Our world is more magical than we know - more than we can know. Increasing numbers of us are realising that the 'citadel theory of mind' where we see ourselves as isolated units within the boundaries of our own skulls is not how the world works. But if it isn't, then how do we make sense of the worlds beyond consensus reality? How do we engage with the web of life and all that's around it in ways that are respect, reciprocal and generative?

Robert (Bob) Falconer is a long time IFS practitioner and trainer. He is the author or co-author of many books, including Many Minds, One Self which he co-wrote with Dick Schwartz, who is credited with founding Internal Family Systems Therapy. For me, this is the form of therapy that leans closest into spiritual work, particularly into shamanic work, and Bob's book, The Others Within Us: Internal Family Systems, Porous Mind and Spirit Possession is a ground-breaking work that blows open the fallacies of the citadel mind model and opens us to a wide spectrum of other realities in other cultures, all of which acknowledge the existence of non-human, non-embodied energies that have at least a degree of agency and that can interact with human beings in ways that are either to our benefit or our detriment. Very few are neutral.

So as we hurtle towards the edge of a cliff, pushed by our culture's endemic inability to engage with our own traumas, talking to Bob seemed pretty much essential. We talk quite a lot about IFS, which is Internal Family Systems therapy and at the start, we open up more of what that's about, though I do encourage you to read the book Bob co-wrote with Dick Schwartz. We also - and this is a trigger warning - explore some of Bob's own life history of harrowing sexual and physical abuse so if this is likely to trigger parts of you, then please only listen when you're feeling grounded and well resourced. Beyond that, we range far, wide and deep across the boundaries where science meets spirituality and philosophy meets psychotherapy, all of which is squarely in the area that I think needs most work, for all of us.

Bob's website: https://robertfalconer.us/
Bob on YouTube https://robertfalconer.us/youtube-channel/

Bob's Books:
Out now: The Others Within Us: Internal Family Systems, Porous Mind, and Spirit Possession
OUT ON 22nd MAY 2025 - Opening the Inner World: Spiritual Healing, Internal Family Systems and Emanuel Swedenborg
Co-written with Dick Schwartz: Many Minds, One Self by Richard Schwartz and Robert Falconer

Other books
Thomas Zinser Soul-Centered Healing
Lloyd DeMause The History of Childhood
David Gordon White - Daemons are Forever

Dreaming Awake Contemporary Shamanic Training: https://dreamingawake.co.uk
Accidental Gods Membership https://accidentalgods.life/join-us/
Accidental Gods Gatherings https://accidentalgods.life/gatherings-2025/

Citadel Model of Mind

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