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Philip Shepherd
Radical Wholeness: The Embodied Present and the Ordinary Grace of Being Kindle Edition
Philip Shepherd (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Philip Shepherd Page
Philip Shepherd (Author),
Jeff Brown (Foreword)
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There are qualities we all yearn to experience in our lives—peace, simplicity, grace, connection, clarity. Yet these qualities evade us because each of them arises from an experience of wholeness, and we live in a culture that enforces divisions within each of us. In Radical Wholeness, Philip Shepherd shows the countless ways in which we are persuaded to separate from the body and live in the head. Disconnected from the body's intelligence, we also disconnect from the wholeness of the present. This schism within us is the primary source of stress not just in our personal lives, but for the systems of the planet.
Drawing from neuroscience, anthropology, physics, the arts, myth, personal stories and his experiences helping people around the world to experience wholeness, Philip Shepherd illuminates what true wholeness means and offers practices designed to help readers soften into the intelligence of the body. Radical Wholeness is a call to action: to recover wholeness and experience a new way of being.
North Atlantic Books
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New Self, New World: Recovering Our Senses in the Twenty-First Century
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Soulshaping: A Journey of Self-Creation
"Philip Shepherd has gifted us a book that reframes our basic understanding of getting the most out of body intelligence. It rearranges the familiar top-down authorship from cerebral brain to body and restores body presence to a borderless merging of intelligence that includes inside/outside and sensory awareness. Ingest this book and let it ruminate throughout your daily dance. Take Shepherd's experiences to heart and practice the exercises he shares with us to reclaim our inheritance as fully functional breathing sensing alive awake beings."
—Vinn Arjuna Martí, Designer of Soul Motion®. A conscious dance practice.
"Radical Wholeness is an important book. It's a "deep dive" into understanding our somatic experience of being and provides a path back to wholeness. And for students of the Enneagram, this is a book not to be missed. You'll be amazed and delighted by how what Shepherd reveals so exquisitely adds to the exploration of the three centers of intelligence."
—Curt Micka, President of the International Enneagram Association (IEA). (The opinions expressed here are not an endorsement by the IEA.)
"With words of shimmering clarity, Philip Shepherd blows the door between body and mind off its hinges. Calling us with rigor, sensitivity, wisdom and imagination towards a future grounded in resurrected human capacities of awareness, he shows not only why but also how to develop those capacities, awakening intelligence we didn't know we had. Radical Wholeness is sorely needed and sweet-tasting medicine for a fragmented world."
—Amnon Buchbinder, author, Biology of Story, Professor of Screenwriting, York University
"This very wise book shows why it is impossible and ultimately suicidal to attempt to secede from nature, as our culture has tried to do through denying our oneness and wholeness with the world. We are nature, and there is no 'out there' that exists independently from our consciousness, our knowing. As Max Planck, the founder of quantum physics put it, 'We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness'—for consciousness, he said, is 'fundamental.' But do not think Radical Wholeness is merely a philosophical treatise. It is a practical blueprint for embodying information in the service of human welfare and survival. Our future depends on the vision Philip Shepherd powerfully and eloquently presents in Radical Wholeness."
—Larry Dossey, MD, author, One Mind: How Our Individual Mind Is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why It Matters
"In a culture as broken and fragmented as ours, this book is painfully overdue. Going beyond outdated notions of 'holistic,' Philip Shepherd has captured the essence of individual embodiment and its inextricable connection with everyone and everything. What our world desperately needs now are not more smart homo sapiens, but fully present and embodied holo sapiens who feel and live in grounded inter-relatedness. In this book, Shepherd has provided us with an extraordinary tool kit that tenderly and skillfully integrates mind, body, and soul with all life in the universe. If you long to reconnect with your deeper self, other living beings, and the Earth, you must read this book."
