Radical Self-Forgiveness: The Direct Path to True Self-Acceptance [Paperback]

Colin Tipping's Radical Forgiveness has been facilitating healing and spiritual growth for thousands of readers, and now he clarifies and expands on those teachings with Radical Self-Forgiveness. Tipping explores the nature of beliefs and of the many sub-selves that form our identity. This book guides the readers to recognize how beliefs are formed and how they can keep us stuck. There is also a lot of "shadow" work here, looking at parts of yourself that you're usually not aware of. As an explorer of many spiritual teachings and consciousness-expanding spiritual/metaphysical perspectives I resonate with most of what Tipping has to say; I've presented similar ideas in my own writings (such as in the book Consciousness, Creation, and Existence: A Guide to The Grand Adventure) and found many people benefit from these insights. Getting beyond dualistic thinking while functioning within the realm of duality, of archetypes and polarities is a key challenge for us - and Tipping provides a variety of exercises and insights to assist with this.

Tipping offers many examples in real life that illustrate the concepts he presents. He outlines how beliefs shape our reality and how our different sub-selves operate, keeping us from living from a place of spiritual understanding. In the view of our higher spiritual self there is really no right/wrong, good/bad, or anything to forgive. It's all a spiritual role play game that we've chosen to be a part of to learn from various forms of experience. Being open to the possibility of the spiritual view being valid is vital to effectively applying the 5-step radical self-forgiveness process that Tipping teaches. If you want to remain stuck in a human identity or subset thereof then you will likely remain trapped in your story. The human story says you are guilty of doing something and should be ashamed of yourself... or it may say you are a victim of what someone else has done and you must condemn and punish the other person. In either case forgiving from the human perspective is extremely difficult. Radical self-forgiveness and radical forgiveness rely on assumptions about life that have a spiritual/metaphysical basis. Tipping outlines those assumptions early in the book and suggests that you need to at least be open to them to have a good chance of success with the radical forgiveness/self-forgiveness processes.

I've recommended Tipping's work to people in need of a healing shift in their consciousness and I believe this book will offer benefits to many more people who are in a place of readiness to experience self-forgiveness and genuine self-acceptance. Whether you are a follower of a 12-Step program, a student of A Course In Miracles, a member of a religion, a psychotherapy veteran, or anyone else seeking personal growth and healing, this book will likely offer you insights on getting past obstacles that have kept you from fully experiencing forgiveness.

I just finished a four-month snowed-in solitary self-confrontation where I read, meditated and did a personal audit of my life up to now. I'm 70 and have had a very full life. I still do. My enforced introspection was a great idea; I recommend, for any age, stepping away from all today's distractions and really scrutinizing your life.

In my harsh self-exile I uncovered a major psychological aspect in my life: I feel guilty in so many areas of how I've lived that I'm staggered. So when I read the promos of this book I thought it was providential; a way to clean house, move on, forgive myself.

RADICAL SELF-FORGIVENESS is definitely NOT the answer to my clearing my head. It's a cruel exploitation, promising answers to a need many people (I read) have: To get over their self- condemnation of their consciences. It might appeal to those who go to tent revival meetings; but it offers nothing but a torrent of rehashed ideas, vague pseudo, made-up terms that mush together psychology and spirituality while being repetitious, commercially self-serving, totally empty of useful information. It's padded, reptitive and shallow. Its bait-and-switch nature actually made me angry.

It's such a shame, this sham of a self-help book. In our complex Western culture it's almost inevitable we do hurtful things, harm innocents and make bad life decisions. I hope that somewhere, aside from expensive psychotherapy, there an astute, authentic way of dealing with this trauma.

It seems that author Colin Tipping has a self-help mill, offering 'radical' programs for 'Online Radical Manifestations', 'Online Radical Money Program', 'Radical Empowerment Program', 'Radical Weight Loss' and 'The Miracles', complete with books, CDs, DVDs and workshops which well qualify him as a 21st Century Elmer Gantry Elmer Gantry.

Offering hope and comfort is needed and noble. Offering such a sham is just plain cruel. And a real time and money waster. Amazon offers other books on this subject; I haven't read this one, but the five-star reviews suggest it'd be a better option Forgiving One Page At A Time: The Diary of Your Journey to Restoration and Confidence I'll try it; better yet, you review it, I'll read your review and save alot of time and money.

