Eva's Timeline
• 1915 Born in Vienna
• 1939 Left Austria for Switzerland—attended Jungian Institute
• 1940s Emigrated to
New York City
• 1957—1979, produced a series of 258 Pathwork
lectures
• 1967 Met John Pierrakos
• 1971 Married John Pierrakos
• 1972 Established Phoenicia Pathwork Center in Catskills of New York
• 1972 Susan Thesenga meets Eva
• 1976 Supported and guided the founding of Sevenoaks Pathwork Center in Madison, Virginia
• 1979 Died after a courageous battle with cancer
“Do not be concerned with
the phenomenon of this communication as such….Take into consideration
that every human personality has a depth of which he or she may as yet be
unaware. At this depth, everybody possesses the means to transcend the narrow
confines of his or her own personality and receive access to other realms
and to entities endowed with a wider and deeper knowing.” —Pathwork
Lecture No. 204, What is the Path?
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and Download Pathwork Lectures
About EVA Pierrakos
Eva Pierrakos was the founder of the Pathwork, and the
instrument through whom a large body of spiritual wisdom, known as the Pathwork
lectures, was communicated. She was born in Vienna in 1915, the daughter
of the well-known novelist Jacob Wassermann. She grew up among Vienna's
intellectual elite. Thomas Mann, the Nobel-prize-winning author, was a frequent
dinner guest at her family's home.
In 1939, shortly before the Nazis entered Vienna, Eva managed to leave Austria.
For a while she lived in Switzerland, where she attended sessions at the
Jungian Institute and discovered that she had a gift for automatic writing.
She later emigrated to the U.S., settling in New York City. She continued
to pursue the development of her spiritual faculties with great devotion
and perseverance, learning to listen to and follow her own guidance. By
making a commitment to use her gift only for helping people, she eventually
succeeded in becoming a channel for a highly developed spiritual consciousness
that offered, through her, remarkably penetrating insights into the human
condition and the spiritual path.
The Pathwork Lectures
From 1957 to 1979, Eva produced a series of 258 lectures and offered hundreds
of question and answer sessions and private consultations. Most of these
sessions were spoken, not written. The lectures came to be known as the
Pathwork Guide Lectures. Eva did not claim to be the author of this material,
saying instead that she was an instrument for a spiritual entity or energy
that came to be called "the Guide." The Guide stressed, however,
that emphasis should be put on the material itself, not on its source.
Eva was able to access deep levels of her own psyche and to channel material
that, if followed, has the capacity to radically change and improve one’s
life. Not only can working with this material give one profound insight
into oneself, others, and the nature of life itself, but it can also help
in finding true peace and happiness.
On the other hand, the Pathwork Guide warned that the path is not an easy
one. It requires intense self-awareness, profound self-honesty, consistent
daily practice and a willingness to expose the darkest regions of the human
soul to the light of day. The Guide said that the task of our normal waking
consciousness is to build a bridge between the highest and lowest parts
of ourselves. We are required to dig deep into our souls to discover what
is hidden, and then to call upon our higher nature to help us heal and transform
these childish, self-centered, wayward aspects of ourselves.
The Pathwork's focus on confronting and transforming the darkness within
distinguishes it from many of today's spiritual teachings. Unlike a number
of spiritual paths and philosophies, which tend to focus only on the divine
nature of the human soul, the Pathwork Guide focused on both the light and
the darkness, insisting that the darkness within us cannot be glossed over,
ignored, or suppressed. It has to be confronted directly, and then, with
the help of the higher forces within us, it can be reeducated and transformed.
John
Pierrakos and The Work They Shared
In 1967 Eva met Dr. John Pierrakos, a psychiatrist
and co-creator (with Alexander Lowen) of a form of body-centered psychotherapy
known as bio-energetics. John and Eva were married in 1971. Not only did
their marriage bring personal happiness, but it also initiated a series
of important changes in their lives and work. By incorporating the Pathwork's
teachings into his energetic work, John transformed his practice of bio-energetics
into a more spiritually-based therapy that he named Core
Energetics. In turn, the introduction of John's energy work into the
Pathwork, emphasizing the need to deal with the body and emotions as well
as the mind and will, contributed to the effectiveness of the Pathwork process.
Eva and John's union drew more and more people to Pathwork. In 1972 a center
for the Pathwork was established in the Catskills area of New York State.
Located on three hundred acres of pristine land, it was called the Phoenicia
Pathwork Center. A few years later, Sevenoaks Pathwork Center was started
by Susan and Donovan Thesenga in Virginia.
In 1979, Eva died of cancer. Following her death, the entire Pathwork organization
contracted. A time of deep soul-searching followed, during which members
were forced to go back to the beginning, to the source of wisdom that lies
within each of us, and start anew. John focused his energy primarily on
building his own organization, the Core Energetics Institute. Eventually,
new leadership emerged in each Pathwork region. The Pathwork spread to Europe,
Africa, and to South America, and has more recently also spread to Australia
and Japan, so Pathwork is now practiced on all the major continents of the
world.
Visit the Pathwork® Foundation Website for a listing of Pathwork Centers around the country and the world. Find a Pathwork Community
