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The Sacred Contract of America: Fulfilling the Vision of Our Mystic Founders
Just as every individual possesses a “sacred contractâ€-an obligation to fulfill a divine destiny-so too does every nation hold an agreement made for the planet's highest good. So begins Caroline Myss on her inspirational call to action, The Sacred Contract of America. In this provocative audio program, she sends you an invitation to reconnect with America's original vision of freedom and power, holding a beacon that * How your Sacred Contract is woven into that of your nation-and how to maintain both as a conscious citizen * The Bill of Rights as the seed of global self-esteem * The steps needed to rescue America from its shadow * The twelve major archetypes of America, including the Mystic, the Visionary, the Entrepreneur-Philanthropist, and the Rebel-Warrior-and the return of the historical figures who embodied them From its inception, Caroline Myss explains, the United States has been a great spiritual experiment-an unprecedented evolutionary step forward for human civilization that is both magnificent in its promise and perilous in its dangers. With The Sacred Contract of America, this modern-day patriot offers you an impassioned guide to actively participate in resurrecting your nation's highest potential.
- GenresAudiobookNonfiction
Audio CD
First published September 1, 2009
67 people want to read
About the author
Caroline Myss
176 books1,064 followersCaroline Myss was born on December 2, 1952 in Chicago, and grew up with her parents, and two brothers, one elder and one younger, in the Melrose Park, Illinois neighbourhood near Chicago. Caroline was raised a Catholic, and attended the Mother Guerin High School, River Grove, Illinois, run by the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana in 1974, and started her career in journalism in Chicago.
In the course of her career, she interviewed Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D., the author of the famous book, On Death and Dying, which inspired her to pursue a Master's degree in theology from Mundelein College, Chicago, which she completed in 1979. She also claims to hold a Ph.D in "intuition and energy medicine", but the degree was granted by Greenwich University, a now-defunct correspondence school that was never accredited to deliver higher education awards by any recognized government accreditation authority.
She started giving medical intuitive readings in 1982 and co-founded a small New Age publishing company, Stillpoint Publishing in Walpole, New Hampshire, where she also worked as an editor in 1983, next she began consulting with holistic doctors, which in 1984, led to her extensive collaboration with Dr. Norman Shealy, an M.D. schooled at Harvard, and the founder of the American Holistic Medical Association, with whom she later co-authored, "Aids: Passageway to Transformation," in 1987, followed by "The Creation of Health: The Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Responses that Promote Health and Healing," in 1988. Deriving from her practice as a medical intuitive, she started writing books, in the field of energy medicine, and healing, all of which became New York Times Best Sellers.[18] Starting with Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing (1996), which overlapped seven Christian sacraments with seven Hindu chakras and the Kabbalah's Tree of Life to create a map of the human "energy anatomy"; this was followed by Why People Don't Heal and How They Can (1998), which explored the reasons people do not heal through her concept of "woundology." Her next book, Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential (2002) dealt with the issue of finding "Life Purpose," while describing Sacred Contracts as "a set of assignments that our soul had formed around before incarnation". She has since appeared on the The Oprah Winfrey Show numerous times.
By 2000, she discontinued doing private medical intuitive readings, and instead started teaching it, through her workshops, seminars, radio shows and guided tours. She tours internationally as a speaker on spirituality and mysticism, and lives in Oak Park, Illinois, near Chicago. In 2003, she started the Caroline Myss Educational Institute, with Wisdom University in San Francisco.
Her 2007 book, "Entering the Castle" draws upon the writings of Saint Teresa of Ávila, a 16th century Carmelite nun, who wrote her most important work, The Interior Castle, towards the end of her life.
In the course of her career, she interviewed Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D., the author of the famous book, On Death and Dying, which inspired her to pursue a Master's degree in theology from Mundelein College, Chicago, which she completed in 1979. She also claims to hold a Ph.D in "intuition and energy medicine", but the degree was granted by Greenwich University, a now-defunct correspondence school that was never accredited to deliver higher education awards by any recognized government accreditation authority.
She started giving medical intuitive readings in 1982 and co-founded a small New Age publishing company, Stillpoint Publishing in Walpole, New Hampshire, where she also worked as an editor in 1983, next she began consulting with holistic doctors, which in 1984, led to her extensive collaboration with Dr. Norman Shealy, an M.D. schooled at Harvard, and the founder of the American Holistic Medical Association, with whom she later co-authored, "Aids: Passageway to Transformation," in 1987, followed by "The Creation of Health: The Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Responses that Promote Health and Healing," in 1988. Deriving from her practice as a medical intuitive, she started writing books, in the field of energy medicine, and healing, all of which became New York Times Best Sellers.[18] Starting with Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing (1996), which overlapped seven Christian sacraments with seven Hindu chakras and the Kabbalah's Tree of Life to create a map of the human "energy anatomy"; this was followed by Why People Don't Heal and How They Can (1998), which explored the reasons people do not heal through her concept of "woundology." Her next book, Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential (2002) dealt with the issue of finding "Life Purpose," while describing Sacred Contracts as "a set of assignments that our soul had formed around before incarnation". She has since appeared on the The Oprah Winfrey Show numerous times.
