A “Truly Holistic System”
Will Parfitt is a psychosynthesis psychotherapist and a Kabbalah teacher who has worked in self-development for over 50 years. His book The Magic of Psychosynthesis (2019) explores ‘the magic’ of personal and spiritual self-development that can be achieved through the ‘the essential components’ of Will, Imagination and Love, while challenging the supposed disparateness between ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’ psychospiritual practices.
Throughout The Magic of Psychosynthesis Parfitt draws from psychosynthesis practices to offer ways in which we can restore balance and promote the fuller expression of our potential and unique creativity. Using terms such as ‘Aspirants’, ‘Initiates’ and ‘Adepts’ for those who undertake this journey, he is careful not to suggest that these terms are end-goals or being-states for us to reach, but are acknowledgements of ‘The Great Work’ we must do to obtain self-knowledge.
Parfitt aligns this alignment of the Self – this Great Work – with an alignment to the natural flow of life on earth.
Arguing that the primary goal of Psychosynthesis is the same as that of other magical and esoteric endeavours, Parfitt states that the discoveries we obtain through each type of inquiry into human nature can help us walk life’s path: “the ‘psychologisation’ of occult and magical practices, [when] tying them in with effective techniques for transformation, is sound in practice and enhances, not dilutes, the work” [1] of this self-actualization. By acknowledging the roots of some practices of Psychosynthesis, we do not reduce their value.
This is what makes Psychosynthesis a unique discipline of psychotherapy for Parfitt: it is a discipline that engages not just the mind but also the body and the spirit, making it a “truly holistic system”. [2]
Interested readers can find The Magic of Psychosynthesis for sale here, or read more about Will Parfitt, including his other books on psychosynthesis, on his website.
[1] Parfitt, Will, The Magic of Psychosynthesis: Initiation and Self Development, p. 11
[2] Ibid.
Image copyright: Will Parfitt