"I am very happy that you are engaged in this project and I think that it can help to clear the atmosphere which is now very vague, confused, and cloudy. I honor and I am happy with the project."
—Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions and Why Religion Matters
"This book is a collection of essays primarily written by distinguished representatives of the perennialist school. As a psychologist, I find the case made for the spiritual and broader dimensions of psychology in the work enlightening and cogent. . . . The volume offers a challenging intellectual adventure that I recommend to any open-minded and thoughtful student of psychology and mystical spiritual traditions."
—Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna, Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, author of A Guide to Orthodox Psychotherapy
"Knowing the nature of the mind is perhaps the most difficult undertaking, especially in today‟s world. . . . Therefore, a comparative study of different viewpoints and commentaries is immensely important to awaken the inner intelligence to see the mind as it is. Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy is an outstanding effort in this direction."
—Samdhong Rinpoche, former Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government-in-exile, author of Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World: Tibetan Buddhism and Today's World
"There is no better source than this unsurpassed work for someone seeking knowledge of the why, when, where, what, and how present-day psychology lost touch with its origins. I humbly express my gratitude for this hidden treasure of wisdom and wholeheartedly endorse it for whoever is searching, as I had been, for an answer to: Who am I?"
—Laleh Bakhtiar, President of the Institute of Traditional Psychology, author of Sufi: Expressions of the Mystic Quest
"This book is an anthology of great writings on a supremely fascinating and complex subject: what are the nature and the significance of the human psyche within the framework of perennial wisdom? Answers are sought . . . from various fields: comparative religion, philosophy, transpersonal psychology, the study of psychedelics. This is an impressive work."
—Piero Ferrucci, author of Beauty and the Soul
Modern psychology is at an impasse as it searches anxiously for new therapies to address the increasing occurrence of mental illness in contemporary society. In this groundbreaking anthology, leading authors from the perennialist school, including Huston Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Frithjof Schuon, draw on the age-old insights of the world's wisdom traditions to argue that modern psychology―behaviorism, psychoanalysis, humanistic and transpersonal psychology―overlooks the specifically spiritual factors contributing to mental health and illness.
Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, PsyD, LMFT, LPCC, CCMHC, NCC, CPRP, MHRS, is a practicing psychotherapist who has worked for years in the field of mental health and social services. His focus is on comparative religion and the intersection between culture, spirituality, and psychology. His works include Paths That Lead to the Same Summit: An Annotated Guide to World Spirituality, Dismantling Freud: Fake Therapy and the Psychoanalytic Worldview (previously published as Psychology Without Spirit: The Freudian Quandary), and Behaviorism: The Quandary of a Psychology without a Soul. He edited the issue on "Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy" for Studies in Comparative Religion, and his articles have appeared in numerous journals and magazines including Sacred Web, Sophia, Parabola, Resurgence, and the Temenos Academy Review. He lives on the Central Coast of California.
