A Passion For the Possible: A Guide to Realizing Your True Potential

by Jean Houston

Heralded and championed by Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson, Jean Houston has served as an advisor to President and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and she worked closely with Mary Catherine Bateson in helping Hillary Clinton write It Takes a Village. Now comes her most accessible book yet, the companion to her PBS special.

Genres: Spirituality, Self Help, Psychology, Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Jean Houston, PhD, is a renowned teacher, philosopher, and scholar and was one of the creators of the human potential movement. With a remarkable list of colleagues and mentors that includes Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, Helen Keller, and Buckmister Fuller, Houston shares her profound wisdom through engaging, firsthand accounts. With PhDs in both psychology and spirituality, Houston has worked in the field of social artistry and in over 100 countries and 40 cultures. As a consultant to the United Nations and other international agencies, she has created many programs offering training and solutions to cultural and social problems. She has written several dozen books, won numerous awards, and has been a professor at universities in the United States.

Reviews

[Erik Akre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jean Houston is a great writer and a creative thinker--a kind of genius I think. This might be a book to own; it's so full of good ideas and exercises that one can come back to.

I took from this book a fresh outlook on living life, an outlook that sees the infinite possiblities contained in the Me-Self, capital M capital S. Each of us holds vast and endless resources inside us--an unending multitude of sense impressions, personalities, memories, stories, symbols, and divine revelations. One reads this book and realizes the utter impossibility of boredom. If you can never get really and truly bored, what is there to fear? All experiences feed the process of life. Each experience opens us up to an amazing network of possibilities, in which to partake or not. Life is a never-ending, intricate network of events and options.

By opening up to the inner world we make space for these possibilities to manifest. They manifest inwardly and outwardly. We can bring any experience from outside to inside, or inside to outside. There really is only the frailest border between the two worlds, if there is any at all.

A worthwhile read; recommended.

[Dewin Anguas Barnette · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first I wasn’t sure whether I liked Houston’s approach. This was my only my second exposure to her work after listening to a free seminar a couple of months ago. But, by the end, I got it. It is similar to information I have read in other books but presented in a way that reaches you more deeply. I learned a lot from reading her words and will definitely look into her work further.

[Em · Rating 3 out of 5]

This little book has some wonderful imagery - up the mountain, then down inside the spiral core of the mountain to find facets of oneself. I particularly liked this quote I found in the last pages - "The home you have longed for has always been within you." She later adds, "Now it's your choice..think back over your travels - the inner landscapes you have explored, the special people you have met...the Creator you discovered yourself to be. The great Kingdom within is your birthright, your splendid inheritance".

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Food for the soul and for the creative mind. Thank you, Jean Houston. I appreciate your work!

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely LOVED this book and will read it over and over again I am sure. It has inspired so many concepts within my own writing, translating ideas into children's books, but has also given me numerous 'penny-drop' moments as well!

[J.L. Vasche · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love her work. Very informative.

[Yvette Tsiropoulos · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read by Jean Houston. Too much name dropping, as if the author needs to confirm her scholar's/wisdom teacher's status.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book very disappointing, full of vague, overgeneralized ideas that are oftern part of new age literature.

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author's personal story with Hillary Clinton is more interesting than this book. This one is an interesting attempt to package visualization for a reading audience.

[Sambasivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

How to be one with the soul and live a full life that is true to your passion and potential? If you like the soul searching way to reach there, this is for you.