Richard Harvey
connecting psychotherapy and spiritual growth for human awakening
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Books on Psychotherapy and Spirituality
This page lists books published, and about to be published, by Richard Harvey.
Your Divine Opporunity
how to awaken to your true self in the modern era
The central, core message of Your Divine Opportunity is that there is something crucial we can do to affect our lives and the lives of those around us. That is to awaken to the true nature of our humanity. The tragedy of not awakening to our true nature is that the life we are leading is entirely governed, limited, and adjusted to the circumstances, learnt lessons, and prescribed limitations of childhood and distant memory.
In this book I will show you how working with the present predicament just as it is, without recourse to fantasy and idealism, we can turn the present seemingly pessimistic circumstances to our positive advantage and move toward optimism and in time further into the light of wisdom… and through realizing our full potential and fulfilling our human nature, we may realize a sacred life.
Published by Sacred Attention Publishing in November 2020see details
The Sacred Attention Therapy Group Work Manual
The Sacred Attention Therapy Group Work Manual is a long-awaited response to people who have thought of setting up and running Human Awakening Groups and have not been sure quite how to do it. It is also intended for therapists, group leaders, SAT students, SAT therapists, and anyone who wants to try their hand at setting up and running a therapy group. The manual is the product of Richard Harvey’s 40 years of experience and it offers a unique approach and insights into therapeutic group work.
“Group work tacitly infers that the natural
habitat for human beings is coming together in gatherings. It is primitive
and innate. We are communal beings. Modern life has fostered our removal
from the gathering, from the rituals of togetherness. Contemporary humans
have been separated from each other unnaturally in houses, in families,
in relationships, in employment, in furtive meetings, and secretive lonely
occupations. Simply the act of gathering together may be viewed as effective
and positive in itself. What transpires as a result of such gathering together
can be spectacularly transformational and—bearing in mind I am not
given to using this term lightly, if at all—life changing.”
[a passage
from the text]
Published by Sacred Attention Publishing in August 2018see details
Your Sacred Calling
the follow-up book to your essential self is your sacred calling: awakening the soul to a spiritual life in the 21st century.
This book will assist you in discovering how to go about saving and preserving the sacred principles for leading a truly spiritual life. It is a guide for your discovery of emotional and spiritual freedom and will illustrate how to guard, protect, and treasure the sacred-spiritual truths in order to live from your heart.
This book dismisses, refutes, and argues against popularly conceived ideas about spirituality. Instead, on these pages you will find innovative ideas—philosophy and practices—that are offered in heartfelt response to the critical challenges that we face today. Most importantly, this book will encourage and empower you to create and refine your own sacred calling.
Published by Austen Macauley Publishers in April 2017see details
Human Awakening
the source book that sheds light on the three stages of awakening
Human Awakening is the source book for the Three Stages of Awakening. I wrote it over a ten-year period from 2002 to 2012. As I wrote it I distilled the rich experience of my many years of psycho-spiritual work and my experience of clinical practice with individuals, couples, and groups.
In 2012, following fifteen months of approaching publishers with the book, Llewellyn Publications, the longest running MBS publishing house in the world, took the book on condition that I shortened it by half its length. In a production meeting they settled on the alternative title Your Essential Self, and in a pleasurable and professional series of exchanges with the editors we restructured, rewrote, and re-presented the manuscript in its by now highly shortened form.
Over the last three years since Your Essential Self was published I have often found myself quoting or referring seekers and students to passages from Human Awakening which had been cut from the published version. I felt increasingly that I should make the original manuscript available. In its original form, structure, and content the book is more poetic, less well ordered, diverse and varied. Ultimately it is the book through which I arrived at the Three Stages of Awakening.
So here in its entirety—the book that will shed light on the Three Stages of Awakening for those who are interested, enthused, and motivated enough to rise to the challenge of the times and realize their true nature.
Published by Sacred Attention Publishing in March 2016, Human Awakening is available in its second edition with numerous re-edits, a foreword by Rev Robert Meagher, a reflection on the book, “In Gratitude,” from Katalin Czöndör and a master index—available for purchase and download onlinesee details
Bodhi Ocean
talks on self-discovery, authenticity, and divinity as an urgent imperative in the contemporary world
Bodhi Ocean is the third in a trilogy of e-books featuring a divine compilation of manuscripts from three series of psycho-spiritual lectures by Psycho-Spiritual Psychotherapist and Spiritual Teacher, Richard Harvey.
