Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Until 1989, South African-born Michael Brown was living what he had called a blissfully unconscious life as a music journalist. He then developed an acutely painful neurological condition for which conventional medicine had neither cure nor relief. This caused him to set out on what became an odyssey of self-healing. His exploration took him into numerous alternative healing modalities 鈥� then beyond.
In the late 90s Michael began to chart a methodical pathway into present moment awareness with intent to develop a practical procedure that anyone, anywhere, could follow to initiate this experience for themselves. This procedure became known as The Presence Process. In 2002 Michael returned to South Africa and invited others to experience this inner journey. He discovered that as others embraced present moment awareness they too automatically experienced release from physical, mental, and emotional discomfort, including psychological disorders and addictions.
To make this journey accessible to everyone Michael wrote The Presence Process: A Healing Journey Into Present Moment Awareness. The Presence Process enables us to take present moment awareness from a mental concept to an abiding experience.
Brown, Michael, 1962- from Library of Congress website
This book is a must-read for everyone seeking emotional maturity so that you no longer end up in emotionally-distraught states. If you suffer from illnesses (curable or incurable), addictions, you feel like your life's stuck, or you feel awful or hopeless, this book's process is what you're looking for.
Everyone can benefit greatly from this book. And yet 99.999% of people on the planet don't know how to do what this book teaches--emotional processing. It's the most important thing anyone could ever learn in life: how to love oneself unconditionally so that one's dysfunctional emotions (fear, anger, grief, and any mixture of them) will integrate. The more a person integrates, the more they feel whole, like their authentic self. Their life balances out, and when tough times come, they're not triggered by them emotionally anymore. Or if they are triggered, they know exactly how to deal with those triggered emotions so that they don't get overwhelmed and go into a downward spiral.
I was good with psychology and knew myself pretty well before I started this process. But no matter what I knew about myself, and no matter what emotional work I did, I could never seem to get my emotional issues corrected. No one could tell me how. When I read through The Presence Process and let it guide me through the 10-week process, I saw actual emotional transformation. I didn't fear uncomfortable emotions coming up anymore because I knew how to handle them. In fact, I wanted them to come up. The more they came up, the more I got to be with them unconditionally and get used to them or let them integrate. I had no idea how to love myself unconditionally before I read this book. Now I understand how to do it, and I do it daily in order to help integrate my uncomfortable, dysfunctional emotions that drive my less-loving behaviors. When I actually feel the emotions integrate, it's amazing. I laugh and cry (happy tears) at the same time. It's hard to describe unless you've experienced it. I can be happy and depressed at the same time, which seems counter-intuitive or even impossible, but it's actually not. The point is that even when I feel a depression within me, I'm still content and have no problem with it.
When I finished my first Presence Process, I could feel my emotions much better than I ever had in the past. That made life so much more enjoyable! The process made me better at feeling instead of trying to "make me feel better." Yes, this process has the side effect of us feeling better as we continue to do it, but actually, it's about getting better at feeling. We can finally feel the uncomfortable feelings we've repressed from long ago that have been driving our unsavory behaviors. This reverses our desensitization to feelings so we can finally experience them and process them. Feeling those without condition and without judgment has amazing results. The better we are at feeling everything inside, the better we feel our own innate joy and peace. There's nothing better than that.
I used to go to movies before and I would feel a little bit of emotion and I might shed a tear or two, but that was about it. But about eight weeks into the process, after my first big conscious emotional integration, movies became a whole knew experience. I'd watch a movie and feel all of these sensations throughout my body from the emotions running through me. It made movies really cool. It gave life a whole other dimension that made it so much more enjoyable. Music does the same thing to me, as well as powerful scenes in books or in life.
When I finished my second presence process, I felt awful because of all the stuff that it drudged up. But you know what? I didn't freak out about it. I was really excited that all of that stuff had come up and I finally got to deal with it. I enjoyed it. It was tough at times, but not bad, really, because I knew how to deal with the uncomfortable feelings. And I knew all of it was surfacing to help me mature emotionally. The process usually brings up issues to deal with in little bits, but sometimes it brings them up for quite a while. It works like that because we're ready for it and we're asking for it so we can make progress.
