Pathwork Lectures 100-149 Study Guides
"I invite you to explore these materials as starting points for your own journey, rather than as answers. Talk back, argue, and debate them; voice your insights, your experience. The teleconferences are like snapshots, one person's way of expressing how concepts might manifest. The deeper purpose of the materials is to support growth, consciousness, and pleasure." PL 119
Above: clip from Restitution for Real Guilt PL 109
PL 101: The Defense
They may be subtle and hard to detect at first, but once you are aware of defenses it is easy to see that many of us are in defense most of the time. We defend against frustration of our will, against anything that does not go according to our wishes. "”If only you learn to observe, detect, and understand -- and therefore eventually eliminate -- your defensiveness, you will be freed of an illusion. There is no greater hardship, no greater prison than illusion.” PL 101. 2008 Explorations: Featuring PL 100 Pain of Destructive Patterns and PL 127 Four Stages of Spiritual Evolution. 2014 Explorations: The physical, emotional, and spiritual price of our addiction to defense; What being in defense looks and feels like; What do you fear will happen if your defense is found to be false? and Living in a unitive state on a dualistic plane.
Download Study Guide plus audio MP3 files: 101-TC-Defense-2008.zip
PL 101 Study Guide PDF 2008
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July 2014 Newsletter PRS19 / PL 101
2014 Study Guide: The Defense
PL 103 Constructive and Destructive Will Forces; The Harm of Too Much Love Giving
There can be no fulfillment of any sort without good human relationships. And good human relationships are impossible without love and without all the various aspects that are part of love. Explore: Distortions of Love and Will in Human Relationship; Free will, Inner Will, Outer Will; Negative Aspects of Will; and Receiving = Loving Yourself and Others (vs. Immature Demands of Self-Will)
December 2017 Newsletter PL 103
Study Guide: Constructive and Destructive Will Forces
PL 104 Intellect and Will as Tools or Hindrances to Self Realization
June 2020 Newsletter PL 104
Study Guide: Intellect and Will as Tools or Hindrances
June Meetings on PL 104 YouTube Review 1 hour
Review of June 2020 Meetings or Transcript of the video
PL 107 Three Aspects that Prevent Loving
In this lecture, the Guide reviews 3 forms of resistance: Superimposing Outer Values: relying upon established social or religious values vs. exploring or honoring your personal experiences. Disconnecting: rejecting an emotional experience by withdrawing into intellectualism. Going into Overwhelm; embracing (or not resisting) a sudden onset of confusion (submitting to fear), or lack of understanding (justifying avoidance). Explore sub-topics from the Study Guide via Weekly YouTube Presentations: Quieting the Inner Noise (Includes demonstration of PL 194 Meditation) 38mins; Disconnection as an Act of Separation 5mins; Over-Reliance on Outer Authority 11mins; Overwhelm as Defense and Summary 28mins
June 2024 Newsletter Summary PL 107
Study Guide Three Aspects that Prevent Loving
PL 108 Fundamental Guilt for Not Loving
Meaningful restitution has no rules. I cannot give a formula for it. Each case has to be deeply examined, free from all superimposed standards, with a new and fresh approach, considering all angles. All issues have to be weighed from the point of view of all concerned, primarily the wronged person, but not exclusively. Examine each case in its essentials, from the angle of what is really important. Request inspiration and guidance from the creative forces dwelling in your real self. They will not fail to manifest. Explore: Restitution As An Ongoing Process; The Deeper Guilt - Not Loving PL 108; Tool of the Month: Pride, Self Will, and Fear PL 30; and The Protest is the Medicine
January 2016 Newsletter PL108
Study Guide: Fundamental Guilt for Not Loving
YouTube Video Summary 8 mins
PL 109: Restitution for Real Guilt
Justice, self-responsibility, and spiritual law -- what are our mutual obligations? What does caring for our brothers and sisters look like? False, exaggerated guilt is often used to distract us from the truth. 'Self-respect and self-assurance can only exist if you do not hide from your impaired integrity." Includes suggestions from Spiritual Principles PC 10 and the 12 Step process.