The first e-book in this trilogy, Dharma Sky, featured talks on psychological and spiritual understanding and renewal for the modern era. Dharma Sky contained manuscripts from lectures given as part of The SashtiPoorthi Lecture Seminars and The Panchavati Discourses.
The second e-book in this trilogy, Moksha Dawn, offered talks on a radical and innovative approach to spirituality and the sacred in the 21st century. Moksha Dawn contained manuscripts from lectures given as part of The Silent Thunder Online Discourses and The Novena Teachings.
This e-book, Bodhi Ocean, is the final and sacred compilation of lectures given as part of three lecture series: The Hsüan-Hsüeh Discourses; The Ternion Talks; and Substantia. Bodhi Ocean gifts the reader with talks on self-discovery, authenticity, and divinity as an urgent imperative in the contemporary world.
Each of the three e-books in the trilogy contains 14 lecture manuscripts, for a total of 42 lecture manuscripts. As a total set of 42 psycho-spiritual lecture manuscripts, the reader is guided through Richard Harvey’s three stage, psycho-spiritual model of human awakening: journey of self-discovery; transformation into authenticity; and union with the Divine as the source of consciousness..
If you have not yet had the opportunity to read the first two e-books in this trilogy (Dharma Sky and Moksha Dawn), I encourage you to do so. While each e-book stands on its own, when read in their birthed sequence, the full majesty of their teachings will come to life.[From the foreword by Rev Robert Meagher]
What Readers Say
“Academia has difficulty birthing disciplines in the humanities as sciences, and psychology is a prime example of such a difficult delivery. Living is an art, and while research is clearly important, individual response to being alive can never be reduced to behavioural change based on conceptual manipulation and statistical outcomes. Mystique is unavoidable, and requires sane, clear and communicative exegesis.
Richard Harvey's book Bodhi Ocean reveals such a voice. He stitches together Eastern enlightenment, Western confusion, processes for spiritual growth, and provides a language of humility that is a passage to greatness. Among the many gifts that this work provides are the gentling of paradox, deconstruction of conceptual sophistication, possible paths to generic spirituality, and above all, catharsis of self-imposed imprisonment.
A prime message is that psychotherapy without spirituality misses the point, and while this is a courageous stance, it is also an emphatic call to create a cycle of completion. Leadership in academia, business, and politics is becoming more and more questionable in terms of exactly what the notion of leadership implies.
Individual excellence, when viewed against the backdrop of Bodhi Ocean would surely go to where it belongs: not a mere drop but a necessarily contributing agent, the depth of which is mysterious yet real, because we all know that we breathe and move, and create. Richard Harvey has created a path, that one less travelled, and worth travelling. The blessing is that one has to do it alone, yet not hopelessly alone. The companionship is undeniably there.” —Dr Walter Harry Willies, Educational, Health and Organisational Coach, creator of Biofocusing, Adjunct-Professor at the European American University, South Africa
“Richard, you have an insight that resonates on so many levels. You are able to articulate an awareness that would otherwise just remain an innate acknowledgement. I have a broad professional background but always searched for an understanding that never quite emerged through theory and postgraduate education; your work and insight seems to make sense of that missing link for me and feeds my yearning to escape the statutory demands that don't fit with my passion for offering psycho-spiritual compassion and support. Thank you for your wisdom—it's a privilege to know you and learn from you.” —Kirsty Hodgson, Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Hypnotherapist, and Supervisor; Advisor on Mental Health Strategy to the House of Commons and the Scottish Parliament.
“My faith in you and your work abounds. I see you and know what you are doing. Please take my love and faith in the deepest compassion that has always existed in humanity with you wherever you go because I believe. Thank you for your divine attention! Respect lives forever in my heart.” —Kristen Allis Urffer, Director of SARPANA, Yoga/Meditation Instructor, Dance Instructor, Writer and Presenter, Pennsylvania, North America.
“Richard’s teaching is a simple and direct pointing
to the Truth. More importantly, Richard’s teaching is readily accessible,
easily comprehended, and it produces results. Self-exploration is the only
way a human being will awaken to their divine self, and Richard provides
valuable, wise and loving, safe guidance to anyone serious wanting to discover,
and self-realize.” —Mark T. Filippo,
Spiritual Counselor and writer/blogger.