—Carolyn Baker, PhD, co-author with Andrew Harvey of Return to Joy and author of Love in the Age of Ecological Apocalypse: Cultivating the Relationships We Need to Thrive
"When Philip Shepherd asked me to look at his new manuscript, I was unprepared for the extraordinary experience that awaited me—within minutes I literally couldn't put his book down. Radical Wholeness was not just talking about, but was literally speaking to—and invoking—a deeper, more whole and healed part of myself. While I was reading, I had the overwhelming feeling that it is as if this book is a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement—real medicine—secreted by the universe itself to help us heal our collective insanity. I can't recommend Radical Wholeness highly enough."
—Paul Levy, author of Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil
"Philip Shepherd is a force of nature. Fully embodied and present in the world, he stands outside the most fundamental bias of Western culture and offers us nothing less than a new center to live from. In his hands, wholeness is no longer just an idea or a goal to strive for; it becomes a visceral experience, and one that can be accessed at will through brilliantly simple practices. Here you will find both the vision and the means to come home to your own wholeness. This luminous book is clearly a lifework. Don't miss it. It will transform you."
—Morgan Farley, PhD., author of Name Yourself Feast
"As a social ecologist I highly recommend this book as a valuable guide to a new way of being whole in our fragmented world."
—Ben-Zion Weiss, PhD, author of The Creativity Revolution: Steps to an Ecology of Culture
"In Radical Wholeness, Shepherd has given us an insight into what it really means to be human, and it could very well challenge our fundamental assumptions around this. Radical Wholeness is a profoundly personal message with truly global ramifications, written at a time of great need."
—Michael Anderson, CEO Mediaworks NZ
"Radical Wholeness is a profound, ground-opening, stunning book—a true masterpiece. Shepherd illuminates the madness of our western culture and entices the reader to drop into the wholeness that is always here with a powerful/urgent/gentle invitation to live from it. The radical wholeness that Shepherd embodies, in my experience, is the goal of all therapy and spiritual practice. This is one of the most profound books I have read in twenty-five years of practice and I will be recommending it to all my peers and clients.
—Natalie Lascelles, Psychotherapist and mindfulness coach
"This wonderful book written with tremendous clarity and profound wisdom should be in the library or backpack of every spiritual seeker. Its advice on embodiment is the best around and the practices Shepherd has evolved are matchlessly effective."
—Andrew Harvey, author The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism
"This is the best book I have read on embodiment, I cannot recommend it highly enough."
—Jill Angelo, author Sacred Space: Turning Your Home into a Sanctuary
"Philip Shepherd shakes up our way of looking at ourselves and the world. He challenges the way we were taught to think, and offers us something that could radically change how we live. Reading Radical Wholeness offers us real hope, the kind of hope that sees a way out of the quagmire of living in a unsustainable way in our own lives and our shared world. If there was ever a time for this book—this is it! Read it. Breathe it in. Let it change how you see and live and love your life and the world."
—Oriah "Mountain Dreamer" House, author of The Invitation
Radical Wholeness reveals that our culture is whole-blind, and it documents the devastation inflicted by that disability on our personal lives and the planet. But the book is also a practical guide for initiating a personal revolution. By finding your way out of the head and reuniting with your body's intelligence, you can ground yourself in a wholeness of being that feels and supports the harmonies not just of your life, but of our wakeful world.
Philip Shepherd is an internationally recognized embodiment expert and the author of New Self, New World and Radical Wholeness. He travels the world teaching people how to ground their thinking in the calm, deep-dwelling intelligence of the body.
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B06XBKGPM2
Publisher ‏ : ‎ North Atlantic Books (December 5, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 5, 2017
File size ‏ : ‎ 748 KB
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #212,672 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
#47 in Humanism Philosophy
#139 in Philosophy & Spiritual Growth
#168 in Men's Personal Spiritual Growth
About Philip Shepherd
Author of New Self New World, Radical Wholeness and Deep Fitness.
