Inevitable Grace

Ferrucci ( What We May Be ), who subscribes to the school of psychology known as psychosynthesis, believes in a transpersonal self as the under- lying source of human interconnectedness. In this study he examines hundreds of well-known people--Einstein, Schweitzer, Thoreau, Monet, Isadora Duncan, Maria Montessori, Arctic explorer Robert Peary, mystic Jacob Boehme among them--for glimpses into the workings of creativity, inspiration and spiritual growth. Though illuminating by fits and starts, his discourse is more often oversimplifying, preachy, irritatingly vague or some combination of the above. His comparisons of Florence Nightingale's nursing manual to zen training, or of Charles Lindbergh's mystical flight experience to yoga, stretches a point. By chopping up the ``paths to Self'' into the ``Way of Beauty,'' the ``Way of Action,'' the ``Way of Devotion'' and so forth, Ferrucci slots complex experiences into convenient categories. (Mar.)