The Ten Worlds: The New Psychology of Happiness

What exactly is happiness that we spend our lives pursuing it more fiercely than anything else? The answer, Drs. Lickerman and ElDifrawi argue, is that happiness isn't just a good feeling but a special good feeling—in fact, the best good feeling we're capable of having. Enduring happiness is something we all want yet many of us fail to achieve. Look around you. How many people do you know who would say they feel a constant and powerful sense of satisfaction with their lives? How many people do you imagine wouldn't find their ability to be happy impaired by a significant loss, like the death of a parent, a spouse, or a child? How is it possible to be happy in the long-term when so many terrible things are destined to happen to us? In this highly engaging and eminently practical book—told in the form of a Platonic dialogue recounting real-life patient experiences—Drs. Lickerman and ElDifrawi assert that the reason genuine, long-lasting happiness is so difficult to achieve and maintain is that we're profoundly confused not only about how to go about it but also about what happiness is. In identifying nine basic erroneous views we all have about what we need to be happy—views they term the core delusions—Lickerman and ElDifrawi show us that our happiness depends not on our external possessions or even on our experiences but rather on the beliefs we have that shape our most fundamental thinking. These beliefs, they argue, create ten internal life-conditions, or worlds, through which we continuously cycle and that determine how happy we're able to be. Drawing on the latest scientific research as well as Buddhist philosophy, Lickerman and ElDifrawi argue that once we learn to embrace a correct understanding of happiness, we can free ourselves from the suffering the core delusions cause us and enjoy the kind of happiness we all want, the kind found in the highest of the Ten Worlds, the world of Enlightenment. The Ten Worlds: Hell Hunger Animality Anger Tranquility Rapture Learning Realization Compassion Enlightenment Everyone wants happiness that endures. So why are so few people able to achieve it? Having spent over two decades researching the answer to this question, Drs. Lickerman and ElDifrawi argue in this eminently practical and groundbreaking new bookpresented as a series of Platonic dialogues recounting real-life patient experiencesthat enduring happiness eludes us because we're profoundly confused about what happiness is. According to Lickerman and ElDifrawi, we all have nine basic beliefs about how to achieve lasting happiness, and all of them are wrong. Unfortunately, these nine erroneous beliefs about how to achieve lasting happinesswhat Lickerman and ElDifrawi term the core delusionsare so deeply embedded in our thinking that we can't escape them. In fact, they're so foundational they give rise to nine basic life-conditions, or worlds, through which we all continuously cycle. From lowest to highest, they are: Hell, Hunger, Animality, Anger, Tranquility, Rapture, Learning, Realization, and Compassion. Yet because these worlds are created by delusions, the happiness they produce is fragile and temporary. But there exists another type of happiness. A happiness that can't be destroyed by anything. A happiness that's absolute. Though few have ever experienced this kind of happinessthe transcendent happiness found in the tenth world, the world of Enlightenmentit's a happiness, Lickerman and ElDifrawi argue, that can be experienced by us all. Founded neither in mysticism nor the supernatural, the world of Enlightenment is discussed for the first time as a psychological state created by a belief in a core truth, a core truth that if we fully embrace will at last enable us to achieve the kind of happiness we all want. A happiness that endures no matter what. Fresh on the heels of his phenomenally-received book, The Undefeated Mind, Dr. Lickerman and co-author Dr. ElDifrawi offer a whole new perspective on understanding and achieving happiness. In this highly engaging and eminently practical book-told in the form of a Platonic dialogue recounting real-life patient experiences- Drs. Lickerman and ElDifrawi assert that the reason genuine, longlasting happiness is so difficult to achieve and maintain is that we're profoundly confused not only about how to go about it, but also about what happiness is. In identifying nine basic erroneous views we all have about what we need to be happy-views they term the core delusions-Lickerman and ElDifrawi show us that our happiness depends not on our external possessions or even on our experiences but rather on the beliefs we have that shape our most fundamental thinking. These beliefs, they argue, create ten internal life-conditions, or worlds, through which we continuously cycle and that determine how happy we're able to be