inner child work (Inner Child, inner child therapy): Form of psychotherapy pioneered and popularized by Texas-born theologian John Bradshaw, a former aspirant to the Roman Catholic priesthood. Bradshaw is the author of: (a) Bradshaw On: The Family; (b) Healing the Shame That Binds You; (c) Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child; and (d) Creating Love: The Next Stage of Growth.

In Homecoming, first published in 1990, Bradshaw states that all children of dysfunctional families lose their I AMness: their assurance that their parents or guardians are healthy, able, and eager caregivers. He recommends that victims of this loss or spiritual wound reclaim their inner child by reliving their developmental stages and finishing unfinished business. He terms such reclamation a Zenlike experience.

Toward this end, he suggests having conversations with one's inner infant, writing letters to it and reading them aloud, and writing letters to oneself - with the nondominant hand - as if the infant were writing them. Through such methods, the wounded inner child evolves into a wonder child, which Bradshaw describes as one's Imago Dei - the part of you that bears a likeness to your creator. In late 1996, Bradshaw hosted The Bradshaw Difference, a talk show on UPN.

(See also: Inner child work, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Definition and meaning of Child Labor

Child Labor - [Social Studies]

Children were viewed as laborers throughout the 19th century. They worked with their families on farms and in small businesses starting at a young age. Children also worked in mills and factories from the start of industrialization in the late 1700s. In 1789 at the first spinning mill built in America in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, nine children between the ages of 7 to 12 composed the work force. The number increased to over 100 by 1799. Though several bills were introduced throughout the 19th century to reduce the employment of children or at least improve the conditions under which they labored, business opposition remained strong because children often performed the same work as men but earned less. In many families the mother and children in addition to the father worked as laborers to earn enough to survive. In 1880 at least one-fifth of the children in the United States between 10 and 14 years of age held jobs. Many were immigrants. In the 1890s and early 1900s many states passed anti-child labor bills. In 1916 the Keatings-Owen Child Labor Bill prohibited the interstate commerce of items produced using child labor. This marked the first time the federal government used the economic leverage of interstate commerce to prompt change. The bill was later declared unconstitutional but it paved the way for future legislation.

(Source: The Social Studies Center at Texas University )

Also see these pages:  Social Studies, Social Studies Sitemap, History, History Sitemap

Child:

A symbol of innocence. 1. If you were the child, you need to get in touch with your own innocence. If you, as the child, were in trouble, you need to go beyond your innocence and acknowledge the ways of the world. Everything is NOT all sweetness and light!

2. If you were watching children playing, this is a sign of success and happiness, both in your personal and professional life.

Source: Astrocenter, http://astrocenter.astrology.msn.com/msn/DreamDictionary.aspx

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Child, Meaning of Dreams about Child, Dream Interpretation Child)

Definition and meaning of Child Labor

Child Labor - [Social Studies]

Children were viewed as laborers throughout the 19th century. They worked with their families on farms and in small businesses starting at a young age. Children also worked in mills and factories from the start of industrialization in the late 1700s. In 1789 at the first spinning mill built in America in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, nine children between the ages of 7 to 12 composed the work force. The number increased to over 100 by 1799. Though several bills were introduced throughout the 19th century to reduce the employment of children or at least improve the conditions under which they labored, business opposition remained strong because children often performed the same work as men but earned less. In many families the mother and children in addition to the father worked as laborers to earn enough to survive. In 1880 at least one-fifth of the children in the United States between 10 and 14 years of age held jobs. Many were immigrants. In the 1890s and early 1900s many states passed anti-child labor bills. In 1916 the Keatings-Owen Child Labor Bill prohibited the interstate commerce of items produced using child labor. This marked the first time the federal government used the economic leverage of interstate commerce to prompt change. The bill was later declared unconstitutional but it paved the way for future legislation.

(Source: The Social Studies Center at Texas University )

Also see these pages:  Social Studies, Social Studies Sitemap, History, History Sitemap

A Dictionary of Spiritual Terms. From Acupuncture to Zoroaster.

