
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.
A state-of-the-art, interdisciplinary study of anger and how to work with it, in personal, transpersonal, and interpersonal contexts. Anger's anatomy, function, and evolution -- from mere reactivity to wrathful compassion -- are explored in great detail, as are four approaches to working with anger: Anger-In, Anger-Out, Mindfully-Held Anger, and Heart-Anger.
by Robert Augustus Masters
Book by Masters, Robert Augustus
by Robert Augustus Masters
Rating: 5.0 ⭐
FREEDOM DOESN’T MIND ITS CHAINS has as its core theme the cultivation of intimacy with all that we are. Its approach is passionate, integral, and deep-cutting. And its topics? Sex, body, emotion, spirituality, choice, freedom. Its chapters range from the nature of choice to the anatomy of guilt to the raw basics of awakened sex. FREEDOM DOESN’T MIND ITS CHAINS is a travel companion for deep journe
by Robert Augustus Masters
Rating: 3.5 ⭐
DARKNESS SHINING WILD is an investigation of sanity, suffering, identity, death, and the far frontiers of spirituality, all constellated around the story of an extremely harrowing near-death experience. The hellish journey following that experience provides a jumping-off point for deep-diving reflections on topics ranging from the anatomy of dread to the relationship between madness and spirituali
Divine Dynamite offers dynamic, strikingly original guidance for a deeper life, a life of full-blooded awareness and integration, a life in which everything -- everything -- is permitted to awaken us.
by Robert Augustus Masters
Rating: 3.9 ⭐
Book by Masters, Robert Augustus
by Robert Augustus Masters
Love Must Also A Novel Lucidly Intimate With Awakenings Alchemy by Robert Augustus Masters.
by Robert Augustus Masters
Rating: 4.2 ⭐
Spiritual bypassing—the use of spiritual beliefs to avoid dealing with painful feelings, unresolved wounds, and developmental needs—is so pervasive that it goes largely unnoticed. The spiritual ideals of any tradition, whether Christian commandments or Buddhist precepts, can provide easy justification for practitioners to duck uncomfortable feelings in favor of more seemingly enlightened activity.
by Robert Augustus Masters
Rating: 4.1 ⭐
A comprehensive guide to intimacy through greater self-awareness—for those who want more loving, passionate, and liberating monogamous relationships Intimate relationship has long been viewed and lived as a lesser alternative to spiritual life. More recently, the need to integrate our spiritual and intimate lives, rather than maintaining separate spheres and relationships on autopilot,
Robert Augustus Masters, PhD, is an integral psychotherapist, relationship expert, and spiritual teacher whose work blends the psychological and physical with the spiritual, emphasizing embodiment, emotional literacy, and the development of relational maturity.
by Robert Augustus Masters
Rating: 4.2 ⭐
Emotions link our feelings, thoughts, and conditioning at multiple levels, but they may remain a largely untapped source of strength, freedom, and connection. The capacity to be intimate with all our emotions, teaches Robert Augustus Masters, is essential for creating fulfilling relationships and living with awareness, love, and integrity. With Emotional Intimacy , this respected therapist and aut
by Robert Augustus Masters
Rating: 3.9 ⭐
Pain can be a real pain, and it can also be something altogether different, if we will but meet it, rather than turning away from it. In this his latest book, Robert Augustus Masters describes how to end our suffering by entering our pain, step by conscious step, finding ever-increasing freedom in so doing. Pain comes with Life, often inevitably so, and can serve Life if we do not turn it into suf
by Robert Augustus Masters
Rating: 5.0 ⭐
Poetry, lyrics, and prose poetry, all devoted to full-blooded awakening.
A groundbreaking guide to a genuinely healthy masculinity, at the heart of which is a potent pathway: facing our unresolved wounds and whatever else holds us back, bringing our head, heart, and guts into full-blooded alignment.To Be a Man clarifies what’s needed to enter a manhood as strongly empowered as it’s vulnerable, as emotionally literate as it’s unapologetically alive, a manhoo
by Robert Augustus Masters
Rating: 4.0 ⭐
"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
by Robert Augustus Masters
Intimate relationship has long been viewed and lived as a lesser alternative to spiritual life. More recently, the need to integrate our spiritual and intimate lives, rather than maintaining separate spheres and relationships on autopilot, has become increasingly apparent. Given the high rates of infidelity and divorce, it would seem that the possibilities of freedom through intimacy have not been
by Robert Augustus Masters
Comprehensive, deeply effective guidance for those who (1) want more loving, passionate and liberating intimate relationships, and (2) are ready to work through whatever is in the way.The journey toward mature monogamy is not necessarily easy, for it asks — and has to ask — much of us. Nevertheless, it is an immensely rewarding passage, bringing us into deepening intimacy with all that
by Robert Augustus Masters