Elliott Ingersoll: How Do We Make This Real?

Dr. Elliott Ingersoll, Associate Academic Director of the Center for Integral Wisdom, gave a talk at our recent board meeting in Texas about how the Dharma of Outrageous Love and Unique Self is going to transform the field of psychology.

Dr. Marc Gafni introduces Elliott as the Integral psychologist (according to Ken Wilber) and the most popular professor for psychology at Kent State University.

In his serious, yet humorous way Elliott talks about his work at the Metro Health Medical Center and how through collaborative interdisciplinary efforts people’s lives have been changed because their stories have been heard. By having their stories heard people feel seen and loved.

“In being loved they are experiencing a wholeness that for whatever reasons they didn’t get in other parts of their lives… and their recovery is progressing at a pace that far outstrips what we were doing before…” Elliott reports.

He shares about his hope that Unique Self Psychology will transform the field: Students learning how to hold space and to really see the other person and experiencing themselves as being seen will carry that experience into their therapy sessions. This –although a little scary in the beginning–is pretty contagious and it is what will transform the field.

“Nature loves diversity–genetically, psychologically and spiritually. Every one of us has a plate. Every one of us has a way to deal with our plate. And that’s the piece of Unique Self that we want to bring into psychology.”

Listen to Elliott as he takes us on a journey from the flatland psychology that has “physics envy” through the effects of psychotropic medication to the possibilities of a psychology transformed by Outrageous Love and Unique Self:

Some interesting statements and questions Elliott raises in his talk:

• Who will be a voice for those people who don’t have a voice?
• Outrageous Love is missing in so much of our health care.
• The uniqueness of people is muted with psychotropic medication.
• There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance in the brain. We don’t have one physiological marker for any mental disorder.
• You cannot medicate anger out of a person.
• WHEN psychotropic medication works, we don’t know how.
• Outrageous Pain cannot be held by ego. Unique Self can hold it and can deal with a piece of it and be excited about what’s on “my plate.”
• When people are being seen they stay and get the treatment they need to get better.

To listen to Dr. Marc Gafni’s teaching during The Shakti Summit 2015 on Outrageous Love and a new vision for the Masculine and the Feminine Beyond Venus and Mars, click here>>>