The book puts everything in life into perspective, connecting it all so that we understand how everything works and how it's all working together to help us, not hurt us. It flips your perspective on life. I never thought I'd be excited to feel pain, but I am now. When we no longer fear pain, we stop trying to control our life to make it "happy." Instead, we take life as it comes and it's a lot more enjoyable. It's so much easier like that. And we become very unconditionally loving and giving, too.
UPDATE It's been three years now since I started doing The Presence Process and did five of them back to back, and then continued with the breathing (except for one stint where I was experimenting with not doing the breathing for a while--I edited that into my original statement above). Life is pretty good now. I'm not 100% emotionally mature--that's a long, long process--but I'm doing much better than before and I continue to make progress. I haven't done a presence process in around a year and a half, and I'm not sure I need to bother doing another one. I just make sure I'm diligent about dealing with emotions when they come up and about doing the daily breathing practice in the morning and evening. I've gone through times of depression and anger and who knows what else, but none of them caused me to break down. I took them all in stride and was fairly content through most of it.
Depression is caused by repressed anger. I started out in life repressing all my anger, which caused a lot of health problems and little emotional issues. So finally, that anger is starting to come up--that's what I'm dealing with now. Which means I'm finally confident enough to deal with it. I don't get rid of it or repress it. I actually do my best to contain the anger and keep present with it as much as possible throughout the day. By doing that, I've gotten used to feeling it for long stints without reacting to it. I'm not always successful at that, but I do pretty well most of the time. That's huge progress for me. I used to just stuff anger and end up depressed periodically. That's not good for anyone. Anger is a secondary emotion, always repressing fear along with grief. So I find that when I the anger has been around enough, I'll end up processing the grief during my breathing sessions or when I have some privacy. When it integrates, the anger that was held in place by it will be gone because it's no longer needed. It has nothing to repress, no reason to attempt to control that emotion anymore. Anger's one of the most difficult ones, so I'm glad I'm finally doing well with it.
Don't be hard on yourself at all and take it slow and easy. You will progress at exactly the speed you're supposed to. No need to judge yourself or your progress in any way. Whatever you do and whatever happens is required.
I highly recommend this book to everyone, no matter what your situation. It can really change the way you approach life and make it a lot more enjoyable.
The Presence Process is an exceptional book 鈥� has the right intentions and is very practical. The problem with many self-help books is they take a random thread from ancient philosophy and blow it up into an entire book filled with fanciful jargons with little or no practical value. Some are also risky as they tend to promote delusion and false hope with unproven techniques.
The core premise of Presence is very similar or even identical to the philosophies of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism. However, the book steers clear of terms used in religious texts. And hence the book is about experiencing your oneness with presence, with an experiential process.
Time plays an astonishing influence on our minds. When we live in time, we see life as a challenge to be overcome rather than experiencing it for what it is. The reasoning mind is in a constant evaluation mode trying to relive the past and leap to the fears of the future. Most of us know this is bad 鈥� but it is a habit we cannot break free of. The presence process does offer a workable way to be free.
The approach with a weekly plan of action is gradual and eases you into the core philosophical aspects with excellent conceptual introductions to each chapter. The process of self discovery moves on to the higher goal of eliminating the illusion of separation from everything else in the universe.
I did not follow the week wise plan and read through the book, digesting the concepts. I did initially consider sticking to the plan but since I have practised mindfulness since some time now - I decided to read through the book. I do intend to follow the week wise plan with a second read shortly. Even in the absence of following the plan, I still know that the process will work since I practice much of the experiences described in slightly varied forms, and it has worked for me.
The only suggestion I possibly could make for the book is that the author could have explored and outlined other & more advanced meditation techniques. However, it might have detracted from the simplicity of the book which anyone can read and practise in it's current form.
This is a book I would strongly recommend to everyone. It is in fact invaluable to those relatively new to mindfulness.
