Eva Pierrakos
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[edit] Eva Pierrakos and the source of her lectures
Eva Broch Pierrakos (1915–1979) was born in the Austrian capital Vienna in 1915, the daughter of novelist Jakob Wassermann. She grew up among the intellectual elite of Vienna. Her first husband was the son of another writer, Hermann Broch.
In 1939 Pierrakos came to the United States. For a while she lived in New York and then in Switzerland, where she discovered that she had a gift for automatic writing. By meditating for long hours, changing her diet, and making a commitment to use her gift only for helping people, she eventually succeeded in becoming a channel for a spirit entity who offered insights into the human psychological condition and spiritual path. This spiritual path came to be known as Pathwork.
From 1957 to 1979, Pathwork presented a series of 258 lectures and offered hundreds of question-and-answer sessions and private consultations through Pierrakos. Most of these sessions were spoken, not written, although a few of the later lectures were apparently channeled while Pierrakos typed. The lectures came to be known as "The Pathwork Guide Lectures," while the spirit entity, who never identified itself, came to be called "the Guide." According to the Guide, it was the material, not the source of the material, that was important.
[edit] Eva Pierrakos, John Pierrakos and Pathwork
In 1967 Eva Pierrakos met Dr. John Pierrakos, a psychiatrist and co-creator of a school of therapy known as bioenergetic analysis. A few years later they were married, initiating a series of important changes in their lives and work.
By incorporating The Guide's teachings into his work, John Pierrakos transformed his practice of bio-energetics into Core Energetics. In turn, the introduction of John Pierrakos's energy work into the Pathwork process, which emphasized the need to deal with mind, emotion, will and body on their own respective levels, contributed to the effectiveness of the Pathwork teachings.
Eventually, a base for the work was established in a secluded valley at the edge of the Catskill Wilderness Area in New York. This first center was called The Phoenicia Pathwork Center and it was located on three hundred acres of pristine land. In 1972 the Pathwork was incorporated as a not-for-profit educational foundation. In 1973 another Pathwork Center was started by Susan and Donovan Thesenga in Virginia. This second Pathwork Center was called Sevenoaks.
