This is a sort of humanistic psychology book that speaks of Western Christianity. Ira Progof has done just a fantastic job of captivating his audience. It is a translation of one of the classics of Christianity, but it is written in laymans terms and just absolutely brilliant. Ira Progof does the best job of translating this classic guide to spiritual experience that I am now looking for other books written by him. The translation speaks so well of inner depths and souls and things you may have always wondered but were never really sure of spiritually. I found myself staying up late at night, anxious to finish, but not anxious to end it! I may just read it again. There are passages that are so deep and so meaningful that I found myself reading them over and over. Some may find these passages I speak of vague, and they are. Yet they are worth understanding. This book takes effort and the pay-off is astounding.

This book gives insight into Jung's concept of Synchronicity and its relevance to understanding the human psyche and the patterns of the universe. It explains how the psyche is connected to the universe and matter- ie has a relationship with it.
It deals with depth psychology, jungian concepts, and putting it all together in a discussion of what synchronicity is about. It is very conceptual, for those of you who enjoy more concrete stuff.
It was the first book I read in my research about Synchronicity for a big research paper, and it inspired the most interest in me of any of them in retrospect. Interest in the connections between everything in the universe, that is.
This can be considered a compliment to Jung's book on Synchronicity. I enjoyed it more, though, since it attempts to explain some aspects of Jung's Sync. concept that are not so easily explainable- it makes up for Jung's occasional lack of complete clarity. Not that it's not just as conceptual as Jung. It's just as deep and even more inspiring, because he talks about what's most relevant about Jung's Sync. concept but adds his own ideas too. Actually Jung edited Progoff's original manuscript for this book since they were friends.
Anyway, if you're interested in Jungian concepts, and if you're interested in Synchronicity: the connections between the microcosm and macrososm, GET THIS BOOK!!! It's definitely worth it.

I looked this book up on Amazon.com to recommend to a friend and was disappointed to find no review or synopsis, so I thought I'd write one. :)

'The Practice of Process Meditation' was very important to me twenty years ago when I was searching for my spiritual beliefs. Rereading it now at midlife after studying Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell is fascinating. It relates to both of their ideas. Progoff pondered the massive book burning by the Nazi's during World War II and wondered what would happen if all the books in the world were burned. He concluded science would recover but would religion? What if all our sacred books were destroyed? Then it came to him that mankind would "simply draw new spiritual scriptures from the same source out of which the old ones came.... the resources of the human spirit." (pg 10) And if we could do that in such an emergency, we can do it now, and each of us can do it for our own personal 'Bibles' of what makes sense to us and gives our lives meaning.

He calls the sacred texts of every religion 'Bibles.' Like Campbell he believes that 'Each of the Bibles carries its share of this contact with the great Unity of Life.' (pg 13) And that 'The teachings of the ancient Bibles do indeed come from another universe, another cultural world inhabited in a distant historical time.' (pg 13) He says we need to do these spiritual journeys to 'extend' their meaning in the present.' (pg 14)

The book takes us through a meditation methodology designed to help us view our lives as a whole, examine the major milestones in them, and the direction they have taken us. It enables us to see the direction in which we are going.

From page 19:
'The first step is to acknowledge the problems of our life as we find them, to observe and describe them as objectively as we can. That gives us a reference point in outer reality, but we do not establish our position there. We draw back. We move away from the surface of things. We move inward in order to return with a greater resource to use in re-approaching the situation.

It is basic to this inward phase of the work that we begin by setting the movement of our life as a whole in perspective. Once we have established our life context we have parameters within which we can move deeper and deeper to explore the contents and resources of our life. The purpose and style of that exploration is neither to diagnose nor to judge, but to enable our life to disclose to us what its goals and its meanings are. In doing this, we each find different meanings, different directions for our lives.'

