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| Dear Reader, |
| I heartily invite you to join the IET workshops. IET is a modern synthesis of the two greatest ancient therapies: meditation and catharsis. Zen, Yoga and Vipassana meditation have been giving mankind spiritual inspiration for thousands of years. The shamans and witchdoctors too have helped people with their cathartic rituals. Catharsis allows a person to unburden himself of his pain and meditation enables a person to find meaning in life. Furthermore, catharsis helps a person confront and resolve his deepest repressed thoughts and feelings while meditation aids him in understanding the complex psychological processes that have led to his inner conflict. The combination of cathartic feelings and meditative understanding offers a kind of cognitive-affective experience that is raw, profound and full of enlightenment. With the healing accorded by catharsis and meditation, a person is able to rise above his self-centeredness and enjoy loving and being loved. Love is the third, if not the greatest, therapy. But it must be based on a spiritual foundation that has been cleansed of hate and self-doubt and must be plugged to a spiritual font of unlimited love. Meditation, catharsis and their fruit - love - have always given healing and happiness to mankind. Healing is a process of de-conditioning. After having been conditioned by the pain of rejection and other traumatic pains, a person is now guided to his spiritual identity that gives him the strength to let go his anxieties, anger and depression. He rediscovers his passions and dreams. He becomes fully human, able to control and express his own thoughts and feelings. IET is more than just a therapy. It is a spiritual adventure. The moment a person experiences his spiritual identity and realizes that human consciousness is divine consciousness, he is like a cord plugged to a high voltage source. Having purged himself of his mental and emotional garbage, enlightenment comes to him with clarity and certainty. He transcends his petty "self" and becomes the "I", a co-creator and a vessel, full of creativity, love and expression. IET accumulates the wisdom of so many prominent meditation teachers, psychologists and psychiatrists, as can seen in the links of the "I" Empowerment Therapy Manual. IET incorporates the best features of various therapies and discards their outdated features. All of these teachings have one common basis: human experience. IET is also the story of my life - a life of search that I want to share with you because I want to show that IET is based on human experience and not on any belief or teaching. IET is based on humanity. Basically, I had always wanted to find out the answer to the question, Who am I? I suppose you also ask the same question. To this end, I joined a Catholic seminary at the age of 18 to become a priest (lasted only 2 years in the seminary), went to India at the age of 23 to become a guru where I meditated for four hours a day in an ashram (my most profound 4 months of experience), came back to Manila to study philosophy in college, Masters in Business Administration after college and finally took my doctorate in psychology after MBA. While searching, I became disillusioned with my religion that I considered too dogmatic, the yoga organization that I found to be politically and financially motivated, philosophy that I thought to be too abstract and even psychology that does not address the spiritual core of a person. In the meantime, I rebelled against my parents to whom I was very close. In other words, I lost all my dependencies - mental, emotional, psychological and religious. My life became a life of disillusionment. Back at the age of 24, in my struggle to find meaning in my life, I started to study psychology on my own and continued my meditation that I learned in India. I did regression therapy on myself while doing meditation. I would lock myself in my room as I plunged into my deepest pains and relived my trauma amidst groans and sobs - all these in meditative awareness to help me understand my darkest secrets. I began to straighten out my inner conflicts. These were the times when the seeds of "I" Empowerment Therapy were sown. Little did I know that the process of the search was more important than the goal of the search. Life pared me of all dependencies and dreams. There was nothing left but "I". I found my true spiritual identity, my "I", during catharsis and meditation. Without my illusions and defense mechanisms, I opened myself to life and love. At 32 I married Ads with whom I am so much in love up to this very moment (at my present age of 55). I am also blessed with three wonderful children: Khara, Gem and Marc. You ask what is the point of my story. I want to show that I am no different than you or any other person beside you. I have known pain and disillusionment. I have my weaknesses and animal instincts. But I want to tell you that there is also in us something that is spiritual. If we care to look into it, it will lead us to a world full of wonder, joy and fulfillment. If you are a searcher or if you are in pain, perhaps you will listen to me. If you are enjoying yourself too much with other activities, that's great! There is always another time. Should you be interested, welcome aboard! Sincerely yours, Gonzalo (Lito) Misa [ back to top ] |