|
|
|
|
|
Stephen HarveyStephen Harvey is a British philosopher and hypnotherapist. Although a sceptic and empiricist, Harvey was strongly influenced by the anti-metaphysical mysticism of Timothy Freke. As a hypnotherapist, Harvey trained under Valerie Austin at the City University of London in 2004. He primarily uses The Austin Technique. Harvey has also received training from Jonathan Royle. Harvey's thought Harvey describes his main philosophical influences as being: - The radical empiricism and sceptical naturalism of David Hume - The anti-metaphysical mysticism of Timothy Freke - The radical scepticism and anti-anthropocentricism of John Gray He also quotes the following as having been considerable lesser influences on him: - The philosophical cognitive therapy of Aaron Beck and David Burns - The sceptical spirituality of Robert Solomon - The joyfully bracing eschatology of Sheldon Kopp - The enlightened existentialism of James Park - The humanistic psychology of Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers - The poetic spiritual eclecticism of Cheryl Miller Harvey considers mystical philosophy to be not literal truth, but instead to be an experiential psychology rich in archetypal motifs, with the ability to transform one's state of mind into a primordial natural state of awareness. Dogmatic beliefs can become barriers to this simple awareness if held on to tightly. This shows not only the influence of Freke, but echoes the scepticism and naturalism of David Hume. Like Freke, Harvey considers the aim of such mystical endeavours as not salvation or enlightenment, but enlivenment - a return to joyful living in the here and now. He further stresses that, echoing Daniel Quinn, there is not 'one right way to live' - thus such a philosophical path is not for everyone. A self-confessed hardcore agnostic, Harvey has no beliefs in life after death, and personally considers such an abandonment of hope as a 'joyfully bracing liberation'. Although superficially seeming to contradict Freke's view, expressed in his books, of enlivenment being an awareness of one's immortal nature, Harvey rather considers such an awareness as a metaphor for an existential shift in one's outlook on the world. As with Freke's view, the human fear of death is conquered by an 'ego death' - an abandonment of clinging to the concept of the ego-self. This has parallels with Buddhist philosophy, in which the concept of an unalterable self is a craving for immortality, which must be let go of. Harvey sees this same essential process as being achieved both by atheists and agnostics who come to terms with their own mortality without any faith in an afterlife, and those mystics who believe they are transcending an ego-self. Like Freke, although Harvey considers both one's identity as a person (echoing Hume) and the corresponding notion of personal free will to ultimately be illusions, he does not consider it either necessary or possible to escape from them. Such illusion must be embraced, in a passionate engagement with life, but with awareness. This parallels Freke's notion of 'lucid living' - not seeking to wake from a dream-like life, but instead dreaming more lucidly. Such a concept is also articulated in John Gray's Straw Dogs, eching Chuang-Tzu, and is more in common with Taoist than Buddhist tradition. Such an approach to life is also implied in Hume's naturalism. Other info In addition to his qualifications in hypnotherapy, Harvey is also qualified in Usui Reiki, although disbelieves in its metaphysical system, as taken literally. Also a writer, Harvey has authored several short stories and poems, many of which are listed on his website. Many of these have a somewhat 'dark' theme to them, suggesting moments of serious angst and anguish along his path to his current state of enlivenment. Some have a somewhat existentialist flavour to them. His treatment of time in his poem, 'Everything Feels Distinctly Broken', is of particular interest. Harvey's main interest in writing is currently non-fiction. He currently plans to write books on mystical philosophy which can be understood on two levels: That of the typical 'spiritual' person as aimed at by Freke, with for example a faith in immortality, and what he considers a deeper (less Literalist) understanding, wholly compatible with naturalism, atheism and agnosticism. Project Myqu An accomplished computer programmer, Harvey also presented 'Project Myqu' at the 2003 Click Convention under his nickname, Mequa, for the software company Clickteam. This was an emulator and code translator from the AMOS BASIC programming language on the Commodore Amiga, to the PC, using Clickteam's own JavaScript-based software development package, Jamagic. The link here was the French programmer, Franois Lionet, who created AMOS in the early 1990s, and served on the development team for Jamagic. External links *http://www.mequa.com Stephen Harvey's Website
|
 |
|
| Copyright 2005-2009 OnPedia.com. All Rights Reserved |
|
|