Book excerpt: Aanavi's story takes us into the belly of the beast in an exploration of the soul's wounding and stands eye-to-eye with the demons in an honest attempt to make a different relationship with these entities. Aanavi hones in on the entity of heroin, which is the one spirit visitor that has given him the gift of insight during this lifetime. Carl Jung spoke of pistis, the trusting heart. He said that this fundamental capacity for trust is the precursor to faith, and that without this essential quality, faith in something greater--faith in one's own process, faith in the wholeness of the psyche--is impossible. For the author of this book, pistis involves the ability to trust one's own subjectivity, one's felt sense, regardless of whether it jibes with what is externally acceptable or valid, regardless of the outcome. In The Trusting Heart, Dr. Aanavi writes about his experience over the past twenty-plus years, both as a person in recovery and as a clinician. The book is about his exploration, his process, and his commitment to both the profoundly personal and the remarkably vast. It is about telling the stories of one's experience and committing to the integrity of one's felt truth and to following one's energetic thread wherever it might lead.