Art Hochberg
After receiving his doctorate in Psychology in 1969, Dr. Art Hochberg proved himself to be a dynamic teacher and innovator in the field of psychology. Within a year of receiving his degree, he became the Psychology department head at St. Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana, and also taught at Notre Dame University where he initiated several new courses and program changes toward the field of Humanistic Psychology. Dr. Hochberg was one of the earliest members of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and gave several talks on the subject at their annual conference.
While continuing to develop his own ideas in the field over the next nine years, he taught experientially-oriented psychology courses, travelling in Uganda, Ceylon, Israel, and Switzerland, among other countries. All the while, he was deepening his spiritual focus. He visited religious centers, spent a year in a Zen Buddhist monastery and has spent thirty-nine years studying with the Sufi Master Bawa Muhaiyaddeen.
Dr. Hochberg’s vision was transformative on an organizational level as well. Wherever he worked, it was common for him to revamp the institution’s existing program, hire new staff, and take part in presenting the new program to the general public. Such examples in the late 70’s include Urbana College in Ohio where he was the Division Chairman of Social Services; in Fort Dix, NJ, where he was the Clinical Director of the Drug and Alcohol Program, supervising twenty drug and alcohol counselors, developing treatment programs for the patients at Walson Army Hospital, and conducting seminars around the base for commanders, soldiers, and their dependents. In 1979 at the newly established Fordham-Page Clinic in Radnor, PA where he was Clinical Director, responsible for counselor training, teaching nutrition, and presenting the clinic’s holistically-oriented program to the public.
In the early 80’s, Dr. Hochberg established his private practice. In the early years of his practice, he was known as a nutritional psychologist, since he was one of the few psychologists in the country at that time using nutrition in their practice. He appeared on television and was a radio guest numerous times speaking about the nutritional approach to the treatment of psychological problems. Several national magazines and newspapers also covered his groundbreaking work. He trained under such notable practitioners as Dr. Paavo Airola, a Finnish Nutritionist; Dr. John Christopher, a leading herbalist; and Dr. Carl Pfeiffer, who was the foremost orthomolecular psychiatrist at the time. Dr. Hochberg joined the International Academy of Preventive Medicine and spoke at several medical conferences about the role of Psychology and the body, appearing with Dr. Linus Pauling, and Dr. Jeffrey Bland, among others.
In addition, Dr. Hochberg had a practice at the Center for Preventive Medicine in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania for eleven years, and published fifteen articles on stress and nutrition. In November, 1981, Prevention Magazine wrote a feature article about his work on nutrition as he combined it with Psychology which was included in Prevention’s Complete Book of Vitamins in 1984. Dr. Hochberg also wrote a chapter in The Metabolic Management of Cancer — A Physicians Protocol and Reference Book. In 1993, he became the Director of the Holistic Health Program at Rosemont College in PA, and was also on the Adjunct Psychology faculty at Widener University. He also worked as a prison psychologist in southern New Jersey, and in several outpatient mental health clinics in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Currently, Dr. Hochberg continues to maintain his own private practice as a licensed psychologist, and mainly deals with the transformational process that people can experience as they go through the various “changes” in their life. These “changes” serve as the Process for each individual’s transformation, and greater self-awareness. In addition, Dr. Hochberg serves as an intake psycho
“God is continuously learning from his creations. We think God knows what's going to happen next---Hmmmmmm..........I wonder.”
“Worrying about tomorrow, today? Hmmmmmm. Why?”
“Why do we think God is watching us? Maybe God is the one doing the whole trip.”
“Religions can be lethal. If they are for you, there is an antidote. It’s called faith, which has nothing to do with religion. What’s the point of having faith in religion? Better to have faith in the Creator of all faith.”
“Unless you admit it to yourself, that you don’t know what is going on, will you experience what is going on. The ultimate paradox of life.”
“You don’t have to lead your life for others – just lead your life.”
“Your home should be your sanctuary – if it’s not, it needs some rehab.”
“Isn’t it a trip – some people are paid religious leaders – what’s that all about.”
“Let’s face it – prayers without desperation are pretend prayers.”
“Babies are the latest dispatch from the Creator of everything.”
“We’re making this movie up as we go along. And we don’t know how it ends or even if it does end.”
“Any thought can pop into your head at any moment. Where do these thoughts come from?”
“When you have nothing other than your breath, then you are fully alive.”
“Receiving love is great. Giving love is even better.”
“No matter how you imagine something to be, it’s not what you imagine it to be. Any thought you have isn’t real or a big deal.”
“Remember, your history is a total mystery. Sometimes it seems that a lot is happening in a short period of time – and, sometimes it seems that nothing is happening for a long period of time – it’s the same thing.”
“Listen – don’t give yourself a hard time.”
“Too much thinking can make a person ill at ease.”
“Karma is everything that’s happened to you up to this point. You have to let everything go – especially the “bad things”, that’s where the work is.”
“You don’t own your life – it’s on loan.”
“The funny thing about prayers is you can absolutely make up your own if you want to.”
“We don’t always have to be around other people – it’s good also to just hang around with yourself once in awhile.”
“If something looks fishy it just might be – keep your eyes and ears open. This is called discrimitive wisdom which is needed here in the world of illusion.”
“Life is a blank book. Write about what you want to see happen and then step back – and experience what you’ve written.”
“Sometimes it seems that the world is a very, very, large, insane asylum. We need only not get caught in others’ madness and stick to our own.”
“Everyone has their own life to lead, in their own way. You know, when you really look at things as they appear, the whole trip is simply unbelievable. Actually, it’s totally ridiculous most of the time.”
“There really is only one fear. It’s just broken down into many little fears. The one fear is that we can’t handle our fears. That’s why we have them, to go through them.”
“Fear comes in many different forms. It is especially lethal when it comes in a spiritual form.”
“It may seem sometimes, that it is hard to find the right words to say to someone. It is even harder to remain silent, until the right words come. Then it’s easy.”
“The universe has many different secrets. We’re here to discover them by actually experiencing them.”
“Believe your life has value and you are here for a purpose. What that purpose is, is your life’s work.”
“It may seem that we have multiple realities - because we’re capable of playing many different roles in our life.”
“You never know what the way will bring. Sometimes we have to lose the connection to someone in order to regain the connection to someone. That makes things more interesting anyway, since each someone will not be the same, and the connection will also not be the same. Actually, we can do this with all aspects of our life.”
“As we change, the world changes. It’s like that. The world isn’t what we think it is. There is no objective reality.”
“It‘s all a dream, until we realize that it is all a dream. Until then, we need to participate in the dream as if it were real … if we choose.”