Caroline Myss

Caroline Myss (pronounced mace; born 1952) is an American author of numerous books and audio tapes, including five New York Times Best Sellers: Anatomy of the Spirit (1996), Why People Don't Heal and How They Can (1998), Sacred Contracts (2002), Invisible Acts of Power (2004), Entering The Castle (2007), and Defy Gravity (2009). Her most recent book, Archetypes: Who Are You? was published in 2013. She describes herself as a medical intuitive^[1] and a mystic.

She was on The Oprah Winfrey Show several times with her first appearance being in 2002.^[1] In 2001 she hosted a TV series titled The Journey With Caroline Myss on the Oxygen (TV network), co-owned by Oprah Winfrey,^[2][3] exploring the spiritual and psychological roadblocks of life in an intimate workshop setting,^[4] apart from that she has also done TV Specials, "Three Levels of Power & How to Use Them" and "Why People Don't Heal & How They Can," based on her work.^[5][6]

Biography

Caroline Myss was born on December 2, 1952,^[7] in Chicago and grew up with her parents and two brothers, one elder and one younger, in the Melrose Park, Illinois neighborhood near Chicago.^[8] She was raised a Catholic in a large Polish American family,^[9] and attended the Mother Guerin High School, River Grove, Illinois, run by the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.^[10] She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana in 1974, and started her career in journalism in Chicago.^[11]

During the course of her career, she interviewed Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, the author of the famous book On Death and Dying, which inspired her to pursue a master's degree in theology from Mundelein College, Chicago, which she completed in 1979.^[7] (In 2008, she wrote the foreword to Kübler-Ross's revised version of "On Life After Death".^[12])

She started giving medical intuitive readings in 1982^[13] and co-founded a small New Age publishing company, Stillpoint Publishing in Walpole, New Hampshire, where she also worked as an editor^[14] in 1983. Next she began consulting with holistic doctors,^[7] which in 1984, led to her extensive collaboration with Dr. Norman Shealy, an MD schooled at Harvard, and the founder of the American Holistic Medical Association,^[15] with whom she later co-authored, "Aids: Passageway to Transformation," in 1987, followed by "The Creation of Health: The Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Responses that Promote Health and Healing," in 1988. Deriving from her practice as a medical intuitive, she started writing books, in the field of energy medicine, and healing, all of which became New York Times Best Sellers.^[16] Starting with Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing (1996), which overlapped seven Christian sacraments with seven Hindu chakras and the Kabbalah's Tree of Life to create a map of the human "energy anatomy";^[17] this was followed by Why People Don't Heal and How They Can (1998), which explored the reasons people do not heal through her concept of "woundology." Her next book, Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential (2002) dealt with the issue of finding "Life Purpose," while describing Sacred Contracts as "a set of assignments that our soul had formed around before incarnation".^[18] She has since appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show numerous times.^[19]

By 2000, she discontinued doing private medical intuitive readings, and began teaching how to do them through her workshops, seminars, radio shows and guided tours.^[20] She tours internationally as a speaker on spirituality and mysticism,^[21] and lives in Oak Park, Illinois, near Chicago.^[8][22] In 2003, she founded the Caroline Myss Educational Institute (CMED) in Chicago, Illinois, with business partner David Smith,^[23] offering weekend workshops on her books and teachings.

Her 2007 book, "Entering the Castle" draws upon the writings of Saint Teresa of Ávila, a 16th-century Carmelite nun, who wrote her most important work, The Interior Castle (1577), towards the end of her life.^{[24][25][26][27]} Her next book, Defy Gravity, Healing Beyond the Bounds of Reason (2009) took the ideas further with mystical laws, the seven shadows and also seven graces inherent in all of us.^[28]

In June 2012, Myss appeared on a Super Soul Sunday episode with Oprah Winfrey, on OWN Network.^[29]

Books and recordings

Her first three books have consecutively been on the New York Times Best Seller list: Anatomy of the Spirit (1998),^[30] Why People Don't Heal and How They Can (1998),^[31] Sacred Contracts (2002)^[32]