This was the best 25 bucks I have ever spent. It鈥檚 a miraculous process for anyone who wants real change. It does take a whole lot of guts to enter the process and it鈥檚 a book that鈥檒l find you when you are ripe for the work. The process itself is very simple. Once you recognize the causal point of your distress, it鈥檚 simple enough to change. However, your fear, anger, and grief will be brought the surface to be integrated. Staying conscious through the storms these emotions are going to stir is the most challenging part of this work. By the time you finish the 10 week process, you鈥檒l feel like you鈥檝e lived ten lifetimes. This book will also unravel why affirmations and the advice given in books like the 鈥淪ecret,鈥� doesn鈥檛 always work. It鈥檚 not for everyone, but for those who do decide to take the leap, life will never be the same.
I could not get through this, or understand why it's so highly recommended. I downloaded it off of Audible and I'm waiting to get a refund. The narrator was terrible, and the first few chapters are mere marketing, telling the reader how "wonderful and life-altering" the presence process is...without ever explaining WHAT it is. It sounded like a woo-woo marketing informercial and was seriously irritating. This book needed to get to the point much faster, or at least be way more engaging to hold my interest.
I've read 'The Presence Process' three times now, and each time I did the ten week program. I even joined a group that discussed this book once a week. I've met people who have read, 'The Presence Process' upwards of 15 times. They've got their copies of the book underlined, highlighted, book marked, annotated and adumbrated. 'The Presence Process' is a clear and easy to understand guidebook for a person looking to heal their emotional body and move more into the present moment. I have found the book to be a useful tool for personal growth and healing. It's a good book, with easy to follow instructions that really seem to work!
Best book I have ever red, it really guided me to the way to peaceful mind and spirit. I red this book twice and planning to read it a third time soon. I found the answer of many things I experience and why I face the same situation every time and why i fall in the same problem every time.
I believe the ideas and techniques of this book are rich, but the writing is waaaaaay too slow. There's too much repetition of the same ideas using different ways to say it to the point I started getting very bored. I struggled to finish this book only because it was recommended to me by a dear friend, I am actually sorry I couldn't enjoy it as much as I expected to.
Many of us have no clue that we're walking around with a layer of pretense; that our hearts are defended; that we're not meeting life as it comes to us, openly, now, in the moment. We have little clue that we don't have a clue, that we don't have a life, or make a life, but rather we ARE life itself: we're life, we're consciousness expressing and experiencing itself always anew. You can read books. You can visit favorite gurus. You can meditate twice daily, You can walk the walk for months on end. But ultimately -- in order to strip yourself down to the heart of you, in order to release the immense love and life force that's being held there -- you have to self-facilitate yourself through some process. Michael Brown, in this book, is offering you a brilliant process, a process I did three times and may work through again sometime soon. I've been called a healer, a therapist, some folks' guru, teacher, certainly friend -- really I'm merely a lover who knows more now, since working with The Presence Process, than ever before. There was a me before...and then there is a me in the afterwards of this, some four years on. Michael's work begins you on a journey you will never ever regret. He will help bring you gently to your knees in gratitude. And you too will end up knowing that gratitude is the ONLY attitude while you're here alive, as a being showing up as a human life.
"The Presence Process" has captured a man's spiritual evolution from awakening to current moment, allowing the reader to relate to the triumphs and challenges along the journey. He takes the reader through his highly integrative spiritual practices as he faced deep physical pain and offers practical steps of energetic pathways that can foster a powerful relationship to oneself and others, creating a strong foundation to one's very own experience of life in a state of awareness. This book goes above and beyond by taking the process from the mental state to the emotional state rooted in the heart, requiring a complete surrender to the human emotional process. Michael is offering an opportunity with his insight, a meaningful and valuable offering to become whole, as a mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional being.
Ok, so I'm now in a position where I feel I can very objectively and thoroughly review this book. As for a little background on me: I'm an experienced meditator (about 15 years) and practice mindfulness daily (although sometimes I slack off). I suffer from severe depression and anxiety disorder, and chronic, debilitating fatigue. So, I should be a prime candidate for this process, right? First, the good parts about the book:
*The breathing process he describes does indeed require mindfulness, so it's a good thing. *The first part of the book really is very encouraging and inspiring, and I found myself getting quite excited about it. *The Presence Activating Statements are useful, perhaps not necessarily as an affirmation in itself, but as a way to bring yourself back to the present moment.
