Dr. W. Brugh Joy (1939-2009) practiced internal medicine in Los Angeles until a 1974 bout of pancreatitis led him to investigate alternative methods of therapy, such as energy healing, Jungian work, and dream work. He soon abandoned his medical career and began leading self-development workshops that explored body energies, the chakra system, meditation, and higher levels of consciousness. A self-described teacher of “beinghood,” Dr. Joy authored several books, including Avalanche: Heretical Reflections on the Dark and the Light and Joy's Way: A Map for the Transformational Journey[1].
The publisher’s description of the latter title is as follows:
Joy’s Way contains fascinating and beautiful insights into the awakening process, into teachers (inner and outer), psi phenomena, the holographic aspects of consciousness, observer and witness states, dream analysis, the Tarot and I Ching, visualization, the chakras, meditation and healing, transformational psychology, and the transformation of humanity. In addition, this book clearly describes exercises and techniques that show readers how to feel the radiating body-energy fields and how to transfer this energy to another person.
Dr. Joy’s workshops attracted a number of well-known individuals, and in 1976, a mutual acquaintance suggested to Franklin Wolff that he seek Dr. Joy’s help in addressing a physical affliction. In the first letter found here, Dr. Joy writes to Wolff that he has
been very prominent in my consciousness for the past several months and [I] am only too delighted to set up a time when we can meet. . . . It is my understanding that there are aspects of healing to be considered in this meeting with you. The usual interaction with me lasts anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours consisting of personal dialogue and body energy resonnation/transfer [sic] work. I would consider it a priviledge [sic] to share this gift with you.
Dr. Joy attended the Wolff’s annual convention in August 1977, and participated in the discussion session of that event. After the conference, Dr. Joy wrote that
The clarity with which Dr. Wolff is presenting the sequences surrounding death of the physical form moves me deeply—as it will many other people. The insights and the deeper knowledge surrounding the event of death are not well comprehended in the West. Somebody is going to vastly simplify both the Tibetan Books of the Dead and the Egyptian Books of the Dead—incisively and discerningly. That somebody is, in my sensing—Dr. Wolff.
In May 1978, Wolff’s wife Gertrude unexpectedly passed away, and Wolff was devastated; Gertrude was twenty-four years his junior, and despite the fact that their marriage had been “arranged,” Wolff had come to profoundly love her. Dr. Joy was a great help to Wolff during this time, and for over a year after Gertrude’s death, he regularly visited Wolff. Their conversations were recorded, and can be accessed on this website here.
Dr. Joy’s visits were not only an emotional comfort to Wolff, they also served as an intellectual catalyst. Indeed, there were many points of Dr. Joy’s analysis and outlook that Wolff would come to challenge, but always by viewing them from a broader perspective. Wolff summarized some of his thoughts in a recording titled “Philosophic Implications of Dialogue with Brugh Joy” and in a seven-part series of recordings called “Reflections upon the Dialogue with Brugh Joy,” all of which are also found here.
In December 1978, Wolff presented a (taped) lecture at one of Dr. Joy’s conferences, and several letters here relate to that event. There is also a letter from the publisher of Joy’s Way asking Wolff for a comment on the text; several letters concern visits by Dr. Joy and other matters, including a comment from Dr. Joy regarding the publication of Wolff’s own book, The Philosophy of Consciousness Without an Object. There is also an exchange of letters about Dr. Joy’s arrival at Wolff’s 1980 conference by helicopter. The correspondence here ends in 1983 with a letter in which Dr. Joy expresses his appreciation, respect and gratitude for the time he has spent with Wolff. (22 pages)
[1] Burgh Joy, Avalanche: Heretical Reflections on the Dark and the Light (New York: Ballantine Books, 1990); and, Joy’s Way, A Map for the Transformational Journey: An Introduction to the Potentials for Healing with Body Energies (Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher, 1979).
