapy and Life Challenges
Location: Seattle, Washington
Link out: Click here
Description: Three Independent Components: Friday night lecture 7-9 pm: Transforming Troubled Times: Through Bodymind Healing Practices; Saturday 9:30-5: Bodymind Healing Methods in Psychotherapy; Sunday 9:30 to 4:30: Bodymind Healing Qigong. (Take all 3 workshops together or separately.)

Friday, October 25th, 7-9pm $15.00 2 CEs
Transforming Troubled Times: Through Bodymind Healing Practices

The world as we know it is shifting. These uncertain times can challenge our relationship to both ourselves and others, but they can also serve as an opportunity to activate the hero within us as we draw from the cross-cultural resources of ancient sacred wisdom traditions. Tonight you'll learn to cope with everyday stressors using specific tools from Eastern meditation and Qigong traditions and Western energy psychology and psychotherapeutic methods.

In this presentation you'll learn specific East/West practices from the toolkit of "The Reluctant Metaphysician:"

• Standing Meditation Qigong: To find your life stance during times of adversity.
• The River of Life Guided Meditation method: For transmuting issues that encumber your resiliency and coping skills.
• Learn the difference between "spiritual" and "metaphysical" practices and how the metaphysical incorporates the spiritual into a wider psycho-spiritual whole.

Saturday, October 26th, 9:30am-5pm $125.00 before Sept 26 then $155.00, 6 CEUs
Bodymind Healing in Psychotherapy

Bodymind Healing Psychotherapy draws from traditional forms of psychotherapy, energy psychology, bodymind and symbolic process approaches to healing, clinical hypnosis, and ancient wisdom traditions such as Qigong. In this workshop therapists will expand their repertoires by learning how to utilize self-healing methods to assist patients in improving their physical and mental health. You'll discover ways to work with insomnia, anxiety, hypertension, chronic pain and trauma as part of your lifetime preventative medicine program.

Bodymind Healing Psychotherapy presents an integral paradigm for bodymind healing, which is accessible for clinicians to integrate into brief or depth psychotherapy. Theory, case illustrations, practices and demonstrations will be combined to show how this bodymind healing approach can help your patients.

Participants will be able to:

• Discover the cross cultural pre-modern traditions that form part of the historical root system from which bodymind healing traditions in psychotherapy may draw.
• Learn treatment methods that can help form part of an integrative approach to applying bodymind healing methods into psychotherapy
• Experience Qigong movements that can add to an integrative treatment approach to anxiety and panic attacks,
• Practice Qigong movements that can aid in an integrative treatment approach of hypertension and panic attacks.
• Learn ways that Qigong that can be integrated into psychotherapy without mentioning a word about Qigong.
• Become aware of 3 ethical issues related to incorporating Qigong into Psychotherapy.

Sunday, October 27th, 9:30am-4:30pm $75.00 before 10/26 then $95.00 , 5.5 CEUs
Qigong and Bodymind Healing

Become initiated into the ten-system integrative method, Bodymind Healing Qigong that Dr. Mayer synthesized over 30 years of training with some of the most respected Tai Chi/Qigong masters. You'll find a blend of anthropological research case examples from Dr. Mayer's work in an integrative medical clinic, and stories from ancient wisdom-traditions. Two-person self-development practices, Western bodymind healing methods and psycho-mythological work round out his fusion of ancient and modern approaches to bodymind healing. You'll learn how Tai Chi and Qigong are initiatory traditions drawn from a long-lost lineage that includes self-healing, spiritual unfoldment, self-defense and changing your psychological life-stance.

This workshop is oriented towards various health practitioners and anyone wanting to learn self-healing methods.
Start Date: 2013-10-25
Start Time: 7:00 pm
End Date: 2013-10-27
End Time: 04:30 pm

Follow