Bringing Your Shadow Out of the Dark: Breaking Free from the Hidden Forces That Drive You

by Robert Augustus Masters

"Our shadow," teaches Robert Augustus Masters, "is our internal storehouse for the parts of us that we’ve disowned or rejected, or are otherwise keeping in the dark." Everyone has a shadow, but all too many of us are unaware of it. It holds the feelings and beliefs that we are most ashamed of or cannot accept about ourselves. For some, it may contain unacknowledged anger or grief. For others, pain or fear. Our shadow contains our unfaced conditioning. And the more unaware we are of our shadow, the more it influences and controls us. Based upon Masters's four decades as a psychospiritual therapist and guide, Bringing Your Shadow Out of the Dark invites readers to understand and skillfully work with this rich yet neglected dimension of ourselves. With depth and clarity, he illuminates the process of meeting our shadow in beneficial ways, and how we can embody a more complete and life-giving experience of who we are. In this book you’ll  • The nature of our shadow and how to optimally work with it—exploring our conditioning and core shadow elements, including in the domains of shame, fear, aggression, resistance, addiction, death, and spirituality • How to work with the child within, self-sabotage, narcissism, sexuality, dreams, and other matters deeply influenced by our shadow • Why turning toward our pain is an essential part of shadow work—making wise use of our pain • Collective shadow domains we share with family, social groups, political party, or nation—bringing them and their associated traumas into the light When we uncover and work in-depth with our shadow, we free ourselves from its control and gain the opportunity to put its contents to work for us instead of allowing them to work against us. Bringing Your Shadow Out of the Dark shows us how to navigate the full terrain of our emotions, drives, needs, and depths of who we are. Foreword by Lissa Rankin, MD, New York Times bestselling author of Mind Over Medicine, The Fear Cure, and The Anatomy of a Calling. 

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Self Help, Spirituality, Personal Growth

183 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2018

About the author

Robert Augustus Masters was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1947. From an early age he was an avid artist, but in high school switched to the sciences, with which he stayed until he found himself at the age of 21 in a PhD program in biochemistry. Little more than a year later, only a few hours after a dream of dying, he left his doctoral studies, and began an odyssey of intense travel, initially outer, then inner.


As he did so, his passion for the arts reemerged, especially through writing. He began meditating, doing yoga, and exploring cutting-edge therapies and trainings. By 1978 he was working as a therapist and bodyworker. From the beginning his work was integral and creatively structured, combining the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Structure was not (and still is not) preset, but was (and still is) allowed to emerge in fitting accordance with individual and group needs.


In 1981 he won his first literary prize — an all-expenses paid trip for two to Hawaii — for his story of a particularly perilous Indonesian adventure he’d had 8 years earlier. This spurred him to immerse himself more fully in his writing. He also deepened his psychospiritual work, which spread worldwide in the late 1980s.


In early 1994 his life abruptly and dramatically changed, following an extremely harrowing near-death experience, which is described in his book Darkness Shining Wild. Since 1986 he had been leading an experimental psychospiritual community (also described in Darkness Shining Wild), which had gradually gone strongly awry. He had become more and more of a guru, abusing his power, not seeing that what he was leading had become a cult. His near-death experience brought this to a halt, breaking him down so deeply that he could not resurrect his former way of being. A half year later, still shaken to the core and overcome with remorse, he disbanded the community, soon thereafter beginning a very different journey, that of fully facing and working through what had driven him so far off track.


A year later he resumed his work, but in a much more compassionate, radically inclusive manner, centered to a significant degree by the practice of becoming intimate with all that we are — high and low, dark and light, dying and undying. He became a student again, completing a PhD program in psychology at Saybrook Graduate School in 1999; his dissertation received the highest award (dissertation with distinction). In 1998 he co-edited the Fall issue of ReVision: A Journal of Consciousness and Transformation (the theme of the issue being “Intimate Relationships and Spirituality”).


Evolving in fitting parallel with his relationally-rooted psychospiritual work has been his writing. He is the author not only of fourteen books, but also of numerous essays. In 2000 his essay “Wrathful Compassion” won the Editor’s Award for the best article of the year in the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. His essays have appeared in a number of publications, most recently Spanda Journal. His books have received critical acclaim; Christiane Northrup, Jean Houston, Ken Wilber, Harville Hendrix, and Jack Kornfield are among those who have strongly endorsed his writing. In 2008 his book Transformation Through Intimacy was a Nautilus Book Awards finalist (Silver Winner). His latest book is To Be a Man: A Guide to True Masculine Power.

Reviews

[Avalon · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.5 Stars*

I approached Bringing Your Shadow Out of the Dark (BYSOD) with a great deal of enthusiasm. Shadow work is one of my biggest passions and I am overjoyed that new generations are releasing the stigma of therapy and embracing introspection and healing. For those who are unfamiliar, shadow work is the process of exploring the parts of ourselves that we’ve disowned, those pieces that lurk in the enigmatic silt of the unconscious. Oftentimes these shadow aspects are unsavory and we vehemently deny their presence through projection, reactivity, detachment and more. However, the shadow also contains our greatest treasures and inner resources, if only we are brave enough to reclaim them. Resources such as our immense personal power that we buried because a domineering parent found it threatening. The goal of this work is to illuminate the shadow and consciously integrate it into our psyche.
I could literally write about this topic all day, I am so enthralled by it.

