8 Steps to Love

Preface • (8 Steps to Love)

LOVE? Freud called it “the only socially acceptable psychosis.” To
Plato it was “divine madness,” and to Saint John love was nothing
less than God, the ultimate power operating in the universe.
In this revised edition, you’ll find a new emphasis. I am now
even more clear that the love housed in the heart of each and every
one of us is nothing less than the ultimate power operating in the
universe. Love is the stuff of every subatomic particle of all that
exists. I once heard Dr. Wayne Dyer say, “Feeling good is feeling
God.” To me, we feel best in life when we feel love. And since God
is love, we are feeling God when we feel love. . . .This book
demonstrates…how to return to love when we need it the most—
the moment stress and conflict begin.

One final note, before you proceed to the pages that follow, I want
to share something someone said about this book that moved me
deeply. My friend Mary McLaughlin introduced me to the nuns ministering
in the inner city of my hometown. While visiting with them,
I gave them a copy of this book. I received a beautiful note from the
head of the order. And with her permission, I listed it with the
endorsements on the first page of this book. Mother Maria del
Carmen wrote that, “Reading this book helps us fulfill the commandment
of love which Jesus gave us.”

Just why I was so moved by these words can be found in the three
books that detail my spiritual journey. The Space Between Stars
describes the miracles in my life that began in childhood and just
keep continuing. A Matter of Love takes you from my time with
Mayan shamans in the jungles of Guatemala to my appearances on
national news and talk shows. On one show after another, I discussed
the psychodynamics of evil just months before and after the horror of
September 11, 2001. Words Become Flesh zeroes in on my search for
wisdom and delves into my discovery of the dark depths of the
human heart and mind in my work as a clinical psychologist.
All three books reveal my return home to a deeper understanding
of what I knew in my heart as a child, “God is love; and he that