In the finale of the movie Chicago (Marshall, 2002), Roxie and Velma acknowledge their audience as they take their bows: “We could never have done it without you.” The American Heritage Dictionary (2000a) defines acknowledgement as:

1. The act of admitting or owning to something. 2. Recognition of another's existence, validity, authority, or right. 3. An answer or response in return for something done. 4. An expression of thanks or a token of appreciation. 5. A formal declaration made to authoritative witnesses to ensure legal validity. http://www.bartleby.com/61/90/A0059000.html.

Like Roxie and Velma, I could never have done this dissertation without the guidance, support, wisdom, and encouragement, of all of the people to whom I dedicated the dissertation.  I would like to acknowledge them as well as many others below.

Walt Disney said, “Remember, it all began with a mouse.”  Well, my PhD journey began when I began working for a consulting firm in the early 1990s.  Joseph Keilty, Marshall Goldsmith, Tony Smith, and Paul Gaske helped me to see how important movies and games were as teaching tools.  I got my first opportunity to use play as a tool of transformation in some of our week-long training programs, where I helped our clients integrate their learning through creative skits.  The knowledge and dedication of these men in the fields of leadership and organizational behavior led to my desire to pursue a PhD in the first place, and they heartily encouraged me to further my education in gaining an understanding of the deeper patterns of the psyche.

Tony Smith has been an especially important influence and he has given me invaluable advice on my journey. Tony's wife, Erin Murphy Smith, has been a true friend, and her parents, Nancy and Buck Murphy, were instrumental in the beginning of my spiritual quest. They arranged for my trip to Oakland where I met my first spiritual teacher in 1993. I would not be where I am today without the friendship and guidance of the Murphys and the Smiths.

Claire Zammit, brilliant friend and colleague helped me to envision my dissertation in 2003 and a year later held the space for me while I wrestled a year later with the definition of play. I met Claire in 2000 at Stephen Gilligan’s Trance Camp.  She is currently pursuing a PhD in Transformative Learning and Change at CIIS.  Claire and I have a joint desire to make transformation simple, easy, and fun!

Kylea Taylor author, friend, Holotropic Breathwork Trainer and publisher blessed my writing, and inspired me to fully pursue the Cosmic Game.  [link] We also met synchronistically at Trance Camp, in 2001, and formed a friendship that has truly shaped my future.

Stephen Gilligan [link] and Ernest Rossi were instrumental in my foray into Ericksonian hypnosis, upon which NLP is based.  Gregory Bateson introduced the creators of NLP to Milton Erickson in the first place and Bateson’s work along, with Erickson’s, would later inspire both the Cosmic Game and Mary Poppins parts of the dissertation.  I have been fortunate enough to have both Gilligan and Rossi as teachers over the years. 

Pacifica Graduate Institute, [link] home of the Joseph Campbell archives, called to me for many years, but I had to wait for kairos, the right moment, which occurred in the summer of 2000. Phil Cousineau encouraged me to follow my fascinations and his books on synchronicity Soul Moments and his book on Joseph Campbell, The Hero’s Journey, were beacons that led me to Pacifica.  Phil has been a role model for me in my writing career, and I have enjoyed spending time with him over the years. Robert Romanyshyn’s The Soul In Grief arrived at that right moment when, in the summer of 2000, during a period of deep grief occasioned by the loss of my two dogs in six weeks, I found his book and realized that he taught at Pacifica.

Natalia Lopez, an amazing healer and friend helped me through those dark times and reintroduced me to the power of the feminine.  It was at a retreat led by Natalia up in Big Bear that I had a dream that inspired me to follow my calling and go to Pacifica. 

Diane Huerta, the director of admissions, encouraged me to apply to Pacifica and welcomed me with open arms.  The personal statement that I crafted for my application contained the seeds of my later work.  Elizabeth Nelson, one of the first graduates of the Depth Psychology program, was a role model for me.  During my first quarter at Pacifica when I was overwhelmed by the vastness of Mary Poppins, she advised me to focus on something small.  I took her advice at the time and only wrote about one scene in the movie. Although it seems that I forgot her advice during my dissertation, I really did just focus on one thing, albeit, a very very big thing, that happens to include everything.

I am also very grateful White family and Mike Young, all dear friends who welcomed me into their homes and their hearts and also played with me on my journeys to and from Pacifica each month.

Robert Romanyshyn and Veronica Goodchild have been inspiring teachers and role models.  Their “alchemical hermeneutics”—  way of doing research with soul in mind— brought me to a whole new way of seeing and being in the world. In Robert’s initial class on research, a whole new world was opened up to me—research as soulful, as a vocation, which was a completely new paradigm for me. Romanyshyn’s Technology as Symptom and Dream as well as Ways of the Heart were instrumental in helping me see the world metabletically, van den Berg’s particular method of phenomenology, where synchronistic events tell their own stories. In Veronica’s class, we were asked to craft our own imaginal methodology, and this is where the seeds for my method were sewn. James Hillman was responsible for my dissertation coming out of academia and into the world at large.  Hillman also provided precedent for the many excursions I have taken along the way. 

Allen Bishop introduced me to Freud and to the wonderful world of object relations and the work of Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott.  He allowed me lots of room to play as I rhymingly compared the work of Freud, Dr. Seuss and Stephen Gilligan, and later gave a Kleinian interpretation to the Wizard of Oz.  Allen Bishop, along with Christine Downing gave me much insight into and a deep appreciation of the Freudian side of depth psychology.

David L. Miller took the time to speak with me about my dissertation on several occasions.  His landmark Gods and Games is a classic work on play, and was a foundation for my dissertation.  His article “The Bricoleur in the Tennis Court” was instrumental in helping me craft my methodology. Ed Casey was also generous with his time and helped me to understand deconstruction and Derrida.  Dennis Slattery, too, has been an inspiration to me.  He opened up the idea of literary genres and the worlds of Moby Dick and The Odyssey.  Ironically, I never had Dennis, David, or Ed as teachers while I was at Pacifica, but luckily enough, I was able to listen to them on audiocassettes and see them at conferences.

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