Acknowledging What Is: Conversations With Bert Hellinger

Rating:
Summary: revolutionary and beyond therapy
Review: A wonderful book for those who have seen Bert Hellinger in action, and even for those who haven't . For those of us who have witnessed the integrity he brings into the art of helping people it is a book filled with the knowledge and insight he has gained experientially while working with family systems and setting up constellations. For those new to his breathtaking work it is full of things to spark one's interest and inform.
Do not dismiss this work. It is quite simply the beginning of something unbelievably profound and soul-enriching. It is in fact about working with the movements of the soul.

Rating:
Summary: Hellinger is dangerous
Review: If you really believe, that you can change your attitudes by visiting Hellinger's family constellation therapies, then wake up! It does not work like that easy, to change one-self. Sadly.
The patterns which arose passivly, without your consciousness, will not change by this method. You will run into a short high. Then you will fall even deeper. It is easy to climb a mountain. Particular if somebody offers you a lift. But it is difficult to climb down. Because the lift was an illusion. So you stay up there and pretend, that you are flying. Fly well, the impact of the fall will help others to earn more money.

Rating:
Summary: How to really make progresses and help ourself
Review: Read the book impartially and look for the thing in your life that you do not know where they come from- why there's always been difficulties in relationships, secrets and neglected families members- then you will undestand what is Hellinger doing, which is much more "positive" than labelling people' problems. Read it over and read it again after some time, this book deserves unprejudiced attention.

Rating:
Summary: very dangerous + Hellingers attitude towards A. Hitler
Review: This therapy is quite new in the United States. It is well known in Europe, particularly Germany and Austria, Hellingers home. There, the reactions to his therapies are controversial: Quite a few see him as a new guru, turning a blind eye to the fact that several participants of his therapy have committed suicide afterwards.

What most people cannot understand are the psychological and spiritual dynamics which need to be studied further in order to examine this type of therapy with a thorough understanding.

The person for whom the constellation is done, is not actively participating:
The active participation is done by other people, mostly strangers to the person whose story is being played out.
They have to "open" themselves to receive the "energy" for what ever person they are meant to "act" in this particular constellation.
Now, for a person to be fully "empty" of their own participation, they have to be well-trained and very special people.
The average person cannot do this and let's not forget the power of the subconscious and the need of most people to have their own
say, i.e. to manipulate indírectly without actually realizing what they are doing.
The therapist, if sensitive enough, has now to step-in and actually manipulate! Thus, any vague possibility of a real energy coming from wherever.... is gone!

But let's suppose that this "energy" of another person will be able to be received by the "actor", what effect will this have on him? If this person would really be able to empty him/herself, then this person is without any inner protection! They are open and whatever will be received, can act. Now.... we can be quite certain, that the energy to be received by such an open and vulnerable person will by no means be a higher spiritual energy. No, if, what Hellinger says to be true, it will be the energy of a disturbed person, or..... if the constellation is done for people already dead, it will be, according to Hellinger, the energy of the dead person. Now... suppose this to be true,
this energy, or let's call it ghost - this ghost will have an invitation from its world (a world we normally are protected from, if it exists) into the empty mind of a participant. This is supposing that Hellinger is right.
What if Hellinger is mistaken and, according to certain logical laws, the participant does not come into contact with this very ghost of a particular dead person, but some different "energy" or "entity", whatever it might be.
The disturbances into the deeper psychological life of this participant are pre-programmed.
They will have certain effects.
Hellinger does not know what he is playing around with here.
He actually plays god.


Here some facts, which might be of interest:

Bert Hellinger moved into the ex-study-house of A. Hitler near Berchtesgaden!

Some words from Hellinger books:

"Only when the last Jew has spoken a prayer for the dead, will the Jewish Nation find peace within itself, with its arabic neighbours and the world." (Mit der Seele gehen: Peace begins in the Soul)

"If I respect you (Hitler), then I respect myself. If I despice you, I descpice myself. Can I love you? Maybe I have to love you, because otherwise I cannot love myself.(Gottesgedanken, not yet available in English)




Rating:
Summary: gets more interesting the more times you read it
Review: This very straightforward book tackles many controversial subjects in psychotherapy with empirical wisdom: what helps people and what doesn't. Bert Hellinger does not seem to be concerned with anything else, and his practice reflects that simplicity and directness. The questions asked by the interviewer are often the very ones the reader wants to ask. This family constellation work is worth much more investigation.