Unfortunately I found BYSOD to be a bit of a mixed bag. I was hoping that it would be the portal through which I could go deeper and become even more intimate with my shadow, but I think that this book is ultimately most suitable for those beginning their shadow work journey. Which is not to say that Augustus Masters didn’t have anything to add to the conversation. There were several revelatory gems sprinkled throughout that piqued my interest and expanded my knowledge on the subject.

I especially loved the way he unmasked the shadow side of the “negative” emotional spectrum such as fear, shame (which our society neglects to discuss) and narcissism. I found his analysis of anger to be especially enlightening as someone who has a lot of anger in their shadow. I also enjoyed the author’s examination of spiritual bypass and the fear of death, two taboo topics that many people shy away from. Perhaps his coup d’etat was his section on ‘signs your shadow is showing up,’ which was absolutely brilliant as it is admittedly difficult to recognize when the sublimated shadow self has taken over.

I do have a couple constructive criticisms that are worth mentioning. The section about pain went on for too long in my opinion; I think it could have been condensed into just a few pages. Other parts dragged on a little as well, however I am willing to consider that this could be attributed to the fact that I have baseline familiarity with some of the material. Perhaps my biggest gripe is that the author inserted his own (exceedingly negative) political views into the equation under the guise of examining the shadow of the U.S. While it’s possible that he had good intentions, I found it distasteful and it detracted from my overall reading experience.

For those just becoming acquainted with the subject of shadow work, I think Bringing Your Shadow Out of the Dark is a fabulous introduction. For those that are ready and able to venture more deeply into the shadow realm, I highly recommend Your Secret Self by Tracy Marks.

[Ann T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Sounds True Publishing and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

This a great book that demonstrates the importance of taking responsibility for ones life and stop making excuses.
Robert Madters teaches the reader that rather than hiding in your shadow, to stand tall and allow space to feel difficult emotions, and embrace your whole wonderful self.
I was very happy to have the opportunity to read this great book.

[Drick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Augustus Masters has put together a book that explains the concept of personal shadow in very down-to-earth terms, while also providing the reader practical guidance on to relate to and interact with one's personal griefs, traumas and deep pains that lay just beneath the level of consciousness. While this book was easy to read, it was a hard read as I sought to apply what he advised. This is a book I can go back to again and again, as shadow work never ends.

[Karl Forehand · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book literally changed my life! Learn about shadow and then bring it out of the Dark.

[Meg Kimball · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm between a three and a four for this book. It's a great book, and I highly recommend it! It helped me out a lot in understanding my shadow side, and he has this great way of describing "reactivity" which is exactly what happens when I go postal. However, he seems a bit egotistical. On pages 108-109, he actually talks about how he started a cult in the 1980s that was really hurtful to a lot of people. His point--that we're never able to quit learning, because we're never fully "there" in the self-awareness arena--seems to have been lost on him, because for one thing he dedicates the book to his wife and mentions that the rest of their lives are "bonus time" together. Which is great, but surely even his marriage still has ups and downs. The author seems to have a bit of... hubris? about his insight and intelligence.

I went to his website, and he only offers counseling to people who aren't taking any psychiatric drugs (unless they're tapering off of them). Do I even dare ask why he's against psychiatric drugs? (He offered no explanation for this on his site, and I didn't feel like asking.) As a schizophrenic, I'd love to challenge him to spend one weekend with me while I leave my meds at home, but even I don't wish that upon him. Just sayin', the author sort of rubbed me the wrong way in a lot of places. Then there was the time that he said the entire Republican party is ruled by the collective shadow. As someone who voted for Trump and believes he's making America great again, um, can I just say, geez? Maybe stick to the self-help without waxing poetic about unrelated insights/opinions.

That said, I'm being really hard on this guy, but the book was very helpful to me; hence my four-star rating. It was loaded with insight that helped me get through a hard time, and a lot of it helped me think deeper about my issues. He was able to delineate in a brilliant way exactly what causes each manifestation of the shadow. I do highly recommend this book for anyone struggling with acting badly and feeling out of control with their anger. Just take all of his info given with a grain of salt, and decide how true it seems to you.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good introduction to the shadow and what shadow work is. The writing left a lot to be desired for my taste. I felt that it almost read as a reference book at times and it felt a bit tedious. The information is good but the style was lacking. I don’t think the author said anything that struck me as profound but this would be a good place to start looking at the shadow.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very informative read. I'll definitely read more by this author.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, taught me a lot. helps to be able to look at oneself a little closer in order to control the shadow self and understand it better, especially for use in magick.

[Tré · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last chapters were, in some ways, the most interesting.

[Javier Lorenzana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The darkest parts of ourselves. The emotions we hide. Turn to them. They hold the secrets to self-understanding and freedom.

[Joe · Rating 1 out of 5]

It took me a very long time to read this book, while very interesting at points it also seemed highly repetitive and dull in many places.

The key takeaways are analysing your plans, behaviour, whether they are congruent and regular (daily) reflection on why you are doing what you are doing in a journal or with a trained professional.

I ended up giving this book one star because:
- the author was asking to readers to give their pain a colour and shape
- the author slammed all Republicain voters and basically said the Democratic party and Hillary Clinton were the future and people only voted Republican because they failed to own their shadow
- blamed everything on the rich and failed to apply any responsibility on people for taking control over their own lives which I had expected was the entire point of the book

[Dawn Kimble · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is filled with useful details and practices to work with Shadow and pain. It's lovingly presented to the reader with reminders of the benefits of facing the dragons in your Shadow.