Please note that all words in grey, like "yoga", "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

inner child

The modern term for the level of inner self imprinted by energies and experiences of our formative years, as well as programmed unconsciously

(See also: Inner child, Body Mind and Soul)

Child within

The basic nature that retains childlike, enthusiastic, fresh, energetic qualities often hidden under programming, fears, false ideas, or distortions from previous experiences. To be though of as the forever-young child part that can be set free to experience the events of life with freshness. Much healing can be accomplished on this level, so often distorted and wounded. Psychological efforts to heal this basic level of self-aid in health maintenance and improvements, trust, the ability to mature in consciousness, and increased joy in living

(See also: Child within, Body Mind and Soul)

A spiritual dictionary of the 280 most common words in Hinduism. Also see these links: Hinduism, Spirituality, Enlightenment, Spiritual Dictionary and Hinduism Dictionary.

Inner Child Cards: Divination system created by Isha Lerner and professional astrologer Mark Lerner, coauthors of Inner Child Cards: A Journey into Fairy Tales, Myth, and Nature (1992). The system features this book and a fairy-tale adaptation of the 78-card tarot. It reawakens the child within by conducing to interaction of the user and the most potent archetypes of the inner world. Its apparent principle is that humans are divine and have radiant selves: starchildren who live in the heart.

(See also: Inner Child Cards, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

A spiritual dictionary from J-R of the most common spiritual words in Hinduism. Also see these links: Hinduism, Spirituality, Enlightenment, Spiritual Dictionary and Hinduism Dictionary.

Spiritualism:

Religious doctrines that advocate communication between the living and the spirits of the dead using a medium as intermediary.

(See also: Spiritualism, Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

We are the most complex and wonderful of God's creations. The human nervous system allows us to experience the richness of life. Our perceptions create reality. We become what we think. But the right environment is required to create the right perceptions. Hence bringing up a child is an art. It requires knowledge and forbearance, love and compassion. Merely thinking of it as a responsibility is insufficient.

(See also: Spiritual Parenting, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Spiritual Parenting: Child Development and the Art of Parenting  

SPIRITUALISM: is the belief that the spirits (or 'dead' people) can talk to us in this dimension.

(See also: SPIRITUALISM, Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Spiritualism:

A religion based upon the belief in life after death and the experiences of various mediums over the last hundred years; organized primarily to provide legal protection for the mediums and their followers.

(See also: Spiritualism, Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Spiritualism. In philosophy, the state or condition of mind opposed to materialism or a material conception of things. Theosophy, a doctrine which teaches that all which exists is animated or informed by the Universal Soul or Spirit, and that not an atom in our universe can be outside of this omnipresent Principle - is pure Spiritualism.

As to the belief that goes under that name, namely, belief in the constant communication of the living with the dead, whether through the mediumistic powers of oneself or a

so-called medium - it is no better than the materialisation of spirit, and the degradation of the human and the divine, souls. Believers in such communications are simply dishonouring the dead and performing constant sacrilege. It was well called "Necromancy" in days of old. But our modern Spiritualists take offence at being told this simple truth.

(See also: Spiritualism, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Spiritus (Latin) Breath, air, spirit; in medieval European alchemy it corresponds with fire and sulfur in the triad of sulfur, mercury, and salt -- or spirit, soul, and body. With the Nazarenes, the female aspect of the anima mundi, the manifested part as contrasted with its unmanifest or divine aspect.

(See also: Spiritus, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Spirituality Considering spirit and matter as contrasted aspects in the evolutionary process, as opposite poles in the kosmos, this word applied to the higher or causal aspect. The course of evolution, the monad begins as an unself-conscious god-spark and ends its evolutionary career in any one universe as a self-conscious god.

The monads pass from spirit into matter, and then back again to spirit with the addition of evolved intellectual self-cognition or self-consciousness. So far as the rounds and races of our earth is concerned, the first two were characterized by direct but non-egoic spiritual qualities of consciousness, while in the third intellectuality and finally materiality began strongly to make their appearances, reaching the final evolutionary point for our planet in the fourth, when spirituality was nearly submerged by materiality. But these terms are relative, having varying meanings as applied to different planes and differing conditions of the rounds and races.

