The book about Life
INTRODUCTION
I have long thought about how to introduce a new book that was recently published under the title: Life's Turn of a Human from the Perspective of Biodromal Psychology and Authentic Life Stories. (Bratislava 2018. Publisher: Institute of Education and Sport and Prohuman, 319 pages. ISBN 978-80-972795-2-3.)
I confess, I want to speak to you – the readers, from the soul. Because talking about life is the most important topic for me. We are all precious, unique, perfect. Here and now. And every day of living. We just realize it more or less. Nothing is a random game, no one is more or less important. Each of us is an amazing original, gifted with talents and sent to this World to create our own life. Mental laziness and idleness, superficial and often even among close ones misleading insincere interpersonal relationships, empty hearts of many people who only pretend feelings, love and interest in others, and the chase for the illusion of an effortlessly flowing and above all materially rich life, with endless possibilities of superficial entertainment - that is the greatest dream for many people today. It is called a happy life, success, wealth, but I also call it pretense, dissembling, manipulation and deception, power over another person, a world of illusions and artifice, and cunning at the expense of others. Yes indeed, dear readers. I am glad that in spirit you disagree with what I write, that you object to it. That is great news for me. Because that is how it should be. You should speak up if you fundamentally disagree with something. You should stand up for your convictions and for yourself. After all, who else is to do it for you? You are perfectly equipped to live valuably and excellently. It is good that you disagree with me, because by doing so you are on the path that leads to awakening and perhaps even to your personal change. The turn towards Good begins when we disagree with Evil. We refuse to participate in what is unacceptable and destructive for our Soul. We express this with our own courage to swim against the current of the raging river of life on this Earth, a river that is psychologically difficult to handle for many people today.
The era in which we live is particularly demanding on the psyche of people of all ages, on children, on families, on interpersonal relationships and communication. There has always been some era, that is true. But always in that era there lived different people, some more and some less resilient to psychologically stressful situations, on which the present is more than abundant.
The social environment often appears to today's people as a vast desert of social communication and interpersonal and personal relationships. New questions arise concerning the quality of people's lives. And also questions of moral and social progress of humanity today. Many changes in the behavior of individuals and social groups are highlighted. Many people consciously or subconsciously experience today's reality as a spiritually empty space. Knowingly or unknowingly they suffer, which manifests itself in the abundant occurrence of mental and somatic illnesses. The desert of the social environment expands through pathological social and interpersonal relationships, inappropriate communication and not infrequently also immoral behavior of people.
Many people, however, call for opportunities and ways to change the psychological and social reality of their lives, because they are not satisfied with the given conditions. The truth is that few of them realize that this reality is created by people themselves. Only that they often do not acknowledge their own share in the increasingly spiritually empty space of their own living. And so: "Humanity as a whole stands before a serious dilemma: to continue in the current trend of manipulating the world, or to turn inward and undergo a process of radical transformation that leads to a completely new level of consciousness and awareness of people. While the easily predictable result of the first strategy is death in an atomic war or in technological waste, the second alternative could result in evolutionary perspectives." (S. Grof, 1992, p. 317.)
Stanislav Grof, a world-renowned psychiatrist of Czech origin, is of the opinion that on a collective and global scale there currently prevails a thought framework creating a philosophy of life for people, which emphasizes strength, competition and self-assertion and glorifies linear progress and unlimited growth. Today, material gain and growth are considered the main criterion of well-being and a measure of the living standard of individuals and social groups. Such an ideology and strategy leads people to serious conflicts with their own nature and also leads to conflicts with universal laws. Only the strategy of inner transformation of man, as a force capable of changing the world, seems to be the only real chance for preserving our world.
Inner transformation can only be achieved on the basis of individual decision, concentrated effort and personal responsibility. People's learning is an individualization process of forming one's own identity, autonomy, wholeness and integrity of the body, psyche, social and spiritual dimension of man. The whole human being learns, and therefore learning is a living and creative process. (M. Machalová, 2013.)
Any plan to change the situation of the world is problematic if it does not include systematic effort to change the human conditions that created this crisis. Developmental change of consciousness is vital for the future of the world. And it depends on the initiative of every human being. (S. Grof, 1992.)
Man is a dignified creation. Dignity is majestic being. (Osho, 2007.) The question is whether in today's world man is truly a majestic being? Are people majestic in their actions and behavior? Do they live a dignified life? Do the states of the world support the majesty – dignity of their citizens? Human dignity is linked to the spiritual light of the person, about which Š. Šak (2016, p. 12) writes as follows: ..."With the light of the soul, with the light of pure reason, the whole being of good, pure and holy people shines... because undistracted, seeing nothing superfluous and deeply concentrated, looking into their own heart, they observe every its movement and such perception gives people spiritual light."
However, we would add that humanity today is unfortunately captive to possessive interpersonal relationships, a virtual emotional world, an illusionistic construction of life that has nothing in common with respect for man, nor with spiritual light.
