I know that many people who have explored Focusing can sense that it has a spiritual dimension implicit in the experience. When I use the word spiritual here, I am not referring to any belief system. Rather, I am pointing towards an experience that ties us into a larger process or mystery. A process that includes us but somehow connects us into “more”.
Fr. Ed McMahon and Fr. Peter Campbell, both Jesuit priests, completed PhD research exploring the pathologies of control implicit in all major world religions. They were interested in finding ways to facilitate a greater sense of self-participation in the faith journey.
They discovered many interesting possibilities in the works of Teilhard de Chardin, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Karl Rahner just to mention a few.
They knew that when they read Eugene Gendlin’s seminal Focusing Book that a large piece of the jigsaw had fallen into place. They were fascinated by his description of the body as it is sensed from the inside. “Your physically felt body is, in fact, part of a gigantic system of here and other places, now and other times, you and other people—in fact, the whole universe. This sense of being bodily alive in a vast system is the body as it is felt from inside.” Eugene T. Gendlin, Focusing, 1978.
They were so intrigued by the process described in this book that they travelled from California to visit Eugene Gendlin in his new apartment in New York. Sitting on orange boxes in this as yet unfurnished apartment, they asked “where does the felt shift come from, is it contained in the felt sense?”. Gene’s response was “no, it is what you guys call Grace”.
This directly led to the founding of BioSpiritual Institute (as it is known today). And to the publication of “BioSpirituality, Focusing as a way to Grow” and “Rediscovering the Lost Body-Connection within Christian Spirituality”. Ed and Pete travelled the world teaching this process to thousands of people.
BioSpirituality is subtly different to other forms of Focusing, but these differences always preserve the essence of the Focusing process. Ed and Pete and their colleague Sr Jeanne Fallon realised that (in the context of spirituality) they could simplify Gene’s 6 steps into what became the BioSpiritual Flow, of noticing (the body from inside) and nurturing (what comes).
They understood that the Focusing Attitude needed to be more than just a conceptual intention. It needed to be something that was physically experienced in the body. The experiences of love and affection in our lived experience is what they called our Affection Teachers, teaching us how to be physically lovingly present to our important feelings and emotions.
Ed and Pete also discovered that Process Skipping could be an obstacle to being lovingly present to our bodily experiencing. This process, that operates on a subconscious level offers a doorway into living more fully into what is “real” in our experiencing.
Fr. Ed passed away in 2013, and with Fr Peter in failing health, the board of the Institute mobilised all of their resources to ensure that their lifetime’s work would be preserved.
In 2023, the BioSpiritual Institute has 5 designated educational centres and through these centres and on our online offerings, we have facilitated the training of over 1,000 participants this year.
We continue to grow, and we are eternally grateful to the International Focusing Institute for their support.
If you are interested in learning more about BioSpirituality please have a look at the website www.biospiritual.org or contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
John Keane
International Director
BioSpiritual Institute.
