authors feel the need to acknowledge not only the seminal figures in their lives but everyone else, including, apparently, green grocers, taxi drivers, the company that manufactures their inkjet printer, their dog sitter, and their Aunt Agatha—ad nauseam, boring you, dear reader, to tears.
I will be no exception. After all, can one be too grateful? You have my sympathies.
Julie Andrews reminds us (with enough sugar to rot our molars) to “start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” My parents, Drs. Robert and Betty Unterberger, were my first spiritual teachers. I was blessed to grow up in a home where meditation was taught and metaphysics were discussed over meatloaf and peas as far back as I can remember. By extension, I want to acknowledge their teachers as well: the Jungian psychologist Dr. Sara Robbins and physicist and mystic Dr. Raynor Johnson. They are my spiritual lineage. Long before he was on the board of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), the late Walter Starcke took time to answer a teenage Gregg’s pesky spiritual questions and modeled that you could be into metaphysics without surrendering your critical thinking skills or a keen ability to use colorful language at select moments. (See below.)
Dr. Frank Allen literally turned my life upside down one weekend in 1988, and I still have not recovered. I awakened from the blissful slumber of ignorance and have been facing off with my demons ever since. I may yet forgive him. Through literally thousands of hours of therapy, Frank has been a supervisor, mentor, co-leader, giant pain-in-the-ass, and a friend. Although we have grown to differ in our therapeutic approaches in many ways, I am eternally grateful to him, even though (as he has so often pointed out), I am one sick lizard.
My friends Kathy Nevils and Angeline Eckholm enthusiastically believed in me from the start and offered important reality checks along the way. John Lee and Marvin Allen were early mentors and demonstrated for me a fierce masculinity that was heart-centered and not abusive. Dr. John Garcia at Texas State University was instrumental in my training as a therapist and as a human being. I am constantly building on my Integrative and Holotropic Breathwork training with Jacqueline Small, Tav Sparks, and Dr. Stanislav Grof. Long live the Great Bear Shaman!
Dr. Elizabeth Neeld, a dear family friend, helped me to sift through the legal end of this work, and also her audiobook Yes, You Can Write has long been an inspiration. She would vouch that this book, for better or worse, is my “authentic voice.” Mike Tomelleson, my legal counsel, offered not only sage advice on intellectual properties but his enthusiasm and understanding of Edgar Cayce and metaphysics was a Godsend. One typically acknowledges their editor, lest they secretly hack out the author’s favorite chapter. But I offer Jennie Taylor Martin my thanks, because she has been such a staunch supporter and really understood the tone of this tome—and that was vital. Jennie, my gratitude for being honest, constructive, and gentle with the red Marks-A-Lot.
Dr. Allan Botkin, the developer of Induced After-Death Communication (IADC), has been generous with his time and wisdom. I hope, when I grow up someday, to be as courageous as he is. Dr. Brian Weiss has revolutionized psychology in the Western world by demonstrating and popularizing the credibility of past-life regression therapy. I continue to be honored that he and his daughter Amy Weiss chose to feature my work in his book Miracles Happen, and I am grateful for the many hours I have spent training under him.
I am heartened by the friendship and support of Andrew Harvey, a global mystic and genuine inspiration. As Churchill observed of FDR, meeting Andrew was “like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.” Dr. Elfie Hinterkopf’s writings have been influential in my work and her presence a gentle support.
Dr. David Grand, the developer of Brainspotting, transformed the way I practice psychotherapy and may yet change the way the world does this work. Thank you, David.
Some people look back on a marriage that ended as a failure. I am fortunate in that I was married to a woman whom for many years was not only my friend and lover, but a spiritual partner. Many thanks to you, Vicki, for all I learned with you and from you. I will see you again next lifetime, and we can complete whatever went unfinished.
Psychics Tammy Potok and Cindy Myska are also to be thanked for their personal and professional support. Keep me posted on what’s next, would ja?
I am thankful I found a colleague, friend, and true brother in Jack Morrison, LMSW. It was Jack who dragged me to Brainspotting training in return for my favor of dragging him into my Transpersonal Breathwork workshops. Apparently, no good deed goes unpunished. So, to Jack, as well as to Chelsea DeKruyff, LPC, Satu Korby, LPC, and Alecia Masood, CMT, thank you for your sincere efforts in Transpersonal Breathwork Experiences. Your compassion and open hearts always made a difference. The love and understanding of my niece and nephew, Ben and Maureen, has always been an inspiration, and they are to thank me for fulfilling a key role in their lives: Every child needs a weird uncle.
Norman and Angela Tucker have been an ongoing support and the love and acceptance of their adult grandchildren, Caitlin, Chris, and Matthew made completing this endeavor much easier.
Both the work of Edgar Cayce and A Course in Miracles has shaped my spiritual journey and metaphysical worldview. As such, an enormous debt of gratitude is owed to a number of individuals I have never met, including Dr. Helen Shucman, Dr. William Thetford, Dr. Kenneth Wapnick, and Edgar Cayce himself. I am fortunate to call counselor Tom Baker—a former priest and a student of both Cayce and the Course—a friend and supporter. We both continue to find ways to “straddle the teachings,” exploring wisdom where it blossoms in each.
The administration and staff—past and present—of Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) in Virginia Beach, Va., can be credited for taking my work to the national level with special kudos to Kevin Todeschi, Charles Thomas Cayce, Jim Dixon, Darrin Owens, Allison Parker Hedrick, Peter Woodbury, John Van Auken, Renee Branch, Kristie Holmes, Cassie McQuagge, Jeanette Welch, Martha Loveland, and Darlene Wilson. Nadean Phillips of the A.R.E’s Southwest Region was a strong supporter early on in my career. Carl Bohannon and Ed Jamail of the A.R.E. Houston Center continue to put me to work and demonstrate what Cayce really meant by the word “cooperation.” And space does not permit the mention of dozens of regional A.R.E. volunteers, like Marlene Duet, who have welcomed me to their cities like I was family. Thanks guys, for believing in me.
Finally, there are no words to begin to thank the hundreds of people who have been my individual clients or the thousands who have participated in my workshops across the nation. I sat at your feet and learned from your triumphs and failures. We laughed and wept together. You have informed and transformed my life. That you would risk sharing your hearts with me in the most painful of times and trust me to help you, often overwhelms me. That you have allowed me to stay by your side in my workshops as you stood before the Throne of God Himself astonishes me. What an honor you have bestowed upon me by sharing your journey.
Whether we sat together one-to-one in my office or a hotel suite, in a church or an auditorium with hundreds of participants, or as a handful of people at The Heart of Forgiveness in Zion Canyon matters little: Where we have worked together, loved each other, and honored the Divine in ourselves is Holy Ground. I am eternally grateful.
Gregg Unterberger, M.Ed., LPC
College Station, Texas
Have you ever looked at another person’s eyes and suddenly found yourself moving through endless corridors of space ad time, merged with another human being? Later, you may have called that either love or madness, but ether way, the “outer you” ceased to be the focus of your consciousness.
Time and space became one and you were focused in an eternal now. For many of us this happens in less intense moments—although just as beautiful—in experiences of attunement with nature. Every person between birth