Now for the not so good: *This book is very repetitive. He defends himself by saying he wrote the book specifically for our subconscious minds, so it might not flow in a way we find natural or comfortable. Haha really? I've heard that claim before in these types of books, and it's a great way of making yourself sound way more knowledgeable and intelligent than you probably really are. Our subconscious minds are infinitely variable. A thousand people's subconscious minds will have a thousand different triggers, responses, etc. so there is simply no way a person could write a book for our subconscious minds. Sorry. So he could've tightened up the writing in the book, for sure.
*Secondly, I was surprised at how much he really glosses over the idea of mindfulness, since that is what the book is mainly about. He makes it seem that doing the EXACT breathing technique he describes, and doing the presence activating statements are the ONLY ways to cultivate mindfulness, and that is laughably untrue. You could do literally ANY type of breathing, and as long as you were mindfully focused on it, you would be cultivating "present moment awareness" as he calls it. You could also do literally any activity, and still cultivate this awareness, as long as you were being mindful. Ok, so the proof is in the pudding, right? Time to put my money where my mouth is. I did one round (10 weeks) all the way through. About half way through, since I wasn't getting any "results" I decided to double the amount of time he recommends, since I was so used to longer meditations, anyway. Went all the way through that first round with absolutely no objective change in my life, emotional state, physical condition, mindset, perspective. Just NOTHING. But I decided to go a second round, which I'm half way through, now. Still absolutely no hint of any emotional release, integration (he loves that word), my outward life, internal shifts, etc.
So, should you read this book and try the process? Absolutely. Your mental/physical health are worth the time and effort. And it does seem to help a lot of people. I'm actually sorry I have to give this a bad review, but I can only review it based on my own experience. I will continue to finish the second round, and if something actually changes, I will be happy to amend my review. Well, best of luck with it, should you chose to try it.
This book was a life-changing read for me. I just finished the first 10-week Presence Process journey and can notice the differences from when I started. I kept a pretty detailed weekly journal and plan to do the same when I go through rounds 2 & 3 of the journey soon.
If you've read books like The Power of Now or Untethered Soul, this book takes the teachings in those books to another level with more practical explanations and a 10-week actionable journey for you to follow.
When I started: - In a 2-month depression/funk stuck in uncontrollable thought loops and avoiding emotion. As someone who has meditated on and off for many years (3 years daily), I never saw this coming and was shocked that the normal "toolbox" of things I use to ease myself out of minor incidents like this was NOT working and it kept getting worse. - 7 months before I started this journey, I had quit my job to be a solo freelancer/entrepreneur. Things were going well until I found work drying up and I had started to lose hope. All I could think about was failing and having to move back in with my parents when my money ran out in a few months. I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel for ANY aspect of my life, everything felt hopeless. - I suspect this downturn in business, and some other major life events that occurred in a short period of time, forced me into a state of stress & discomfort that I had never felt before in my life. After all, I had lived a comfortable life with a nice, cushy salary and never had to fend for myself before. I was pretty sheltered emotionally and had a history of repressing issues instead of facing them. This melting pot of emotions and discomfort likely propelled me into this state.
After I finished the first 10 week process: - By the end of week 4, after many days of struggle and emotional release, that funk I was going through had passed and I felt light and in control again. I had my best month in business ever during these 4 weeks. - The next 6 weeks were marked with more emotional highs as I tackled some social/emotional issues I had been avoiding. I went through a bit of a dip here, but trusting in the process allowed me to work through whatever unintegrated emotional charges came up. - In those remaining 6 weeks, I developed a solid foundation for my business and am more confident than ever that can continue to find work and develop my business further. - My friend remarked that I am a completely different person now and have a sense of lightness and joy again. - I frequently find myself just soaking in the present and just enjoying the moment. Negative thoughts come up, but they don't take hold as they used to and I can brush them off quickly. - Facing challenging life events is simple now as my ability to surrender and integrate unintegrated emotional charges has been greatly improved.
I could go on forever but with a deep understanding of emotional charges and integration, I am confident that I will continue to make progress as time goes on. The knowledge and exercises truly are timeless...
If you truly want to dedicate yourself to changing your life, read this book, make time for the exercises, and just keep rereading parts of the book so the material soaks in.
