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FrameShifting: A Path to Wholeness

David K. Banner, MD
Loving Healing Preass (2008)
ISBN 9781932690552
Reviewed by Kam Aures for RebeccasReads (10/08)

“Frameshifting: A Path to Wholeness” follows the author’s journey to break free from his ego and expand his field of consciousness.  He also provides tools and instruction in the book allowing those that wish to alter their life in a similar way the knowledge to do so.  Banner begins the book with a brief autobiographical account of the pivotal events in his life that brought him to where he is today.  I found his personal stories to be extremely unique.  Throughout the rest of the book he includes many more examples from his personal life as illustrations of the main points that he is making.  The inclusion of his experiences definitely makes the book more engaging and appealing.  He has had some quite interesting ones!

After his introduction, Banner moves on to discuss the ego.  He explains to us how “our ego-based sense of self and its dream state has cost us dearly in terms of happiness and personal security.” (p.3) He then goes on to look at the different levels of development that we, as humans, progress through.  After citing examples from Abraham Maslow, Carol Gilligan, and others, he centers on Claire Graves’ model of Spiral Dynamics.  In this model, there are eight levels.  The six levels in the first tier are called the subsistence levels.  These levels are labeled with the colors beige (archaic-instinctual), purple (magical-animistic), red (power gods), blue (mythic order), orange (scientific achievement), and green (the sensitive self).  After these six levels there is “a monumental leap in consciousness,” according to Graves (p.18), to levels #7 yellow (integrative) and #8 turquoise (holistic).  The lower levels focus on self-centeredness while the upper levels focus on whole-centeredness. 

Unless we are able to make this leap to the higher level, the world’s future is uncertain.  In “Frameshifting” Banner presents us with tools and advice based on his experiences to help let go of the self-centered self, develop more empathy, and expand our overall consciousness.  He takes some very complex ideas and presents them in an easy to understand format.  Each concept or idea presented is backed up with detailed explanations or examples that proficiently illustrate his point.  For instance, while explaining the different points on the Enneagram, he uses people that we are all familiar with (like Katie Couric and Jack Nicholson) to describe the types of personalities.  Having real-life examples was very helpful in aiding my comprehension of the subject matter.

“Frameshifting” is truly a life-altering book as it changed my views in many ways and increased my overall sense of awareness.  I think that anyone who reads this book will find it beneficial in aiding him or her to lead a more fulfilling life.   

  

     

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