2009 Presentation on YouTube 1 hr 46 mins or 2 Short Samples
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109-TC-RestitutionGuilt-2009-Pt1.mp3
109-TC-RestitutionGuilt-2009-Pt2.mp3
Or Download all 2009 materials: 109-TC-RestitutionGuilt-2009.zip
PL 111 Healthy vs. Unhealthy Soul Substance; Coping with Demands
Where the soul is potentially healthy and strong, even negative impressions will not make a deep dent in the soul. Where the underlying potential is positive, the corresponding soul stuff will be so resilient that a seemingly most detrimental occurrence will bounce off, so to speak. It will not leave a lasting mark -- other than the benefit of increased understanding. Flexibility is the result of resilient, elastic, healthy soul substance. But where the underlying potential is of unresolved problems, the soul stuff in these areas is so un-resilient that the impressions form deep dents, and remain imbedded in the soul substance. Explore: Spiritual Health and Un-health; Two forms of Rigidity; Developing a Healthy, Elastic Soul Substance; and Coping with Demands (especially our own unconscious ones).
April 2023 Newsletter Summary PL 111
Study Guide: Healthy and Unhealthy Soul Substance; Coping with Demands
PL 112 Man's Relationship to Time
Man's existence on earth is bound by time.Time is a result of the three‐dimensional nature of this sphere of consciousness. This is indicated by three segments: past, present and future. This dimension is a result of the overall state of consciousness of mankind as a whole. Man strives into the future for several reasons: He does not like the present and hopes for something better from the future and He fears a certain aspect of life and wants it to be past. Explore: Breaking the ‘time barrier’; Un-utilized time => negative emotions vs. living in the ‘now’; Using the future to escape the present; and Living in the Now
December 2014 Newsletter PRS28 / PL112
PL 117 Shame as a Yardstick for Unresolved Problems; Seemingly Favorable Childhood Circumstances as Obstructive as Hurts
When you pursue this path, you come to a point when you discover certain areas that you are ashamed of acknowledging even to yourself. What you may be ashamed of may be faults, but not always and not necessarily. You may be as ashamed of very legitimate needs as you are of faults, or of assets, for that matter. Explore: Shame as the Result of Pretense and Deception; A Process for Finding Feelings of Shame; Contradictions on Apparently Favorable Circumstances; and The Compulsion to Recreate Childhood Pleasures. Plus an Appendix: Participatory Q&A Session with the Guide
August 2017 Newsletter PL 117
Study Guide: Shame as a Yardstick for Unresolved Problems
YouTube Summary 21 mins
Psychological transference describes how we recreate patterns of behavior towards authority based upon how we interacted with our parents. Spiritual transference refers to projecting our attitudes towards human beings onto God. Samples include finding our way through life (Blind Dog) and how differently adults see things, (White Lies). Featuring portions of PRS Chapter 10 on Parents and Images plus materials on transference from psychological, child-development, and spiritual perspectives
2008 Presentation on YouTube 1 hr 57 mins or 2 Short Samples
Download 2008 Study Guide on PL 118
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118-TC-Transference-2008-P1.mp3
118-TC-Transference-2008-P2.mp3
May 2014 Newsletter PRS10 / PL118
Study Guide: Parents and Images PRS 10 PL118
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PL 119 Movement, Consciousness, Experience
It is always that one aspect of the triad harmoniously combines the two others. If harmony prevails in the living organism, the third factor blends, balances, and harmonizes. If the life organism is in disharmony with the universal laws, the three factors will become a contradiction to one another, and instead of harmonizing the whole, they will be in opposition to one another. So it is with this triad. Explore: Triads as Indicators of Balance; Movement, Consciousness, Experience; The Pleasure Principle; and Resistance
February 2016 Newsletter PRS26 / PL119
Study Guide: Movement, Consciousness, Experience
YouTube Video Summary 9 mins
PL 120 The Individual and Humanity
Deep insight, which comes as a result of relentless self‐confrontation, truly sets you free.It liberates you from confinement, compulsion, and enables you freely to choose your inner and outer course in life and being. Visualize that humanity as a whole is an entity governed by the same laws as the individual which is a part of this bigger body ‐‐ mankind. Explore: Parallels in the Growth Process of Individuals and Humanity; The Transition from Self-Centeredness to Selfhood; The Adolescent Stage of Development; and The Ongoing Process of Individualization
April 2018 Newsletter PL 120
Study Guide: The Individual and Humanity
YouTube Video Summary20 mins