Philip Shepherd is recognized as an international authority on embodiment. He is the author of two books: New Self New World: Recovering Our Senses in the Twenty-first Century (2010); and Radical Wholeness: The Embodied Present and the Ordinary Grace of Being (Nov, 2017). Both books lay the foundation for The Embodied Present Process (TEPP), a unique set of practices Philip developed for uniting the anxious, restless pace of the intelligence in the head with the deep, present and connected intelligence of the body. He travels the world teaching TEPP workshops, and also runs programs to train and certify others in facilitating the TEPP embodiment practices.
Philip has a passion for adventure and exploration that has guided him for most of his life. At 18 it took him from his native Canada to cycle alone through Europe, the Middle East, Iran, India and Japan. But that trip, adventurous as it was, merely expressed a commitment to a more crucial adventure – coming to understand the subtle and often hidden aspects of our culture that affect us all, compromising our sense of wholeness, our connection with the living world, our freedom of expression, and our creative engagement with the present.
As a young teenager, Philip could feel that influence pulling at him like an undertow to conform to given limits of thinking, understanding, values and body awareness, and felt he could resist its pull only if he understood it. That prompted him to study classical Noh Theater in Japan, design and build several houses, co-found an arts magazine, Onion, co-found an interdisciplinary theater company, teach workshops on embodied thinking and spontaneous creativity, write two internationally produced plays and a television documentary, and earn a reputation as a corporate coach. Philip has been an actor his whole life, and has played lead roles on stages in London, New York, Chicago and Toronto.
When not traveling, he lives with his wife in a quiet, car-free community in Toronto in a home they designed and built. More information about Philip and his work can be found on his website: embodiedpresent.com
Gary Moreau, Author
3.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking, well-written, and decidedly radical book that will surely stir a strong reaction one way or the other
Fans of Philip Shepherd will love this book. Buy it and read no further. His writing and his thinking have clearly reached a level of clarity few of us will ever attain. As the title suggests, however, his model of being and the universe is radical, to say the least. That doesn't make it wrong, of course, and I think much of his thinking is spot on. I do have to wonder, however, how many of his most ardent supporters accept and live by his model with the level of surrender advocated here.
It is, without a doubt, one of the most intriguing books I have read this year. By the time I finished I had highlighted far more passages than I would normally highlight in a dozen books. The content is raw and rich and extremely well thought out and presented. Really well done.
To understand the "radical wholeness" concept you must have the context. And even though Shepherd is an articulate and efficient writer it took him almost 300 pages to lay it out. I couldn't do it justice here and won't try. The author deserves your effort.
To give you just the whiff of a flavor, however, he argues that Western culture has become completely head-centric in its worldview, distorting our understanding of the world in a direction that is male-dominant, segmented, obsessed with control, and far too pre-occupied with abstract reasoning and the accumulation of knowledge and data. We have, as a result, created a culture built on boundaries, analytics, the supremacy of mechanics, domination, and acquisition in which we are disconnected from our female selves, where connection is achieved, understanding is felt, and self-knowledge is realized and retained through attunement and the achievement of harmony. (Again, take my summary as a clumsy and infantile attempt to express what you must really read in its entirety to understand.)
He makes a very convincing case, which I admit I was predisposed to embrace, that "science cannot save us," we are generally not attuned to each other or the world around us, the universe is not knowable in any entirely objective way that we currently comprehend, the self and the universe are living processes rather than things, the human conscious is not mechanical, and that there is some binding element to the universe that gives it a kind of consciousness and intelligence but which we don't currently understand and have no language to express.
Science can't save us, in Shepherd's view, because the knowledge it provides only reinforces the myth that "humankind is evolution's crowning achievement and was born to rule the earth and command nature—and that the role of science is to provide us the means of fulfilling that destiny," through knowledge that is not self-knowledge.
In the end, however, I found Shepherd's expression of his model to be challenging, if not problematic. He maintains that there are many centers of intelligence in the body, but that the two main ones are the brain, where the analytical male resides, and the pelvic bowl, centered by the perineum, where the feeling female resides.
It is in the pelvic bowl, moreover, where awareness, through surrender, finds and experiences wholeness. "Bringing the center of your awareness to rest on the perineum carries it into the realm of your consciousness that feels wholeness."