Colin Tipping's new book "Radical Self-Forgiveness: The Direct Path to True Self-Acceptance"
is a powerful tool for gaining freedom from excessive inner criticism and self-sabotaging beliefs. Based on proven techniques from Tipping's world-renowned forgiveness workshops
he guides us through resolving our deepest inner wounds and invites us to heal and transform our lives. He says radical forgiveness is not about telling ourselves a new story about what happened. It's about creating a profound shift at the spiritual level.
Tipping's practical exercises help us discover that we are an amalgam of many selves and helps us get to know ourselves better. He says most of us have a huge amount of guilt and shame. Carl Jung called it the shadow. When the shadow is unrecognized we find enemies on whom to project our anger and self-loathing. When a person "pushes our buttons" we have the opportunity to recognize they are mirroring something in ourselves we have denied, repressed or projected onto them. When we drop our judgments we automatically reverse the projection and forgive ourselves. Self-forgiveness involves a compassionate embrace of ourselves as wrongdoers in spite of our natural feelings of guilt and shame.
Tipping's makes the distinction between ordinary forgiveness which appeals to our human self or ego and requires continued victim consciousness and radical forgiveness where forgiveness is automatic and immediate because it appeals to our higher self or Spiritual Intelligence. Our Higher Self is also call the I AM Self. The I AM Self knows that nothing wrong took place and everything is in Divine Order. The I Am Self is the part of us that remains connected to the Divine. It's also the "Observer."
Tippings' tool for Radical Forgiveness takes us through five stages. We can do the work as a victim or a perpetrator. The five stages involve telling the story, feeling the feelings, collapsing the story, reframing the story and integrating the shift. The first three stages are similar to traditional forgiveness the last two involve radical forgiveness.
There are powerful exercises to help us get to know ourselves. They help identify our authentic, false, ideal, modified, lost, disowned, saboteur and sexual selves. He also has tools to identify appropriate and inappropriate guilt and identify, neutralize and transform shame-based core negative beliefs.
Tipping offers six fascinating paradigms to identify our religious and spiritual beliefs and shows how they impact our lives:
The scientific/secular/rational (forgiveness is a conscious decision).
The religious where the world is a continuous struggle between good and evil (forgiveness is not ours to bestow. We can ask God or Jesus on our behalf).
Being intellectually interested in spiritual ideas (understand forgiveness intellectually but find it hard to do).
View that life as a mystery to be understood, figured out and experienced (forgiveness is extending compassion).
See the earth as a school and life the curriculum (forgiveness and everything that happens has a spiritual purpose).
Seeing all of creation as perfect and divine and a part of the Godhead (everything is in perfect divine order. There is nothing to forgive).
Another potent Radical Self-forgiveness tool is the Three Letters Process. The first letter is written from the victim's standpoint, the second from the perpetrator's standpoint and the third is a reframe written from our I Am Self. This is where we recognize what we did was meant to happen and declare our understanding that there is nothing to forgive on a spiritual level.
Tipping says we have three types of intelligence that enables us to function in the world. They are mental, emotional and Spiritual. Mental intelligence is located in the brain and is responsible for all our cognitive activity and the rational mind. It includes our thoughts, ideas, concepts, paradigms and theories. Emotional intelligence springs form the heart and guides our emotional responses to life - such as love, fear, guilt and pleasure. It also tells us when we are lying or in denial. Mental and emotional intelligence emanates from the ego. Spiritual intelligence comes from the World of Spirit and Universal Intelligence (God). Unlike the other two it operates below the level of awareness. Spiritual Intelligence guides us on our spiritual journey and helps us move towards growth and healing. It is not bound by time and space. The tools of Radical Forgiveness are designed to activate our Spiritual Intelligence.
There are also worksheets for the two forms of apology (the ordinary and a Radical apology) and a Radical Self-Acceptance Worksheet. The Radical Self-Acceptance Worksheet helps us recognize our shadow when we see what people mirror back to us. It's called the "If you spot it, you've got it" principle.
Tipping says in spiritual terms everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing - sometimes for reasons known only to Spirit.
This is a life-changing book.

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