Your Symphony of Selves by James Fadiman audiobook

Your Symphony of Selves: Discover and Understand More of Who We Are

By James Fadiman  and Jordan Gruber
Read by Andy Rick

Inner Traditions Audio
14.59 Hours • Unabridged
Format : Digital Download (In Stock)
  • 1 Format: Digital Download
  • $26.99
    or 1 Credit

    ISBN: 9781644112762

Why you are a different you at different times and how that’s both normal and healthy • Reveals that each of us is made up of multiple selves, any of which can come to the forefront in different situations • Offers examples of healthy multiple selves from psychology, neuroscience, pop culture, literature, and ancient cultures and traditions • Explores how to harmonize our selves and learn to access whichever one is best for a given situation Offering groundbreaking insight into the dynamic nature of personality, James Fadiman and Jordan Gruber show that each of us is comprised of distinct, autonomous, and inherently valuable “selves.” They also show that honoring each of these selves is a key to improved ways of living, loving, and working. Explaining that it is normal to have multiple selves, the authors offer insights into why we all are inconsistent at times, allowing us to become more accepting of the different parts of who we and other people are. They explore, through extensive reviews, how the concept of healthy multiple selves has been supported in science, popular culture, spirituality, philosophy, art, literature, and ancient traditions and cite well-known people, including David Bowie and Beyoncé, who describe accessing another self at a pivotal point in their lives to resolve a pressing challenge. Instead of seeing the existence of many selves as a flaw or pathology, the authors reveal that the healthiest people, mentally and emotionally, are those that have naturally learned to appreciate and work in harmony with their own symphony of selves. They identify “the Single Self Assumption” as the prime reason why the benefits of having multiple selves has been ignored. This assumption holds that we each are or ought to be a single consistent self, yet we all recognize, in reality, that we are different in different situations. Offering a pragmatic approach, the authors show how you can prepare for situations by shifting to the appropriate self, rather than being “switched” or “triggered” into a sub-optimal part of who you are. They also show how recognizing your selves provides increased access to skills, talent, and creativity; enhanced energy; and improved healing and pain management. Appreciating your diverse selves will give you more empathy toward yourself and others. By harmonizing your symphony of selves, you can learn to be “in the right mind at the right time” more often.

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Summary

Summary

Why you are a different you at different times and how that’s both normal and healthy

• Reveals that each of us is made up of multiple selves, any of which can come to the forefront in different situations

• Offers examples of healthy multiple selves from psychology, neuroscience, pop culture, literature, and ancient cultures and traditions

• Explores how to harmonize our selves and learn to access whichever one is best for a given situation

Offering groundbreaking insight into the dynamic nature of personality, James Fadiman and Jordan Gruber show that each of us is comprised of distinct, autonomous, and inherently valuable “selves.” They also show that honoring each of these selves is a key to improved ways of living, loving, and working.

Explaining that it is normal to have multiple selves, the authors offer insights into why we all are inconsistent at times, allowing us to become more accepting of the different parts of who we and other people are. They explore, through extensive reviews, how the concept of healthy multiple selves has been supported in science, popular culture, spirituality, philosophy, art, literature, and ancient traditions and cite well-known people, including David Bowie and Beyoncé, who describe accessing another self at a pivotal point in their lives to resolve a pressing challenge.

Instead of seeing the existence of many selves as a flaw or pathology, the authors reveal that the healthiest people, mentally and emotionally, are those that have naturally learned to appreciate and work in harmony with their own symphony of selves. They identify “the Single Self Assumption” as the prime reason why the benefits of having multiple selves has been ignored. This assumption holds that we each are or ought to be a single consistent self, yet we all recognize, in reality, that we are different in different situations.

Offering a pragmatic approach, the authors show how you can prepare for situations by shifting to the appropriate self, rather than being “switched” or “triggered” into a sub-optimal part of who you are. They also show how recognizing your selves provides increased access to skills, talent, and creativity; enhanced energy; and improved healing and pain management. Appreciating your diverse selves will give you more empathy toward yourself and others. By harmonizing your symphony of selves, you can learn to be “in the right mind at the right time” more often.

