Psyche and the Sacred: Integrating Mental Health and Spiritual Well-Being by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, (2025) Sentient Publications, Boulder, CO, 220 pages
Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, a professionally trained psychologist and psychotherapist, is also a traditional metaphysician. His latest book, Psyche and the Sacred, under review here, is a collection of six previously published essays, which can be read as stand-alone articles. Collectively, they explore the theme of the deleterious effects in modern clinical psychology of the desacralization of the psyche and consequently of the urgency to reconnect the psyche with its spiritual roots. The book therefore calls for the reintegration of mental health with spiritual well-being. This is to be achieved by placing the psyche within the traditional hierarchy of Spirit/mind/body, thereby restoring the integral foundation of the sacred psychology, the traditional ‘science of the soul‘, which views psychopathology as spiritual loss, and psychotherapy as spiritual healing.
Psychic health lies in integrating the psyche with the Spirit, by reconnecting it vertically with its creative core, and horizontally with the sacred web of creation.
While some modern theories of the psyche, such as those of positivist behaviourism or Freudian psychoanalysis, are clearly anti-metaphysical, others, such as Jungian psychology, are at first glance, not clearly so. This ambiguity is in part due to the imprecise use of nomenclature by Jung and Jungians: the terms ‘soul’ or ‘archetype’ can mean very different things in Jungian theory than in traditional metaphysics. For the former, they are cut off from their transcendent source, while for the latter they are integrated with it in a way that connects the soul to the Spirit, its healing Center. Like other forms of modern psychology, Jungian psychology assumes the futile task of seeking the roots of the psyche in the psyche itself rather than in the transcendent Self which animates existence, thereby cutting it off from its ground of wholeness and Being. Psychologism (which Bendeck Sotillos defines as ‘the reduction of the Spirit to merely psychological states’) is the delusion of egoic self-sufficiency, whereby the self denies its transcendent origin and dependence, and thus is rendered incapable of locating the vitally important transpersonal dimension on which its healing must rest.
The groundwork that Bendeck Sotillos covers has been laid out by the great teachers of the faith and wisdom traditions, and the author usefully cites them amply and frequently, reinforcing the unanimity of the underlying principles which assert that the ‘world’ and the ‘self’ are manifestations of a spiritual Reality which is Itself transcendent, immanent, and One. Psychic health lies in integrating the psyche with the Spirit, by reconnecting it vertically with its creative core, and horizontally with the sacred web of creation. Modern psychology, by contrast, basing itself on the Cartesian disjunction between subject and object, has created the illusion that the ‘world’ and the ‘self‘ exist independently of each other and of their connecting spiritual foundation. And with that radical disconnection has come a loss of meaning which besets the unanchored and rudderless modern psyche.
The book challenges what the author terms ‘the hegemony of modern psychology,’ arguing that ‘[t]he real cause of the global mental health crisis is that we have forgotten who we are and what it truly means to be human.’ We are ‘Imago Dei,’ the transpersonal reality that binds us to God and to each other as a common humanity, not ‘Homo Deus,’ which fractures that bond. Mental healing is only possible when we are open to the grace of integrating the psyche with its spiritual substance. But the infernal or false image of the soul as an individuated self leaves no room for the grace of transcendence, and its integrating alchemy of self transformation.
The six essays in the book deal with the following subjects:
Chapter One addresses the false scientistic premises of modern psychology whose ‘deformed superstructure’ results from its loss of transcendence, of an integral psychology informed by metaphysics.
Chapter Two focusses on the sacred bond between inner subject and outer object, whose rupture through modern psychology‘s reductionist philosophical biases deprives the psyche from being healed by its integrating Spirit (as ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib states: ‘Your cure is within you, but you do not know.’).
Chapter Three considers the transcendent reality of consciousness and examines the consequences of its devaluation by modern psychology which, by rejecting metaphysical planimetry, fails to conceive of mind and self beyond the limited materialistic prism of modern secular science.
