Synopses & Reviews
A cutting-edge examination of feelings, not thoughts, as the gateway to understanding consciousness
• Contends that emotion is the greatest influence on personality development
• Offers a new perspective on immunity, stress, and psychosomatic conditions
• Explains how emotion is key to understanding out-of-body experience, apparitions, and other anomalous perceptions
Contemporary science holds that the brain rules the body and generates all our feelings and perceptions. Michael Jawer and Dr. Marc Micozzi disagree. They contend that it is our feelings that underlie our conscious selves and determine what we think and how we conduct our lives.
The less consciousness we have of our emotional being, the more physical disturbances we are likely to have--from ailments such as migraines, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and post-traumatic stress to anomalous perceptions such as apparitions and involuntary out-of-body experiences. Using the latest scientific research on immunity, sensation, stress, cognition, and emotional expression, the authors demonstrate that the way we process our feelings provides a key to who is most likely to experience these phenomena and why. They explain that emotion is a portal into the world of extraordinary perception, and they provide the studies that validate the science behind telepathic dreams, poltergeists, and ESP. The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion challenges the prevailing belief that the brain must necessarily rule the body. Far from being by-products of neurochemistry, the authors show that emotions are the key vehicle by which we can understand ourselves and our interactions with the world around us as well as our most intriguing--and perennially baffling--experiences.
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"An insightful exploration of the powerful capacities of the mind-body connection, and its inherent link with perception."
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“The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion is truly connective, bridging the disciplines of biology, neurology, immunology, psychology, and spirituality. This is a book for the 21st century that will open and enlarge our minds, hearts, and spirits.”
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"An insightful exploration of the powerful capacities of the mind-body connection, and its inherent link with perception."
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"This book is particularly valuable for anyone who is especially sensitive to the environment (light, noise, smell, chemicals), since it puts those experiences in a new context and helps us understand the benefits and side effects of being unusually sensitive."
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"This is another book that I found to be valuable in a variety of ways. Primarily, it opened my eyes to the wide variety of experiments that have been done with regard to emotions and their influences both within and without the individual. It also showed possible areas of exploration regarding poltergeists and some other phenomena. . . . well worth the time and effort to read."
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“. . . well written and is almost as encyclopedia of research on anomalous experiences, plus even more interesting science about trauma, emotions, electromagnetic energy, and the body/mind. You will learn a lot and enjoy it.”
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"Recommended by Dr. Andrew Weil, this book should be on every scholar's library shelf. If you're interested in holistic medicine and the mind-body connection, this is a book you simply must read, fascinating page to fascinating page, story to story, and cover to cover. Events and experiences you have heard about or experienced may actually begin to make sense."
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"Michael Jawer and Dr. Micozzi challenge readers and scientifically confirm what in our hearts we have always known...who we are and what we do is determined by much more than what lies in our brains."
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"The authors have previously documented an apparent overlap between anomalous perceptions and various physical sensitivities. . .explains what the overlap might mean, i.e., how it sheds light on the development of the self and the foundational role of sentience in shaping our cognitions, memories, and dreams."
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"The paranormal is looked at in a completely fresh and new way, as a natural component to more creative, sensitive ways of relating. . . . This book is a must for any counselor, therapist, or medical professional. For the rest of us, well, there are many surprises here."
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"Neurochemistry and new age thought blend in a fine research-based examination perfect for new age and science libraries alike."
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"The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion makes remarkably good sense. Both the scientist and the student will learn immensely from it. If you really want to know how highly I think of the book, I read it twice."
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"The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion begins by looking at our assumptions and misassumptions about emotions. In particular, I was intrigued by the dialogue about sensitivities. . . . very interesting and well worth more examination."
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"It is very readable, very informative--and highly recommended."
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“Jawer and Micozzi articulate one of the most profound understandings of consciousness since Descartes. The book brings Antonio Damasio’s ‘feeling brain’ into full embodiment. It is a monumental contribution to understanding ourselves as human beings.”
Review
“This book is a comprehensive collection of opinions, anecdotes, and scientific studies; the authors weave these into the supporting structure of their theory. The book is a comfortable, easy read; it is well-organized and referenced from beginning to end. It is appropriate for both professionals and academics in the fields of neuroscience and cognitive science, yet at the same time does not exclude a much larger audience.”
Synopsis
Contemporary science holds that the brain rules the body, generating feelings and perceptions. Michael Jawer and Dr. Marc Micozzi contend that feelings underlie our conscious selves, determining what we think, how we conduct our lives and how we cope with physical and psychic distress.
About the Author
Michael A. Jawer is an emotion researcher and expert on “sick building syndrome.” He is the coauthor, with Marc Micozzi, of The
Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion. He lives in Vienna, Virginia.
Marc S. Micozzi, M.D., Ph.D., is adjunct professor of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University School of Medicine and the founding director of the Policy Institute for Integrative Medicine in Washington, D.C. The author and editor of Fundamentals of Complementary & Alternative Medicine and coauthor of The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion, Your Emotional Type, New World Mindfulness, and Avicenna's Medicine, he lives in Bethesda, Maryland, and Rockport, Massachusetts.
Table of Contents
Note for Readers
Forward by Larry Dossey, M.D.
Preface
Introduction
1 Putting Emotion in a New Light
2 Feelings and Emotions: The Key to It All
3 Feeling as the Integrator of Brain, Body, and Self
4 Selfhood: Its Origins in Sensation, Stress, and Immunity
5 Energy, Electricity, and Dissociation: Links to the Anomalous
6 Feeling and the Influence of Atmosphere
7 Anatomy of a Crisis
8 Sensitivity, Personality Traits, and Anomalous Perception
9 Environmental Sensitivity: Attesting to the Bodymind
10 Psychosomatic Plasticity and the Persistence of Memory
11 Time, Energy, and the Self
12 Evidence for the Emotional Gateway
13 The Mind Reconsidered: A Meditation on Who We Are and Where We’re Headed
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index