Mary Harrell unflinchingly greets a cast of imaginal figures who inhabit her life, and encourages all of us to welcome their wisdom into our own inner landscapes. These very real beings dwell in a realm between matter (nature) and mind (reason), appearing in dreams, intuitive callings, visions, feelings, and sometimes frightening events. Mary offers her own intimate experiences through which she explores and engages these figures, showing her readers how to host these beings as one would host invited guests. From the work of philosopher Henry Corbin, psychiatrist C. G. Jung, and psychologist James Hillman, we know that the name of the realm in which these figures dwell is the "mundus imaginalis," or the imaginal world. As this is a work in which archetypes are grounded in experience, "Imaginal Figures In Everyday Life: Stories from the World between Matter and Mind" is both a path to individual transformation and, in the words of psychologist Robert Romanyshyn, "a therapy of culture." Mary Harrell, Ph.D., a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist and New York licensed psychologist, received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria, California. She is Curriculum and Instruction Associate Professor Emeritus at State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego. While at the university she taught education and psychology courses and served as Professional Development Schools (PDS) specialist, supporting the National PDS initiative, which builds bridges between elementary and secondary schools and the university's School of Education. Her writings in the areas of educational reform, and imaginal psychology appear in four invited chapters in edited books. In 2014 Mary's poetry was anthologized in Syracuse University's "The Stone Canoe, a Journal of Arts, Literature and Social Commentary, No. 8." She lives with her husband, Stephen, in South Carolina.

Mary Harrell unflinchingly greets a cast of imaginal figures who inhabit her life, and encourages all of us to welcome their wisdom into our own inner landscapes. These very real beings dwell in a realm between matter (nature) and mind (reason), appearing in dreams, intuitive callings, visions, feelings, and sometimes frightening events. Mary offers her own intimate experiences through which she explores and engages these figures, showing her readers how to host these beings as one would host invited guests. From the work of philosopher Henry Corbin, psychiatrist C. G. Jung, and psychologist James Hillman, we know that the name of the realm in which these figures dwell is the mundus imaginalis, or the imaginal world. As this is a work in which archetypes are grounded in experience, Imaginal Figures In Everyday Life: Stories from the World between Matter and Mind is both a path to individual transformation and, in the words of psychologist Robert Romanyshyn, “a therapy of culture.” Mary Harrell, Ph.D., a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist and New York licensed psychologist, received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria, California. She is Curriculum and Instruction Associate Professor Emeritus at State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego. While at the university she taught education and psychology courses and served as Professional Development Schools (PDS) specialist, supporting the National PDS initiative, which builds bridges between elementary and secondary schools and the university’s School of Education. Her writings in the areas of educational reform, and imaginal psychology appear in four invited chapters in edited books. In 2014 Mary’s poetry was anthologized in Syracuse University’s The Stone Canoe, a Journal of Arts, Literature and Social Commentary, No. 8. She lives with her husband, Stephen, in South Carolina.

The science behind the writers’ experience of characters developing their own will and taking objective forms. Many writers have the experience that their characters have evolved their own personalities. They start to tell their own stories, and sometimes they could even rebel against the author’s ideas for them and change the course of the whole plot. That is not all, though. Sometimes, literary characters assume objective appearances which are visible not just to the creators, but also to others and manifesting in the real world. These experiences raise several interesting philosophical and scientific questions. Have the writers unwittingly created quasi-conscious entities by the power of their minds? Can thoughts manifest as something tangible that can be seen, heard, or even touched? How genuine are the contents of the mind? Embodied Imaginations explores these questions, highlighting the results of an investigation on this fascinating topic, stemming from personal anecdotes of many writers. Providing scientific evidence for the existences of these mental constructs, the goal is to collect robust and reliable building blocks that may help to deconstruct perceptions and provide answers to this phenomenon. The book attempts to give modern science a place where spiritual, philosophical and mystical threads can be interwoven. Efforts have been made to corroborate theoretical claims with experimental evidence, contributing to research in cognitive psychology to determine the role of imagination in creating external reality. This book will introduce you to the mysterious and profound part of creative writing that you never knew existed before.

How can we transcend our tribal, philosophical, and religious differences? Is it possible to develop a global consciousness to resolve the peril to our biosphere and other human-made existential crises? Become Conscious of Wholeness: Humanity’s Only Future explores how connecting human consciousness with Universal Consciousness will give individuals and societies a sense of being complete, not fragmented. Accessing Universal Consciousness, the fundamental wisdom, intelligence, and love in the Universe, will align their identity and purpose and free them from limiting beliefs and fears. Universal Consciousness is the organizing, unifying force, beyond space and time, filled with the creative potential from which our diverse philosophies, religions, and primordial traditions emerged. When Consciousness is understood from multiple scientific, spiritual, psychological, and mystical perspectives, what is of ultimate value becomes clear—our relationships with each other and the Earth, our essential Wholeness. The reader will explore various portals to Universal Consciousness, drawing upon their own mystical and spiritual experience to develop a more holistic Self. Specific action steps are also presented to reframe religion, reimagine education and mental wellbeing, and reform the business organizations, government agencies, and divisive politics that perpetuate a fragmented view of reality.

The disturbing experience of psychological infanticide reflects the darkest aspect of the wounding of the Sacred Feminine - the Death Mother archetype that annihilates rather than nurtures life. Through myth, story, classic literature, biography, poems, art and dreams, Dr. Violet Sherwood weaves together symbolic aspects of psychological infanticide with psychoanalytic theory of traumatic attachment and the literal truth of a centuries-old history of infanticide. She illuminates the Death Mother archetype in the dynamic between the unwilling (or unsupported) mother and the unwelcome child. Her personal and archetypal journey into, through, and beyond the underworld, offers hope and guidance for the restoration of the relationship between the Sacred Feminine and the Divine Child. She draws on her professional experience as a psychotherapist and her lived experience of psychological infanticide as a result of closed stranger adoption to explore the intimate connection between life and death, revealing the life task of the infanticided psyche is to embrace death and discover the life that lies beyond the realm of the underworld.

The Mythmaker is a personal myth, a fiction based on actual events, and tells the extraordinary tale of Katie Neumann's childhood, interrupted when her mother dies in childbirth leaving seven children and their overwhelmed father to figure out what to do. What Katie faces next, most people can't imagine. The appearance of a mysterious—and unwanted—figure opens an enchanted space for all that follows.