PL 121 Displacement, Substitution, Superimposition
Whenever a person is confused in a situation or negatively involved in a relationship, and cannot come out of a disturbed feeling in spite of certain recognitions, it is an absolute sign that certain emotional needs or specific feelings have been shifted into different channels, or superimposed by other feelings. Explore: Hidden Emotional Needs Create Disturbances 8mins; Avoidance Creates a Vicious Circle 8mins; Displacement: Shifting Needs into Other Channels 18mins; and How Multiple Needs Often Overlap
August 2025 Newsletter PL 121
Study Guide: Displacement, Substitution, Superimposition
PL 124 The Language of the Unconscious
The most powerful aspect in man's life is his unconscious. …the unconscious is so much stronger than the conscious mind … because conscious misconceptions and unrealistic outlooks are more easily detectable in their unrealism and can therefore be corrected. That which is hidden from awareness continues to govern you without your being able through your reason to change the unconscious outlook. Hence it is of utmost importance to detect such hindering outlooks hidden within. Explore: How the Unconscious Speaks; Cosmic Laws: Yes and No Currents; Tools and Techniques: The Power of the Word, Written Meditation; and Activating your Yes by uncovering the No currents
February 2015 Newsletter PRS8 / PL124
Study Guide The Language of the Unconscious
PL 127 Four Stages of Evolution: Automatic Reflex, then...
Awakening --> Understanding --> Knowing
This lecture has become one of the foundations of my practice. 'Popping' into awareness before understanding has begun can feel like waking up and finding yourself in mid-air, plummeting and tumbling with no sense of where ground is. Knowing is an ongoing, sacred process of finding spiritual truth,. Before we have experienced conscious knowing, there can be a sense of mystery about the process. Yet examples abound in our daily life! Both driving a vehicle (including our own bodies) and reading are immensely complex cognitive tasks. You rely upon what you already know in order to focus your conscious attention on the current variable -- traffic, uneven ground, or new ideas. Respect for the difficulties of coming in to awareness prompted the creation of Pathwork Steps, a series of free weekly teleconferences where participants can hear each others process on difference Pathwork concepts. See the Pathwork Steps page on this website or www.pathworksteps.org.
PL 128 Fences Man Puts Up Through Limited Illusory Alternatives
When you discover the freedom; when you find out that there are no chains, no fences, no prison walls, that you are not helpless, that you can constantly influence and mold your fate, your immediate life; then there is happiness that you cannot imagine ‑‑the fearlessness of living, the effortlessness of growing, the beauty of experiencing, the rich variety of experience without harassment, and the bliss of steadily growing. This happiness cannot be described. Explore: The Illusion of a Limited Universe; Fence #1 -- Rejecting the Realities of Cause and Effect; Fence #2 -- Misconceptions and Images; and Fence #3 -- Dualistic Either/Or Choices
August 2021 Newsletter: PL 128 Overview
Study Guide PL 128 Fences Man Puts Up
PL 129 Winner vs. Loser: Interplay between the Self and Creative Forces
The attitude toward life of winning vs. losing is one of the greatest limitations. It s the most common of the either/or concepts. Both sides contain the identical misconception. Some adopt the one alternative, some the other. Each fears the consequences of the other side of his choice. Neither one of the two choices is "better" or "worse" than the other. Both end up with the identical results of loneliness, resentment, self‑pity, self‑contempt, frustration. Explore in Part 1: Dualities in Winning or Losing; The Folly of the ‘Best’ Way; Love, Power, & Serenity as Pseudo-Solutions; and Duality Leads to Hopelessness and Despair. Includes concepts from Unity and Duality PL 143 and Personality Types PLs 43 & 84. Explore in Part 2: Hopelessness as a Defense against Change; Self-Commitment Unleashes the Creative Forces; Interplay between the Self and Creative Forces; and The Law of Balance
April 2022 Newsletter: PL 129 Part 1
Study Guide PL 129 Part 1: Winner vs. Loser
YouTube Video :47 mins https://youtu.be/pMIxVniD5Bw PDF of Handout/Slides
May 2022: Newsletter: PL 129 Part 2
Study Guide PL 129 Part 2: Interplay between the Self and Creative Forces
PL 130 & 185: Abundance and Acceptance; Mutuality
Abundance is an attitude, a state of mind. Like attracts like. 'Poverty consciousness' describes how we can unconsciously contribute energy to the very things we fear. The Pathwork Process focuses upon finding where we unconsciously believe what fear tells us, even if we consciously reject it. Explore: Eleven Irrational Beliefs by Albert Ellis and Exercises to Develop Sensory Imagination by Meichenbaum and Genest.
