A great way to get started with Pathwork® is by attending a free lecture. Click HERE to attend our next Pathwork Evenings lecture.
If you are a reader, you might try reading a lecture. There is no right way to read these lectures. Of course you should do what works for you. That said, the following is a fairly common experience. The first time reading a lecture can feel dense and confusing. You might get a few great things out of it. The second time you read it, you’ll typically get much, much more. Others will read it line by line, or paragraph by paragraph, stopping to reflect each time.
Fundamental Pathwork Lectures
We polled a number of experienced Pathworkers regarding which are the best lectures for those new to Pathwork®. Here they are, in the recommended order of reading. Both printable and audio versions of all 258 Pathwork Lectures can be download from the International Pathwork Foundation’s website HERE.
Lecture #25 The Path: Initial Steps, Preparation, and Decisions
Everybody knows that it is important to be a decent person, not to commit so-called sins, to give love, to have faith, and to be kind to others. However, this is not enough. In the first place, knowing all this and actually being able to act on it are two different stories. You may be able by voluntary action to refrain from committing a crime such as stealing or killing, but you cannot possibly force yourself to feel that you do not want to harm anybody, ever. You may act kindly toward another, but you cannot force yourself to feel kindly. Neither can you force yourself to have love in your heart or to have real faith in God. Whatever pertains to emotions is not dependent upon your direct actions or even on your thoughts. Changing your feelings requires the slow process of self-development and self-recognition.
Lecture #101 The Defense
Human beings have an innate system for reacting to real danger, e.g., if the house is on fire or someone who means harm is chasing after you. When you are on the defensive in psychological conflicts, for irrational, unrealistic reasons, your glandular system does not question the validity of the reason. The poisonous substance is released the moment you are frightened, and every time you are on the defensive, you are frightened. Therefore, it is important that unrealistic fears should cease, and being on the defensive for no valid reason be ruled out of your life, otherwise the poisonous substance will affect your bloodstream and nervous system, and physical damage will accrue in one way or another.
Lecture #73 Compulsion to Recreate and Overcome Childhood Hurts
As children, we had an unrealistic desire to be loved exclusively and without limits. Where the child didn’t get it, s/he will hunger for it and unconsciously cry out for it in adulthood. If the hurts, disappointment and unfulfilled needs of years remain unconscious, we cannot come to terms with them. We can only forgive and let go if we recognize our deeply hidden hurt and resentment. The subconscious mind is destructive, shrewd and illogical. It has us reenact the “play” of the past hoping it will be different. This recreation of childhood wounding only gets more and more discouraged. The remedy is in re-experiencing and observing the pain and longing – while conscious of the understanding we have gained. When we do so, we are happier and able to give and receive mature love.
Lecture #43 Three Basic Personality Types: Reason, Will, Emotion
There are three basic types of human personality. The first type governs his or her life and reactions mainly with reason. The second type does so mainly with emotion, and the third does so with the will. In other words, the three personality types are dominated by reason, by emotion, and by will. A personality is never completely one-sided; every person is a mixture of types, but one is always predominant. Identifying which you are will help you in your quest to lessen your defenses and strengthen your special gifts.
Lecture #192 Real and False Needs
Real needs include the basics we need for survival. It also includes the need to love and be loved, the need to be seen and heard, and much more. Whatever is real at one period of a person’s life may be false and unreal at a later period. What is a real need for a child may not be a real need for an adult. When the growing person denies the pain of an unfulfilled real need, this need does not disappear. On the contrary, the denial of the pain of its unfulfillment perpetuates the need and projects it into a later time and onto other people, so that it becomes a false need. The solution is in accepting the suffering and working it through on the conscious level.
Lecture #14The Higher Self, the Lower Self, and the Mask
We each have a Higher Self, which lives in truth, has great wisdom, and a divine aspect. We also have a Lower Self, which is based on pride, self-will, and self-centered fear. It contains the negative parts of ourselves, e.g., our insecurity, pettiness, jealousy, greed, bitterness, sense of scarcity, hostility, need to be right, dominate, and so on. We also have a Mask – the façade we create for others (and worse, often believe ourselves!) that hides our true feelings, e.g., our arrogant exterior masks our insecure feelings. By owning your Lower Self and Mask, you have more of our Higher Self available to you.