Editorial Reviews

Editorial Reviews

Kudos to the authors for their diligent research, original thinking, and courageous pioneering that changes the foundational assumptions of modern psychology to more closely resemble who we truly are.” —
Rigorous, engaging, and pleasurable to read. I’m ecstatic about their ennobling upgrade in the understanding of what it means to be human.” —
This wonderful book urges us to look at ourselves and our lives in an entirely new way. We are not a single self, the authors teach us, but rather we contain multiple selves, each valuable in its own way. This lovely book will help you understand and embrace who you are and who you could be.” —
This masterful, comprehensive exploration of the diversity within us is both fascinating and useful. With grace and erudition, the authors explore the nooks and crannies of our minds--and in the variety of ‘selves’ they find there is, paradoxically, a profound and healing sense of wholeness and freedom.” —
This book exquisitely explores the age-old and yet seemingly new theme that we are made up of different ‘moving parts.’ Talking to yourself is not just reserved for eccentric people on subways but an inner psychodrama that can lead us toward a more integrated, ‘together,’ symphonic self. Now I can, and will, tell clients: ‘Read this book, and then come back and talk to me!’” —
This insightful book creates a landscape of perspective with profound implications for understanding the psychology of human beings. A must-read for every person interested in self-discovery.” —
A profound, brilliant, and convincing account of the many entities that make up each of us. I hope it will have the success and influence it deserves.” —
Based on what I’ve read in this book, I now more clearly recognize some of my own selves: my scientist self, my personal growth self, my spiritual self, my ‘Am I kind of crazy sometimes?’ self . . .and all of them are getting valuable ideas and practices to become more harmonious. My thanks to Fadiman and Gruber for this remarkable book!” —
A tour de force on the multiple manifestations--scientifically, artistically, religiously, and culturally--of the multiple persons and personalities each one of us inhabits. No matter how skeptical your point of view before you read this book, it will make you think, and you will take it seriously.” —
Astoundingly, my various persona all seem to agree that Fadiman and Gruber have unpacked this complex topic in ways that are factual, insightful, and extremely useful--a must-read for most, if not all, of your selves.” —
From the microbiome in our gut to the voices in our heads, each of us is a community, as the authors explain in this fascinating, delightful book. The illusion of a single unitary self interferes with clear thinking about everything from immunology to psychiatry to the nature of community. We are each a symphony of selves, and my selves highly recommend this book to your selves.” —
In clear, practical prose, and drawing from a wealth of religious, philosophical, and psychological materials, the authors make a strong, clear case that is brilliantly couched as a seductive invitation: just stop believing you are a single self, and start to orchestrate and befriend the varied and fractious clan that you are.” —
James Fadiman has consistently been walking, exploring, and illuminating the cutting edge of culture for the past half century. This book is no exception, and with it, Fadiman and his scholarwriter partner, Jordan Gruber, intellectually investigate and prosaically dance in a way that recognizes and honors the many voices within us all.” —
This is a very special book! This idea of a ‘symphony of selves’ reflects what has always been understood among indigenous peoples--and so the book digs deeply into essential universal truths. A treasure to enjoy and learn with and from.” —
The idea that our sense of self is illusory and that we all contain different selves may seem strange at first. But the great accomplishment of Your Symphony of Selves is that it doesn’t just make this idea perfectly sensible, the authors show how it can help us better understand ourselves and how cultivating and integrating those multiple selves makes us healthier and happier.” —
A tour de force that pulls together insights from psychiatry, philosophy, religion, neurology, the humanities, and the social and behavioral sciences. Profound, yet entertaining, it plumbs deeply into rarely explored depths of the human psyche. It even contains activities and exercises that its readers can employ, soon realizing that they may never be the same again.” —
My cousin James Fadiman has an uncanny ability to take a problem, turn it calmly in his hands, look at it from many angles, and solve it, always with a glint of amusement in his eye. Until I read this book he wrote with Gruber, it had never occurred to me that what enables those multiple angles is his sense that he isn’t confined to a single self. He is a team! The ideas in this book seem simple, but that’s the point: why make things hard when they could be easy?” —
Nowhere are Fadiman and Gruber’s words ‘being in the right mind at the right time’ more applicable than for the military fighter pilot. The world moving, quite literally, at Mach 1 creates an unforgiving cauldron where incoherent or incongruent thought yields catastrophic results. The difference between life and death depends on fighter pilots finding their mental best selves.” —
In this fascinating book, the authors offer insights that enable us to kindly accept and value ourselves and others. They reveal an incredible opportunity for healthier living through embracing our different selves, leading to psychological cohesion and wholeness.” —
Psychology professor Fadiman (The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide) and lawyer Gruber systematically explore the idea that all humans comprise multiple selves in this engaging yet dense work. Arguing against Freudian theory and the popular presentation of personality multiplicity as a dysfunction, the authors posit that the 'selves' within a person are much more than just moods, rather they’re 'recurring patterns of mindbody energy, chemistry, energy, perception, and behavior' that manifest in behavior and physiology...their efforts to reframe and destigmatize the idea of multiple selves will appeal to general readers interested in the nature of human behavior." —
The information in this book was a wonderful confirmation of what I had felt and known for many years. Therefore, I heartily and happily recommend it to all and everyone. Deep within your psyche are treasures undreamed of.” —

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Author

Author Bio: James Fadiman PhD

Author Bio: James Fadiman PhD

James Fadiman, PhD, did his undergraduate work at Harvard and his graduate work at Stanford, doing research with the Harvard Group, the West Coast Research Group in Menlo Park, and Ken Kesey. A former president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and a professor of psychology, he teaches at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, which he helped found in 1975. An international conference presenter, workshop leader, management consultant, and author of several books and textbooks, he lives in Menlo Park, California, with his filmmaker wife, Dorothy.

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Author Bio: Jordan Gruber

Author Bio: Jordan Gruber

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Details

Details

Available Formats : Digital Download
Category: Nonfiction/Self-Help
Runtime: 14.59
Audience: Adult
Language: English

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