• Aids: Passageway to Transformation, with C. Norman Sheally, Stillpoint Publishing, Walpole, NH. 1987. ISBN 978-0-913299-47-0. ISBN 0-913299-47-2.
• The Creation of Health: The Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Responses that Promote Health and Healing, with C. Norman Sheally, Three Rivers Press, 1988. ISBN 0-609-80323-9.
• Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing 1996; ISBN 978-0-609-80014-0
• Why People Don't Heal and How They Can, Three Rivers Press, 1997 (paperback); ISBN 978-0-609-80224-3
• The Creation of Health: The Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Responses That Promote Health and Healing, Three Rivers Press, 1998 (Audio CD); ISBN 978-0-609-80323-3
• Spiritual Power Spiritual Practice, Three Rivers Press, 1998 (audio cassette); ISBN 978-1-56455-647-9
• Spiritual Madness, Sounds True Audio, 2001 (audio CD); ISBN 978-1-56455-902-9
• Invisible Acts of Power: Personal Choices That Create Miracles, Free Press, 2002. ISBN 0-7432-6425-8.
• Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential (paperback); Three Rivers Press; 2003. ISBN 0-609-81011-1
• Archetype Cards, an 80 Card Deck with Instruction Booklet; copyright 2003; ISBN 1-4019-0184-0
• Three Levels of Power and How to Use Them, Sounds True Inc., 2004 (audio CD); ISBN 978-1-59179-235-2
• Invisible Acts of Power: Personal Choices that Create Miracles, Sounds True, 2004 (Audio CD); ISBN 978-1-59179-135-5
• Spiritual Power, Spiritual Practice, Sounds True, 2004. ISBN 1-59179-149-9.
• Entering the Castle: An Inner Path to God and your Soul, 2007, (hard cover); ISBN 978-0-7432-5532-5
• The Sacred Contract of America: Fulfilling the Vision of Our Mystic Founders, 2007, Sounds True. (Audio CD), ISBN 1-59179-606-7.^[33]
• Defy Gravity: Healing Beyond The Bounds Of Reason, Hay House, 2009, ISBN 1-4019-2290-2.
• Archetypes: Who Are You?, Hay House, 2013, ISBN 978-1401941086.

Quotes

• “Intuition is natural by-product of flowering of a mature self-esteem and a sense of empowerment – not power over, but power to be”^[34]
• "To love yourself, truly love yourself, is to finally discover the essence of personal courage, self-respect, integrity, and self-esteem. These are the qualities of grace that come directly from a soul with stamina."
• "Whenever you become empowered, you will be tested."^[35]
• "The act of forgiveness is the act of returning to present time. And that's why when one has become a forgiving person, and has managed to let go of the past, what they've really done is they've shifted their relationship with time."
• "Keep your honor code between you and God, you don’t break that, no matter who's not looking. God is."^[8]

Weekly radio show

Myss started hosting a weekly Call-in Talk radio show, "Sacred Contracts" around 2005, at Hay House Radio, an Internet radio site, run by Hay House publishing, where she gave online intuitive readings to callers. Then in 2009, the show was renamed "Defy Gravity" after her book by the same name was released in October 2009.^[36][37]

Criticism

In Michael Shermer's book The Skeptic: Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience, he says "Caroline Myss offers no tangible evidence to support any of her claims. Her hypothetical energy system cannot be detected, her intuitive diagnostic abilities are unproven, and her holistic philosophy is riddled with inconsistencies and unsubstantiated judgments."^[38]

Joe Nickell, a paranormal investigator, says, "Myss provides no proof of her alleged abilities. She intuits, of course, her intuitive power, offers only hearsay testimonials and anecdotal evidence as support."^[39] He has also described Myss as having "many of the traits associated with a fantasy prone personality."^[40]

Further reading

• Foreword True Coming of Age: A Dynamic Process That Leads to Emotional Well-Being, Spiritual Growth, and Meaningful Relationships, by John T. Chirban. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2004. ISBN 0-07-142681-7.
• Made in Image of God – Caroline Myss The Fabric of the Future: Women Visionaries of Today Illuminate the Path to Tomorrow, by Mary Jane Ryan, Patrice (INT) Wynne, Ken Wilber, Published by Conari, 2000. ISBN 1-57324-197-0. Page 120-124.
• Online articles of Caroline Myss
• Why People Don't Heal and How They Can – Caroline Myss – Chapter 1 at New York Times
• Foreword to Entering the Castle by Ken Wilber
• A Gift of Light, A Gift For The Soul... by Caroline Myss
• Caroline Myss articles at The Oprah Winfrey Show
• Caroline Myss articles at The Huffington Post

References

Sources

• Myss.com – Biography of Myss

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Caroline Myss

• Myss.com, the official website
• The Caroline Myss Educational Institute CMED

Audio and video links

• Videos of Caroline Myss talks
• Caroline Myss MP3 audio, from Shift in Action, sponsored by the Institute of Noetic Sciences