Healing the Western Soul: A Spiritual Homecoming for Today's Seeker

Psychologist Miller (Direct Connection) sees a mental health system failing those who have religious visions, especially those with Western spiritual figures such as Jesus or angels. Contemporary psychology and psychotherapy recognize neither the psychospiritual aspect of human life nor the Western mystery path. Therapists are stuck in the worldview that only what science can prove is real and anything else should be medicated away; New Age gurus espouse the postmodern view that everything is subjective; and patients discount their own emergent Judeo-Christian imagery due to bad early experiences with organized religion. All these preconceptions get in the way of addressing a Western spiritual crisis. Miller's entreaty to ground spiritual development within our "spiritual DNA" never falls into cultural stereotyping. She acknowledges a Judeo-Christian path as just one route to the Divine, and her encouragement to allow for the authenticity of mystical experience in the therapeutic process opens up a powerful route toward healing to those whose souls yearn beyond the material world. (Mar.)