Self-published and available for purchase and download onlinesee
details
Moksha Dawn
talks on a radical and innovative approach to spirituality and the sacred in the 21st century Today we live in the age of individualism. But this age of the individual is far from straightforward. Obsessed as we are with ourselves, addicted as we are to our own self-importance, self-indulgence, and self-aggrandizement, we have the means, the power, and the strength in our possession. These are contained in our obsession and addiction to ourself. If we can only harness the power of obsession and addiction, and redirect it toward the Divine in no time at all we would be free!
But is this what we truly want? Do we—can we—truly weep for God, as Ramakrishna asks? Weeping for people and things, all of which will fade and pass, are we able to give heart-recognition to the deathless, to the eternal, to the Divine?
Do we give our attention appropriately and sufficiently to our spiritual awakening, arguably the only thing of ultimate value, the only thing that really matters? When and if we do, can we sustain our discipline and obedience to the higher calling?
Can we live the human life, the fully human life, the one in which we allow the Divine to manifest through our humanness—not in spite of our humanness—and live within the contradictions and paradoxes that bring us to the very edge of experience, the precipice of the sensible world, the reality and expression of eternity in the field of space and time?
The talks in Moksha Dawn are
dedicated to Truth. They are not my opinion, my point of view, or my preference.
Neither are they Absolute Truth in the strict sense or the word of God or
the only way for you to follow. They are the fruit of the perspective of
one human-divine, sacred life form, an individual awareness in the Divine
total consciousness. The words appear out of the matrix of emptiness, out
of the space between the in and the out breaths. They have been a joy for
me to hear, to speak, to receive, and to communicate. In time these words
will lapse into the great silence of mouna and all that we say
and do and speak here will be a fading part of the universe. Like sand grains
or notes of music, like autumn leaves or snowflakes, they will have been
and then they will not have been. Let us pause for a moment. Are they merely
human foibles, human failings, human gropings to understand? Or are they
perhaps, fading, drying on the face now tears—the tears we shed weeping
for the Divine?
Self-published and available for purchase and download onlinesee
details
Dharma Sky
talks on psychological and spiritual understanding and renewal for the modern era At the very heart of my work is a spiritual way that addresses the predicament of the modern era. This predicament, as I see it, is rather similar to the idea of the kaliyuga, a term from Hindu cosmology that denotes the darkening of the light, the time of least spirituality, morality, and transcendence. By facing the ego which has been highly developed and become extremely complex as the symbol of self-identification, separation, and division in the inner individual life and the outer collective world, we can prepare the ground for the revolution of individual and collective consciousness.
This consciousness will develop and create, over time, a sane, spiritual foundation for an authentic, compassionate way of relating to each other and to living in the world as a precious privilege and divine opportunity. The age of light follows the kaliyuga and those of us who have been true to our deepest self will arguably have helped to maintain the light of truth and consciousness for all beings.
My hope for this e-book is that you will learn something to deepen your present spiritual practice and understanding or, if inner work is relatively new to you, that you will find something here to further you in your personal and spiritual discovery.
My broad aim is to make deep psychological and authentic spiritual truths clear and accessible. I do not indulge in popular notions about spirituality. We will be little involved in the kind of psycho-spirituality that is about getting the things you want, feeling happier, becoming healthier in mind or body, or any of the other cosmetic self-improvements that so-called spirituality today seems most concerned with.
Spirituality in practice and reality
is a more profound matter than any of these materialistic concerns. Real
spirituality has absolutely nothing to do with morality, society, and relationships
as you may know them, or happiness as you habitually think of it. Peace,
fulfillment, satisfaction, or human experience in every way is dwarfed by
the genuinely spiritual. This does not mean that attaining spiritual heights
doesn’t make you a better person, a happier person, a person who is more
moral and responsible in his or her relationships, capable, sensitive, and
skilful with others and in the world. It may well do these things. But these
things are not what spirituality is about. Spirituality is about eternity;
it is about what is absolute.
Self-published and available for purchase and download onlinesee
details
Your Essential Self
the inner journey to authenticity and spiritual enlightenment Your Essential Self was published on 8th July 2013 by US publishers Llewellyn Worldwide. The competence and diligence of their editorial team helped me to produce a book on the Three Stages of Awakening that is at once complete and accessible. There are plentiful exercises and anecdotes to illustrate and vividly color the psychological and spiritual content.
Your Essential Self is the central
core of my thoughts and innovations over the last few years. I hope you
will consider ordering copies for yourself and for your closest friends.
