Philip Perry
The journey of becoming a healer is never achieved by the acquisition of knowledge, power, or external recognition. When we stop clinging to our pursuit of greatness, healing comes naturally.Unmasking: A Journey of Awakening is a soulful allegory about one man’s healing journey. Mason was born to an Indigenous father and an English Canadian mother, but having lost them both at a young age, he is abruptly severed from his roots. In the wake of his parents’ death, he weathers immeasurable loss, foster homes, and childhood trauma. Before getting to high school, Mason becomes an expert on suffering.Mason pulls himself up by his bootstraps and, through the generosity of strangers, manages to get to university, where he ultimately pursues doctoral studies in psychology. His intellectual travels launch him on a lifelong search of his identity in relation to others. Along the way, he encounters remarkable people who reveal him to himself-character flaws and all. Through his investigations of issues such as death and dying, personality development, humans’ propensity to needlessly suffer, mental health, and healing the mind-body-spirit, Mason understands that his efforts to become a healer were a projection of his own healing needs. By probing his journey to become a healer, he releases himself from his attachment to his identity as a psychologist and discovers the freeing impact of truly healing others. Drawing from a dazzling array of psychological and philosophical frameworks, Unmasking: A Journey of Awakening explores personal growth, the limitations and power of the ordinary mind, humans’ preoccupation with suffering, the impact of community.