The methodology for doing this Process Meditation is the Intensive Journal Method which Progoff developed (Q.V. his book 'At a Journal Workshop'). Using this methodology, 'The Practice of Process Meditation' guides us through making a Journal with sections for various logs and dialogues having to do with our past, our meditations, and our dreams. Among these are: Intersections: Roads Taken and Not Taken, Now: The Open Moment, Process Meditation, Meditation Log, Connections, Mantras/Crystals, Peaks, Depths and Explorations, and Testament. Then it leads us through meditations and exercises to fill in these sections.

From page 85:
'As a methodology for the inner life, Process Meditation provides a context of principles and a variety of procedures for opening channels of connection between our inner processes and the spiritual teachings and traditions of our past. In the course of our life they may have become estranged from one another, but we wish now to open the possibility of renewal and a deepening dialogue. Whatever they are Process Meditation rejects none and is intended to replace none' .It complements the beliefs to which you find yourself drawn by providing additional contexts of experience and new angles from which they can be approached. Given these new perspectives you are better able to consider what valid place a particular doctrine may have in your future beliefs and in your spiritual life. Especially because of its active procedures, Process Meditation often serves as a catalyst so that many people find that it stimulates fresh experiences within the framework of old beliefs that had become routine.'

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is asking the big questions of why am I here? what does my life mean? and where do I go from here?

Highly recommended for the graduate school core curriculum. Eidle's understanding of the subject matter is unbelievable. He is a masterful technician of the English language which allows his readers to fully comprehend a painfully complex topic. In my opinion, Bill Eidle has clearly distinguished himself as a world leader in the theories and applications of Cognitive Psychology.

Almost all current authors on journaling owe a great debt to this work by Ira Progoff, the grandfather of modern journal writing. This book is not an easy read but worth the time to get yourself oriented to the author's views about jounaling and psychology. AAJW was meant for those who could not attend a workshop where this method is taught in several two and three day sessions. It is also used, perhaps more so, as a reference guide to those who have attended such workshops and need a reference tool for review. This journal method is unlike anything else on the market and to be fully appreciated one might first read some of Progoff's other works that shed light on his Jungian influenced theory of psychology and personal growth. Progoff's Intensive Journal Method was so successful that it overshadowed his great psychological insights. His other books may be out of print but are available at used book stores and the Progoff Center in NYC

This book provides information about the Progoff Intensive Journal (IJ) method, a series of interrelated exercises that generate rich information about one's life, which were developed over 20 years of researching creativity and depth psychology. Exercises include work with dialogues, dreams, twilight images, and steppingstones. Adapted from the IJ workshops offered by Dialogue House, this book is an excellent resource for those new to the method as well as those who have take the workshop. Personally, I've found the book most useful as a reference tool to supplement the workshop experience.

As a preliminary statement, even though this reviewer worked for Dr. Progoff during the 1950s and 60s in NYC as an archivist, he will not recuse himself from reviewing Dr. Progoff's work which opened a whole new vista in his life. His perception is how Ira used the material from his lectures on the Intensive Journal Workshop and therapy sessions to formulate his theories about dreams, diaries and journals and the creative process. This is the culmination of his work.

Poets, musicians, mediums, and persons from all walks of life would come to him seeking healing, psychological, and spiritual support. He broke new ground with his creative intellect. He changed lives. This book, At a Journal Workshop, condenses everything he taught, and, it must be admitted, is not light reading unless you are familiar with his other work or similar topics. The book is most valuable when used as an adjunct to attending a class, and obviates the necessity of your keeping handwritten notes.

If your intellect is sharp and pervasive, you will have no problems absorbing his exercises. In a way, it's like learning to use a computer, the books are great, but there is nothing like hands on experience. You learn by doing, and when you are ready for the next step, refer to the book to extend your journal or your dream. It offers various ways to do this.

Several books on simple methods for keeping a journal are available, but none have the meat of this one. This reviewer has conducted journal and dream-work classes, and this is his principal source. Many others have followed in Dr. Progoff?s steps and a debt is owed to them all. Five stars.