Integrating Spirituality and Psychotherapy, with Dr. Ron Mann

Wise Talkers

This fourth full episode of Wise Talkers features an interview with psychotherapist Dr. Ron Mann that I conducted in 1981. Dr. Mann’s life and career was greatly influenced by a workshop he took in Hawaii in 1976 with Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. The immediately preceding episode of Wise Talkers featured my 1981 interview with Kübler-Ross – and this 1981 interview with Ron Mann is a natural sequel.

In our interview, Ron relates some extraordinary mystical experiences he had during his 1976 workshop with Elisabeth, and a number of others as well, including during his therapy sessions with clients. He explains how these phenomena integrate with his spiritual worldview, and he also examines them from a scientific viewpoint.

Dr. Mann describes how he incorporates psychotherapy into his spiritual practice – and vice versa – both with his patients and in his personal life.

Finally, I share some thoughts on the view of life put forth by both Ron Mann and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, provide a quick review of Ron’s activities since our interview, and talk about my evolving vision for this podcast.

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Chapters

1. Segue from Kübler-Ross episode (00:00:06)

2. Dr. Ron Mann will talk about mystical experiences in 1976 Kübler-Ross workshop and since (00:01:25)

3. 1981 interview with Ron Mann begins; working with people who “happen to be dying”… And others (00:03:47)

4. Scuba diving experience shows Ron that consciousness exists beyond the body (00:04:56)

5. Ron’s mystical experiences in Kübler-Ross workshop – first frightening, then merging with a ball of light (00:07:51)

6. “I live to some degree in a mystical reality” – waking and sleeping interpenetrating. Death, dreaming and the super-conscious state. (00:14:31)

7. A van full of people hear a choir of spirits on trip to Haleakala (00:20:55)

8. No need to convince anybody; scientific as well as esoteric explanations (00:22:06)

9. Esoteric teachings: physical, astral, and causal planes. Our journey back to pure consciousness. (00:24:46)

10. Ron describes PhD education and early career as psychotherapist in Beverly Hills (00:26:15)

11. After Hawaii workshop, mystical experiences with clients became common; seeing light bodies and rivers of energy; using intuition to understand the messages (00:29:47)

12. Merging with patient’s experience to understand, then moving back out. (00:34:39)

13. Helping people learn about love by being in a loving state. (00:36:36)

14. The soul is real; the drop of soul in the ocean of spirt. The soul is perfection, exquisite beauty. (00:38:32)

15. The essential personality feels the flow of the Tao in the body; psychotherapy helps clear the blockages. Life’s difficulties are the pathway. (00:40:38)

16. Mystical experiences misunderstood; Ron guides a scared 11 y.o. boy lost in a mental ocean to a wizard who guides him to safety. (00:43:54)