There is a contagious psychospiritual disease of the soul, a parasite of the mind, that is currently being acted out en masse on the world stage via a collective psychosis of titanic proportions. This mind-virus-which Native Americans have called "wetiko"-covertly operates through the unconscious blind spots in the human psyche, rendering people oblivious to their own madness and compelling them to act against their own best interests. Drawing on insights from Jungian psychology, shamanism, alchemy, spiritual wisdom traditions, and personal experience, author Paul Levy shows us that hidden within the venom of wetiko is its own antidote, which once recognized can help us wake up and bring sanity back to our society.
Born in 1956, Paul Levy grew up in Yonkers, New York. In the mid-seventies he went to college at what was then called the State University of New York at Binghamton (now called Binghamton University), receiving degrees in both economics and studio art. While an undergraduate at Binghamton, he was hired by Princeton University to do research in economics. When he graduated college, he stopped his studies in economics and pursued his career in art, moving out to the Bay Area, where he was both making, and teaching art. In 1981, due to an intense personal trauma, he had a life-changing spiritual awakening in which he began to recognize the dreamlike nature of reality. During the first year of his spiritual emergence, Paul was hospitalized a number of times, and was told he was having a severe psychotic break from reality. Much to his surprise, he was diagnosed as having a chemical imbalance and was informed that he had manic-depressive (bi-polar) illness, and that he would have to live with his illness for the rest of his life. Little did the doctors realize, however, that he was taking part in a mystical awakening/shamanic initiation process, which at times mimicked psychosis but in actuality was a spiritual experience of a far different order, completely off the map of the psychiatric system. Fortunately, he was able to extricate himself from the medical and psychiatric establishment so that he could continue his process of self-discovery. Thankfully, as Paul freed himself from the shackles of psychiatry, he found his spiritual teachers, who instead of seeing Paul as crazy, recognized that he was beginning to spiritually awaken. An artist, after the trauma of his shamanic break-down/through, he became a certified art teacher. Due to his intense interest in the work of C. G. Jung, by the end of the decade he found himself the manager of the C. G. Jung Foundation Book Service in New York. In 1993, after many years of struggling to contain and integrate his non-ordinary experiences, Paul started to openly share his insights about the dreamlike nature of reality. He began giving talks and facilitating groups based on how life is a shared waking dream that we are all co-creating and co-dreaming together. Paul has developed a unique and creative vehicle to introduce people to the dream-like nature of reality that he calls "The Dreaming Up Process," which is based on the realization that the same dreaming mind that dreams our dreams at night is dreaming our life. He teaches this dreaming up process in "Awakening in the Dream Groups" where people who are awakening to the dream-like nature of reality come together and collaboratively help each other to wake up in the dream together. A wounded healer in private practice, he assists others who are also awakening to the dreamlike nature of reality. Paul is a pioneer in the field of spiritual emergence, as well as an innovator in the field of dreaming (both night dreams as well as waking dreams). A Tibetan Buddhist practitioner for over 30 years, he has intimately studied with some of the greatest spiritual masters of Tibet and Burma. He is the author of The Madness of George Bush: A Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis, as well as Wetiko: The Greatest Epidemic Sickness Known to Humanity.
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