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PL 132: The Function of the Ego
The Ego’s main function is to deliberately seek contact with the greater self within. A healthy Ego chooses to accept life and chooses to want to understand itself. A weak Ego tends to rely upon others and often takes on their point of view; overblown Egos prevent us from finding our way to the Real Self, by holding onto a social or material identity.
2009 Presentation on YouTube 1 hr 30 mins
or 2 Short Samples (see one of the 4 minute samples below)
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2013 Study Guide Function of the Ego PL132
Minutes from March meetings PL132
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PL 133 Love: Not a Commandment, but Spontaneous Soul Movement of the Inner Self
All religions, all philosophies, and all psychology agree that love is the key to everything, to fulfillment, to security, to creative growth. And yet, love cannot be commanded, nor can it be a commandment. It is a free, spontaneous soul movement. The more it is tried, due to conscience and obedience, the less does it succeed. Explore: The Power of Love; Two Basic Misunderstandings; Distortions Form an Energetic “Foreign Body”; and The Paradox of Surrender
October 2018 Newsletter Overview PL 133
Study Guide Love: Not a Commandment
YouTube Video Introduction 14 mins
Subtitles added June 2020: download Transcript of Video
PL 134 Facing the Lower Self
A synthesis of many Pathwork lectures on the Lower Self, negativity, and and transformation. Includes quotes from Chapter 7 of The Undefended Self by Susan Thesenga.
2009 Presentation on YouTube 1 hr 36 mins or 3 Short Samples
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014-TC-FacingLowerSelf-Pt2.mp3
014-TC-FacingLower Self-Pt1.mp3
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PL 136 The Illusory Fear of Self
In the last analysis, all fears derive from the fear one has of his innermost being ‐‐ that part which he does not yet fully know and acknowledge.As long as an individual keeps a part of himself hidden and secret, he cannot possibly be free. He then must constantly be on guard, and he must pretend. Explore: Negative Chain Reactions of Self-Alienation; The “Big Lie”; Desiring to Feel Differently Changes Feelings; and Overcoming Deception and Pretense
November 2018 Newsletter / Overview
Study Guide: 136-Illusory Fear of Self.pdf
YouTube Video 28 mins
PL 137 Balancing Inner and Outer Control
The separation of matter and consciousness is illusion. This is the real meaning of what religion refers to as separation from God, or the "fall of the angels." Working oneself back to the state of bliss which results from being in contact and integrated with the inner center is the "goal" ‑‑ not only the goal of such a path, but the unconscious goal of every living being. Explore: Separation is a State of Mind; Activating the Force of the Divine Center; Learning to Balance Inner vs. Outer Power; and Creating a Mutuality Between Inner and Outer.