Published by Llewellyn Worldwide in July 2013see
details
Tao's Gift
reflections on personal and spiritual growth In inspiring and dynamic exchanges with his audience, Richard Harvey uses Chuang Tzu’s ancient wisdom to illustrate the pitfalls and cautions of the spiritual journey. Both a warm-hearted homage to one of his spiritual heroes and a deep appreciation of an insightful text, Tao’s Gift embodies the essence of Richard’s encouragement to spiritual aspirants that “there is no distance between you and the All.”
Full of encouragement and practical advice,
highly readable and alive with compassion and humor, this seminar transcript,
which includes a useful exercise section, is an indispensable and unique
psycho-spiritual guide.
Self-published and available for purchase and download onlinesee
details
The Flight of Consciousness
a contemporary map for the spiritual journey With reference to ancient and modern spiritual paths, The Flight of Consciousness sets out to dispel the confusion many contemporary seekers experience about spirituality by providing a coherent map of the inner realms. This book shows you where you are in your spiritual evolution and clarifies, stimulates and inspires you to meet the challenges and experience the joys of the inner search and personal liberation.
Supporting your inner knowing, intuitive
guidance and deep wisdom, and featuring an extensive exercise section, this
is an original, lucid charting of your unique journey to Self-hood and Realization.
Published by Ashgrove Publishing, Great Britain, 2002
see details
The Book of Being
a spiritual handbook for life's journey This book, which has stimulated and guided many seekers, defines the ten most crucial insights for the spiritual journey. It delves into awareness, self-honesty, personal power, relationship and the purpose of existence in short passages and aphorisms.
A spiritual guide filled with stimulating
passages for meditation, insights, pointers to truth, inspiration, simplicity
and spiritual wisdom, this handbook for life’s journey encourages beginners,
and deepens and expands the exploration for more experienced students of
inner work.
Self-published and available for purchase and download onlinesee
details
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What readers say
I have read his book, Your Essential Self, the messages of which went into my head without much
drama and no epiphany. However, over the years, parts of it keep resurfacing into my consciousness
creating moments where I say “aha, so that’s what he meant.” With each one of those, I become
happier, calmer and more fulfilled. I have heard it said of The Bhagavad Gita, (the Hindu sacred text) that you can read it in an afternoon but it takes a lifetime to understand it. Thoughts along those lines come to mind about Your Essential Self, and The Flight Of Consciousness, which I am reading now. They embody the teachings which keep on giving long after you think you have digested their messages.
When you buy Richard Harvey’s books, and I’m sure you will, “Your Sacred Calling” included, for a tiny amount of money, you’ll be investing in a mountain of wisdom, distilled from the author’s own life and learning, which were no picnic, as well as his extensive insights into the psycho-spiritual teachings of the great thinkers who have lived before him. Don’t try and read them all in one go. Read a chapter a day or so and let its message be assimilated by your subconscious where it will subtly nudge you towards a happier, more loving and productive life for the rest of your days. Not many investments can achieve that.
Francois Harley, UK
I
just finished reading Your Essential Self and it changed my life in so many
ways. The transformation is beginning! Thank you, Richard Harvey! Out of
all of the books on spirituality, your book stands out the most. Next will
be Your Sacred Calling. Peace!
Joel V Sanders, Personal Chef / Food Service Professional
I
recommend for you too; to allow yourself time to discover the spiritual
education wisdom understandings that Richard is being inspired to share
with mankind….
Jansenius T. Lange Jnr., modern philosopher, author/writer, keynote public
speaker, Founder/President of Self-Development Wisdom Institutes
I
recommend Richard Harvey's The Flight of Consciousness as a true and accessible
expression of holistic psychotherapy practice. Richard has been sharing
his therapeutic philosophy with me since 1996 and during this time I have
witnessed his work bring about the most dramatic, profound and miraculous
changes in people.
Susan Quick, Director of Enabling Radio
Your
book The Flight of Consciousness is exquisite and precious. Thank you for
sharing your gifts with the world. We are truly blessed. I appreciated the
methodological framework proposed for such a delicate, personal and intricately
complex (at the same time 'simple') process. The lessons at the end of the
book are a treasure chest. Combined, the exercises create a rich tapestry
to invite, enable and nurture personal growth and transformation.
Rev. Robert Meagher, Inter-Faith/Non-Denominational Minister, Spiritual
Guidance