Howard Brockman

This is the story of the dreaming body. It was movie night at our house, and my wife, son and I were all ready to sit down and enjoy a newly rented DVD. As the DVD went into the player, we were immediately disappointed that there was no sound coming from the speaker system. This had happened occasionally in the past as a result of some of the newer complicated electronics embedded in the system.  I discovered that similarly to my computer, the system required rebooting by first unplugging and then plugging back in the power cord, followed by pushing the reset button to allow the system to go back to factory default settings.  In this instance, nothing changed.  I repeated the procedure four times with no success. In the past, repeating this procedure once and sometimes twice always reset the system so that sound went back on.  This time was different, and for a moment, I was stymied.  On a practical level, there was nothing more that I knew to do to get this technology working again.  At this point I had to become curious, and wonder about how this might be somehow related to the dreaming body.
Read More »How a Visitor’s Presence Silenced Our Home Theater System; The Dreaming Body Revisited

It has been a little over one week since returning from my visit to John of God in Brazil. I made the trip for personal retreat and spiritual renewal. I wish I could have stayed longer but all things considered, I feel blessed and grateful to have had the opportunity to spend two weeks immersed in the power and community that is part of a visit to John of God. During my stay, I was the recipient of invisible spiritual surgery, along with numerous interactions with the spirits that inhabit The Casa de Dom Ignacio where John of God does his healing work. During my two week stay, I drank water and ate soup blessed by the entities ( the Brazilian reference for spirits). I immersed myself under the healing waters of the sacred waterfall, a short walk from the Casa, a place where the elemental spirits cleanse and purify one as part of one’s overall healing process.Read More »Afterthoughts From Travel to Abadiania, Brazil

Therapists know about codependency– it’s a frequent occurrence in dysfunctional relationships. This particular relational dysfunction occurs in family systems from which the disorder becomes generalized to the workplace and larger institutional and corporate settings. A codependent is someone who lacks sufficient personal power to be honest with other people and speak their truth. A codependent is a person who avoids conflict at any cost, who habitually defers to others and ultimately, lives in a state of perpetual fear. This type of individual is not whole, because he or she has given away parts of themselves as a conflict avoidance adaptive strategy for maintaining the peace and staying in harmony, out of harm’s way. Consequently, they become outer referential as their first reference point rather than going within to find out what’s really the truth for themselves.Read More »Soul Stealing– An Ancient Practice That Still Happens Today

I first learned about this practice many years ago while studying with Dr. Arnold Mindell. Arny teaches process oriented psychology, better known as processwork. His model incorporates quantum physics principles, experiences dealing with altered states of consciousness as well as shamanistic states of being. I first heard the term second attention years before I began studying with Arny, during the time I was reading Carlos Castaneda’s books  while in college. I believe Arny adapted the expression since processwork is all about staying in your awareness even as many things are happening at once. Essentially, cultivating a second attention awareness means staying current with everything that’s happening both internally and externally in the moment. Read More »Cultivating Your Second Attention Awareness