A Review of Living in the Supermind – From Personal Mind to Spiritual Mind by Maurie D Pressman, M.D.
Born into a conservative Jewish family Dr Maurie Pressman is a psychiatrist who has extensive training in conventional methods with a special emphasis on psychoanalytic, dynamic psychotherapy. He is also the author of Visions From the Soul and Twin Souls.
It is sometimes difficult to know where to start when reviewing a book of such profound significance. Having read Living in the Supermind, I now feel that I am standing at the tip of the proverbial iceberg and that there are whole, undiscovered continents for me to explore! The notion of a higher intellectual state: A level of “consciousness beyond consciousness” that ancient civilisations readily accessed but which as time has evolved has somehow been masked, forgotten is a concept which I am certainly familiar with. A concept which although it is frequently called slightly different things is one that I would love to embrace if only I could sit down long enough to quieten my mind. Somewhat ironic, given that Dr Pressman talks at length about exactly that, quietening the mind! He also states that “Supermind is the highest level of mind closest to the creator…” and that “…The Supermind is a reflection of the God-Mind.”
The book is intelligently written, however it is most definitely not a light read and should be saved for when you have the freedom and time to soak up all of it’s many treasures. I would also say that whilst the scope of the work is rather complex and requires a lot of thinking and processing, I imagine that most readers will still find it accessible because of the fact that it is clearly broken down into manageable, bite sized chunks, offering plenty of scope to dip in and out of it at will.
In Living in the Supermind, the author seeks answers to questions that have been bugging the human race since the beginning of time for example just what exactly is the soul? It also offers up a fascinating and entirely plausible opinion on the whole subject of creation and whilst Dr Pressman’s unconventional approach to treating and communicating with his patients would undoubtedly have raised some eyebrows in professional circles, it left me thinking that if only the world was full of enlightened doctors and psychiatrists like him, then our world would be an infinitely better place.
In chapter two, we go through an informative head hop through the minds of Sandor Ferenczi, Carl Jung, Wilhelm Reich, Otto Rank, Karl Abraham, Erik Erikson, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Abraham Maslow, Stanislav Grof and Raymond Moody, whose studies into near death experiences are of particular relevance to me and I will definitely be checking Moody out more as a result of reading this.
Meditation, it would seem is key to accessing the Supermind and unlike a lot of authors of books on the subject, Dr Pressman acknowledges that some people struggle with meditation and outlines some simpler techniques as a means of starting. I was completely enthralled by the concept of meditation being “a mini death” as I have never, ever thought about it in this way. The author describes meditation as “an opportunity to explore the after death world…First we experience the loss of body awareness, then the loss of feeling (emotional) awareness, and then the loss of thoughts and then awareness itself. Finally, we come to peace, quiet bliss…” He also goes on to discuss the many benefits of exploring the Near Death and After Death Realms and given how I adore all things death and what comes beyond it, then it definitely resonated with me.
My only niggle with the book, if it can even be called a niggle is that it is jam packed with so many thoughts and ideas and pathways that I want to explore that I feel like my head is in a spin because I don’t know where to start!!! I will most definitely be buying a copy of this book in due course as I need it to be in a format that I can easily access and hopefully learn from and grow…
You can find out more at http://www.mauriepressman.com
