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Flying Without Wings

Flying Without Wings: Life with Arnold Beisser


With his whole life before him, 25-year-old national tennis champion and aspiring young surgeon, Arnold Beisser, was struck down by Polio. “In a few hours, without warning, I was transformed from a doctor to a patient, from an athlete to a cripple. Polio had ravaged me so that I could not stand, walk, sit, eat, drink or even breathe by myself.”

Family, friends, colleagues and Arnold himself tell this inspiring journey of loss, acceptance, triumph and love – how he become a pioneer in sports psychology, UCLA Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, leader in the community mental health movement, Gestalt trainer, and best-selling author. Dr. Beisser is known world wide for his seminal paper “Paradoxical Theory of Change.”

Special Features: With humor and wisdom, Dr. Beisser discusses issues of loss and opportunity and what is needed for difficult transitions as well as living with disability.

Available On Demand: Click Here
Or order on DVD!

Flying Without Wings
Feature Documentary $25
(57 minutes)
Flying Without Wings
Special Edition Feature Documentary $40

Edited Interviews with Dr. Beisser
Loss, Change & Opportunity (20 min)
Living with Disability (26 min)

Available On Demand: Click Here
Or order on DVD!

Erving Polster, PhD,
Co-Founder, Gestalt Training Center — San Diego

Flying Without Wings is a great story, a treasure of wisdom, courage, despair, heroism and ordinary decency. It is a wonderfully absorbing invitation to vicariously incorporate a rare adventure of spirit. This film shows the life of a man unlucky enough to be in the way of fate and transcendent enough to transform a most uninvited reality into a new experience of human scale.

While these qualities of great storyline are more than enough to satisfy anyone seeing this film, it has larger implication and application. It can be the source of inspiration to those individuals in need for a salutary vision. More, even, than that, it is an inspiration for a communal exploration of what life is about and how we all go about living it. This film is a rare combination of entertainment and education, showing the way into an uncommon hospitality to life as it is.

Edwin C. Nevis, PhD,
Co-founder, Gestalt International Study Center

This documentary is in honor of anyone who struggles through life with a significant physical handicap, as well as paying homage to an important person in the world of Gestalt therapy. Created with loving care and scrupulous fidelity, it tells us about the marvelously creative life of the paraplegic Arnold Beisser. All who view this film will be highly moved. Therapists will find it to be a powerful adjunct to their work with patients who experience any kind of despair. Liv Estrup is to be saluted and given a huge ovation for giving us this present.

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