In the beginning, Shepherd quotes Dr. Jonas Salk. "What people think of as a moment of discovery is really the discovery of a question." And I believe that is true. There is nothing that is dividing Western society today more than our sense of false certainty. And much of this has to do with what biologist Rupert Sheldrake describes as "the science delusion"; that reality is a giant machine that we can understand and manipulate through scientific discovery.
The world is not discrete or static, in my experience. Self, I genuinely believe, knows no boundaries and that it is our attempt to divide, control, and manipulate the self that is at the heart of our current alienation, disillusion, and rancor, documented quite fully by the daily news.
I further accept that everything is inter-connected, as the Buddhists have long maintained. I stop short of accepting, however, that "the universe is observing us," that "The energy of the world flows through your senses, nourishing your being," or "By flowing through your senses, the world's energy enables you to experience its reality," in any literal sense.
In the end, Shepherd relies heavily on etymology to make his case, but even that ultimately fails him. As he points out, English just wasn't designed to support his worldview. This is, as a result, not a book to skim and you will have to slog through the terminology with patience and an open mind.
Because Shepherd is offering us a worldview, there is, by necessity, a political agenda. And it is decidedly progressive. And you might be inclined to conclude at times that he puts aboriginal and Eastern culture on a pedestal. I honestly believe, however, that he is not denigrating Western culture so much as he is offering an alternative perspective (although he dislikes that term).
So, should you read this book if you haven't attended one of his workshops or read one of his prior books? Why not? It is decidedly out of the mainstream but I think it is intellectually sincere and it is certainly well researched and coherently presented.
He didn't quite get me over the goal line, pelvic bowl-insensitive as I undoubtedly am, but I do believe the time and money I invested in the book was well spent. He certainly made me think, and that's why I read.
5.0 out of 5 stars After reading his first book "New Self New World" I ...
After reading his first book "New Self New World" I was greatly looking forward to this one and started with the chapter "Homo Ex Machina. Co-incidently I am reading the book Homo Deus a N.Y. Times bestseller right now which makes me angry and ill reading it as it is about the anthesis of what Philip is writing about in his latest book which anyone who has a depth full clue about what Life truly is and what the human Being truly is would not buy into for a moment. How could we possibly trust science and the Silicon Valley tech industry to evolve us into bliss machines that have been enhanced to be immortal gods when they do not understand the nature of Reality or Consciousness? Philip has written a book for our times once again and even though I literally just started reading it I cannot put it down. Thank you Philip.
5.0 out of 5 stars The way back.
I was stunned by the power and beauty of Philip Shepherd's first book 'New Self, New World', so was looking forward to his new one. It did not disappoint. 'Radical Wholeness' is an elegant and clear unearthing of 'what the hell is going on' with our abstraction of reality and narrowing of our already limited sensing abilities. I read this as I was recovering from the flu and it was such a great opportunity to come back to health with the book deconstructing our culture and putting it back together. We will all eventually need this kind of world view to heal our societies seduction away from our natural state of being. So, highly recommend. It's good to have a primer for what's next.
Kimberly Berg
5.0 out of 5 stars honest enough and desiring to expand into a realm of love (understanding from another person's perspective) and acceptance (versus control) ...
Phil is as aligned and clear as Eckhart Tolle. Phil speaks from a wisdom that is beyond the mind and embraces the wholeness of what a human being could become if vulnerable enough, honest enough and desiring to expand into a realm of love (understanding from another person's perspective) and acceptance (versus control) that is desperately called for within humanity. Our culture, our species seems to be at a crossroads. Phil's insight hopes to take us through an evolution rather than extinction. We can become the sci fi world of blackened skies, of Blade Runner or Hunger Games or we can embrace ourselves and our planet to help it flourish and become whole once again.