Chapter Four surveys the nine-pointed traditional symbol of the Enneagram, said to be of Sufi origin and popularized in the West by Gurdjieff, Claudio Naranjo, Oscar Ichazo and others. The essay raises the important question of who has the authority to use, and to train one to use, sacred symbols and elixirs of spiritual transformation as tools of healing. As traditional methods are easily capable of being exploited by charlatans, the question of safeguarding their traditional secrets from the abuse of false and unqualified guides requires a fuller discussion, and Bendeck Sotillos goes into more detail on this important topic in the remaining two essays.
Chapter Five discusses the popular use of entheogens to induce higher states of consciousness as way to stimulate psychic healing. The essay looks at the dangers of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy promoted outside the protections of a traditional metaphysical framework. Entheogens are known to have the capabilities of palliating pain, healing psychic traumas, and are used by shamans, for example, in the sacred healing practices of the First Peoples. Bendeck Sotillos emphasizes the importance of understanding that while psychic and spiritual realities can outwardly appear to be alike, their inward experiences and effects can be fundamentally different, so that some psychic experiences such as ‘consciousness expansion’ which are not spiritually guided can lead to harm. Modern psychotherapists are not generally trained in traditional metaphysics or in spiritual healing, and therefore are ill-equipped to provide the protections needed by a patient from malefic influences of psychic experiences where a shaman’s spiritual guidance and mastery are necessary. Also, the use of pharmacological stimulants can create entheogenic dependencies and promote a ‘chemical Utopia’ instead of spiritual healing. The goal of the sacred healer is to bring about a purification and transformation of the patient, experienced as both inner and outer harmony, and not merely, as many modern psychologists who prescribe entheogens do, to induce a euphoric experience.
Chapter Six addresses the nature and goal of ‘well-being’, which lies at the heart of healing. Huston Smith’s observation that ‘a meaningful life is not finally possible in a meaningless world’ points to the need for the patient to seek a profound and transformative sense of order. The former Prince of Wales (now King Charles III), when introducing the Sacred Web Conference in Edmonton in 2006, spoke astutely of the importance of ‘harmony’ (the subject and title of one of his books) as a much-needed goal for navigating modern life. So too, Bendeck Sotillos concludes, “the work of recovering our psycho-spiritual balance in the world must begin with ourselves. As the cosmos is mirrored within us, it is only through our own inner reformation that harmony in the outer world can be renewed.” The final essay summarizes the themes of the preceding chapters by making the case for a sacred psychology founded on a sacred orientation, on metaphysical principles that, by placing the psyche within the tripartite traditional hierarchy of Spirit-mind-body, can aim at the wholeness which integrates these dimensions of the inner and outer worlds.
Bendeck Sotillos speaks authoritatively both as a professional psychologist and as a scholar of traditional metaphysics, an unusual combination that contributes to making this work a valuable and welcome contribution to its field.
While the book’s focus is on the practice of psychology in the modern context, there is of course a rich traditional heritage of sacred psychology which could have been useful for the author to reference, and perhaps future essays by him will do so. To cite one example only, from the field of Muslim psychology, Abu Zayd Al-Balkhi (850-934, Persia)’s seminal book ‘Sustenance of the Soul’, is a text which adopts the traditional approach of integrative healing that Bendeck Sotillos is recommending. Other areas which could usefully be explored in future books are the challenges of psychologists integrating faith or religion into their practice, of educators training and accrediting students of sacred psychology in a secularized academic milieu, and of the practical difficulties of introducing sacred and traditional healing methods to practitioners and patients in a non-traditional secular world. Some contemporary authors have already addressed some of these issues: for example, the Sudanese Professor of Psychology, Malik Badri (1932-2021), in his 1971 book, The dilemma of Muslim psychologists’ (1971), looks at the compatibility of modern Western psychology and traditional Islam, and American Professor Ken Pergament (b. 1950), in his 2007 book, Spiritually integrated Psychotherapy: Understanding and addressing the Sacred, addresses the practical challenges of spiritual psychotherapy. Based on his combined expertise, Bendeck Sotillos can bring to his profession a perspective illumined by traditional metaphysics, and one therefore looks forward to future essays and books by him, addressing the practical challenges of integrating sacred psychology in a secular world.
