Explores how emotion underlies personality, triggers the development of non-ordinary states and perceptions, and connects all life
• Shows how the flow of our emotions shapes individual minds and personalities
• Reveals the significant role of emotion in PTSD, alexithymia (not knowing what one is feeling), autism, savantism, synesthesia (overlapping senses), déjà vu, phantom pain, migraines, and extreme empathy
• Looks at the emotional lives of animals, demonstrating how life-threatening emergencies can trigger amazing sensitivities and abilities in them
Emotion, as it exists within and between people, underpins personality, spirituality, and a range of extraordinary perceptions, conditions, and experiences. These include déjà vu, phantom pain, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and extreme empathy, where people instantaneously feel the physical or emotional pain of another. Many gifted children, those with synesthesia, and people with autism--not to mention highly sensitive people in general--report forms of innate "knowing" and even paranormal experiences. In this exploration of the role of emotion in non-ordinary states and abilities, Michael Jawer shows how the flow of our emotions and those of the people around us greatly influences the development of exceptional capacities and sensitivities.
Drawing on a range of scientific studies, Jawer explores how 5 remarkable kinds of people--individuals with autism, synesthesia, savantism, child prodigies, and children who remember past lives--are linked through the biology of emotion and how a hidden emotional intensity underlies both autism and anomalous perception. He examines the psychological concept of thin and thick boundaries and how those with thin boundaries--those who are more environmentally sensitive--have a greater predisposition toward empathy, synesthesia, psi abilities, and extraordinary states of perception. Sharing extraordinary examples, the author explores how strong emotion may endure through time and space, possibly even after death. He also looks at the emotional lives of animals, our soulful connections with them, and how life-threatening emergencies can trigger amazing sensitivities and abilities in our fellow creatures.
Revealing the unseen role of emotion in mind and personality, Jawer shows that emotion is the binding force that connects us with one another, with all of life, and with nature itself.
Autorentext
Michael A. Jawer is an emotion researcher and expert on "sick building syndrome." He is the coauthor, with Marc Micozzi, of The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion. He lives in Vienna, Virginia.
Inhalt
Foreword
By Christine Simmonds-Moore, Ph.D.
INTRODUCTION
At the Confluence of Science and Wonder
1 PTSD
A Window into the Intersection of Mind, Body, and Emotion
2 Mirror Senses
Extraordinary Instances of Emotion Moving beyond the Self
3 The Resonance of Perception
Instinctive Sensing as a Crucible for the Anomalous
4 Unspooling the Thread
Connecting Four Remarkable Personality Traits
5 Living Closer to the Bone
Felt Connections, Nature, and Soul in Non-Human Animals
6 Unimagined Sensitivities
How Trauma and Death Trigger Extraordinary Perceptions
7 The Endurance of Emotion
Birthmarks and the "Remembered" Lives of Others
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author