Ask the Author: J.A. Kent
Answered Questions (6)
J.A. Kent
I fiddle around a bit - writing more or less mechanically until I relax enough to find my "writers voice". This voice is poetic and lyrical and has an Irish accent. When I hear this I know I am in "the groove". Also I'm strongly motivated to help people and get a lot of pleasure from doing this as an educator and a therapist. As a writer this is also my strong motivation. It probably sounds a bit corny but there it is.
J.A. Kent
When I worked as a High school teacher I did quite a lot of research into different ways of teaching and learning. This work was very successful in many ways. Firstly students began to achieve at a higher level than was expected of them. Secondly all bullying stopped and students in the groups began to respect and support each other. Thirdly the students became very engaged in what we were doing. I am a trained psychotherapy group leader so I had used some of the principles of group leading and combined these ideas with principles of the Goddess model of reality to create a positive learning environment. I think that in the light of the many problems that face educators today the model I created offers some useful solutions. For example, I think that the magical model of how the mind works is helpful. This model works on the premise that there are basically two parts to the mind - the lower or concrete mind or what we describe as the intellect and the higher mind or intuition. When children struggle with the intellect it can be very beneficial to help them to develop the intuition. I show how this can be done.
J.A. Kent
Do the rigorous research that gives a foundation for the legitimizing what you say but at the same time don't be afraid make the imaginative leaps that make your work enjoyable for readers. And start with what you know because you are the expert of your own experience.
J.A. Kent
In my case I write because I want to help people find ways of discovering that the scientific rationalist description of reality is not definitive. There are other levels of reality apart from the physical and those other levels of spiritual reality can help us to think more critically and to understand that there are answers to some of the chronic problems that face humanity. So I'd say that helping people to expand their horizons is an important educational achievement for me.
J.A. Kent
I am a bit of a procrastinator - but I'm not sure that is writer's block. Really I usually give myself a good talking to and then sort of crash through and start writing. It feels a bit mechanical until a flow starts to happen and then the writing becomes more organic and elegant and I feel like I am in touch with my inspiration.
J.A. Kent
The ideas in the book, The Goddess and the Shaman, came out of my own experiences as a magical worker, a psychotherapist and a teacher. I had written a doctoral dissertation that was highly praised and the markers had suggested that I publish a book about the research and the theoretical ideas in the thesis. They were academics but thought that a book that was more attuned to a wider public market was important. They described the research as "groundbreaking" and "fascinating". So because the research project could be transformed into a book that would serve a wider public I decided to seek publication. So the ideas in this book came from my own experiences of other levels of reality, from the experiences of my students and patients with that other subtle reality and how it could be used as a healing resource form the basis of this work. The theoretical model behind the writing is the Goddess. The Goddess in the intelligent and communicative intelligence that is the basis for the physical universe and who exists within us as well as outside us. This model in my view makes a lot more sense than the old "God" model in which God exists apart from us and who demands worship and obedience. I also thought that the case histories included in the book would be engaging and interesting to readers as they may have had similar psychic experiences for which they could not find a context and therefor were confused about the whole subject. It also opened up the whole subject of illness and healing when the conditions presented by certain cases were not solved by conventional treatments. Answers were found in the magical second reality by shaman methods of healing that were successful and enduring.
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