Are You Getting Enlightened Or Losing Your Mind?
A Psychiatrist's Guide for Mastering Paranormal and Spiritual Experience
ABOUT DAVID GERSTEN
Dr. Gersten practices integrative
psychiatry and nutritional medicine
out of his office in Encinitas, California.
He writes from his personal experience,
his work with patients, and the wisdom
of the ages. Author The POW Survival
Guide (dedicated to the Allied Troops
of Operation Desert Storm), Mental
imagery consultant to Rodale Press on
18 books, columnist on Alternative Medicine for The Life Connection, publisher Atlantis the Imagery Newsletter, and author of more than 300 published articles. He has consulted to the White House on alternative medicine. Dr. Gersten is also an accomplished musician and composer of 2200 songs and 7 symphonic works. Being half doctor/healer and half artist/musician allows him to bring a wide breadth of experience to his work with patients. While psychiatry tends to focus on what's wrong, Dr. Gersten strives to place as much emphasis on “what's right,” helping through his clinical work, personal experience, and writings, to help people deepen their spiritual connection, find their purpose or mission and remove the obstacles to their dreams.
He has worked in most aspects of psychiatry, from suicidal, homicidal, and psychotic hospitalized patients...to out-patient strategic psychotherapy...to state psychiatric hospitals...to peak performance, training LPGA and high level amateur golfers in the mental game. His expertise in mental imagery has created the possibility to help people beyond the scope of traditional psychiatry.
MIND MAP: THE FIVE SHEATHS
An ancient East Indian concept of human beings is the five sheaths. The soul or spirit is believed to be the center, like an onion, with five layers that surround the Center. The outer layer is the physical body. Inside that is the “vital energy sheath” and inside that is the “mental sheath” or the mind. Inside the mental sheath is the “wisdom sheath.” Between the wisdom sheath and the soul is the “bliss sheath.”
The path of the great Indian saint Ramana Maharshi was the quest for, “Who am I?” Am I the body? No! If you or I lost a foot in an accident, it would be a trauma, but our core “I” would remain unchanged. If our vital energy dropped, it would be unpleasant or debilitating but the soul remains unchanged. The five sheaths is a good way to understand the enormously complex question, “Who are we?” In Maharshi's path, a person would disidentify with one layer after another, until he reaches the core of being, namely “I am.”