By 2000, she discontinued doing private medical intuitive readings, and instead started teaching it, through her workshops, seminars, radio shows and guided tours. She tours internationally as a speaker on spirituality and mysticism, and lives in Oak Park, Illinois, near Chicago. In 2003, she started the Caroline Myss Educational Institute, with Wisdom University in San Francisco.
Her 2007 book, "Entering the Castle" draws upon the writings of Saint Teresa of Ávila, a 16th century Carmelite nun, who wrote her most important work, The Interior Castle, towards the end of her life.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 13, 2007
These four CD lectures have nothing to do with a "contract" in the sense of an orderly, logical plan of action for an activist, nor of a systematic description of a relationship of a citizen to one's country, the topics about which I hoped to hear. Instead, Myss psychobabbles about a series of American "archetypes" (character types). Now, I am fascinated by the study of archetypes when properly applied to mythology or literature. But Myss applies such concepts as "The Orphan" and "The Prostitute," or Betty Crocker and the wounded Vietnam veteran, to a purportedly serious analysis of real life in contemporary America, making sweeping generalizations about how people conceive of themselves, with barely so much as a supporting anecdote, let alone any carefully considered theoretical or scientific support. Even if I were to accept such archetypes as bearing some truth, I would like to hear about how we can all co-exist and relate to each other, which would fall under the rubric of having a "sacred contract" with the country.
Oh, she also says that the Founding Fathers were "mystics" or "illuminati" whose spirits are present today, as is the spirit of St. Teresa of Avila.
Myss's speaking style is replete with emotional outbursts, which frighten and unnerve me as a listener because she begins to show emotion before she communicates the idea that triggered the emotion. For example, within the first 30 seconds of her lecture, she begins to recount giving a lecture in late 2001, then begins to propose a theory of how hotel rooms are generally lonely places, and suddenly she chokes up with tears and manages to utter "My father was a Marine." It never gets better; the whole CD is a succession of similar non sequiturs. The frequent angry or judgmental outbursts are unsettling even when they are positive. I don't need to hear a grating yell through my car's audio speakers about "this great, Great, GREAT..." before I even hear the noun that follows to complete the phrase to tell me what is so great, and then not hear any supporting details. I don't want her to interrupt her monologue with a schizophrenic "Stop it!" to admonish an imaginary adversary who is never adequately refuted.
Some of the topics are interesting. She talks about the consumer culture and prevalent attitudes of victimization and entitlement. But no one theory is ever properly developed. She claims that generosity is more embedded in the American psyche than in the psyches of other nations, and that early Americans were motivated by idealism whereas today Americans are motivated by greed and ambition, which are obviously controversial claims. But no argument is ever offered. Perhaps most damning is her grand tautology that slavery of Africans and genocide of Native Americans constitute the "original sin" of America, a sin that predated the principles of American liberty, such that American ideals cannot be criticized for racist dynamics that are not part of its essence. She is saying that America by definition is only that which is good. If so, why bother putting out an audio lecture to belabor the point?
Her concluding words are: "I see your sacred contract. I see your highest potential. I see why God is madly in love with you. That's what you look at. Fall in love with your country again." Had I known that "sacred contract" was equivalent with an undefined, liberally emoted "highest potential," I would have read something else.
Oh, she also says that the Founding Fathers were "mystics" or "illuminati" whose spirits are present today, as is the spirit of St. Teresa of Avila.
Myss's speaking style is replete with emotional outbursts, which frighten and unnerve me as a listener because she begins to show emotion before she communicates the idea that triggered the emotion. For example, within the first 30 seconds of her lecture, she begins to recount giving a lecture in late 2001, then begins to propose a theory of how hotel rooms are generally lonely places, and suddenly she chokes up with tears and manages to utter "My father was a Marine." It never gets better; the whole CD is a succession of similar non sequiturs. The frequent angry or judgmental outbursts are unsettling even when they are positive. I don't need to hear a grating yell through my car's audio speakers about "this great, Great, GREAT..." before I even hear the noun that follows to complete the phrase to tell me what is so great, and then not hear any supporting details. I don't want her to interrupt her monologue with a schizophrenic "Stop it!" to admonish an imaginary adversary who is never adequately refuted.