October 2022 Newsletter Summary PL 137
Study Guide Balancing Inner and Outer Control
PL 140 Negative Pleasure: Conflict as the Source of Pain
Pain is the Result of Conflict. When two opposite directions exist in a personality, pain comes into being. One direction ‐‐ the direction of the universal, creative forces ‐‐ strives towards light, life, growth, unfoldment, affirmation, beauty, love, inclusion, union, pleasure supreme. Whenever this direction is counteracted by another direction, a disturbance is created. Explore: How Negativity --> Conflict --> Pain; Negative Pleasure; Principle of Self-Perpetuation; and Awareness--> Understanding --> Knowing
June 2019 Newsletter - Lecture Outline
Study Guide PL 140 Negative Pleasure: Conflict as the Source of Pain
YouTube Summary 28 mins
PL 143: Unity and Duality
A central, core, key Pathwork concept! I have approached it on multiple occasions using different perspectives and source materials. "The dualistic plane means that man sees, perceives, and experiences everything in opposites. The unified principle combines both opposites of the dualistic plane. Few human beings transcend the dualistic plane and experience only occasionally a taste of the wide, limitless outlook, the wisdom and freedom of the unified plane. In the unified plane of consciousness, there are no opposites. Yet it is not the kind of good or the kind of right or the kind of life that comprises but one of the opposites of the dualistic planes. It transcends it and is of a completely different nature." 2013 Explorations: What Duality looks like in our everyday lives; Unified Consciousness and the process of transcending Duality; Becoming one’s real self means self-fulfillment, as man or woman; and Outer symbols of Duality: Our two‐way split is represented by the parents. 2014 Explorations: What Duality looks like in our everyday lives; Unified Consciousness and the process of transcending Duality; Becoming one’s real self means self-fulfilment, as man or woman; Outer symbols of Duality: Our two‑way split is represented by the parents. See PL 159 for additional materials 2019 Explorations: Two Basic Approaches to Life; The Human Predicament; Finding the Truth of the Matter; and Duality: The Plane of the Ego
2009 Presentation on YouTube 1 hr 31 mins (or, 2 Short Samples)
Download 2009 Study Guide PDF
Listen to audio online: 143-TC-UnityDuality-2009-Pt1.mp3
143-TC-UnityDuality-2009-Pt2.mp3
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2013 Study Guide Unity & Duality PL143 - 2013
Minutes from February meetings PL143
2014 Study Guide Unity and Duality with with PRS 25
2019 Study Guide Unity & Duality PL 143 2019
January 2019 Newsletter - Overview
YouTube Presentation 40 mins
2024 Week 5 Review referencing The Meaning of the Human Struggle PL 181
YouTube Presentation 35mins Download 3-Page Outline
PL 144 The Process and Significance of Growing
Growth on the dualistic plane must always be fraught with fear of the undesirable opposite. Therefore the process of growth must be opposed as long as the concept of the goal of growth is a desired good as opposed to an undesired bad. As long as the consciousness cannot perceive and comprehend and experience the unitive state of the specific area of your life you want to grow in, growing must create an inner conflict. For, what do you grow for? Does not movement bring about the end? Explore: The Mutuality of Giving and Receiving 19mins; Unitive and Dualistic principles 10mins; The Process of Growing 19mins; The Intuitive State 13mins;
March 2025 Newsletter PL 144
Study Guide: The Process and Significance of Growing
Week 5 includes add'l materials on Contientious Protests + Review of The Intuitive State 10 mins
PL 146 Spiritual Fearlessness: The Positive Concept of Life; Fearlessness to Love; The Balance Between Activity and Passivity
All these conditions form a comprehensive whole in order for an individual to be in harmony with himself and with life, and thus fulfill himself in every possible way. Explore: Three Conditions for Fearlessness; Freedom to Love is Based on Spiritual Truth; Transforming Character Defects – 3 Steps; and A Healthy Balance between Activity and Passivity.
March 2021 Newsletter PL 146
Video Summary 38 mins
PL 149 Cosmic Principles Manifest in Soul Currents
Begin with the threefold principle of reason, emotion and will. [See PL 43 plus 30,84, 248] Another set of cosmic principles are the expanding, restricting and static principles.[See PL 55 plus 187, 235] Explore: The principles of reason, will and emotion; Expanding, restricting, static principles; Films that illustrate cosmic principles; and Human faults of pride, self-will, and fear Ref PL 30.
April 2014 Newsletter PRS7 PL 149
Study Guide: Cosmic Principles Manifest in Soul Currents
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Presentations and Radio Interviews
2011 NYRP Presentation
Connection between the Incarnatory Process and the Life Task PL 216
The Cosmology of Pathwork PC08
Download both parts in a .zip file
Download ;pdf Handouts in a .zip file
2012 WBAI New York City
Part 1 Personal Process 55 mins mp3
Part 2 Pathwork Concepts 55 mins mp3
WGBR Vermont
March 2014: Introduction to the Pathwork Lectures and suggestions for Self-Study
Download both parts in a .zip file
December 2014: Dualistic Thinking PL 143, Emotional Reactions vs. Real Feelings
Link to SoundCloud Archive