The Five Stages of the Soul: Charting the Spiritual Passages That Shape Our Lives, Paperback

An exciting exploration of the spiritual passages we go through as we age--from midlife crises to the search for inner purpose--and the rich possibilities they offer for fulfillment in the life journey.

Based on twenty years of research, The Five Stages of the Soul is the first book to focus squarely on the spiritual passages that the majority of us go through, offering readers a detailed road map of their quest for meaning and self-discovery.

Interweaving psychology, religion, myth, and literature, Harry Moody--in the bestselling tradition of Joseph Campbell, Thomas Moore, and Scott Peck--charts the passages of countless individuals across the country who have journeyed through the five stages of spiritual awakening common to almost all of us: the Call, the Search, the Struggle, the Breakthrough, and finally, the Return. Dr. Moody's insightful and wonderfully affirming narrative reveals the challenges and opportunities offered us by the spiritual stages we go through as we explore the question of meaning in our lives.

About the Author:

Harry R. Moody, Ph.D., recently retired as Vice President and Director of Academic Affairs for AARP in Washington, DC. He is currently Visiting Professor at Tohoku University in Japan, and Distinguished Faculty at Fielding Graduate University. Dr. Moody previously served as Executive Director of the Brookdale Center on Aging at Hunter College and Chairman of the Board of Elderhostel (now Road Scholar).

A graduate of Yale with a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University, Dr. Moody has been a leading researcher in the field of aging. He is the author of over 100 scholarly articles, as well as a number of books. His most recent, The Five Stages of the Soul, has been translated into seven languages worldwide. In 2011 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society on Aging; in 2010, the Robert Kahn Award for Successful Aging, from Masterpiece Living and in 2008 he was named by Utne Reader magazine as one of "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World."

David L. Carroll is the author of more than thirty books and ten network TV programs. He now specializes in medical self-help books, including Living with Parkinson's and The Complete Book of Natural Medicines, and film documentaries on medical technology and drug prevention.