Gratitude to Arnold Mindell, 1940-2024
Deep big prayers and gratitude for the work of this unparalleled spark of nature, Arnold Mindell.
The following morning, we heard that Arny had passed on — Monday 10 June 2024 — to continue his magnificent work now in transitioning to new planes of living vitality.
We are feeling a lot, adding light and song for his journey in the cosmos — and so strengthened by the ways we know he is here with us in every mote and wave.
We are sending great love to his wife Amy who has so meaningfully and vividly collaborated with him over many years, and sending that love too, to his family and the worldwide family he has long cultivated and cared for.
Such infinite thanks to Arny for the vibrations he regenerated and the essential ways this has fed and powered our work.
Intuitive Public Radio is what it is, in many ways, significantly because we were graced with what Arny shared. His kindness and generosity have made waves throughout vast and multifaceted realities.
Here’s what we wrote on 11 June 2024:
t.me/IntuitiveEmergent/2702
t.me/IntuitivePublicRadio/12037
If you are not yet familiar with the work of Arny and Amy Mindell — and even if you are — we highly recommend spending (more!) quality time with it. There are many especially wonderful resources on their website, aamindell.net.
Just now, there are more than 750 comments on Amy’s original post about Arny’s passing. The is a tremendous outpouring of love from all corners of the Internet. Read many expressions of gratitude in the comments here.
It was Will Hall and Madness Radio who originally introduced me and my colleagues in the Intuitive Public Radio Network to the brilliant nourishment of the work of Arnold Mindell.
Life changing, life saving.
Here's that first episode I ever heard, such a light in the darkness of those times:
David Bedrick wrote a beautiful memoriam to Arny in a post on Facebook. It is itself an essence of Arny’s influence on all of us.
If I were with you, I would dance twirling and celebrating to the heavens, "You changed my life... Do you know how you changed my life?" And then I would list all the ways.
Do read the whole text of David’s piece here.
Arnold Mindell’s threads of meaning were woven into some of our very earliest Intuitive Public Radio broadcasts and published peaces.
From the very first numbered episodes we ever produced, so long ago…
001 Beautiful Process (Anchor FM audio link, Tumblr credits). Here is a quote we read from Arny’s book, which we were studying at the time:
All Events Are Potentially Useful:
We need to add a new dimension to our belief about being human. This new dimension sounds like an ancient one, which states: “The world is perfect the way it is.”
Even though I do not feel the world is really perfect the way it is, I have discovered great enrichment from seemingly adverse events.
An important and possibly new dimension in meditation would be to accept and process all events, including anger, jealousy, and greed, in order to reveal their life-giving potential.
Instead of trying to change our natures to fit our preconceptions of harmony or peace, we could seek to find the purpose behind events.
Perhaps they are the seeds of just what we need.
My questions are: How can I make use of all my perceptions for my own benefit and for the rest of the world? Who is observing? Who in me wants to get rid of problems?
—Arnold Mindell, Working On Yourself Alone (aamindell.net)
While we were pulling together broadcast and publishing items related to that first numbered episode in 2018, we posted this excerpt, too, from Arny’s book Quantum Mind:
Waking up terrified one morning, I realized why I had to write Quantum Mind: The Edge between Physics and Psychology.
I was afraid of dying. I did not know what would happen to me when I lose my physical form.
Every other night for several years, I had been awakened with questions about what grand mystery lies behind our physical form. Who are we, where did we come from? Why are we here? What happens after death? What is the basis of physics and how does it connect to the psychology of dreams and with spiritual traditions? How is my personal fate connected to the fate of our planet, our solar system? …
Then I had an insight. To find answers to my questions, psychology, shamanism, and physics had to come together in a new kind of unified field theory. What an impossible job!
— Read more from Arnold Mindell in Quantum Mind, 2000. http://www.aamindell.net/physics-that-inspires-us/
In our second original numbered episode, 002 Breathing Human Reflection, audio published on Anchor FM found here, we quoted this portion:
Is Being Human Wrong?
One of the fundamental and sometimes unconscious tenets found in many psychologies and meditation procedures is that the human being is undisciplined, unaware, loveless, filled with greed, jealousy and egotism, dangerous and somehow wrong. Behind these tenets lies the implicit belief that people are not right the way they are.
Most of us believe this. We think that we are not in order, that the world is a mess and cannot be changed. We are plagued by strange dreams, internal voices, body symptoms, relationship problems, pollution, poisoned food and aggressive neighbors. These beliefs lead us to use our rational intellect to understand our dreams, analyze the voices away, meditate on mantras, develop medicine to overcome our symptoms, program our affects into acceptable channels of communication, and create armies to protect us from one another. Our beliefs push us to war and we sometimes, though only momentarily, win a battle against our natures. Believing things are “wrong” makes us think causally; it divides the world into problems and solutions. This old paradigm has helped us prolong our life by making psychological and chemical warfare against symptoms and disturbing inner parts.
But the warlike belief that our natures are wrong overlooks the potential purpose behind events. I am not ill simply because I have not taken enough vitamins or meditated enough or because of my genetic inheritance. It could be that my problems represent a part of me that I do not yet know about.
A second problem with causal thinking is that it makes us dislike the world when it does not meet our expectations. If we cannot solve a problem, we turn against it. Aggressive nations and insane despots do not meet my expectations for world peace. I would like to change them, but cannot. If I am not careful, I will declare “war” on them, try to put them down or in insane asylums. We have to learn how to use insanity and aggression in a more useful form.
—Working on Yourself Alone: Inner Dreambody Work by Arnold Mindell (aamindell.net)
We have returned frequently to Arny’s work, receiving such strength and nourishment from it. There are too many instances across the network to include on this page.
But here’s just one more for now, published by IPR Emergent on Tumblr in 2018:
Rejecting parts of ourselves cannot really succeed for they cannot simply be eradicated.
A more compassionate inner attitude would be to assume that bad moods, aches and pains, negative thoughts, etc. are at least potentially useful.
—Working on Yourself Alone: Inner Dreambody Work by Arnold Mindell (aamindell.net)
For severely disabled survivors of violence — abandoned, imperiled, disregarded, mischaracterized — it was especially powerful for us to read Arny’s words when we first encountered his work.
Terrible things were happening to us; we were invisible, and could not reach help or kindness. How could we get through? How could we come to any terms with what was occurring?
How could we continue to exist in the midst of such disaster, such continuous death, despair, and chaos?
How could we find some next worthy step?
Arny taught us that there is something tremendously more intriguing and appealing… something more precisely applicable, satisfying, and functions-restoring… than dissociation from hardship and heartache.
He taught us that there are stories and living energies in even the most challenging of our experiences.
For where we were six years ago, where we’ve been, and where we are now… these are some of the most important conversations the Intuitive Network has ever engaged in.
In Will Hall’s recent post about Arnold Mindell’s passing, he wrote:
I am deeply honored that I had the privilege to study and practice with dear Arny Mindell - a powerful teacher, wild character, and warm presence. Arny was a master, and he truly carried the spirit and teaching of Jung into the 21st century. His work on extreme states and psychiatry remains a powerful influence in my work and life… (read more)
Will also shared a piece he wrote about Arny for a book of remembrances Amy created. Here’s a small excerpt from it:
"…His books - wonderful, psychoactivating even - are still nearby. You don't need me, I hear them say. You don't need anyone. You've got your imagination, you've got your dreams, you've got yourself. Thanks Arny." (read more)
Read more at Will’s post here.
Arnold Mindell taught us to share the flow and rhythm of our livingbeingness. He helped us to know the value of our truest essence.
Existence — on every level — is a celebration.
We are looking forward to sharing… and celebrating… much more.
Tune to the frequencies of the sacred universe today, and every day.
Thank you, and so much love to you, Arny.
Mindell's elaboration of the concept of the Dreambody really transformed my thinking and I'll be forever grateful. RIP.