FEST Writing Group

By Erik Thompson

This essay explores the proposal that sages from the past can inform us about the nature of higher stages of differentiation of self.  

In these three pages from the final chapter of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, the main character, Pierre, reflects on.

The theoretical physicist and public intellectual Carl Sagan, in his science fiction novel “Contact”, tells of an advanced society from another galaxy that decides it is time to share their wormhole technology with earthlings. The technology allows humans to travel to meet them. The heroine of the story, played by Jodi Foster in.

Read more

Prying Ourselves from Cages of Loyalty with Slippery fingers? "The Banshees of Inisherin" A film by Martin McDonagh Streaming on HBO MAX Review by Erik Thompson In Irish mythology, a Banshee is a harbinger of death, OK? So think twice about watching the English playwright Martin McDonagh's new film. But "Banshee" has a ring to it, right? Is it as.

Read more

“In one sacred moment, my questions were hushed”   -from the popular song The Spirit of Fatima, by Don Maclean* (see lyrics and link below) “UNUSUAL LIFE EXPERIENCES” CAN GROW DOS

• In his December webcast, Mike Kerr stated: “Bowen said there were two ways to grow DOS. Work on the family of origin and unusual life experiences”.
.

When self is embedded in others, our problem seems to be without.  But is within. • a son’s new wife doesn’t want to visit • a mother refuses to accept her dementia • a spouse won’t move with us to Hawaii The problem is not our Self but its embeddedness. • a child gets cancer • a president we revile • social.

Musings on the Multigenerational Family as an Emotional Field of Consciousness Erik Thompson May 21, 2021 Have you ever experienced mysterious connectivity among the ancestral multi-generational family? Decades ago, I called my father for our unplanned, random, somewhat monthly chat.  As the connection became audible on my end, I heard him talking to someone on his end, and then.

(Colleagues: Here are some summer notes from my inner/outer research on the effect of long-term mediation on differentiation of self.) I am interested in a state of awareness described by ancient texts, and translated as "knowingness".  My colleague and fellow meditation researcher Mark Roberts, and increasingly I, at times, experience a clear, concentrated, abstract sense of.

The Vermont Center for Family Studies just finished our 2nd Vermont conference on Bowen Theory (BT) and meditation, which was inspired by the Center for Family Consultation's Chicago meeting a few years ago. As I indicated in my opening remarks, a more specific theme of these meetings is differentiation and consciousness. I laid out Dr..