Hephzibah Yohannan – författare

The young John Zaradin felt driven to make his life in music against all 'sensible' career advice offered by his peers and parents. An interest in philosophy led him to a circle of creative people dedicated to self-development. They demonstrated to him that a life in the arts was indeed possible, if he worked with some tried and tested guidelines. These included - in addition to all aspects of music, its performance and the business of survival - a rigorous self-examination and a continual re-focusing on his stated aim. His choice to both listen and act on what he was absorbing helped him to make his first steps on the way to living and shaping his life as a musician. Many years later, a conversation with a friend resulted in the writing of his Personal Journey, in which he reveals the story of how he transformed his own life and developed his career as musician, guitarist and composer.

Three particular themes are basic to this study. First, that the human race and its environment are involved in a slowly progressive process of revelation and understanding of its inherent features. And that we are all participating in this ongoing evolutionary cycle. Second, and closely related to the first tenet, man is not separable from his environment. We all share in this cyclic development. Third, that our egoic structures, with the data and experiences they involve, can play a key role in our personal understanding of this ongoing developmental process. The role of the ego is paradoxical. It can be a relatively stable reference used to enhance personal insight concerning its own dynamic structure and similar aspects of its environment. Or it can be maintained with a rigidity that hinders progressive learning. That is, the ego unit has the dual possibilities of affording a focus aiding progressive insight, or becoming a barrier that temporarily diminishes it. The aim of this study is therefore to reduce possible restrictive rigidity as we investigate the role of the egoic unit in seeking greater understanding of its own dynamic structures and their similarly dynamic environment. To pursue this aim we refer to insights from medical practice, philosophy and science. The underlying awareness of an evolving consciousness means that the insights and ideas presented are shared in the expectation that they too will be modified in due course. But if they help provoke interest and insight concerning the paradoxical nature o f our personal processes, they will have served their purpose.

Three particular themes are basic to this study. First, that the human race and its environment are involved in a slowly progressive process of revelation and understanding of its inherent features. And that we are all participating in this ongoing evolutionary cycle. Second, and closely related to the first tenet, man is not separable from his environment. We all share in this cyclic development. Third, that our egoic structures, with the data and experiences they involve, can play a key role in our personal understanding of this ongoing developmental process. The role of the ego is paradoxical. It can be a relatively stable reference used to enhance personal insight concerning its own dynamic structure and similar aspects of its environment. Or it can be maintained with a rigidity that hinders progressive learning. That is, the ego unit has the dual possibilities of affording a focus aiding progressive insight, or becoming a barrier that temporarily diminishes it. The aim of this study is therefore to reduce possible restrictive rigidity as we investigate the role of the egoic unit in seeking greater understanding of its own dynamic structures and their similarly dynamic environment. To pursue this aim we refer to insights from medical practice, philosophy and science. The underlying awareness of an evolving consciousness means that the insights and ideas presented are shared in the expectation that they too will be modified in due course. But if they help provoke interest and insight concerning the paradoxical nature o f our personal processes, they will have served their purpose.

How can we deal with the rapidly increasing pace and complexity of life, fear of terrorism and the threatening state of world affairs, climate breakdown, the confusions of personal relationships-without succumbing to stress, depression and illness? Halliday provides a way to assimilate the shocks of life experiences, so that we might live a more balanced life. The way to achieve this is through reconnecting with the centre of our own being, our consciousness. Halliday sets out not only the nature of this consciousness, but also its relation to the world of phenomena, to the nature of being, and in particular, to mankind. He begins by examining the meaning of terms such as sentience, consciousness and awareness. They are to some degree interchangeable and refer to, `That in and by which we know what we know, and that we know.' If we ask ourselves what this statement means, we can only say that, `We know what we mean. Consciousness is its own evidence', and thus we cannot indicate what we mean by one of these consciousness-related words, `without appealing to that in us, which corresponds with their significance, that is, to that in us which knows that it knows'. Halliday sees a complex structure such as the brain, as `a vehicle for the expression of the complex processes of an [already existing] sentience'. He posits that the ultimate source and origin of our being resides in an absolute field of sentience, and states that the true nature of the self is `consciousness itself'. But, as beings with physical bodies, we are tyrannised by the limitations of our sense organs; by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain, by emotional charges in the records of our experiences, so that we often behave in a reactive manner-as if we were no more than animals with no free choice. But, if we remember the nature of our true self, and our source in consciousness, we can free ourselves from this enslavement and become human, that is, capable of free choice and action.

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This valuable study guide is a comprehensive index to the fifteen books comprising The Collected Works of Eugene Halliday. Born in 1911, he was an artist, writer and psychotherapist who drew on many traditions of human knowledge and experience: the texts of world religions; mystical schools such as Qabalah; poetry, philosophy and theology (Blake, Milton, Nietzsche, Boehme); psychology (Jung) and modern science (Einstein). He formulated a psychotherapeutic method from which many were to benefit in the years following the second world war, and which is still of relevance and benefit to us today. His books form a comprehensive guide to self-development, both psychological and spiritual; and an interpretation of the wisdom tradition, East and West, for modern students of consciousness studies, philosophy, psychology, science, religion and hermeneutics.

This book is a compilation of nine short books written between 2007 and 2021, in the ninth and tenth decades of the author's life. It contains his spiritual philosophy expressed in simple language accessible to all. The book tells of what the author has come to believe after a lifetime of seeking for the meaning of life, and how one should live that life at its optimum level. He explains that this cannot be proved: it is ultimately not susceptible to the usual scientific methods, for it lies in a different realm of reality which has to be experienced inwardly. However, its main tenets lie behind world religions and go back to mankind`s earliest thinkings and feelings. Believe it or not as you will, suggests the author. All he can say is that it has sustained him throughout his life and has made that life harmonious and joyous. The teachings of which he speaks are often referred to as the Ancient Wisdom. He first came across them at the age of twenty-five when he met a man who was well versed in that ancient wisdom which is to be found woven throughout major religions, philosophies and mystical teachings. This man was Eugene Halliday, who, the author says, was said to be one of the great spirits of the modern age. The phrase he used to describe the ultimate result of these teachings was 'Reflexive Self-Consciousness'. This, the author explains, was the same message taught by those of old, although expressed by his mentor Halliday in more modern terms. A wise but modest man, the author says that he is no academic or scholar or learned man - adding, with gentle humour, that it is written that an academic is an ass with a load of books on his back. He writes for the average person - of any age - who has no time left to think on these things but who may like to know more. He writes for this person - for he is such a one himself, he says. It is this which makes his story and his accumulated wisdom both inspiring and accessible.