Joan Borysenko - Fire in the Soul: A New Psychology of Spiritual optimism

FIRE IN THE SOUL. Copyright 1993 by Joan Borysenko. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

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ISBN: 978-0-7595-2070-7

A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1993 by Warner Books.

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First eBook Edition: March 2001

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E2-20200123-PDJ-PC-AMZ

Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.

FIRE IN THE
SOUL

A NEW
PSYCHOLOGY OF
SPIRITUAL OPTIMISM

A Time Warner Company

HIGH PRAISE FOR

FIRE IN THE SOUL

I cannot ever remember being so moved by any book. The personal experiences are deeply moving, the substantive discussions are informative, the wisdom is profound. I most heartily recommend it.
Willis Harman, Institute of Noetic Sciences

Extraordinary...the insights offered within these pages are too profound to be paraphrased.
West Coast Review of Books

An electrifying book about inner healing from one of the greatest healers and wisest spiritual guides writing todaya book from the heart, for the heart.
Larry Dossey, author of Meaning & Medicine

Joan Borysenko compassionately blazes new trails for our human unfolding....She invites us to awaken to the truth of who we are and what weve all come here to do and be. Every page of FIRE IN THE SOUL will expand you and offer a newfound hope for us as a human species. I love this book!
Jacquelyn Small, author of Awakening in Time and Transformers

Practical and contemplative...a welcome addition to New Age psychology.
Publishers Weekly

Part guidebook for transforming crisis into opportunity, part autobiography, part inspirational reader.
New Age Journal

This is a path with heart that offers personal transformation.
Values & Visions

OTHER BOOKS BY JOAN BORYSENKO

On Wings of Light

Minding the Body, Mending the Mind

Guilt Is the Teacher, Love Is the Lesson

JOAN BORYSENKO, PH.D., is the president of Mind/Body Health Sciences, Inc., and the author of several books including the New York Times bestseller Minding the Body, Mending the Mind and Guilt Is the Teacher, Love Isthe Lesson. She co-founded and is a former director of the Mind/Body Clinic at New England Deaconess Hospital and was an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. One of the architects of the new medical synthesis called psychoneuroimmunology, Dr. Borysenko is herself a cell biologist, a licensed psychologist, and an instructor in yoga and meditation.

For our children,

Andrei, Justin and Natalia Borysenko

And in loving memory of

Mathew Hitchcock

My heartfelt thanks go particularly to those people who allowed me to come into their livesand who enriched my ownby sharing their stories. Yvonne Drew, Thomas Hitchcock, Lee Brunner, Donna Elsten, Fritz Doherty, Tricia Lovett Stallman, Alvin Stallman, Robin Casarjian, Elena Burton, Elizabeth Lawrence and Magaly Rodriguez Mossman. I felt close to each one of you as I wrote.

Thanks, too, to my familymy children, Andrei, Justin and Natalia, and my husband, Myrinfor allowing me to present some of their experiences and for their support and patience during the eighteen months when I locked myself in the study, writing, between trips away from home. Both my parents, Lillian and Edward Zakon, have passed on. Nonetheless, I am grateful to them both and hope they would have appreciated my sharing some of my childhood and adult experiences that involved them in order to help others. My big brother, Alan, helped me more than he knows when I was a child, and his purchases of my books are probably why theyve sold so well!

Thanks also to those unnamed people who have shared their stories with me either as patients or as friends. Whenever I have enclosed a persons name in quotes, the story either is a fictional composite drawn from real stories but with no resemblance to any one persons experience or has been altered sufficiently to render the person unrecognizable. In all cases I hope that the dignity, integrity and courage of each person has been preserved.

Thanks to my colleagues. Dr. Rachel Naomi Remens remarkable insight and clarity have enriched my thinking, as have the bright, fresh ideas of our good friend Larry Dossey, M.D., about nonlocal mind and the power of the unconscious. I gratefully acknowledge Herbert Benson, M.D., whose scholarship helped open the door between medicine and spirituality. Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., who was the original fairy godfather of the mind/body program that I directed during much of the 1980s, taught me a great deal about mindfulness meditation. Dr. Willis Harmans thinking about science and metaphysics has been a substantial influence, as has the work of other colleagues far too numerous to mention. When appropriate, I have acknowledged your contributions in the text. To any of you whose work I have drawn upon but whose name I havent mentioned specifically, thank you, for none of us stands alone. Every book and article is built on the thinking of countless others.

A very special thanks to Stephen Maurer for introducing me to Tolstoys story The Three Questions and for the love he gave me during the most trying time of my life; to Rick Ingrasci and Peggy Taylor for their friendship and encouragement, and for introducing me to the power of community healing circles; to Robin Casarjian for ploughing through the manuscript in its awkward stages and encouraging some important changes andwhen I had reached the point of absolute desperation at the end of this long labordelivering me a title; to Peggy Taylor for her insightful comments about reorganizing the manuscript; and to Irene Borge for introducing me to the work of Victor Turner.

An extra special thanks to the mystical, magical Mother GooseCelia Thaxter Hubbard, whose friendship, encouragement and love have meant the world to me. Both her research, which yielded a steady stream of books and articles from seminal thinkers, and her own good counsel have enriched this book tremendously and helped convert me to spiritual optimism. The cover image was inspired by one of Celias own creations. Her love of art and beauty has been a continuing source of education and inspiration.

To the Circle of Women: Celia Hubbard, Joan Drescher, Carolina Clark, Peggy Taylor, Elizabeth Lawrence, Yvonne Drew, Rachel Naomi Remen, Tricia Lovett Stallman, Leslie Kussman, Loretta Laroche, Lauren Macintosh, Renee Summers, Elena Burton, Robin Casarjian, Olivia Hoblitzelle, Jane Alter, Magaly Rodriguez MossmanI cant express how much you all mean to me and how our shared experience has helped to shape this book and add joy to my life.