Biography

Stephen Aronson is a psychotherapist with an eclectic training background ranging from cognitive behavioral therapy to the alchemical approach of Carl Jung. His spiritual life has been a search for verification of a deeper reality underlying the ordinary world of our senses. His personal aim has been to find a way to reconcile science and spirituality which would unite the concept of Universal Intelligence with rationality. After more than a decade in Jungian analysis and over four decades of study and practice in the system of transformational psychology introduced to the West by G. I. Gurdjieff, he has sought to find an approach to illustrate these deep and complex ideas and methods in common language and universally shared experiences.

Dr. Aronson received a B.S. from Penn State University in 1965 and an M.A. and PhD. in clinical psychology from the University of Connecticut in 1970. After initially teaching at Arizona State University and Alfred University, he left academia to pursue immersion in clinical practice with two aims in mind. First, he wished to share from his personal practical experience and not only repeat the theories and impressions of others. Second, he realized that to help others understand themselves he must first understand himself and that only direct experience could extract true understanding from intellectual knowledge.

Steve lives in rural Maine where he retired in 2013 after forty-three years in the practice of psychotherapy, education and training. He has published on the subject of Spiritual Psychology in the Proceedings of the annual All and Everything International Humanities Conference and in Parabola, a magazine dedicated to myth, tradition and the search for meaning. In 1981, he co-authored The Stress Management Workbook, Appleton-Century-Croft, with Michael Mascia, MD, MPH..

Eating the Moon (Out Now)

Order on Amazon

Order on ThriftBooks

G. I. Gurdjieff defined understanding as a fusion of knowledge and experience. Over the years, the author has personally confirmed that knowledge alone is mental, while experience connects intellect with emotion and sensation. This creates a three-brained experience, shifting perspective and deepening understanding.

Most original Work literature beyond Gurdjieff's writings comes from his first-generation students. It either restates aspects of his system, often with suggested practices, or recounts personal experiences with him outside group settings.

Though born too late to meet Gurdjieff, the author shares his four-decade relationship with The Work, including struggles, discoveries, and insights into this approach to developing Being. He argues that storytelling, personal reflection and emotion, transform knowledge into understanding. He hopes these examples resonate, inspiring readers to directly confront their own experiential understanding.

Focused on Gurdjieff's spiritual development approach, this book may interest any seeker of Truth.

As Inside, So Outside: As Above, So Below (2024)

Order on Amazon

Order on ThriftBooks

A connecting thread is woven through three seemingly separate levels of interlocking dimensions of existence into a pattern which we call The Universe ... the Macrocosmos of Outer Space ... the Microcosmos of Inner Space ... cells, molecules, atoms, subatomic particles ... and the third ... the Human Mind which can conceptualize and study the cosmoses outside and within itself ... three worlds blended into One. This series of essays represents perspectives from the author's half-century in the study of psycho-therapy and spiritual exploration. He suggests that the energy we call consciousness is an inherent aspect of the Universe, the instrument through which the deepest understandings can be experienced. Since we are the vehicles through which that energy of consciousness is expressed, we ourselves, represent the greatest mystery of all.

Interview with Dr. Aronson about the Book:

The Search for Meaning and the Mystery of Consciousness (2022)

Order on Amazon

Listen on Audible

This book examines the burning existential questions of meaning and the mystery of consciousness from a scientific and psychological perspective. However, it does not have the character of scientific discourse-it is more a personal odyssey through the author's world, stretching back to his earliest years, spanning his professional career and dipping into the recent events of his life. It is peppered with compelling personal experiences, psychological insights and spiritual discoveries. It draws a map of the invisible reality that governs our lives, shapes our nature and perhaps determines our fate. Dr. Aronson does not regard Science and Spirituality as conflicting perspectives, but as complementary views of a common reality, each looking at different sides of the same equation. He has no doubt that the two can be reconciled by direct experience of a higher quality of awareness-one which can look simultaneously towards the World without and the World within. In his words, "Moving in this direction can lead to an experience of oneself as part of the Universe, and the Universe as a reflection of oneself. When this happens, there may appear a profound sense of participation in the mystery of existence through a Consciousness that seeks to know Itself and Its purpose in existing.

Interview with Dr. Aronson about the Book:

Interviews

What Happens When We Die?

Discussing views on death and Gurdjieff's system of higher bodies, whether the conscious mind is localized within the brain or beyond it, and focusing on presence in the current moment.

What is Consciousness?

Discussing consciousness as a sensitivity to one's surroundings that increases with biological complexity, and bridging the gap between scientific inquiry and spiritual understanding.

What is Justice?

Discussing justice and fairness in the context of relationships to others, using a baseball game as a metaphor for the agreed-upon rules we either follow or don't.

What is Self-Observation?

Discussing self-observation on a spectrum of objectivity ranging from subjective self-consciousness to the highest level of impartial seeing, where one can view oneself as they would another person.

Google Sites

Report abuse