After years of experience of being a jazz musician, the author reveals a scale that the novice jazz musician can use to create soulful solos. The author also explains an unusual approach to circular breathing to help wind players master this skill.

Understanding the Psychological Soul of Spirituality is a comprehensive exploration of spiritual constructs based on an empirical, evidence-based paradigm for understanding and addressing spirituality. In a field where there is no current consensus on spirituality, this book provides a much-needed psychologically based definition and ontology that assists helping professionals in formulating their professional identities; developing effective and appropriate training models; furthering their understanding of what spirituality is and is not, from a psychological perspective; and more effectively addressing spiritual issues to support clients. The authors provide a review of current issues in the area of spirituality, also called the numinous, and provide perspectives that address these concerns in ways that promote a fully scientific understanding of the construct. Ultimately the book provides a concise definition of the numinous that places it squarely in the social sciences. Chapters outline the clear value of the numinous for psychology and detail its relevance for professionals’ training.

Balancing past-life karma is the key to soul evolution. In The Evolving Soul, Dr. Linda Backman shows how healing relationships, caring for one's self, and working through fear and loss can help you mend the wounds of your past lives. Using wisdom she's amassed from hundreds of hypnotic regression clients, Dr. Backman shows how people create the pre-birth blueprints that infuse life with purpose. Uncover the ways spirit guides and the ascended masters can influence your opportunities for growth. Discover the seven soul archetypes and your soul ray. Providing fascinating examples from dozens of regression clients, The Evolving Soul also includes questions and prompts to help readers gain profound insights. Praise: "It is crucial that Dr. Linda Backman's The Evolving Soul be widely read."—Larry Dossey, MD, author of One Mind "An extraordinary fount of wisdom and deep thought."—P. M. H. Atwater, LHD, author of The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences "Now is the time to heal yourself at a soul level."—C. Norman Shealy, MD, PhD, author of 90 Days to Self-Health "If you've ever wondered what your life is truly about, this book is a wondrous place to look."—Robert Schwartz, author of Your Soul's Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born "An uplifting book that will change the way you see yourself and your relationship to the cosmos."—Carol Bowman, author of Return from Heaven

Platonic discourses concerning the soul are incredibly rich and multitiered. Plato's own diverse and disparate arguments and images offer competing accounts of how we are to understand the nature of the soul. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that the accounts of Platonists who engage Plato’s dialogues are often riddled with questions. This volume takes up the theories of well-known philosophers and theologians, including Plato, Plotinus, Proclus, the emperor Julian, and Origen, as well as lesser-known but equally important figures in a collection of essays on topics such as transmigration of the soul, the nature of the Platonist enlightenment experience, soul and gender, pagan ritual practices, Christian and pagan differences about the soul, mental health and illness, and many other topics. Contributors include Crystal Addey, Sara Ahbel-Rappe, Dirk Baltzly, Robert Berchman, Jay Bregman, Luc Brisson, Kevin Corrigan, John Dillon, John F. Finamore, Lloyd P. Gerson, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum, Elizabeth Hill, Sarah Klitenic Wear, Danielle A. Layne, Ilaria L. E. Ramelli, Gregory Shaw, Svetla Slaveva-Griffine, Suzanne Stern-Gillet, Harold Tarrant, Van Tu, and John D. Turner.

This book is a cutting edge resource for clergy working in clinical settings helping people deal with substance abuse and other behavior health challenges. It takes a critical look at the role spirituality plays in recovery from addictions a rising epidemic in our society. It also provides a methodical approach to providing spiritual care in non-traditional settings when helping this target audience. The book is a must have resource for modern ministry encounters.

This book is an in-depth study of the function of music in religious experience according to Rabbi Naḥman of Bratzlav. It provides new insights on his unique doctrine of the “Good Points”, which represent the core of loving kindness and holiness in the human soul, and the musical context in which they become both a means and a metaphor for spiritual transformation. Drawing on midrashic and kabbalistic sources, the book explores Naḥman’s perception of different types of “tzadiqim” (religious leaders), including himself, and the special role music plays in their leadership. It highlights the importance of creativity and renewal in the messianic process that involves both music and loving kindness.

Moral Injury is now recognized as a growing major problem for military men and women. Operant conditioning can overwhelm moral convictions and yet the question of whether “to shoot or not to shoot” often will never have a settled answer. Certain theories and treatment models about MI have been well developed, but too often overlook root issues of religious faith. The authors propose a new model for understanding moral injury and suggest ways to mitigate its virtually inevitable occurrence in pre-combat training, and ways to resolve MI post-trauma with proven spiritual resources. People outside the military, too, among whom the incidence of MI also is a growing threat, will benefit from this analysis. The stories of the injured—their shaping and their telling—are the key, and there are many illumining stories of moral injury and recovery. Those who suffer MI, their families, and caregivers, including counselors, pastors, and faith communities, will find hope-giving first steps toward the healing of MI in this book.

Working with horses as equal partners in the equine-assisted space while respecting their intuitive wisdom leads to life-changing psycho-spiritual understandings, learning and healing. Soul Connection with Horses: Healing the Mind and Awakening the Spirit through Equine Assisted Practice introduces concepts of awakening and spaciousness as understood in many spiritual traditions and demonstrates that horses effectively model awakening for humans. Through this approach horses help re-establish natural bonds and intuitive ways of knowing that have become obscured by conditioned thought and ineffective individual narratives. Horses show us that we can trust our intuition and learn how to live from the soul while making meaningful connection with ourselves, other people, animals and the natural environment. By considering how horses experience the world through their senses, how they process emotion and how they express their needs, we see that they live through the same social, psychological and spiritual paradigms as humans. Following equine assisted therapy and learning practices through to their logical conclusions, horses naturally lead us to questions of “who am I?” and “what is life?” They help us transcend non-functioning personal stories as we step out of ineffective ways of thinking and being and discover connection and wholeness. This book invites equestrians, equine assisted practitioners and seekers of spiritual connection, to walk in the hooves of the horse, to experience the horses' worldview and to access your own soulful wisdom.