Absolute spirituality or perfection in its very nature implies the loftiest type of spiritual and intellectual activity, with the relative quiescence of the enshrouding sheaths of consciousness. The distinction is to a certain degree that drawn between absolute thought or the All as opposed to the ratiocinative activity of mental action, which involves limitations and matters (SD 2:490).

(See also: Spirituality, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Spiritualism Properly, the philosophy, religion, or pneumatological science held by those who believe in the universal spirit as the cosmic originant of all the hierarchies of evolving monads; its opposite is materialism. Spiritualism is "in philosophy, the state or condition of mind opposed to materialism or a material conception of things.

Theosophy, a doctrine which teaches that all which exists is animated or informed by the Universal Soul or Spirit, and that not an atom in our universe can be outside of this omnipresent principle -- is pure Spiritualism. As to the belief that goes under that name, namely, belief in the constant communication of the living with the dead, whether through the mediumistic powers of oneself or a so-called medium -- it is no better than the materialisation of spirit, and the degradation of the human and the divine souls. Believers in such communications are simply dishonouring the dead and performing constant sacrilege. It was well called 'Necromancy' in days of old" (TG 307).

The modern movement which began about the middle of the 19th century, mainly with the Fox sisters, embraces a large range of differing beliefs, so that any strictures directed against certain phases of it may justly be resented by those to whom such strictures do not apply. But the characteristic doctrine which identifies Spiritualism or astralism as such, is the belief that it is possible for the living to communicate with the departed spirits of the deceased. Theosophy, however, holds that at death the personality disintegrates, the individuality of the person passing into the devachanic state, while its lower components gradually fade out in the kama-loka. It is impossible to obtain communications with the ego in devachan, except when a purely impersonal love of one human being for another reaches into the devachanic condition and comes into spiritual rapport with the devachani. A far lower rapport may be established with the astral or kama-lokic remains which have been left behind to disintegrate in the lower regions of the astral light.

All the apparent proofs of identity of "spirit" can be accounted for otherwise than by supposing the actual presence of the departed individual in the seance room. Such communications as are received evince no knowledge beyond that which we already have, and show no signs of emanating from a high source -- and almost invariably such communications are trifling and paltry. Mediumship and seances are most harmful practice, as they open the door to the entry of pernicious obsessing influences from the lower astral realms. Moreover such practice may obstruct and retard the natural decomposition of the discarded lower elements of the deceased, and thus keep alive his kama-rupa beyond the term of its natural astral death. The appeal of astralism is very powerful to those who feel convinced that they have thereby obtained assurance of immortality and of the continued existence of their lost loved ones.

(See also: Spiritualism, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Spiritual Counseling: As taught by the National Interfaith Seminary, in St. Paul, Minnesota, a ministerial approach that embraces chakra therapy (chakra healing), inner child work, and Totem Psychology.

(See also: Spiritual Counseling, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

SPIRITUALISM

Traffic with the dead. As for my contacts with the dead, which I keep to a minimum, they have not been particularly interesting. They are quite ordinary and highly personal. It is not generally considered a clean habit to traffic with the dead. Both Crowley and HPB consider spiritism to be next door to necrophilia, if not an overt and particularly nasty sexual perversion.

Most spirits move on rather quickly past the closer shores of the so-called astral plane, which I prefer to call "Telluria," since it lies so near the borders of our own world. The newest shades are the strongest, but shortly thereafter they fade like old photographs. They are not alive, remember. If death has been recent and if no one has summoned the spirit and if the spirit has not contacted any living person, chances are that we may obtain at least one good "conversation." That generally just about uses up the astral envelope.

Warning -- If you have persistent and prolonged contact with the same spirit, that is highly suspicious. It very well may not be the departed, but some intruding entity. That is particularly likely if someone other than a friend or member of the family of the departed is acting as medium. A few unfortunate wraiths are drawn neither forward nor back and cling to our world for very sick reasons. In the rare case that the spirit whom you have contacted is dependable and reasonable then it is surely an advanced being of some kind. But here again, there are many kinds of "advanced beings" -- few of which indeed are former earthlings.

(See also: SPIRITUALISM, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )