Goodreads Book Giveaway - Starts March 1, 2019

Goodreads Book Giveaway

     

Conscious Evolution

by Maurice Turmel

Giveaway ends March 21, 2019.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Mankind's evolutionary stage has been set. All across the globe people are coming together to master the principles laid out in this new process called Ascension. Described as a shift in consciousness, it actually is a growth spurt for the human race. People are waking up to their truest Life Purpose. Some are even calling it their Life Mission. What is it but the culmination of Personal Growth work, Self-Responsibility and total Self-Acceptance. These are all the ingredients required for this next stage in our evolution which can also be summarized as a movement into Cosmic Consciousness. We are One People, One Nation in the service of our Creator. We express this physically on the Earth Plane as both Service to Self and Service to Others. We are now recognizing our true Interdependence. Collectively we can be viewed as a graduating class of Spiritual Soldiers evolving into an Army of Light. This is a repeating story, told and re-told across the millennia through the mythologies of all our cultures. We are today's heroes and heroines braving the challenges put before us and undertaking the tasks that our individual lives have thrown our way. The guidelines for this process have been written in our hearts. Connecting with our Hearts is how we get there. Home is where the Heart is and Conscious Evolution is calling us Home. (less) Opens for entries on March 01, 2019 Format: Kindle book Availability: 100 copies available.

Mythology in Action #3 - Feb. 21, 2019

Mythology in Action #3 - Feb. 21, 2019

Maurice Turmel PhD - The Spiritual Psychologist

Why Mythology?

The idea that Myth belongs to another era and has no relevance today is simply false.  All myths were born in the heat of humanity’s various stages of awakening as these progressed across the centuries and within every culture living on earth since time immemorial.

Joseph Campbell charted this for us in his many works on the subject, showing clearly that mythology was the sine qua non of teaching tools before humanity had written records they could refer to.  These mythical tales were the world’s first Oral Traditions, where stories about who and what we are as human beings were passed down from generation to generation and can be found across all the world’s cultures. 

My favourite resource from Joseph Campbell is “The Hero With a Thousand Faces” which best exemplifies this cross-generational, cross-cultural reality that’s been with mankind since the beginning.  The fact that we often use the word “myth” today as a synonym for a lie is absurd. The reality is that mythology, as described in his voluminous works, is alive and well today and shows up in books, movies and television on a regular basis.

If we’re going to understand the bigger picture of this current evolutionary process called Ascension, we need to see beyond the simple limitations of an individual’s life into the Cosmic program of Evolution as a whole.  We are in the throes of an evolutionary acceleration right now, brought on by a variety of significant factors, one of which is exemplified by the Schumann Resonance Factor which measures the rate of vibration of our planet as a whole.  In the 1950s when this frequency was first measured, it was established to be 7.8 hertz per second and stable at that number for years if not centuries. Since 2012 that frequency has been rising and spiking in the range of 30 to 50 hertz per second with some reports suggesting it is steadily moving higher. Simply put, Mother Earth is vibrating at a higher rate than her previous norm, and all of us aboard are being affected.

This begs the following question. Is it actually possible that such a program of accelerated change is being brought to an entire species of beings, groomed and ready for what some refer to as a bigger than life period of transformation?  “What if this is true?” is the question to be asked by all us humans as we come in touch with this possibility.  To see ourselves as part of this greater picture is to see the Whole Show which then contains snapshots of each other and outlining our part in the whole affair. This would  make our individual contributions to personal growth that much more important.  A lot to swallow, I know.

Mythology answers the question “Why are we here?”  It shows us our place in the grand scheme.  It opens us to the importance of every single life, like an organization of cells that came into being for a specified purpose. What is that purpose but the evolution of all of us as God’s Divine witnesses here on this Earth.  It is collaborative.  It is universal. It is Cosmic.  That’s how big this process is, this Universal Consciousness that is now coming together under the aegis of Ascension.

My book “Conscious Evolution - Mythology in Action” is an introduction to this concept, a place to start, a place to gather forces, personal strengths and awareness, in order to understand and do our part in this evolutionary process. If you Google “Conscious Evolution” you’ll see that many writers are tackling this subject.

The conception here is about more than self-help or personal growth.  This is Universal in its scope, in its administration, in its power to awaken and have people see themselves as part of this Cosmic Force.  Its a big deal!  Awakening to the truth of one’s soul purpose is a big deal, bigger than life itself.  It brings a whole new meaning to what is considered to be an individual’s Life Purpose.

When we ask that question today - “What is my Life Purpose?” - we are asking a Universal question of the ages, what every Hero and Heroine ask themselves at the beginning of their heroic journey.  Since all of humanity is on such a journey today, that question reverberates around the world and swoops people up in its power to arouse and awaken.

This is the power of myth - to inspire, arouse and awaken.  That’s what the characters in our novel “The Voice - A Training Manual for Souls” are finding out and that’s what we address in this non-fiction work titled “Conscious Evolution - Mythology in Action.”

For me understanding Mythology as a series of gifts received from our predecessors is a no-brainer.  Joseph Campbell showed us clearly how important that is. With that in mind we can see that evolution is no longer just a physical or psychological phenomenon but spiritual process which includes all aspects of being human. Once we grasp this as part of our human heritage and take the lead in our individual growth process we are engaged in Conscious Evolution.

https://thespiritualpsychologist.blogspot.com/ Watch for our Goodreads Kindle Ebook giveaway of this title coming soon. 

Mythology in Action - Part 2

Mythology in Action - Part 2, Feb. 18, 2019

Maurice Turmel PhD - The Spiritual Psychologist

In my first post on this subject I laid out the circumstances in which I felt driven to become a psychologist.  The main trigger of that drive was the failure of my first marriage which set me on a quest to discover who I was and why I was here on this earth.  A divorce by itself is not enough to explain how such a quest came to be.  What were the roots of that particular failure that prompted such a change in life direction?  For the answer to that we have delve into my childhood where conditions and dynamics set the stage for what was to come later resulting in a long list of inappropriate choices that led to a bad marriage.

Once again, this is not to disparage my first wife whose unhappiness with the marriage was well founded from her point of view.  Add to which I myself was an unhappy camper having no idea at such a young age how any marriage was to proceed.  My childhood years set the stage for that failure and others in the area of work until I could identify and put a halt to repeating patterns of self-defeating behaviour.  The driving force behind these patterns was the belief that I did not deserve happiness or success as I unconsciously sabotaged these areas of my life.

The principal factor in all this stemmed directly from my childhood experiences of physical, emotional and mental abuse at the hands of my father.  He was a rager who took his frustrations out on his children, which I, as the eldest, took the brunt.  The terror and abuse that I experienced began before age 5 and continued well into my teens. It wasn’t a daily or weekly event for that matter, but when it happened it was terrifying and left an indelible mark on my psyche.  While other boys were bonding with their fathers and sharing warm and friendly relations, I bonded to terror which is what happens to victims of abuse.  I lived in fear of this man and grew a whole host of survival and avoidance strategies to try and mitigate his rage attacks.  However, being a child I would inevitably screw up and get attacked again.

In those early years my mother did her best to intervene but she was afraid of him too so she couldn’t do much to protect us.  Eventually she did grow stronger and stood up to him, but the damage had already been done. Myself along with two of my sisters bore the brunt of his rages and suffered the greatest damage.  In today’s world children would be removed from such a home, but back in the 50s abuse of children was common and nobody intervened unless you were hospitalized.

Out of this start in life grew low self-esteem and the belief that I was the one responsible for receiving these beatings.  Somehow, without any reasonable explanation, I was condemned for some alleged infraction and a beating with his belt was the end result.  Aside from the terror, another effect of this type of abuse was shame.  I was ashamed of myself because I was being beaten.  So I assumed I deserved it and the beatings happened because I was bad.  Whatever the so-called failure, it was never addressed as bad behaviour - instead, you were deemed a bad person and that’s why you were being beaten. In today’s language the long-term effects of such a childhood would be classified as a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, not unlike what military personnel experience in the heat of war.

This is a simple summary of where the roots of low self-esteem and self-sabotage began for me.  The physical and verbal abuse aside, there were also incidents of sexual abuse brought about by a troubled babysitter and a neighbourhood predator.  But these were mild compared to what was received at home. When these incidents were reported to our mother neither of those persons were ever allowed in our home again. In fairness I can also add here that there were some calm times and even happy times at home when we seemed to function reasonably well as a family. But the threat of dad’s explosive temper and tendency to violence was never far away and we children learned to remain vigilant for those signs.

Why am I sharing all this?  Because unlike choosing to be an airline pilot or architect or lawyer, you don’t choose psychology as a career unless you’re driven there by some predisposing circumstances.  In my case it was simply the need to understand myself and undo those negative patterns of behaviour that cost me jobs and my first marriage.  I needed to know how and why I was sabotaging myself, and what was driving this pattern of behaviour. 

The simple answer was an accumulation of feelings such as abandonment, guilt and shame about my very being, and feelings of worthlessness as a result of being a victim of abuse.  The net result of such feelings is revealed in patterns of low self-esteem, self-sabotage and self-rejection.  The solution, simply put, is self-acceptance which in my case meant a long road of recovery and healing through years of group and individual therapy along with personal growth pursuits which all culminated in my choice of a career as a psychologist and helping professional.

It was during these recovery years that I found my way to the Myth of the Hero and saw in this pattern a similar quest to the one I found myself in.  From this came the realization that many humans have lived through such patterns throughout the ages.  So long before we had self-help groups and personal growth seminars, we had the Hero Myth as a model for self-discovery and personal healing from any life trauma, while putting oneself on a healthier track towards real happiness through self-acceptance. This is how my book “Conscious Evolution - Mythology in Action” came to be.  It includes my own experiences as a trauma victim and survivor along with those of several individuals whose biographies I studied while in training. Add to this the experiences of many therapy clients sharing their exposure to trauma and you have what some might call a real “meat and potatoes” kind of book, one that you can sink your teeth into since it is born from real life events.

Within the next few days I will be offering my book “Conscious Evolution - Mythology in Action” as a no cost Kindle Book Promotion for a limited time. I will be posting that information on the blog and in the Goodreads giveaways section.  I’ll be looking for reader feedback and reviews of course. It is my hope that the real life experiences and ideas offered here along with the book will help many of you as well. There may be one or two more posts on this subject before the book giveaway is launched.  Stay tuned to this blog for more.

https://thespiritualpsychologist.blogspot.com/  Watch for our Goodreads Kindle Ebook giveaway of this title coming soon. 

Mythology In Action - Part 1

Mythology in Action #1 - Feb. 16, 2019

Maurice Turmel PhD - The Spiritual Psychologist

Before I delve into the subject matter of mythology and how it is addressed in my book “Conscious Evolution - Mythology in Action” I want to give you some background into how and why I became psychologist. These are tidbits that don’t show up in one’s customary bio which is designed to focus on the professional side of one’s work experience, rather than the personal experiences that brought one to make any particular career choice.

In the early 1970s I was going through a divorce.  I had two young daughters with my first wife when she advised me our marriage wasn’t working for her.  To be fair we were married quite young and neither one of us was really ready for the level of responsibility we had gotten ourselves into.  We had our troubles as most young couples do and she concluded it just wasn’t working for her.

I was devastated of course, not fully realizing what had gone wrong but appreciated the fact that I was also unhappy and we were moving in different directions.  However, at that early juncture I would have done anything to hang on to what we had out of sheer fear of the unknown.  But she was ready to go and I ultimately accepted that.  We worked out the details of child support, my visitation rights, along with division of assets and went our separate ways. It was painful and difficult, but in hindsight, all but inevitable.

Being single again was both a liberating and frightening experience for me.  I really didn’t know who I was or where I wanted to go with my life at this point.  As the months rolled past I got used to my new designation as a single part-time father, went back to college for some advanced training in my then profession as an electronics technician and found a new job as an audio-visual technician in a local high school. This was a fresh start which afforded me the opportunity to reflect on what was happening in my life.

In the back of my mind a simple question kept dogging me. “What had gone wrong in my marriage and what could I do to prevent a repeat of that failure?”  I was still experiencing anxiety and low self-esteem related to that loss and sought medical help.  My new doctor it turns out ran a therapy group for people going through life changing trauma, such as divorce or loss of confidence or general disorientation regarding one’s life purpose. I jumped on his offer to join in and attended those once a week group sessions for the next five years.

This is where my life really turned around.  I had stumbled upon a path that would not only help me understand my failed marriage, it would also help me “find myself” - a problem that I didn’t know I had. Books were recommended; seminars were suggested; a great variety of resources appeared before me as I discovered a world called Personal Growth and took to it like a duck to water.

I devoured all the personal growth books being recommended, found many others on my own based on author recommendations and even considered the idea that I might take some University courses to see if I could handle that. In the world I had come from I could not see this as a possibility, so low was my confidence in the area of academics.  But now, reading these books and watching the teaching staff at my new job take regular upgrading courses at the University level, I could see the possibility. I signed up for one course to test it out and did well.  As I studied the Psychology program I realized that was “my calling.”  One after the other I focused on the courses in that program, evenings, spring sessions and summers.  

Within five years of part-time study I had the equivalent of a 3 year B.A. But I wanted more. So I applied for and received student loans, which allowed me to leave my job and do a 4th year Honors program which would qualify me for Graduate School.  After that, over the next 5 years, I completed both Masters and Doctoral programs in Psychology and went on to a career as a Psychotherapist.

This is an abbreviated version of these events, but what I want you to see, as I discovered for myself, was the radical change in tack for my life.  After going through the divorce I had no idea who I was or where I wanted to go with my life.  That trauma set me on a path where I consciously needed to find myself, to obtain focus and understanding, and to make necessary changes in my life so that my next relationship would have a better chance of success.  I met my current wife in Grad School and we’ve been together now for 38 years.

What does Mythology and Conscious Evolution have to do with any of this? Perhaps you can see it already but I’ll bring in my favourite reference to help illustrate. Mythology, and specifically, the Myth of the Hero, as detailed by Joseph Campbell in his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” paints a revealing picture.  The three main themes of the Hero’s Journey are: Separation, Initiation & Return.  I can readily see these themes at work in the above story.  Separation: going through the divorce, loss of self; Initiation: finding a path to self-understanding through personal growth work; and Return: full self-acceptance as the key to healing any and all psychological and emotional wounds with a dash of Spirituality thrown in.

We are each the Hero and Heroine of our personal life journey.  We are here to learn lessons and those lessons come at us in a variety of ways.  Initially we may feel like victims, and a lot of traumatized individuals get stuck here. But if we take responsibility for healing whatever has happened in our lives and ask the right questions such as: “Who am I? and Why am I here?” then we will engage the process of recovery and find our way Home. What is Home?  Home is where the Heart is and our Heart will tell us who we are and why we are here.  This is Conscious Evolution and what my book on the subject is all about, both as I understand it and have lived it.

Within the next week or so I will be offering my book “Conscious Evolution - Mythology in Action” as a no cost Kindle Book Promotion for a limited time. I will be posting that information here on the blog and in the Goodreads book giveaways section.  I’ll be looking for reader feedback and reviews of course. It is my hope that my life experience and the experiences of my many therapy clients that have culminated in the ideas presented here will be of help to many of you as well. There will be at least one or two more posts on this subject before the book giveaway is launched.  Stay tuned to this blog for more.

https://thespiritualpsychologist.blogspot.com/   Watch for our Goodreads Kindle Ebook giveaway of this title coming soon. 

Greetings Fellow Goodreads Authors and Readers

Greeting to fellow Goodreads Authors and Readers.  I'm finally getting my Goodreads author page together.  Hope to meet and/or hear from many of you now as you find your way to my contributions here.  Here's a sample Bio for you to get a sense of who I am and where I come from in terms of Spirituality, Psychology and Self-Development:

Maurice Turmel holds a PhD degree in Counselling Psychology, along with a Masters and Honors B.A.  He was a practicing Psychologist/Therapist for nearly 25 years providing counselling and therapy to individuals, groups, organizations and families.  Maurice (AKA Dr Moe) has led seminars in the areas of Creativity, Self-Development, Spiritual and Psychological Awareness, Self-Expression, Passion & Purpose and Grief & Loss.  He is the author of “The Voice - A Training Manual for Souls”, “Conscious Evolution - Mythology in Action” and “When Angels Call - Coping with Grief and Loss.” Dr Moe has traveled a wide gamut of Earthly experiences in his 70+ years all leading to his current orientation as a Spiritual Psychologist which features a  blend of spirituality, new age thought and practical psychology as foundation for his personal growth orientation. Dr Moe is also a Performing Songwriter with over 100 songs written so far and 3 demo CDs to his credit. Through his books and music, Dr Turmel enjoys delivering his brand of life affirming messages which aim to provide Hope, Inspiration and Self-Awareness. 

You'll find links to my current books here and announcements of upcoming Free Giveaways of their Kindle editions to help get things moving and give you a sense of who I am.

I'll also be using this blog to post videos and links to my music site at Bandcamp.com  whenever new material is being generated.

Thanks for coming by.  Hope you enjoy what you see and hear. Your comments and feedback are always appreciated.

Maurice - AKA - Dr Moe