John Selby (born 1945) is the American author of over two dozen self-help, spiritual-growth, business-success and psychology books published in 14 languages, with half a million books in print, published during the last 35 years by

New World Library New World Library is a San Francisco Bay Area-based American publisher of books for adults and children. The press focuses on publishing books concerning the mind, the body and the spirit. The company was established in 1977 by authors Marc Al ...

Warner Books Grand Central Publishing is a book publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group, originally established in 1970 as Warner Books when Warner Communications acquired the Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publishing business to Hachett ...

Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. ...

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Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

Harper San Francisco HarperOne is a publishing imprint of HarperCollins, specializing in books that aim to "transform, inspire, change lives, and influence cultural discussions." Under the original name of Harper San Francisco, the imprint was founded in 1977 by 13 em ...

, Droemer Knaur Verlag, DTV Verlag, Rowohlt Verlag, and Sterling Books.

Biography

Selby was raised on cattle ranches in California and Arizona. He attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

, and the Radix Institute. Selby is currently married to Birgitta Steiner of Waldassen,

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. They have 2 sons, Kibo and Jesse. John also has an earlier son, Shon, by another marriage. John and Birgitta lived in Europe for 5 years,

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...

for 2 years,

Kauai Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island ...

for 21 years, and in 2011 moved to

Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz (Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a pop ...

. John's father

Walter Smith Walter Ferguson Smith (24 February 1948 – 26 October 2021) was a Scottish association football player, manager and director, primarily associated with his two spells as manager of Glasgow club Rangers. A defender, Smith's playing car ...

was a musical inventor. Selby carried his father's ‘there must be a better way’ attitude into his psychological career by refining new therapy and meditation techniques. While based in Europe, Selby ran eight experimental test groups for four years duration, conducting 160 three-day experimental-technique seminars. He then published an extensive 'cassettebook' self-therapy series with

Droemer Knaur Droemer Knaur is a publishing group based in Munich. The group consists of the book publishers Droemer, Knaur, the Pattloch Publisher and O.W. Barth. Droemer Knaur belongs to the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. Program Droemer Knaur Pu ...

Verlag and

Bauer Media Group Heinrich Bauer Publishing (german: Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG), trading as Bauer Media Group, is a German multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Hamburg. It operates worldwide and owns more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 ra ...

Verlag based on those studies. Later, eight of those original German-edition programs were later released as English-language books (see bibliography section).

Career

Selby is an

innovator Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entity ...

cognitive-shifting Cognitive shifting is the mental process of ''consciously'' redirecting one's attention from one fixation to another. In contrast, if this process happened ''unconsciously'', then it is referred to as task switching. Both are forms of cognitiv ...

psychological techniques, having done mind-management research for

NIH The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

at the New Jersey Neuro-psychiatric Institute working under Dr. Humphrey Osmond MD. He also pioneered the development of and has apparently coined the term

Focus phrase "Focus Phrase" is a term traditionally used in cognitive-therapy and awareness-management discussions, and now in more general use to describe elicitor statements that evoke a desired refocusing of attention. Psychologically related terms are ''el ...

for inducing particular cognitive changes. In the early 1980s Selby moved his operational base to

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

to guide further psychological studies with Manfred Henschell at the

Free University A free university is an organization offering uncredited, public classes without restrictions to who can teach or learn. They differ in structure. In 1980 in the United States, about half were associated with a traditional university, about a ...

of West Berlin on the emotional-healing techniques of

Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian Doctor of Medicine, doctor of medicine and a psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author ...

. During this period he initiated the use of self-help and meditation audio cassette-books in the German language, published by ''Droemer Knaur'' and ''Bauer Verlags''. Selby returned to the United States in the 1990s and co-founded the short lived ''BrightMind Network''. A company that was not able to reach its full potential and dissolved after several months. Selby has also worked as an awareness-management consultant with companies such as

CitiBank Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...

Europe, the

Allianz Group Allianz ( , ) is a German multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. The company is one of the world's largest insurers and financial services groups. The ...

, the American Airlines Pilots Association, and Senn-Delaney Leadership. His three corporate-training texts, ''Executive Genius'', ''Take Charge Of Your Mind'', and ''Listening With Empathy'' emerged as part of that corporate work. In 2007 Selby launched BedRock Productions to produce a new series of awareness-training programs including his latest movie and book of the same name, ''Tapping the Source''. focused on experiential video content using what he says is an advanced patent-pending video formula designed to encourage a meditative quiet-mind state of awareness using special visual and audio inputs. Through his company he has also produced many psychological-guidance DVDs and audio-training CDs. Selby has also appeared on over 60 radio-interview programs where he leads the audience through what he calls 'live-guidance' using his alertness/awareness programs.

Bibliography

* ''Kundalini Awakening In Everyday Life'' (with Zachary Selig): Random House, NY, 1990 * ''Secrets Of A Good Night’s Sleep'': Dell/Doubleday, NY, 1990 * ''Peak Sexual Experience'': Warner Books, NY, 1992 * ''Seven Masters, One Path'': HarperSF, San Francisco, 2005 * ''Jesus For The Rest Of Us'': Hampton Roads, Charlottesville, VA, 2006 * ''Take Charge Of Your Mind'': Hampton Roads, Charlottesville, VA, 2006 * ''Let Love Find You'': Random House, NY, 2007 * ''Listening With Empathy'': Hamtpon Roads, Charlottesville, VA, 2007 * ''Executive Genius'': Career Press, Franklinn Lakes, NJ, 2008 * ''Quiet Your Mind'': New World Library, Novato, CA, 2008 * ''Tapping The Source'': Sterling Publishing, NY, 2010 * ''Expand This Moment'': New World Library, Novato, CA, 2011

Video work

* Tapping The Source: The Master Process:BedRock Productions; 2011; Kilauea HI * Quiet Mind: Focused Meditations With John Selby: BedRock Productions; 2010; Kilauea HI * Falling Asleep: Relief From Restless Nights: BedRock Productions; 2010; Kilauea HI * Insight Dreaming: A Guide To Understanding Your Dreams: BedRock Productions; 2009; Kilauea HI

Achievements

* Chief Psychological Consultant and Professional Host for the national training program developed by 3D ETC Inc in Detroit in 2009. * Research into inducing natural sleep led to the book "Secrets Of A Good Night's Sleep" and DVD titled "Falling Asleep" which was presented by

Suzanne Somers Suzanne Marie Somers (née Mahoney; born October 16, 1946) is an American actress, author, singer, businesswoman, and health spokesperson. She appeared in the television role of Chrissy Snow on ''Three's Company'' and as Carol Foster Lambert on ...

. * Developed special "pain relief" and "relaxation/healing" Experiential Video programs for Hospice and hospital-room wellness TV programming. * Developed core audio/video content for the ExamPerformance college-market program for students taking SATs etc. * Has worked as trainer at the corporate level to introduce Focus Phrase methodologies for practical application. * Collaborated with John Gray in developing audio-guidance CDsPublisher: Simon & Schuster Audio "Sex and Spirit" 2002; "Living Your Dream" 2003

References

External links

Tapping the Source Movie and BookPsicóloga OnlineHuffington Post Blogs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Selby, John Living people American motivational writers 21st-century American psychologists American self-help writers American spiritual teachers American spiritual writers New Thought writers New Age writers 1945 births Princeton University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni 20th-century American psychologists