Read this twice and benefited from the central message in ways that are still proving to be powerful for me a year later. If you're not ready to be accountable for your life and choices, buy it and dip into maybe just the first chapter for now. When the time is right, revisit it. You will learn about yourself, what holds you back, what keeps you stuck (and all the origins of this behavior) as well as how to move toward and through the drama and trauma to be your best self now!
After a conversation about how hard it is know what stories were are telling ourselves that keep us mired in the same tired habits of behavior, an acquaintance recommended The Presence Process to me. One can approach this at many levels, but after doing a little exploration about Michael Brown and listening to his overall philosophy and a couple of hours of YouTube.com audio files by him, I decided that I liked his approach and that it was worth my while to read the book and work through the presence process as he presents it. I have been a student of Buddhism for a number of years and have found that the emotional hooks and these old reactions that seem to arise frequently have been very hard to unwind even when I have had a pretty clear insight about their "origin". I easily added the breathing sessions, morning and evening, to my day (why has that been so hard in the past) and maintained my regular hour+ meditation practice. I found the tools in the book useful in priming me to notice when I had reactive emotional patterns come up, and increased my tolerance for allowing myself to simply feel them. I found many of the terms he used more explicit and helpful in my daily musings that the other terms that I have used in the past, and steering clear of intellectualizing I think really helps. I am currently taking a short break and then will recycle through the process again.
I really wish I could give this book a better review. There are some great gems in it that I very much loved and will hold onto from reading the book. But I鈥檝e never read a book before that did more to make me want to not finish it. It needed an editor (or better editor) in the worst way. If you need 120 pages to talk about your 120 page process, a whole lot of those pages aren鈥檛 doing a good job. Did you forget the name of the book while reading? Don鈥檛 worry, he writes 鈥淭he Presence Process鈥� in there over 300 times, almost once per page. Forget the three steps in week six? He鈥檚 got you covered by going over them in detail three times. And if you ever want to read a whole lot of confirmation bias being presented as absolute fact, week 10 has you covered.
In the end, there is a 150-ish page version of this book that I would give five stars to. But as is, I can鈥檛 recommend anyone put themselves through this self-indulgent mess.
This book and the process within is a transformational tool that everyone can benefit from. I read "Be Here Now" many years ago and believe in the importance of being present. But, until I read this book, I did not have the tools to get there. I am very grateful to Michael Brown for writing this book and showing me the way.
The process in this book is not for the faint of heart. You must be willing to feel the pain fully in order to integrate your past and become fully present. This book is enlightening and inspiring and a true to gift to the world.
I'm in my second reading and so appreciate the insight and the work. It takes courage, and faith. I read another review from a Christian perspective; I too am a Christian, and Browne's language doesn't offend me or put me off in any other way. A rose by any other name is still a rose. I highly suspect that Presence is not offended by being referred to as Presence instead of God or Holy Spirit. It is what it is. Thank you Michael Brown.
If you are ready to really deal with the inner child that has been suffering for your entire life and causing all sorts of drama and pain - this book is the self help tool of the century!!!! I have read so many books - no prior book has given me such an intellectual understanding, the psychological tools, and the hope for a better future. I want to share it with everyone!!!
Some good points in the book, but the way it is written is a definite one star. Very unbearable to read. I see this is not a popular opinion, and I am glad the book helped so many people, so I am willing to read it again in 5-6 years to see if my state of mind changed enough to go through this book without the need to throw it away.
This book is one of the most important books I have read & implied in my life.
