A Mystic Looks at Life

About the Book

This is not a typical autobiography. It charts a spiritual journey rather than enumerating activities and accomplishments, although there are plenty of interesting stories along the way.

This book will serve the philosopher as well as the first-time reader of mystical truths. If one is seeking to understand the mystic's way of organizing the world, this book will help. If one is seeking to understand the mystical as it manifests in physical reality, this book will help.

About the Author

Born July 8, 1910, the son of the Rev. Edgar Starkey and Abbie (Newman) Jackson in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. In 1932 he graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University where he later also received his Doctorate of Divinity. He continued his studies at Drew University, Union, the Divinity School and the William Allison White School of Psychotherapy at Yale (BD & MDiv), Columbia, the Postgraduate Center for Psychotherapy, and Oxford University. On June 12, 1934, he married Estelle Miller. They had three children, Edgar Duval Jackson (1935-1936), James Ward Jackson (1938-1972) and Lois E. Jackson of Corinth, VT.

Dr. Jackson was a member of the New York East, and New York conferences of the United Methodist Church and served parishes in Centerport NY 1934-36, Thomaston, CT 1936-40, Park Church, New Haven, CT 1940-42, Winsted, CT 1942-44, Chaplain, US Army Air Corps 1944-46, Newfield Church, Bridgeport, CT 1946-51, Mamaroneck, NY 1952-63 & 1964.

He served as a Chaplain in the Army Air Corps in WWII, and immediately following the war served on the Secretariat of the Vatican working in the distribution of relief supplies in Italy.

Dr. Jackson, who has been called "the outstanding authority of our time on crisis management", authored more than 40 books on personal and group counseling. His pioneering work, 'Understanding Grief', published in 1957 and considered a classic in its field, laid the groundwork for the current approaches to grief and grief management.

Dr. Jackson has served as a member of several national organizations in the care-taking professions. He has been a consultant for national committees such as the National Cancer Institute, National Funeral Director's Association, National Planned Parenthood, and the National Council of Churches. His early work with Dame Cecily Saunders of Great Britain helped to establish the Hospice movement in this country.