Ben Willemsen
Official Guide
Purpose of Life Expert
Ben Willemsen Quick Facts
- Main Areas
- Human Energy, Personal and Spiritual Development
- Best Sellers
- Don't Water the Stick: The Path of the Psyche, The Spirit and I: The Evolution of Soul, and Water Your Roots: Walking a Spiritual Path
- Career Focus
- Teacher, Speaker, Author
- Affiliation
- Centre for Human Energy Studies, Nova Scotia, Canada
Ben Willemsen was born in Rotterdam in 1936 and attended Ship Engineers college in Amsterdam. He immigrated to Canada in 1958 and worked in engineering-related fields and eventually as an industrial designer.
At 40, Ben began having experiences that his logical mind could not explain, demonstrating to him that there was a reality beyond the material world, a non-ordinary reality that influenced our everyday life and, most importantly, gave meaning and purpose to all physical existence. Leaving his engineering profession behind, he embarked on a path of psychic and spiritual development by means of mental disciplines and research. During this period, he was the subject of a two-year long study of diagnostic imagery and distance healing with anthropologist and shamanism expert, Dr. Joan Townsend. Ben taught for many years through Continuing Education and Creative Retirement Manitoba and was a guest lecturer at the Universities of Manitoba and Winnipeg.
In1987, Ben founded the Centre for Human Energy in Winnipeg, Canada where he offered workshops, development groups, and personal and spiritual counseling. In 1999, Ben and his wife Penny opened a new Centre for Human Energy Studies near Halifax, Nova Scotia. Ben is the author of three books about human energy: Don't Water the Stick: The Path of the Psyche (2nd ed., 1998), The Spirit and I: The Evolution of Soul (2nd ed., 2004), and Water Your Roots: Walking a Spiritual Path (2009).
Free Articles & Book Excerpts
Exploring the purpose of life
www.selfgrowth.com/articles/purpose_of_life.html
Sex and spirituality
www.selfgrowth.com/articles/sex_and_spirituality
Healing and energy
www.selfgrowth.com/articles/healing_and_energy.html
How important is love to the developing ego?
www.selfgrowth.com/articles/how_important_is_love_to_the_developing_ego
Spirituality: What place in wellness?
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/spirituality_what_place_wellness.html
The spirit and I: The evolution of soul
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/the_spirit_and_i_the_evolution_of_soul.html
Ben Willemsen Books
Articles by this expert
SelfGrowth articles and saved writing connected to this expert.
Article
***The importance of the word "no" in spirituality
Many people think that spirituality has to do with putting other people's needs before their own and, as a result, are afraid to say "no." Many of us were taught that putting our needs before the needs of others is an act of selfishness, and selfishness is believed to be a negative trait. While it may be the ultimate in spirituality to reach out and share with others, it is not spiritual to allow ourself to be used up so that we have nothing left to give.
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***Sex and Spirituality
"Everything in nature is designed with an innate drive to grow and reproduce. Without this drive, life could not exist. Even before humans appeared on earth, sex and reproduction played a predominant role. The world was inhabited by plants and animals, all of which were designed to reproduce. Without the sexuality of our planet, there would be no support system for animals life and, subsequently, for human life. Sex is the most competitive force on earth, and in its pure state, like everything in nature, it is totally selfish.
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Article
***How important is love to the developing ego?
Love is the most powerful, all-encompassing force within the universe. It is the force out of which everything else emerges. It is the root of everything that supports physical life. Like the soul drive, love is totally selfish. The word love has many different meanings. A young man, seeing an attractive young woman walking by, says, "I love her," when he really means, "I desire her." A woman says to her partner, "I love you," when, in essence, she is really saying "I respect you." A man ‘loves’ his dog because she makes him look like the best hunter.
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Article
***The Spirit and I: The Evolution of Soul
People often speak about their past lives, believing that they themselves have reinca ated. In some cases, that may be true. Most of the time, however, the knowledge of previous lives to which they occasionally gain access belongs to the soul itself and not to them. After all, we don’t have a soul; the soul has us. We are merely vehicles for its growth. Thus, we can neither lay claim to its past inca ations, nor can we use them as an excuse for our idiosyncrasies or shortcomings.
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***Exploring the Purpose of Life
What's the purpose of life? Why am I here? What path should I be following? These are questions each one of us asks from time to time during our life, perhaps when we're feeling unhappy, disappointed, confused or angry, or when we're experiencing a sense of awe or wonder at life's mysteries, suddenly aware of how very tiny we are by comparison.
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Article
***Healing and Energy
The awareness of the importance of energy as a factor in human health goes back to ancient tradition. The healers of old knew that the body was the true healer and that they were only facilitators. They used available herbs and, together with their knowledge of human energy and the psyche, were able to provide comfort, facilitate healing, and prevent illness. They deeply understood that the body lives within and responds to the psyche. Although this way of healing has been practiced throughout history, in recent times it has all but been suppressed.
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Article
***Spirituality: What Place in Wellness?
What is spirituality? What does it mean to lead a spiritual life? I once asked a group of people what the word spirituality meant to them. Their answers, though certainly significant for them, did not, in most cases, offer any insight into the pursuit of a spiritual way of life.
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Websites & resources
SelfGrowth-published websites, downloads, and contributor profile websites connected to this expert.
Favorite Quotes & Thoughts from Ben Willemsen
Many people have experiences that cannot be explained by prevailing beliefs and teachings. They are faced with a very difficult choice: either to ignore their experiences and continue living in ignorance and fear, or to honor them and begin walking their own, sometimes very solitary, path. Both choices involve hardships but only the second leads to growth. - The Spirit and I: The Evolution of Soul (2004)
One of the challenges of spiritual growth is learning to allow time - an act of giving - rather than waiting for something to happen - an act of wanting. Allowing time is being in a state of acceptance. - Water Your Roots: Walking a Spiritual Path (2009)
When we learn to focus our minds with full concentration, it is like focusing sunlight through a magnifying glass at a small point. The temperature of the focal point becomes many times greater than that of the light itself and can be used as a tool for starting a fire. Similarly, as the mind focuses on a single point, the energy directed to that point can be used as a tool to bring about a change. - Don't Water the Stick: The Path of the Psyche (2nd ed., 1998).
Contacting Ben Willemsen
Ben Willemsen
P.O. Box 4000
Tantallon, Nova Scotia
Canada B3Z 4G9
888.299.2665 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 888.299.2665 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 888.299.2665 end_of_the_skype_highlighting (Atlantic Time!)
How to get started
Ben Willemsen has been teaching about the psyche, the spirit, and human energy for more than 25 years. His website www.humanenergy.net provides a vast amount of information on topics ranging from the role of the psyche in healing to the cause and removal of energy blocks, personal development and ego growth, spirituality and the world of the spirit, and the purpose of life. Visitors to his website can choose from a variety of topics such as "ego development," "creation," "spiritual paths," "soul," "healing," "human energy" and many others to access questions from readers listed under those topics, along with carefully considered answers.
Introductions to all three volumes of Ben Willemsen's Human Energy Trilogy are available for free download in PDF format, and all three books are available in printed and eBook format at www.humanenergy.net/books/
If you are dealing with serious illness or fears about dying, or require guidance during times of personal or spiritual crisis, you can contact Ben to arrange a telephone consultation. A fifteen minute consultation is often long enough for Ben to make an initial assessment and provide guidance and support. Longer consultations are also available. If you would like to speak with Ben to find out whether he can help you, there is no charge for a brief conversation (www.humanenergy.net/content/freechat). Your privacy will always be respected.