The Heroes for Healing online group writing project is entering its final week, and now has profiles of over 30 contemporary spiritual teachers, healers, and writers. The entire project will soon be posted at its permanent location by Jenny Mannion, the project’s creator and organizer. Check back here in the coming weeks for a link to the final site.
Below are profiles of three more worthy additions to the project, two of which were contributed by guest writers. The first is Dr. Christiane Northrup, a pioneer in women’s health and holistic well-being. The second is Dr. Michael Beckwith, founder of the Agape International Spiritual Center, contributor to The Secret, and leader in spiritual transformation. The third is Dan Millman, author of the bestselling Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and The Life You Were Born to Live.
Scroll down to read the full profiles of these amazing teachers, go to the parent post to view the full list of profiles, or see my prior posts on Gangaji, Marianne Williamson, and Joan Borysenko.
Dr. Christiane Northrup
by Marilyn Kay
Internationally known for her empowering approach to women’s health and wellness, Dr. Northrup is a leading proponent of medicine and healing that acknowledges the unity of the mind and body, as well as the powerful role of the human spirit in creating health. Following a career practicing obstetrics and gynecology for over 25 years, Dr. Northrup has dedicated her lifework to helping women (and the men who love them) learn how to flourish on all levels by creating health, prosperity, and pleasure in their lives. She says, “I’ve spent the first half of my life studying and footnoting everything that can go wrong with the female body—and figuring out how to fix it. I’m dedicating the second half of my life to illuminating everything that can go right with the female body, including teaching women how to truly flourish.”
Video
Resources
Website: http://www.drnorthrup.com/
Books: Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom , The Wisdom of Menopause
What Marilyn Kay Has Learned From Dr. Northrup
From the late 40’s to mid 50’s is an awakening time for a woman, when there is a psychic and energetic shift from the identity she has known with her home and family to an urgent need for personal exploration and self-expression. There is literally a hormone-driven re-wiring of the brain taking place, a call to move both inward and outward. Inward to find her wisdom and explore her deepest connection to herself, and outward to express her courage and her voice. This is the most creative time for a woman, emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually. It is also a time when she begins to create from a place of knowledge and vision for all the women who will come behind her. “When Sleeping Beauty wakes up, she is almost 50 years old.” (Maxine Cumin)
Note: If you’ve learned something from Dr. Northrup, please feel free to leave your own comment at the end of this post.
Dr. Michael Beckwith
Dr. Michael Beckwith is the founder of the Agape International Spiritual Center and an internationally recognized leader in spiritual transformation and the creation of trans-denominational spiritual communities. Dr. Beckwith holds a doctorate in Religious Science and has received numerous awards for his humanitarian work. He created a process called ‘life-visioning’, that helps spiritual practitioners free their awareness from limiting social conditioning and open their awareness to the love, peace and abundance of God. He supports meditation, prayer and service to community as the foundations for personal and spiritual growth. Dr. Beckwith contributed to both the DVD and book versions of the bestselling The Secret, and has appeared on Oprah and Larry King to discuss it and his other work. The Agape Center is one of the largest multi-cultural religious institutions in the world, with over 9,000 members.
Video
Resources
Website: http://www.agapelive.com/
Books/CDs: Life Visioning (Audio CD), Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul’s Potential (Nov. 2008)
What Lisa Erickson Learned From Michael Beckwith
“To the degree that you can break free of consensus thinking (normal thinking), to that degree, the fullness of God rushes in and becomes the activity of your awareness and your affirmation of that truth becomes your reality.” As this quote shows, Dr. Beckwith’s teachings go far beyond the law of attraction as it is presented in The Secret. He urges us to full spiritual liberation, by breaking through the traps of our conditioned thinking and experiencing. He urges us to live our lives as expressions of divine love, in every thought, word, and deed – not through judgment and force, but by shifting the loci of our awareness to another level.
Note: If you’ve learned something from Dr. Beckwith, please feel free to leave your own comment at the end of this post.
Dan Millman
by Matthew Wadleigh
Dan Millman is the author of Way Of The Peaceful Warrior, which was written to inspire, uplift, and remind readers of life’s bigger picture and higher purpose. Dan has dedicated his life to bringing greater clarity and perspective to people of all walks of life by teaching how to live a more meaningful and purposeful life in the real world. Way of the Peaceful Warrior is a fictionalized autobiography that speaks to the peaceful warrior in all of us. The tale reminds the reader of the essential perfection of your life unfolding, and to trust this process. These topics resonate in a quote from Dan: “The time is now, the place is here. Stay in the present. You can do nothing to change the past, and the future will never come exactly as you plan or hope for.” Dan Millman is a former world-champion gymnast, martial arts expert, and college professor. He has written an additional 12 non-fiction books, all expansions of the topics presented in his first tale.
