This book focuses on the techniques used by the Senoi Indians to develop full human potential through dream therapy and meditation techniques. As the preface promises, this tiny book provides the simple but powerful "core of a curriculum to develop affective, intuitive, and creative processes in students."

Educational research has proven that human beings learn only what they can connect with an emotional state, that is, with a memory.

Unless we are able to "peg" a new idea on something familiar, it does not make sense to us, and will, even if memorized, pass out of our short-term memory into immediate oblivion.

Children learn best and fastest. Why? I have been told all my life that it is because the human brain develops faster before the age of two than at any other age. Human potential speaker Brian Tracy talks about the fact that all the necessary "don'ts" that parents must say to their children ultimately curb not only their unhealthy curiosity but unfortunately much of their healthy curiosity--and their concurrent free association method of learning.

I definitely think the fact that children use a multisensory approach to learning is the reason that they learn so well.

They sing, dance, draw, and act out every new concept until they understand it relative to their own world--unless told "don't" by a concerned or busy parent.

Often if a child does not have enough information to develop an idea to their satisfaction, they will initiate a persistent "why" campaign in an effort to get any available "big" person to give them the information they need to understand what eludes them.

Until another new idea distracts them, that is. However, sometimes the interruption provides just the right idea that helps the searched for concept to click at last. Creativity is, after all, defined as the juxtaposition of two unlike things in a new way that reveals a previously unseen aspect of one or both of the two unlike things.

What if we taught children how to learn rather than teaching them what we want them to know? Children are inherently curious and voracious learners unless stunted by external circumstances.

This book gives specific exercises for developing skills that help children approach their lives with the perspective of an active learner.

If I had known what a jewel this book is when I first bought it at a book clearing house, I would have--

1. Bought more than one copy of it.

2. Recommended it to others while it was still possibly in print.

If you teach or work with people, this is a great book to find and read. If you are interested in dream therapy, this is a great start. Instead of translating specific images, it teaches the reader to continue, lead, use, and interact successfully with their dreams. To the authors: please reprint this book!

This is a favorite of mine. It's one of those that has a gem for anyone that reads it. I suggest it to all of my counseling clients.

I thought that this audiobook would be a far better tool than it turned out to be. I am in a serious, long-term relationship. Due to some past problems (in other relationships), I hoped to learn some new skills. Instead, I got some platitudes about the importance of forgiving your partner and being "emotionally honest" - couched in with a story of how one partner told the other he was contemplating cheating on her with a younger woman and how the three of them did these constant conference calls to figure out how to handle the situation. I do agree that "emotional honesty" is important, but I already knew that. I don't think that I would want to hang around if my partner looked me in the eye and announced that he was thinking of sleeping with someone else, and that ruined a lot of the authors' credibility for me.

The authors walk their talk in their loving marriage.
This book opened my eyes to some missing pieces
of the puzzle and I have experienced profound shifts
in the relationship I have with my husband. The
information in the Hendricks' book has made me more
aware of feelings and more connected to creative
ways of transforming old patterns. My husband and
I realized that we had UNconscious commitments to
suffering that undermined our desire to be close!
We seem to have found a way to have a lot more fun!

I just finished this book, and have been enlightened and tremendously inspired. Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks reveal a large number of their own personal experiences, and this makes the book really believable and valuable. They are relationship experts, but they share about their difficult times as well as the good ones. Their book, Conscious Loving, is a good book to read first, but this book does stand on its own well! Read this book if you want to develop the deepest possible relationship with your partner!

In a moment, I am going to review and comment upon this book, and describe to you what it is. First, let me post a brief warning so you know what this book is NOT.

I am kind of an "absent-minded professor" type of guy. I assumed that this book was intended to help someone like me get to be a little more "centered," calm, and inwardly focused, in order to be better prepared for a relationship with the next lady in my life. Please take note: that isn't exactly the aim of this book. The book begins with the assumption that you are ALREADY in a relationship, and that you wish to improve it. The exercises are geared toward couples, and often make no sense to attempt alone. Therefore, technically, I wasted my money. However, I still think this could be a pretty useful book to me, someday. For you, perhaps that day is already here.

"Centering and the Art of Intimacy" is laid out in two parts. The first part, "A New Psychology of Close Relationships," attempts to shake up the way you think about relationships. It consists of a few helpful essays, which provide real life examples and metaphors to help you conceptualize the paradigm the authors wish to explore with you. This part of the book ends with the authors discussing their own relationship, and the ways in which the act of commiting themselves to productive change had a positive impact on their relationship. I liked that chapter, it's pretty inspiring to read.

The second part of the book is longer, more comprehensive, and more interactive. It includes exercises of all kinds, designed to get you to take stock of who you are, what you and your partner want, where you want to be, and how you might get there. As I said, the book is extremely interactive, with at least 10 or 12 activities and worksheets. Readers are encouraged in various ways to keep a journal, to help foment thought about the changes they seek to make. Some of these exercises can, perhaps, occasionally get a little too "New Age" for some people, but there is a wide range to explore. You can probably find a few things that you could benefit from.

Basically, this book could be pretty useful to a couple already in a relationship. If you appreciate, enjoy, and/or value the approaches taken in this book, I would like to recommend that you seek out "Games People Play," the classic text of transactional analysis, by Dr. Eric Berne.

Enjoy, and good luck!!

