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Two Lifetimes
This remarkable book is written to help people move out of being run by their wounded emotional child to being run by their empowered authentic adult self. It chronicles shifting from living life fearfully to living life powerfully and lovingly. It will change your life.
298 pages, Hardcover
Published November 4, 2020
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5 people want to read
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March 13, 2021Easy to follow even if hard to do
Patti makes healing accessible in her book, defining and then showing us the path from Lifetime One, living in child self, to Lifetime Two, your authentic adult self. Leave fear behind and embrace the love we are all meant to experience.
Patti makes healing accessible in her book, defining and then showing us the path from Lifetime One, living in child self, to Lifetime Two, your authentic adult self. Leave fear behind and embrace the love we are all meant to experience.
July 2, 2023
Based partly on the teachings of Helen Schucman and Mariana Williamson (A Course in Miracles/ A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles") and Richard Schwartz (Parts Theory, No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model), this book teaches about the two stages in life. Life 1: Chernobyl, a wasteland of futile effort and running after illusions and Life 2: Glacier National Park, Montana, a place of bliss, peace and contentment.
Using the Parts Theory, Smith divides life in these two parts and urges the reader to gently take control of their life from the child-self or "the ghost drivers" of trauma and let the real self, the mature part of one's personality take charge of one's destiny and lead one in the journey through this world. This is the Socratic command, "know thyself". Self is what Dick Schwartz called the innermost being, the spark of the Divine in one's being. This mature Self does not judge, shames or condemns. It leads with love and affection. If love is curiosity then self-love is nothing but self-exploration, finding out the fragments of one's real personality, recover them, accept them incorporate them in one's being, thank them for their service of leading us through the tribulations of life and convince them to give up control to the mature self through dialogue and empathic assertion.
Patti Smith goes on to chart the map to the Life 2 through emotional maturity and taking charge of and through one's authentic being by taking life's challenges on and learning from defeats. There are dozens of tools available like understanding, curiosity, challenges, defeats, disease, heartbreaks, forgiveness, anger, trauma, in short everything that life offers, leads us to a better place if we take it as a learning opportunity. As the poet Rumi said (in Coleman Barks's translation:
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
In fact Patti Smith uses Rumi's quote "cross the door-step" as the basis for her argument. A sort of book that I should have read years ago, not at the age of 53. So many years wasted, or were they?
Using the Parts Theory, Smith divides life in these two parts and urges the reader to gently take control of their life from the child-self or "the ghost drivers" of trauma and let the real self, the mature part of one's personality take charge of one's destiny and lead one in the journey through this world. This is the Socratic command, "know thyself". Self is what Dick Schwartz called the innermost being, the spark of the Divine in one's being. This mature Self does not judge, shames or condemns. It leads with love and affection. If love is curiosity then self-love is nothing but self-exploration, finding out the fragments of one's real personality, recover them, accept them incorporate them in one's being, thank them for their service of leading us through the tribulations of life and convince them to give up control to the mature self through dialogue and empathic assertion.
Patti Smith goes on to chart the map to the Life 2 through emotional maturity and taking charge of and through one's authentic being by taking life's challenges on and learning from defeats. There are dozens of tools available like understanding, curiosity, challenges, defeats, disease, heartbreaks, forgiveness, anger, trauma, in short everything that life offers, leads us to a better place if we take it as a learning opportunity. As the poet Rumi said (in Coleman Barks's translation:
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
In fact Patti Smith uses Rumi's quote "cross the door-step" as the basis for her argument. A sort of book that I should have read years ago, not at the age of 53. So many years wasted, or were they?
April 13, 2025
Absolutely needed to read this book! I would recommend it to everyone! Let’s all become of authentic self and spread love to the world!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews