At a Journal Workshop: The Basic Text and Guide for Using the Intensive Journal

332 Pages·1975·11.206 MB·English

by  Ira Progoff

The basic text and
guide for using the
Intensive Journal
Ira Ptogoff
I
DIALOGUE HOUSE LIBRARY | NEW YORK, N.Y.
$12.50
^“Journal
Workshop
The basic text and guide for
using the Intensive Journal
By Ira Progoff
Since 1966 when it was created by Ira Pro¬
goff, the Intensive Journal has served as the
central instrument in many programs for the
development of persons. It has been used
with striking results in the most varied situ¬
ations, in universities, in continuing educa¬
tion programs, in counseling for adolescents,
career change and geriatrics, in ghetto job¬
training, and in community mental health. It
has served as a means of evoking creativity
in the arts, and as a modem approach to
spiritual renewal beyond dogma.
The primary reason that the Intensive
Journal method is effective at these multiple
levels is that it enables all persons regardless
of age, social, or educational background to
begin wherever they are, and progressively
draw their lives into focus. Making no judg¬
ments or diagnoses, it overcomes the block¬
ages of anger and guilt feelings by enabling
each person to experience his or her whole
life history in an unfolding perspective. It
achieves this not by the mere act of writing
in a journal, but by the unique structure of
the Intensive Journal and by the guided use
of its open-ended, self-integrating Journal
Feedback techniques.
The Intensive Journal method is espe¬
cially valuable for persons who are moving
through an uncertain time of transition.
Where stoppages have occurred, where re¬
adjustments or difficult decisions must be
made, it enables a person to restructure his
life goals at his own tempo and in his own
terms. The Intensive Journal thus becomes
a self-adjusting compass by which each per¬
son finds the direction and meaning of his
own life.
AT A JOURNAL WORKSHOP : THE BA
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^Journal
Workshop
Books by Ira Progoff
THE SYMBOLIC AND THE REAL
DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY AND MODERN MAN
THE DEATH AND REBIRTH OF PSYCHOLOGY-
THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING
(a modern rendering with commentary)
THE IMAGE OF AN ORACLE
JUNG'S PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS SOCIAL MEANING
JUNG, SYNCHRONICITY AND HUMAN DESTINY
THREE CYCLES OF PROCESS MEDITATION
The Well and the Cathedral
The Star/Cross
The White Robed Monk
The basic text and
guide for using the
1_ Intensive Journal
Ira Fhogoff
DIALOGUE HOUSE LIBRARY | NEW YORK, N.Y.
Riverside Community College
Library
4800 Magnolia Avenue
Published by
Dialogue House Library
45 West Tenth Street
New York, New York 10011
Copyright © 1975 by Ira Progoff
All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts quoted
in reviews, no part of this publication may be re¬
produced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted
by any form or by any means, electronic, mechan¬
ical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without
written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number
75-13932
ISBN 87941-003-5
Printed in the United States of America
FOURTH PRINTING 1976
Table of Contents
Preface 7
1 The Intensive Journal as an Instrument for Life 9
2 The Beginnings of the Intensive Journal 16
Seeking the Tao of Growth 16
The Value and Limitations of Diaries and Journals 23
3 Operating Principles 30
The Dynamics of Journal Feedback 30
Reaching the Elan Vital: Mini-Processes and the
Dimensions of Existence 39
4 Privacy in the Group: The Atmosphere and Rules
of a Journal Workshop 46
5 Beginning thejournal Work: The Period Log 64
6 Twilight Imagery and Its Life Correlation:
The Period Image 77
7 Keeping the Daily Log 86
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8 Working in the Life/Time Dimension 98
Loosening the Soil of our Lives 98
Listing the Steppingstones 102
9 Exploring the Stcppingstone Periods 119
Journal Checklist 126
10 The Hinge of Memory and Possibility 131
The Life History Log 132
Intersections: Roads Taken and Not Taken 133
11 Time-Stretching 140
Moving Back and Forward in our Life History 140
Reconstructing our Autobiography 153
12 Toward Inner Relationship: Dialogue with Persons 158
13 Dialogue with Works 178
14 Dialogue with the Body 194
15 Dialogue with Events, Situations and Circumstances 210
16 Working with our Dreams 228
17 Dialogue with Society 253
18 Inner Wisdom Dialogue 269
19 Now: The Open Moment 285
20 After a Journal Workshop 290
Appendix 298
The Registered Intensive Journal 301
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