Video
Resources
Website: www.danmillman.com
Books: The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, The Life You Were Born to Live
What Lisa Erickson Learned from Dan Millman
“There are no ordinary moments.” The Way of the Peaceful Warrior was one of the first spiritual books I read, while in college, and it had a profound effect on me. I began to question the assumed reality I had been living in, and look for deeper meaning and patterns. In a very real sense, this book helped initiate my life-long spiritual search – something it has done for countless others over the years.
Note: If you’ve learned something from Dan Millman, please feel free to leave your own comment at the end of this post.
September 30, 2008 at 12:26 am
[...] by Lisa Erickson at Mommy Mystic [...]
September 30, 2008 at 12:32 am
[...] by Marilyn Kay at Mommy Mystic [...]
September 30, 2008 at 12:26 pm
[...] by Matthew Wadleigh and Lisa Erickson at Mommy Mystic [...]
September 30, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Love, love, love Dr. Northrup and consider her partially responsible for some pretty profound (and healthy) changes in my life. Not as familiar with the other ones, so thanks for the clips. You might also like the work of Marcelle Prick. She, along with Dr. Northrup, cofounded the Women to Women clinic together in Maine. She is still there and the work that the clinic does is excellent. Here’s the site: womentowomen.com (no I don’t work there — it’s just that your post inspired me to pass along another name!). Take care — love your blog.
October 1, 2008 at 2:06 am
Jacqueline, thanks for your comment and suggestions. You might also like Joan Borysenko if you haven’t already found her – also a medical doctor focused on women’s health, but with more of an explicit spiritual focus than Dr. Northrup.
October 4, 2008 at 3:03 pm
[...] Dr. Michael Beckwith by Lisa Erickson of Mommy Mystic [...]
October 4, 2008 at 3:05 pm
[...] Dr. Michael Beckwith by Lisa Erickson of Mommy Mystic [...]
October 5, 2008 at 2:12 pm
[...] Dr. Michael Beckwith by Lisa Erickson of Mommy Mystic [...]
October 14, 2008 at 3:14 am
[...] Dr. Michael Beckwith by Lisa Erickson of Mommy Mystic [...]
October 23, 2008 at 2:44 pm
[...] Dr. Michael Beckwith by Lisa Erickson of Mommy Mystic [...]
January 29, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Dan Millman must be pretty good at doing dishes!!!
August 13, 2009 at 1:18 am
I’d like to correct something, a widespread falsity that no one seems to question, including you on this site. Michael Beckwith holds no authentic doctorate.
He was awarded an “honorary” doctorate from the United Church of Religious Science.
The church is not a university and has no power whatsoever to grant any kind of degree, none — honorary, earned, or otherwise. That belongs to accredited educational institutions. Only a degree granting University or graduate school of theology/divinity, in this case, can award a doctorate. This church is not that.
Furthermore, it is utterly unethical to actually USE even a legitimately awarded honorary degree in a professional manner, such as calling oneself “Dr.” after getting the honor. NO ONE does that. It is a blatant misrepresentation of oneself. Only an earned doctorate, for a legitimate university, qualifies one to designate themselves as Doctor.
He holds no authentic Ph.D. No Doctor of Divinity degree, nor Doctor of Ministry degree. His parading around calling himself doctor is fraudulent and unethical.
Most people never ask. You didn’t. Oprah continually get herself duped. Even Larry King was mesmerized and failed to ask what this guys background and education was.
Did he even graduate from college?
It’s time a spiritual leader stops the con, that starts with the dishonest way in which he presents himself to begin with — with a deception.
If he’s there, how can he be trusted spiritually? He’s just another snake oil salesman wrapped in modern jargon —making tons of money off the suckers born every minute.
August 13, 2009 at 2:19 am
Hi Maureen, I will research this and clarify the source of his doctorate, and whether it is honorary, in this post after doing so. However, I personally do not feel it is an offense for him to use this title, if he received it under the circumstances you describe. I also feel that his teachings and books have value. I do not attend his Church and do not know him personally at all, but these entries were written for a directory that covers many prominent spiritual authors and lecturers (which he most certainly is). Thanks anyway, for visiting.