Literary / Arts
Jean Vanier Praises “Primal Minds Primal Games
Volume 28 Issue 10, 11 & 12 | Posted: December 29, 2014
This is a fascinating book, drawing on psychology, anthropology, sociology, history, and spirituality to hold up a mirror for us as human beings. Why do we do the things that we do?
This is also a passionate book! Some of us may get a little bit overwhelmed by the thoroughness of the explanations and the careful precision of the states of mind and their role over the course of our evolution as a species. Within all of this, there is something profound being said.
This is a fascinating book, drawing on psychology, anthropology, sociology, history, and spirituality to hold up a mirror for us as human beings. Why do we do the things that we do?
This is also a passionate book! Some of us may get a little bit overwhelmed by the thoroughness of the explanations and the careful precision of the states of mind and their role over the course of our evolution as a species. Within all of this, there is something profound being said.
As human beings, we are frequently caught in a game of seeking success, power, and strength. We move through different mindsets, we draw on different behavioural strategies, we react as best we can to the REALity that we live in. But this game tends to be one where the vulnerable must put up hard walls of protection, where the weak are crushed, where the broken are pushed aside. This is a game where everybody loses.
Primal Mind, Primal Games is a call for each of us to wake up. It is up to each of us to learn to live in harmony, to develop the self-awareness that liberates us and others from our primal games. Bajramovic and LeMay describe Integrated Self Functioning as a way for the mind to operate with greater openness.
It is a path of growth in humility, in presence, and most importantly in openness to others. It is listening to the vulnerable that we discover our own vulnerability. It is in reaching out to the weak that we discover our own weakness. It is in welcoming the broken that we discover our own brokenness. It is together that we can grow in greater love.
This book is a challenge and an invitation. If we dare to look at the reflection it offers, we will discover that each of us is responsible and integral in this evolution of humanity, an evolution of peace.