The Promise of Wholeness: Cultivating Inner Peace, Mindfulness, and Love in a Divided World

Drawing from four decades of clinical private practice, psychiatric social worker Ehrke’s impassioned, in-depth and unruly debut integrates philosophy, psychology, and spirituality to create a “dialectic discovery” that intends to lead readers to “wholeness.” Love is at the base of human existence, writes Ehrke, and he directs readers to ask better questions about how one’s innate sense of love and empathy have been corrupted due to circumstances of both nature and nurture. Ehrke breaks the human consciousness into eight forms: illusion, love, devotion, grace, equanimity, empathy, incorruptibility, and henosis (or wholeness, from ancient Greek philosophy). Ehrke then presents his own complicated methods for practicing a more integrated life, such as the “somatic empathy theory” (integration between body and mind) and the “theory of incorruptibility” (the necessity of aligning oneself with the “incorruptibility” of henosis). He also provides meditations to increase empathy, such as the Camel Wave Meditation and form meditations. Often heavy-handed and overly loquacious, Ehrke’s idiosyncratic debut will interest readers already seeking a spiritually oriented integration of philosophy and psychotherapy. (Feb.)