ROGER J. WOOLGER, PH.D, was a Jungian analyst, regression therapist and professional lecturer with degrees in psychology, religion and philosophy from Oxford and London Universities. He trained as an analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich. Born a British citizen, Roger lived and taught Jungian and transpersonal psychology and comparative religion in North America and England. He was a Guest Professor at Vassar College, where he gave the Mary Mellon Memorial lectures in 1988. He was also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Vermont (1975) and Concordia University, Montreal (1979-80). He led workshops at the New York Open Center, Esalen Institute and Omega Institute, and speaks at a broad range of conferences internationally.
Roger Woolger's first book, Other Lives Other Selves, (Doubleday, 1987) is an innovative synthesis of Jungian depth psychology, bodywork, yoga psychology, psychodrama and eastern meditation principles. It has been translated into German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and French. Widely regarded as the definitive work in the field of regression therapy, this and his later works such as Eternal Return (tape set) and Healing You Past Lives (2004) integrates aspects of Tibetan Buddhism and shamanism. The work has evolved in the last decade into the highly original therapeutic tool which is called Deep Memory Process™. He discussed and demonstrated this work on American, Canadian and Italian network television, appearing in a PBS special in the States.
He ran training programs for therapists in North America and Britain, also teaching professionals in Holland and Germany . Also a series of training programs throughout Brazil where in 1996 he was a keynote speaker at the International Transpersonal Psychology Conference in Manaus hosted by Stanislav Grof. He was also an acclaimed keynote speaker at first Brazilian International Transpersonal Psychology Conference in Lindoya the following year and at the Third international Conference in Lisbon in 2003. He also presented at the First World Congress for Regression Therapy in Holland in 2003. He published numerous articles and reviews in the field of Jungian, Transpersonal and religious psychology.
Roger Woolger was a well known teacher in Britain, having appeared in 1966 in the Channel 4 television series Transformations and in various other television programs. In 1997 he gave a much noted talk "The Presence of Other Worlds in Psychotherapy and Healing" at the Beyond the Brain Conference co-sponsored by the British Scientific and Medical Network and the Institute for Noetic Sciences (California) at Cambridge University. His talk was the fruit of a lifelong study of the perennial philosophy and the mystical traditions of Christianity and Sufism, just as his practice of psychotherapy was early on shaped by the practice of Buddhist vipassana meditation and the mysticism of Simone Weil. The talk in question was later published in Thinking Beyond the Brain, edited by his colleague David Lorimer. In 2004 he presented at a Conference sponsored by the Royal College of Psychiatrists called Beyond Death: Does Consciousness Survive? This paper can also be downloaded here.
Roger also taught literature, published articles on dreamwork and meditation and gave film seminars on Fellini, Bergman and Cocteau. He was an amateur Shakespeare actor and teacher. His popular second book, The Goddess Within (Ballantine, 1989) written with Jennifer Barker, is an in depth exploration of feminine psychology as mirrored in the myths, conflicts and wounding of the Greek goddesses; it draws upon Rogers scholarly knowledge of Jungian writing, the history of religion and feminist revisionist history. This very entertaining book has had much success in the US, Germany and Brazil.
A lifelong interest in the Grail legend and the esoteric spirituality of medieval Europe inspired Roger to lead several extraordinary tours to sacred sites in the South of France, to troubadour and Cathar country; sites of Black Madonnas and the Magdalene. See Magdalene Tours
