Welcome to Gestalt!'s final issue for 2001. This one is devoted to the subject of spirituality in Gestalt therapy, and it is a joint project with Behavior Online's Forum on Gestalt therapy, moderated by Brian O'Neill. Brian has been the special editor on this issue of Gestalt!.

(The reader is recommended to consult the discussion at Behavior Online to see further development of some of the contents here, and the url to reach that forum is http://www.behavior.net/forums/gestalt.)

Gstalt-L, An email discussion group devoted to Gestalt therapy and the community of its practitioners (www.g-gej.org/gstalt-l). Gstalt-J, An email discussion group devoted to research on Gestalt therapy, theory and practice (www.g-gej.org/gstalt-j). Supported by the Gestalt Research Consortium (GRC) (www.g-gej.org/grc). Gestalt Bookmarks, a place to begin researching the field of contemporary Gestalt therapy on the world wide web (www.g-gej.org/gestaltbookmarks).

Spirituality is a broad concept. It's like the word "love." In fact, some people might equate the two rather rapidly, saying such things as "God is love" or realizing that when they love, they feel spiritual. Some would say spirituality is an aspect of the self, a way of experiencing oneself, but others would maintain that it is a relationship to the existential matters beyond oneself and therefore an aspect of contact in the environment. Taken together, spirituality can be understood as contact with the Holy Other which provides a ground of subjective experience. One cannot know oneself spiritually, in this perspective, without a relationship with God, and one cannot have a whole sense of oneself apart from embracing the spiritual.

Put another way:

A spirituality that fails to involve the totality of our being is inevitably a spirituality that furthers our fragmentation...the deep knowing of God and self is a spirituality that integrates us in our depths and makes us whole and holy.

David Benner
Care of Souls

The authors contributing to this issue of Gestalt! explore these aspects of spirituality in the following ways:

• Sharon Snir, editor of the GANZ Newsletter, shares an existential experience generated by a visit to Auschwitz.
• Brian O'Neill offers two pieces; the first is an editorial challenging the apparent split in the thinking of the founders of Gestalt therapy over the issue of a spiritual "self," or soul, and the second is a more detailed reflection on the existential impact of doing psychotherapy - its relationship to meaning formation.
• Sylvia Crocker presents a very fine description of the relationship between phenomenology and dialogue, especially as these both relate to the encounter with mystery.
• Anne Maclean shares her dream, her vision of spirituality, and provides her understanding of its significance.
• Victor Daniels contributes another working corner on the dynamics of attention in meditation and Gestalt therapy.
• Bud Feder offers a letter opposing an emphasis on spirituality in Gestalt therapy, and Philip Brownell responds.
• Finally, John Wymore, in a separate letter to the editor, shares his concerns over Joe Melnick's lament on the marginalization of Gestalt therapy, as he expressed it in a recent issue of Gestalt Review.

We hope the reader finds enjoyment and cause for reflection. Beyond this, we hope the reader desires to respond and to discuss. If that is so, we encourage the reader to do so at the Gestalt Forum at Behavior Online.

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Call for Papers for Gestalt!:

We are always looking for good writing, interesting developments to share with the Global Gestalt community, and ways of sharing the wealth of Gestalt therapy with a wider audience. If you have an idea for an article, a piece of news, or if you have a bug in your bonnet and need to unload with a letter to the editor, please contact Philip Brownell, Sr. Editor, to discuss it (phil@g-gej.org).

Authors will find useful information at the Masthead for the journal, located at http://www.g-gej.org/masthead.