By Arny Mindell
For most of us, and for many therapists, the body appears as a central topic 
only when there are severe symptoms. It is still a relatively surprising to discover that symptoms can be enlightening.
After completing my Jungian studies and becoming a training analyst in the 1970’s, I realized that if dreams were meaningful, the same must be true for all personal, physical and dreamlike experiences. I began studying how the dreaming mind appears not only in our nighttime dreams, but also in every little thing we notice all day long.
I was amazed to discover the dreaming process in our everyday minds and in all our body experiences- including symptoms. Whatever we experience is recognizable in our dreams. Based upon these and other observations, together with many friends in Zurich Switzerland, I began developing what is today called, “process oriented psychology”, a non-pathological approach to everything we experience from body symptoms and dance processes, to relationship issues and large group situations.
The central theme of all my ideas is about process, as understood in Taoism and physics. Process allowed me to use my background in applied physics, Jungian psychology and the “Tao that can not be said.” I found new approaches to altered states of consciousness including psychotic and comatose states. Spiritual experiences appeared in an entirely new light for me.