Claudio Naranjo

 

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Introduction

For a long time, I have resisted "displaying my wares" publicly. However, now I feel happy at the thought that through the Internet I may be able to interest people in my prescription for social healing, in Tótila Albert's heritage and in my own-- as I walk away from the integrative psycho-spiritual school that I created some 36 years ago.

Dr. Claudio NaranjoNot only have I resisted coming into the Internet because I have been too absorbed in my various endeavors to occupy myself in giving notice about them; also out of a faith that it is good for the organic unfolding for a community of seekers to be somewhat removed from the limelight, and the trust that a little hiding might bring into operation a process of self-selection according to motivation among those attracted to what I have to offer, since I have believed that this serves what I seek to do.

A stimulus for my having accepted some months ago Martin Cohen's offer of creating a web site for me, has been that of being told that there are thousands of entries in the Internet in my name (and I imagine that I would scarcely feel represented by most of these if I had the time to read them). And I have also accepted in view of the appropriateness of the fact that this offer comes from one who not only has been a librarian and head of a media department of an American University, but a disciple and assistant of both Buckminster Fuller and Ivan Illich.

Mainly, however, my motivation for having a web site now, is triple:

  1. it gives me the opportunity to share my vision in regard to the unique potential of education to take us to a better world than the one in which we are living, in the twilight of patriarchal civilization;
  2. it is also an opportunity to discharge a great responsibility at a time in life when, at the age of seventy-four, such a responsibility would not be wise to postpone: that of giving voice to Tótila Albert in our contemporary world;
  3. and, since nowadays the book market promotes best-sellers and I write for minorities, I hope that a web site may serve as a bridge between my books, tapes and DVD's and the public, for whom they have been written and for whom they are usually difficult to find.

As it will be seen, I have had a privileged training in many fields and have explored as many to the point of bearing abundant and varied fruits. Most of what I have come to understand or create in time has become interwoven in my work-- and not only in what I write but mostly in my work with people. And it seems to me as if all of this converged into the tasks of assisting individual transformation and militating toward the transformation of patriarchal education in an education for "harmonious three-brained beings".

I had not imagined what it would be like to enter the World Wide Web, and now that the time approaches I feel very satisfied at this impending planetary social birth. I imagine that the circulation of my ideas will be a good thing, and perhaps I am too optimistic but I find it difficult to imagine it not being received with interest. I even imagine and hope that this web site may turn out to be a triggering factor for the on-going process of educational change to enter a stage of acceleration.

This web site is intended to provide a reference point for people interested in my work where they can explore the full range of areas of my contributions, find a sampling of texts that I have written (some of them long unavailable generally), and encounter means both of delving into areas of my past work and keeping current with the new.

After making a list of my different specialties and fields of endeavor, I saw a certain symmetry in it that could be conveyed through the image of a bird with its two wings, head and tail. So I asked my good friend Jaclyne Scardova to draw one for me, and she has given me the firebird that I am using as support for the overview. On the flame-like feathers of the left wing are grouped subjects belonging to spirituality, while the right wing maps aspects of psychology and psychotherapy. The head stands for my writing in the area of social criticism and the envisioning of a healthy society, while the tail, refers to practical endeavors:

  1. my ideas about the transformation of education;
  2. my description of the SAT program;
  3. and a section on the application of SAT to education in the form of a "curriculum for humanization" that may serve as a supplement to academic training.

I apologize to my readers for not making myself available to answer possible inquiries or comments - this does not mean that I am not interested in receiving them - only that it would be incompatible with my life's work at the moment to devote the necessary time to the task of more correspondence than I already have. I am also sorry that I cannot offer at the moment a multi-lingual choice for all the materials attached. I hope that this will slowly come together through the interest of various friends in different countries. I thank them beforehand.

Claudio Naranjo           

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