Hauntings - Dispelling the Ghosts Who Run Our Lives [Paperback Edition]
Dr. Hollis, author of over a dozen books in the area of psychology, states his task is to consider more fully how we are governed by the presence of invisible forms [hauntings] that move through us and through history.
At first glance, one would think Dr. Hollis is writing about ghosts, spirits, ectoplasm, demons, and or poltergeists. In a way, he is; however, as he journeys the reader into human behavior, it becomes clear that he is exploring those roadblocks humans create for themselves based on their baggage. '
The baggage comes from DNA, history, family, and environment. Dr. Hollis states, "So, told or untold, the archaic stories, ineluctably manifest through our unconscious choices, our aversions, our preoccupations, our projections, and our agendas and replay themselves in the recognizable patterns which constitute the human story."
In language aimed at the nonprofessional, Dr. Hollis' clarity goes far in making sense of the hamstrings with which we daily live. Add his excellent choices of poetry, Jungian quotations, examples from literature, and case studies, Dr. Hollis has created a most readable book. He surprises with specific examples from his own life. The revelations about his parents and their relationship go a long way to help the reader understand one has choices.
Throughout the book, Dr. Hollis makes repeated reference to Carl Jung, and it is no wonder. He is the cofounder of the C. G. Jung Institute of Philadelphia and Saybrook University's Jungian Studies Program. The Jung references used to substantiate certain observations made by Dr. Hollis are not a distraction to the content.
To stir the reader's mind, Dr. Hollis proposes four questions that never go away—questions that always beg answers. The questions are worth repeating here:
• Why are we here, in service to what, and toward what end?
• How are we as animal forms, empowered with spirit, to live in harmony with our natural environment?
• Who are my people, what is my duty to others, and what are the rights, duties, privileges, and expectations of my tribe?
• Who am I, how am I different from others, what is my life about, and how am I to find my way through the difficulties of life?
A significant conclusion is that the "greatest haunting we all suffer is the loss of relationship to the soul, to the original mode of being that proved too costly for us to sustain beyond age two or thereabouts."