I am thoroughly impressed with this book! It has helped me so much in dealing with my boyfriend; I have found it to be a tremendous help in breaking out of the patterns that damage a relationship!

R. D. Laing's recognition of a "schizoid personality," or a disembodied self, in his seminal work "The Divided Self," promised a new approach to the integration of body and mind in the whole and healthy human being. Caldwell builds on this idea, using the body as a starting point for diagnosing addictions and suggesting treatments. But the book soon becomes predictable. The addictions are frequently the result of an abusive parent (isn't this theme getting a bit threadworn by now?) and the treatments are more commonsensical than insightful (meditation, exercise, re-prioritizing life's demands). Moreover, the material echoes much similar popular wisdom on the subject. Readers of John Bradshaw, Sam Keene, Deepak Chopra are likely to find this book somewhat repetitious and familiar. And though user-friendly, the writing style rarely attains the sustained rhetorical power of the former works.

An excellent example of how body psychotherapy has develloped during the 1990's. The book is agreable to read, full of interesting ideas and examples, and the author obviously knows what is happening, not only in her field but in neighbouring disciplines.

I don't know if it's simply because I read it at the right moment in my life, but this book had and is still having a profound effect on me. A magical effect on me. Reading it feels like being home and every discovery it leads me to is so intense that I cannot read more than a few pages at a time.

An alternative title for this book could be "Recovering our Aliveness". Recovering our desire to expand our chest and welcome every single oxygen molecules that keep us alive. Recovering our ability to feel. Happiness isn't in the content of our life, but in the very process of being alive. Why are we so afraid of it ? Why do we distract ourselves with addictive thoughts and body movements? Christine Caldwell guides you in your search for an answer, and offers concrete tools to finally walk hand-in-hand with your life force.

I send her my gratefulness.

Filled with stories and not much substance. The author namedrops Andrew Weil's name ("Andy") early on and pronounces, not suprisingly, that Andy thinks breathing is real important. The book is filled with lots of half-empty pages, so trees are a big loser, too. Summary: lots of fluff but not much information!

Hello: I don't know if Amazon sells the VIDEO but I have a copy of the VHS Conscious Breathing and I find it to be very helpful when stressed. It reminds me to slowdown my breathing to allow maximum belly breath. I feel much calmer and clearer after I do the lessons on the tape. You do focus breathing and learn techniques that will help you to get that oxygen thru out the body. We breathe from our chests these days instead of from deep down--STRESS! Take care now!!

This book is well thought out and well written with chock full of useful techniques to use to de-stress. The book even contains diagrams so that you can see exactly how to breathe correctly using Hendrick's technique. I took this book out at the library to check it out but now I'm going to buy it definitely. It's something I want to have around all the time so I can remind myself of the breathing I want to be doing. It really helped relax my entire body physically and mentally. I recommend it highly.

When I began, a few years ago, on my search for spiritual growth, I soon picked up that breathwork, in all it's forms, was one of the key processes. I ordered 5 or 6 of the best reviewed books/tapes on the "art of breathing". Of these, the two by Gay Hendricks were, without a doubt, the most superficial and pointless.

He teaches - crudely - basic, abdominal breathing and that is just about it. Its not that abdominal breathing isn't useful, (most adults would benefit from adjusting their breathing so that their abdomen, not their chest, rises on the in-breath - the way that small children breath), it's that all the depth and subtlty that follows on from this is completely ignored.

The tapes are simplistic in the extreme. They are pointless, since there are far better tapes available through Amazon which cover the same ground as Gay Hendricks only more acurately and with more detail. They then go on to introduce the beautiful, extraordinary world of breathwork with many varied exercises.

I have found that changing one's basic nature and way of being in the world is very difficult. For things like changing the way we breathe - the way we move life force around our body and how our mind and breath can interact to form a powerful combination - I generally prefer audio tapes or videos. My number one favourite is "The Art of Breathing" by Nancy Zi. It is the Chinese system for mastering Chi 'i - breath life force. Available on this site is the combined video and book which outline 6 superb and detailed lessons in re-teaching your body to breathe and move life-energy around the body. Nothing too fancy or philosophical required, but presented with all the detail and knowledge one would expect from a Qi Gong master.

Also very highly recommended is Dr Andrew Weil's set of two tapes on breathing. He has found a simple, daily ten minute practice of simple breath techniques to be the most powerful single tool for change that he can recommend to his patients. The six exercises that he teaches are drawn from the Indian or Yogic tradition. Simple, easy to learn and getting right to the heart of the matter - change your body/mind with breath.

Also deserving very honourable mention is "Ken Cohen's guide to Healthy Breathing". Takes one through four stages, of which abdominal breathing is only the first, right through to a profound state of energy/body/breath awarness.

I realise that this is less a review about the GAy Hndricks tapes and more a recommendation to buy others. That is because there simply isn't much to say about Hendrick's work. They're plain bad. And the best way of illustrating that is to show what riches are alternatively available.

Happy breathing.

As someone who had chronic anxiety problems, and is now more or less over them, I have to credit this tape as one of the most useful therapeutic tools I used. It is something you can use virtually every minute of your waking day, and is astonishing in the subtle, yet powerful effect it has on your general state of being. Also, very simple to put into use.

Gay Hendricks does a great job (in a wonderful voice) explaining various techniques to help you improve your breathing. First side, is an overview of why you should work on breath technique... second side has four exercises. I really like this tape a lot!