Life's Turn of a Human from the Perspective of Biodromal Psychology and Authentic Life Stories
In the book with this title, we devoted ourselves with sincere effort to the unique and unrepeatable transformations in the experience and behavior of people on their life path. We have shaped our long-standing theoretical work on the psychological and educational concept of psychological maturity of adults. The book consists of a scientific text and authentic life stories written by university students of full-time and part-time study from three universities in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, over the years 2002 to 2017. And so in the second chapter of the mentioned book we present their honest confessions under the title "My Life Turn." We express amazement at the emotional depth and wisdom of the students whom we were fortunate to meet in life and guide them within the study subject Biodromal Psychology (Psychology of the Life Path). And that for a long time, in various years and semesters of their studies. We allow ourselves humbly and with a clear conscience to express that they are literally "our" students and that without them this little book would never have seen the light of day. They left a deep mark on our mind and heart. We hope that they felt what we felt during our shared classes. Together we created a supportive environment for the self-expression of each of us. Mutuality, open discussion and engagement with topics, respect and reverence, as well as the willingness to express oneself honestly, were a matter of course in lectures and seminars of the subject Biodromal Psychology. That is also why students in their work on the topic "My Life Turn" spontaneously, sincerely and quite openly expressed their important experiences, events, knowledge and acquired life experience. We are proud of our students who, also through the written works published in this book, showed their personality with an open mind and heart, without embellishment.
So dear students, my fellow travelers on the path of education, walk through life freely and proudly and also humbly. I thank you, because we learned from each other – You from me and I from all of you.
Words to the readers of the book
The content of the book Life's Turn of a Human from the Perspective of Biodromal Psychology and Authentic Life Stories consists of scientific and professional contributions and also authentic life stories of people under the title "My Life Turn." The combination of scientific and professional text, supported by theoretical and empirical research with authentic life stories written by university students of full-time and part-time study from three universities in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, we consider a step towards enriching theoretical knowledge with the life reality of people and conversely, a step towards enriching people's life reality with theoretical knowledge.
In this book we express our professional opinion on the psychological, educational and social aspect of the lives of adults today, from the perspective of lifelong developmental psychology, i.e. biodromal psychology and from the perspective of social education of adults.
At the center of our attention is primarily the development of people's capabilities for living, adult personality development, social education, development of individual potential, socio-psychological adaptation of people, self-reflection and self-knowledge, projective methods of knowing and self-knowledge of man, and other topics.
In preparing the book we were guided by a sincere interest in motivating readers to think about themselves and about other people and to support them in being faithful to their unique talent, gift, and abilities. Because only through their own effort and their own doing can they arrive at an answer to the question Who am I? Who do I want to be? How do I live and how do I want to live? If they understand their own life path, they have a chance to understand other people on their life path as well.
The heart of this book is the authentic life stories of people aged 19 to 45 years, who are a living testimony of many and difficult "life turns" and personal changes on the path of self-knowledge and self-realization of man.
Just as the mythical bird Phoenix "rose from the ashes" stronger and more beautiful than ever before, so the life stories in this little book testify that overcoming difficult life situations, events and problems is worth it, because those who overcame them truly rose from the ashes. And through personal experience they became more sensitive to themselves and to other people.
The book is a living testimony of the unrepeatability and uniqueness of every human being. People in the life period of youth and middle age, the main heroes of the 2nd chapter of this book, through their own life stories and their honesty and willingness to share the experience gained, leave a precious legacy. They bring inspiration into the lives of perceptive people who want not only to read something, but also to understand and, enriched by new experience, to act in favor of their own life. The book is a scientific text illustrated with authentic examples of biodromal psychology (psychology of the life path), in the form of written self-expression of adults on the topic "My Life Turn." We have authored and compiled the book so that it is not only innovative in the given field of knowledge and research, but also reader-friendly with valuable theoretical and applied knowledge. We believe that this publication has the chance to become a useful source of knowledge for all who care about their own life, the lives of others, and life on our dear planet Earth.
Author: Prof. PhDr. Mária Machalová, CSc. References
GROF, S. 1992. Dobrodružství sebeobjevování. Praha: Gemma89. 257 s. ISBN 80-85206-15-3. MACHALOVÁ, M. – SENKO,P. 2018. Životný obrat človeka z pohľadu biodromálnej psychológie a Autentické životné príbehy. Bratislava: Inštitút výchovy a športu a Prohuman. 319 s. ISBN978-80-972795-2-3. MACHALOVÁ, M. 2013. Preventívna sociálna práca – Edukačná paradigma v sociálnej práci. Prešov: Prešovská univerzita. 272 s. ISBN 978-80-555-0932-7. OSHO. 2007. Kniha poznání. Praha: Pragma. 270 s. ISBN 978-80-7349-082-9. ŠAK, F. 2016. Sviecou tela je oko. In: ISTINA – Mesačník Bratstva pravoslávnej mládeže na Slovensku – SYNDESMOS, roč.XXI, jún 2016. ISSN 1335-6739.