I have done 30 weeks (3 x10 week cycles) of the daily energetic/emotional blockage releasing, or as the author would say taking the charge off from the once charged emotions and integrating the disowned parts of self with the whole once again. During this time I had come in contact with lot of painful and unpleasant memories, nightmares in sleep, disturbing feelings and what not and still would like to continue, since i feel more peace with my authentic self by each and every day. I have come to understand myself more clearly, trust my intuition, feel more at ease. I feel it like Jordan Peterson would put it, paraphrasingly - "the most valuable thing in your life is deep down in you and just like in the myths and fairytales, in order to get to the gold, you must first face the dragon who guards the gold, then fight it and slay it. But digging deep inside yourself and facing ones demons or dark sides takes a tremendous amount of courage"
As the author suggests to find situations that "trigger", before each session I would think of internally upsetting things or find external things that make me feel unpleasant, whether visiting my family and some certain things come up in conversations or in public situations, digging up annoying factors about the society and people, reading other books, watching movies that make me feel certain uneaseness, going through opinions and beliefs of my own and other people who I feel opposed to and etc. Then start the proces. Also coupling this book with Frederick Dodson "Levels of energy" and going through the "pockets" of the low vibrational energies described in there. If I have felt triggerning sensations during daily situations or work etc, then later in the day I ground myself, tell my subconscious it is safe now to open up and recall the feelings, sensations in the body and immerse myself in by doing the breathing and repeating my intentional "mantra".
Now I do not follow the authors method entirely, I have done daily sessions of 1-1,5 hours approximately, maximum of 3,5 h (which I was very surprised of afterwards) and minimum of 15-20min, while the author recommends only 15 minutes in the morning and at least 15min (or how much you can 'til the point of experiencing the sensations fully - having cold shivers, muscle cramps, bit of shaking, cries or what not) in the evening. Plus I did my mantra more or like the same for each time "when did I first encounter these feelings or situational discomfort in my life the first time / or before?" as opposed to trying weekly different "mantras" described in the beginning of each week-chapter in the book, which I did not resonate with at all. All of this definitely put the intention on my strict wish to get into the root cause, experience the sensations and let them pass through the body, rather to let them come up and simmer for longer.
I love that the author does no upsale for any workshop or product and goes straight to the point what works and how it should be done, he also claims he does not want to be no guru, just hand over the keys and let one proceed with the unlocking themselves, I have huge respect for that. There is too many self-help books, practices, too many spiritual gurus making everything revolve around them, misguide those in need to read and feel only the good emotions which make them stuff away the painful ones and make the people who really need the help suffer needlessly and get addicted to the gurus, it is great that this book shines a little light on all of this and speaks the truth. I am hugely grateful for his contribution to help the mankind and life on earth progressing into more vibrational and peaceful living not only mentally, but by energetical/emotional processing as well.
Warning - It is life transformative process as the author also tells in one of his YouTube video, one cannot unlearn it after exposing to the knowledge, resembling the age-old Matrix analogy with point of no return. As said before, it brings up a lot of emotional turmoil, changes people's perception of us who surround us and their behaviors etc, and it is still highly recommended to go through it - the peace of mind one gets is uniquely powerful and rewarding in itself. Creativity, easeness, feelings of peace in the daily life (between the processing sessions themselves of course), being one with the greater whole and understanding that without oneself there would be no whole either. If for example you have not found a reason for yourself, then there is 45 different benefits described in one chapter which might also encourage different reasons why to do it and commit oneself to it. Now I would not give the book 5 star-rating on its own (more like 3-4), but with the process which just uplifts the experience of life, it is 5 and well beyond, no number high enough to really describe it, it truly is unique to each individual and invaluable lessons will be learned.
There is no need to be afraid of going into this process, since we are emotional beings and we shall not feel only good, but also the whole range of emotions, otherways we get stuck and sick or miserable and unhappy, and feeling regretfulness and bitterness as well. When it comes to experiencing the "traumas" fully, our bodies know how to handle it, just like animals when they shake themself off (like the polar bear example from a NatGeo documentary here - ) and afterwards feel very calm, relaxed and breath deeply and have over all sense of being at ease.
And be aware that the body will handle the stress that it is able to, if you are capable for 1 hour of processing, good, if only for 15 minutes, great, the body and mind will adjust based on it self-regulating system, so there is no right or wrong way to do it, as long as you will go through the process and like to integrate the pieces of puzzle and feel yourself at home once more before any disturbances that happened in the childhood which had been shut down, repressed knowingly or unknowingly. Any kind of processing is what matters, stuffing things down is what creates pain further down the road. Highly recommend this book AND implementing the 10 week process, until there is no other substitute to access subconscious charged emotions and integrate the disowned parts of self with the whole, this is it for now. Stay on course AND Keep on processing!