James Endredy - 18 July

ADVANCED
AUTOGENIC TRAINING
AND PRIMAL AWARENESS

James Endredy continues to tap into the primordial ways of healing. Advanced Autogenic Training and Primal Awareness is a marriage of his power of storytelling and his vast personal history with the practice. It is not often in this lifetime that one meets a true spiritual master, but this generation has James, and this book is a must-have for those desirous of deepening their connection with the I AM.

SHAWN TASSONE, M.D., PH.D., COAUTHOR OF
SPIRITUAL PREGNANCY: DEVELOP, NURTURE &
EMBRACE THE JOURNEY TO MOTHERHOOD

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks to Jacki and Sasha for providing me with the most excellent place and environment for the writing of this book.

To all the participants of my classes and workshops, your continued involvement and contributions have helped take my work to higher levelsthank you!

Once again I extend my appreciation and gratitude to my friends and colleagues at Inner Traditions Bear & Co. for the continued support of my work and the amazing job you all do.

This book is an extension of my teachersJohannes Scheuerman, who originally introduced me to and taught me autogenic training, and my primal mind mentors, the elders and shaman of the Huichol/Wirrarika, Seneca, Lenni Lenape, Apurimac Inca, Arapaho, Minnecojou Sioux, Kanaka Maoli, Tuscarora, Tukano, Mazatek, Yurok, Navaho, Hopi, and Yucatec Maya. Many blessings to all these wonderfully grounded healers and teachers.

PREFACE

WHAT IS THE GOAL OF THIS BOOK?

I first began learning about autogenic training (AT) and primal mind awareness (PM) before I even knew what they were. Between the ages of about four through thirteen, living in semirural Pennsylvania, I had many experiences with my body, with nature and animals, and especially with my mind, that I can now say fell into both categories. During the course of my adult life I have been blessed with opportunities to live and learn from primal cultures throughout the globe while also studying with shamans, lamas, siddhas, road men, medicine women, and leaders in the modern fields of ecopsychology, naturopathy, autogenic training, biofeedback, bioregionalism, and sustainable living. For those of you not aware of my previous eight books, they all include experiences and practices of both AT and PM, although I did not label them as such.

I believe that autogenic training and primal mind awareness can serve as a catalyst for humanitys evolution. I realize this is a bold statement, but it stems from my own direct experience, derived from over twenty-five years living and learning from primal cultures and then translating those experiences into something valuable for modern Westerners. It is my hope that by sharing this information a seed will be planted that will grow roots and branches both deep and high, so that others can take my work and these ideas to the next level. My intention in providing this material is for others to draw from it, expand on it, go for it, and make it real in their own lives.

In this book I will address the following:

• How AT and PM are defined and the mechanisms that activate them
• Where these techniques come from
• How they overlap or differ from other methods that are seemingly similar in their approaches and objectives
• Who can benefit from these techniques
• How they are learned
• How they can be taught to others
• Forty specific techniques and exercises of both autogenic training and primal mind that are based on my personal experiences and those of my counseling clients and participants in my personal-growth workshops

Do these techniques really work? Do they produce quantifiable transformation? Are the effects of AT and PM long-lasting? Are AT and PM useful for people not addressing a specific psychological or physiological problem? In compiling this book, these are some of the questions I had in mind. To provide answers, I have divided this book into four parts with a total of forty training exercises. The first part addresses the meaning, history, philosophy, and usefulness of autogenic training and primal mind awareness. The second part reveals the experiential techniques of AT, including the standard AT formulas as well as affirmation and healing formulas. Advanced techniques of visualization, meditation, and our energetic tunnels, or chakras, are presented in the third part. The fourth part of the book combines autogenic training and primal mind trainings related to our senses, to the world of nature, and to rites of passage. All four parts of the book include detailed training techniques that provide experiences for optimizing health and self-awareness and expanding consciousness.

This book is intended as a how-to for those interested in (seemingly) esoteric practices that promote higher awareness and optimal health. But far from being a sterile, clinical catalog, this material is presented, I believe, in a way that will hold your interest and at times even amuse you. Honestly, many of the techniques presented here can be thoroughly exhilarating and could even lead to peak experiences. Other techniques can be excruciatingly boringthat is, until you actually feel their results. The main goal of this book then is to provide you with informationhopefully in a thoroughly engaging waythat can be incorporated into your own life in a practical way. This could mean sticking to the techniques exactly as I have described them, adding them to practices you are already engaged in or, after experiencing deep facets of AT and PM, developing your own techniques.