Some of the topics are interesting. She talks about the consumer culture and prevalent attitudes of victimization and entitlement. But no one theory is ever properly developed. She claims that generosity is more embedded in the American psyche than in the psyches of other nations, and that early Americans were motivated by idealism whereas today Americans are motivated by greed and ambition, which are obviously controversial claims. But no argument is ever offered. Perhaps most damning is her grand tautology that slavery of Africans and genocide of Native Americans constitute the "original sin" of America, a sin that predated the principles of American liberty, such that American ideals cannot be criticized for racist dynamics that are not part of its essence. She is saying that America by definition is only that which is good. If so, why bother putting out an audio lecture to belabor the point?
Her concluding words are: "I see your sacred contract. I see your highest potential. I see why God is madly in love with you. That's what you look at. Fall in love with your country again." Had I known that "sacred contract" was equivalent with an undefined, liberally emoted "highest potential," I would have read something else.
September 12, 2017
Strongly delivered. Perfervid. Surprisingly got me to identify and embrace American ideals again after dawning recognition that the world had been governed by aristocrats since creation, probably. Previously, common man was considered too base to be able to take part in the regulation and creation of government. This book provides a striking reminder on the gift of the new freedoms that many nations employ today. Also I really liked the archetypal look at the American identity.
I did not agree with many of her ideas though and found her style of expression to be too forceful without adequate illumination. I winced at the nationalistic premise that Americans (for example American mothers/women) are somehow so very unique for doing good, hard things like roughing on frontiers or working jobs to help the nation at war--belying naive assumptions about what other women are like in the world. Again, maybe if her point were illuminated better I might not take umbrage.
I did not agree with many of her ideas though and found her style of expression to be too forceful without adequate illumination. I winced at the nationalistic premise that Americans (for example American mothers/women) are somehow so very unique for doing good, hard things like roughing on frontiers or working jobs to help the nation at war--belying naive assumptions about what other women are like in the world. Again, maybe if her point were illuminated better I might not take umbrage.
January 15, 2025
Was she drunk… ///
May 25, 2023
The Sacred Contract of America: the perspectives and information offered here are more significant than ever!
I listened to this important book May 25, 2023 just as the current president and speaker negotiate the nation’s debt ceiling and as fascist-style authoritarian candidates come to the forefront to garner attention and power…. and far more.
THIS was exactly the sacred, visionary, perspective enhancing and action inspiring message my heart and soul needed as an America woman in our time (and as a generational daughter of the American Revolution.)
Thank you Carolyn Myss! I am now going to explore whether you have offered more on this significant topic in the years since you published this. So much more has transpired and I kept wondering what you would add about our current times.
I will be even more deeply digesting this and actioning from it, from now on. Thank you.
I listened to this important book May 25, 2023 just as the current president and speaker negotiate the nation’s debt ceiling and as fascist-style authoritarian candidates come to the forefront to garner attention and power…. and far more.
THIS was exactly the sacred, visionary, perspective enhancing and action inspiring message my heart and soul needed as an America woman in our time (and as a generational daughter of the American Revolution.)
Thank you Carolyn Myss! I am now going to explore whether you have offered more on this significant topic in the years since you published this. So much more has transpired and I kept wondering what you would add about our current times.
I will be even more deeply digesting this and actioning from it, from now on. Thank you.
April 14, 2025
I love her perspective
Many points of explanation and enlightenment
Many points of explanation and enlightenment
April 3, 2014
on respirator complacent taken over from within, all countries have, disdain for study of history—no compass, media isolates country, put liberty pole in yard, individuals can forgive, tribal nations, global approach to thriving of individual humble self-esteem against terrorism self-serving culture, all systems based on controlling others collapse (socialism, communism), addicted to own belief and capitalism, Descartes and age of reason, survival archetypes, American prostitution as entitlement, purity upfront shenanigans background, no army can withstand truth when time comes, rebel got everything in 60’s now sleeping, slave to job drugs fears, slave to God is absolute freedom.
May 17, 2009
This is an amazing assessment of the Vision of the Founding Fathers and Mothers, the archetypes of our country and how the country has drifted from the vision. It encouraged me to work toward a restoration of that vision and the continued growth of fulfillment of that vision of personal freedom.....
February 24, 2012
Listened to this book.
Re-values the importance of history, especially American history.
Re-values the importance of history, especially American history.
October 2, 2013
I really enjoy Myss's work on archetypes and especially as how they relate to our nation. Lots of great info in here.
February 17, 2016
This is fascinating! Myss examines exactly what the title states: The Sacred Contract of America. I don't think we'll read this anywhere else.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews