 |
||||
index or catalogue join our mailing list |
||||
|
Reviews of The Evolutionary Mind: Conversations on Science, Imagination and Spirit:
From Powell, Review-A-Day, 12-31-06 Consciousness: The Final Frontier
This volume collects a series of conversations -- termed "trialogues" -- which took place over several years between three exceptional thinkers. Though working in different fields—Ralph Abraham is a chaos mathematician and computer graphics pioneer; Terence McKenna (who died in 2000) was a psychedelic explorer, ethnopharmacologist, and time theorist; and Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist who developed the theory of "morphic resonance" -- the three were close friends and shared many common concerns. They moved their private conversations to the public arena in 1989 at the request of the Esalen Institute in California, and over the years they met frequently at various locations, resulting in the first trialogue volume, Chaos, Creativity, and Cosmic Consciousness. This second volume, sadly, will be the last of the published trialogues due to the untimely "departure from the corporeal plane" of McKenna, the group's obvious Firekeeper. The conversations recorded in this collection read more like a sequence of manifestos, and share none of the flavor of a live conversation. They are wide-ranging, erudite, achingly articulate, and entirely focused, although perhaps intellectuals of this magnitude really do talk with such remarkable fluidity. The primary impetus for discussion is, as the title suggests, evolutionary psychology -- each participant addresses a shared suspicion that human evolution will occur most significantly at the level of consciousness, and all concur that this evolution will happen not over millennia, or even centuries, but swiftly and soon. Essentially, according to these three, human evolution will likely entail a complete transcendence from history, and quite possibly from any concept of time. McKenna sees humans as representing a peculiar species influenced by an "attractor pulling in the direction of symbolic activity." In the chapter called "Time," McKenna elucidates that the attractor, with which we are colliding, is:
McKenna conceives of this end of history, this "last thing," as "The Eschaton," a kind of black hole whose basin will provoke a violent break from any boundaries, including the boundaries between life and death: "truly beyond ambiguity, beyond syntax." All three suspect that "time is speeding up...there isn't much left." Nevertheless, the prospect is not handled necessarily with pessimism. McKenna again: "We are literally packing up and preparing to decamp from Newtonian space and time, for the high world of hyper-dimensional existence." Abraham favors a fractal model for understanding the phenomenon of boundaries. "Chaos and cosmos must be properly balanced for a healthy social system," he claims, and "an openness to all attractors...based on a cosmology in which the stream has the same morphology as the heavens, which have the same morphology as some mathematical object" could ensure the "stability and longevity of a culture as well as the health of an individual." As to "when" this meeting with the Eschaton may take place, McKenna theorizes "December 21, 2012." This date happens to coincide with the ancient Maya calendar's "end of the 13th b'ak'tun" which many have surmised predicts the apocalypse. However, McKenna came by his theory through science, evaluating historical data, how it produced curves in ebbs and flows of novelty in time, and basing his prediction on "spiral closure." Like most Maya scholars, McKenna too sees this end date as representing more of a "new beginning" than an absolute end. Yet his vision anticipates a fatal global crisis. Sheldrake, on the other hand, sides with a more Utopian, sustainable prediction, arguing for a period of total transformation involving "first of all, psychedelics; secondly, the revival of animism; thirdly, mathematical objects visible to all through computers; and fourthly, communication with the stars." This vision, in Sheldrake's mind, will culminate in a time in which "the kingdom of heaven is realized on Earth." In the chapter "Between the Apocalypse and Utopianism," Sheldrake, Abraham, and McKenna explore ways of defining the impending transformation through a triad of their individual specialties, respectively scientific utopia, chaos utopia, and psychedelic utopia. They view two traditions -- the Utopic, described as triadic and virtuous, and the Millennarian, described as spontaneous and apocalyptic -- and attempt to locate their own trinity in an overlap between these two. Elsewhere they discuss fractals, psychic pets, skepticism, psychedelic revival, and everything else, and always towards the potential for intersection. All three heartily conclude that consciousness is the final frontier, and is where our human future lies. There is no question that the book delivers radical, mind-blowing encounters on every page. Yet the form of conversation lends a spirit of generosity to the rendering of very complex ideas -- the reader is placed in the role of eavesdropper, leaving her free to take sides, but also encouraged along by an absence of pedantics in favor of friendly and collaborative conjecture. While not culminating in any ultimate, mutual determinations, the existence of these trialogues assures the evolution of the ideas within them -- all readers will feel stimulated to spawn their own impassioned conversations examining consciousness and its potential. http://www.powells.com//review/2006_12_31
"A
fascinating read, this book first was published in 1998 as..."
New Age Retailer, National Review
Network by David Paulsen, Ekaha Enchantments, Keaau, Hawaii "What happens when three intelligent thinkers get together to chat about what moves them the most?..." Traditional Yoga Studies Interactive by Georg Feuerstein PhD Three very smart men with wide-open minds interact in this series of "trialogues," high-octane mental jam sessions on chaos theory, human evolution, magic mushrooms, alternate intelligences, and the urgent need to reconnect spirituality and science. 'short takes' CHRONOGRAM
From Spirituality & Health: The Soul/Body Connection, by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
"The Evolutionary Mind:
Conversations on Science, Imagination and Spirit is a spellbinding work
by three scientists, Ralph Abraham, Terence McKenna, and Rupert
Sheldrake. These holistic thinkers revel in speculating about the new
ideas and ideals emerging at the crossroads of science, spirituality,
ecology, and psychology.
http://www.curledup.com Imagine sitting around a table with three of the leading intellectual and philosophical thinkers of today…you may not understand half of what they are talking about, but you get excited and inspired nonetheless. That’s how I felt reading The Evolutionary Mind, a pretty mind-blowing conversation between such visionaries as biologist and author Rupert Sheldrake, chaos theory pioneer Ralph Abraham, and the late psychedelic researcher and shamanism expert, Terence McKenna.
Both scientific and spiritual matters get the roundabout treatment, with all three men giving their input on chaos theory and modern quantum physics as the potential resting place of the long-sought union between physics and metaphysics. They talk about transformative cycles that have literally changed the human landscape, inner and outer, including events that occurred 12,000 years ago, and, even more intriguing, events that are predicted to occur around December 21, 2012, when the Mayan calendar ends and astrological charts detail a powerful shift in our existence. I found this book totally engrossing, even if at times I couldn’t quite grasp the concepts of physics and had to bend my own mind around many a new idea. The back-and-forth between the authors is engaging, thrilling, and once in a while, disturbing, as when they discuss the possible 2012 date as being a sort of “end time,” but whether that means an end to our species or an end to our current level of consciousness is left up in the air. Readers intrigued by spirituality, science, quantum physics, consciousness and personal growth will all find a lot of food for thought in this powerhouse conversation that dares to boldly go where few other minds have gone before. It’s a visionary book, backed up by scientific theories and concepts still being formulated. But however you look at it, it will bend your mind.
".. a treasure trove of fruitful ideas, that deserve to be savored,
like the finest of wines, and reflected upon, like the most precious
of jewels."
-David Jay Brown, Shift Magazine,
Journal of Noetic Sciences, Fall
2005 Issue
“Three fine thinkers take us plunging into the universe of chaos, mind, and spirit. Instead of leaving us lost, they bring us back with startling insights and more wonder than we knew we had.” —MatthewFox, Original Blessing and Sheer Joy“...records the exciting
intellectual friendship of three amazing minds pushing to the edge of
history in search of new consciousness, blending scientific observation,
mythic imagination and visionary speculation.” “...should be required reading for
anyone who believes that science and spirituality cannot and should not
interact. Do something daring: read this book, join the play, and go to
the edge with them.” “They have figured out how to achieve one of the best of
all possible worlds: the sharing of mental space and cosmic terrains over
many years of deep friendship and profound dialogue.” "A jam-session of the mind, an
intellectual movable feast, an on-going conversation that began over
twenty years ago and remains as lively and relevant today as it ever was.
Sadly, Terence had to leave the conversation a little earlier than
planned. But the appearance of this book of trialogues at this
critical, historical juncture is a reaffirmation of the potency of the
optimistic vision that the trialogues express."
|
The book is
basically a roundtable discussion between the three great minds,
covering the mind and consciousness and the evolution of thought, the
use of psychedelics in exploring inner space, the nature of time and of
God, the future of the human species, and other hefty topics. This
sharing of intelligence, intuition and wisdom gained from experience
offers the reader a rare glimpse into the realms of consciousness and
how the human mind has evolved, and continues to evolve.