Susan Burger
5.0 out of 5 stars From Separation and Loneliness to Inter-Connection and Love
This book, or shall I say the way this book speaks a truth that brings me to tears at times, is deeply impactful. Philip is such a wordsmith and somehow finds a way to describe what our english language doesn't have much vocabulary for. I was moved to take some training with Philip and in doing so experienced real ways to feel the embodied present - the grounding, clarity and wild peace that comes with it. it is challenging to live in that connected state (which at one time was natural to us) due to our frantic way of living, yet every moment that I practice brings me closer to feeling more connection, more compassion for myself and others, for out planet, and feeling of inter-relationship will all. The most important book I have read in a long time. I will read it again...
H. Robinson
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book with a profound and powerful idea!
It isn't too hard to find books about being more present or checking in with our feelings, but this book presents a 'radical' understanding that if we are living entirely in our heads (which is the dominant viewpoint and experience of our culture) then even well-meaning approaches like these are still a bit misguided, with our heads still directing and controlling the experience. The book argues clearly and convincingly that a different approach is needed for us to heal ourselves and our world, and includes exercises at the end to help us start to have a different experience of ourselves. As someone with years of research and experience with various mindfulness and mind/body practices, I found this book profound and powerful!
Susie Briscoe
5.0 out of 5 stars "Find true wholeness of being. By attaining wholeness, you begin a transformative journey to become your best self, living in aw
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 8, 2018
I was drawn to this book by the title, and the content does not disappoint. It is radical in it's thinking and I love the quotes; the whole book draws you in right from the start and I feel Shepherd does his subject matter justice and appreciate him sharing his knowledge.
In Shepherd's new bestseller, he delves into finding true wholeness of being. Wholeness is a new, more enlightened way to experience the earth around us. By attaining wholeness, you can begin a transformative journey to becoming your best self and living every moment in awareness of the world around us. By adapting to a whole way of living, you can find a connection with nature and gain clarity for improved relationships and interactions.
Philip describes the modern way of living as 'whole-blind', something that he considers to be a disability. Radical Wholeness is a 'call to action'. By awakening to wholeness - by once again attuning to the wholeness in which you live - you can change your very way of being in the world. And nothing at this point in human history is more desperately needed.
Liane avery
5.0 out of 5 stars Whole Blind - interesting and thought provoking - really made me look at myself
Kathy P
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2021
An excellent book, now after 20 years of reading about energy and spiritualality, most definitely Italy one of my favourites. Highly recommended
5.0 out of 5 stars A game changer
Reviewed in Australia on March 6, 2018
Phillip Shepherd's work has been genuinely life changing for me. He introduced me to the concept of our head/body split in New self, new world, and Radical Wholeness takes the reader even deeper into a felt understanding of wholeness. I would be lying if I said I instantly grasped Shepherds work when I was first looked into it, at times it was frustrating because I couldn't fully connect in with what he was saying but I could sense that it was profound. That was when I realised that this book has been written from a completely embodied place, whereas I was attempting to grasp it mostly from my head. Reading this book and trying to understand it purely intellectually simply wont work. The more I worked on coming back to wholeness within myself the more Radical Wholeness spoke to my heart. Ive gifted this book to a few people because I genuinely believe that it is medicine, however it is a medicine that the reader must be ready to receive.
I am so grateful for Philip putting this crucial work out there I can't wait to see him live in his workshop next month in Australia
5.0 out of 5 stars Eins der wichtigsten Bücher zum Thema Embodiment
Reviewed in Germany on March 20, 2019
Ich bin begeistert von der Klarheit und Einfachheit mit der Philip in diesem Buch komplexe zusammenhänge aufzeichnet. Das Buch war für mich als nicht englisch sprechend leichter zu lesen als "New self new wold" und bietet viele Übungs Beispiele die dir helfen können im Alltag mehr in dir verankert zu sein und zu lernen Herz und Bauch als Zentrum der Wahrnehmung zu erfahren. Für mich eins der wichtigsten Bücher zum Thema Embodiment im 21 Jahrhundert und wieso wir gerade im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung auf gefordert sind mehr zusein als Maschinen und zu funktionieren sondern uns zu fühlenden menschlichen Wesen zu entwickeln die in Beziehung sind.
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