By Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, he is a practicing psychotherapist who has worked for many years in the field of mental health and social services. His focus is on comparative religion and the intersection between culture, spirituality, and psychology.

• “Addiction and the Quest for Wholeness”

The global rise of addictions in the modern world is alarming. What the discipline of modern Western psychology fails to recognize is the connection between the loss of a sense of the sacred and the rise in addiction and mental illness. Due to the spiritual desolation prevalent in the present day and its traumatizing effects, the human search for wholeness and healing is all too often diverted into destructive and dysfunctional behaviors. It is only a spiritual approach to the science of the soul that allows psychology to restore the categories of Spirit, soul, and body, along with their corresponding degrees of reality. This paper examines the root causes of addiction in order to better understand the collective search for wholeness and healing. The framework employed for this study is the perennial psychology—an application of the universal wisdom found in humanity’s spiritual patrimony to the proper understanding of this burgeoning crisis. The objective of the study is to propose a more integrative approach to assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of addiction. Read Here

• Recovering the Eye of the Heart

The “Eye of the Heart” is the faculty by which we can apprehend spiritual reality. Due to modern Western psychology’s rejection of its metaphysical roots, this potential has been largely eclipsed in us. This has fractured our relationship with the natural world and other sentient beings, causing a host of mental health challenges to arise. This, in turn, has led to a failure to adequately diagnose and properly treat these maladies that have so grievously afflicted our communities. Read here

• Mental Disorders and Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian East

Modern Western psychology is not a monolithic discipline for it has, at its disposal, a host of therapies and techniques. However, it is sustained by a set of hegemonic and totalitarian assumptions that have, in myriad ways, served to undermine other approaches. Mainstream psychology, which is based on a foundation of materialism, is largely incapable of providing authentic healing because it cannot access realms that transcend the empirical order. Yet, since time immemorial, there have been modes of spiritually based therapies connected to the diverse religious traditions of the world. In this ground-breaking work, Dr. Jean-Claude Larchet provides a compelling analysis of the Church Fathers’ profound wisdom into the human condition and its various maladies of the soul. In doing so, he offers remarkable insights into how mental health treatment can be richly informed by traditional Christianity. Read Here

• BLACK ELK, LAKOTA VISIONARY: The Oglala Holy Man and Sioux Tradition

Millions have been inspired around the world by the life and spiritual legacy of the Lakota holy man Hehaka Sapa, more commonly known as Black Elk (1863-1950). It is in large part
through John G. Neihardt’s book BLACK ELK SPEAKS, first published in 1932, that Black Elk became widely known and revered. Even though numerous books have been written about the Lakota wicasa wakan or holy man, Harry Oldmeadow’s book is indispensable as it not only corrects the historical record through drawing upon recently discovered sources, but situates Black Elk within a universal context that extends across the world’s religions. This engaging account by Oldmeadow explores the fascinating life of Black Elk, his visions, his relationship with Catholicism, and his diligent efforts to revive the First Peoples religion. Read here

Playlist Prima Materia

O viridissima virga – Hildegard von Bingen
O greenest branch, greetings.
You have come forthÂ
from the wafting breath of the spirit of the saints.
When the time came for you to blossom in your branches
– Hail, hail to thee –
for the passion of the sun sweated in you like the perfume of balm.
For in you blossomed the beautiful flower,
which gave fragrance to all the spices that were dry there.
And they all now appeared in full green strength.
And the heavens?
They rained dew on the grass,
and all the earth became fertile and glad.
For their womb brought forth corn,
and the birds of the air made their nests there.
And men were filled with thy food
and there was great joy among all who feasted.
Therefore, o sweet Virgin, no joy can ever die in you!
But now – now be the glory and praise of the Most High!

Question ( Frage) by Khaled Shomali
A question bends to the branch of the beautiful
Why I spoiled you from head to toe
Why did a dove perch on my shoulder
When the world is full of love and men
The wind fears when its shadow wavers
A cough precedes the embarrassed answer
I am troubled by a silence before it explodes
When you erupt oh volcano the soul calms down
If you wished for the full moon from me
I would pluck it for you
But my heart is not mine it is already taken

See also: Hildegard of Bingen: Viriditas – the greening power of the Divine –

• Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy: Studies in Comparative Religion

In order to better cope with the pressures and stresses of the current day, modern psychology is anxiously seeking to find new therapies to address the increasing disorders within the human psyche. In the process new fields of research, such as humanistic and transpersonal psychology, curiously appear to borrow more and more from the wisdom of the ages. This volume, containing eighteen articles by noteworthy expositors of the perennial philosophy such as Huston Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Frithjof Schuon, presents the spiritual psychology of the wisdom traditions as a much-needed antidote to the current impasse in modern psychology. Some Endorsements for Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy: “[Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy] is more than an anthology. It is a wisely crafted collection of classic and contemporary scholarship noting that what many are seeking is what has always been, a perennial philosophy, that remains foundational. As one of the authors, Tage Lindbom, properly notes, ‘Secularization is a fish in troubled waters.’ This book claims the waters and is essential reading for all those who may have forgotten or are simply ignorant of the rich foundation provided by the perennial philosophy.” Read Here