The Perennial Philosophy Reloaded

A Guide for the Mystically Inclined

Dana Sawyer

Paperback
9781958972298
US $18.99 Bookshop Barnes & Noble
eBook available
July 2024

Dana Sawyer unpacks the philosophy-spirituality of Huxley, Watts, and Ram Dass (as well as our contemporaries, including Mirabai Starr and Richard Rohr) in ways readers will find intriguing, creating an original view of human nature, revealing why this mystical understanding of our world is called “perennial.”

During the 1960s and 70s, “Perennial Philosophy” was the most popular theory regarding what the world’s mystical traditions held in common, and it was touted as the best platform for understanding the nature of human consciousness, including how to expand it therapeutically with meditation, yoga, and psychedelic drugs. Consequently, books by Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, Huston Smith, Stanislav Grof, Frances Vaughan, Ram Dass, and other Perennialists were widely available and sold like hotcakes. However, during the 80s, their shared perspective fell out of fashion.

The Perennial Philosophy Reloaded corrects several common errors in understanding the perennial philosophy while providing a short, up-to-date overview of the general perspective. The goal is to reveal the continued relevance of perennial philosophy during this time psychedelic renaissance, when many are seeking ways to interpret their experiences, inside an engaging narrative free of philosophical shop talk.

The result is a demonstration of now perennial philosophy applies to all who are interested in self-realization. This book will appeal for the millions today who are involved with mindfulness meditation, hatha yoga, Transcendental Meditation, Tibetan Buddhism, Kabbalah, Zen, Sufism, Shamanic drumming, Christian Centering Prayer, or their own DIY approaches to spiritual awakening.

Dana Sawyer is professor emeritus of philosophy and world religions at Maine College of Art & Design in Portland. He frequently teaches at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California and is author of many articles for Tricycle, Parabola, and Yoga Journal. In 2002, he published Aldous Huxley: A Biography (Crossroad Publishing). Subsequently, Sawyer was approached by Huston Smith to write his authorized biography, which came out as Huston Smith: Wisdomkeeper (Fons Vitae Press, 2014) and was endorsed, on its back cover, by Jeffrey Kripal, Deepak Chopra, and H.H. the Dalai Lama.

“Dana Sawyer makes a persuasive case for the contemporary relevance of Perennialist Philosophy, not as dogmatic religious belief but as unitive mystical experience and provisional ideas about its nature and implications. Sawyer is to be applauded for his nuanced account, which dispels persistent misunderstandings and recognizes a variety of Perennialist perspectives on religion, God, spiritual awakening, nature, art, and much else. An indispensable, highly accessible introduction to Perennialist Philosophy and what it can be today.” —Paul Marshall, PhD, author of Mystical Encounters with the Natural World and The Shape of the Soul

“The recent flurry of research articles on the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic medicines has focused on the therapeutic impact of the mystical experience. However the context has been medical, primarily about psychiatric symptom reduction. Professor Dana Sawyer, in Perennial Philosophy Reloaded, gives us a spiritual and ethical context for valuing a mystical experience.  The book is a reader friendly tour of the Perennial Philosophy which is well-needed in our current cultural milieu. A must read for students of world religion, philosophy, psychedelic studies and those brave souls embarking on a spiritual path.” —Rachel Harris, PhD, psychologist in private practice for thirty-five years, author of Swimming in the Sacred

“Dana Sawyer, who previously authored excellent biographies of Aldous Huxley and Huston Smith, here goes on to provide a theoretical and practical guide to mystically-informed Perennialist worldviews of the sort both men regarded as our current best guess about the metaphysically ultimate nature of the world and our place and purpose within it. Wide-ranging, thoughtful, balanced and entertaining.” —Edward F. Kelly, PhD, professor, department of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, VA; lead author of Consciousness Unbound

“A unique, in-depth study of the Unitive Mystical Experience, the red thread running through the mystics’ insights across time and space, articulated in the body of knowledge we know as Perennial Philosophy.” —Shantena Augusto Sabbadini, PhD, director emeritus of the Pari Center, in Italy; author of Pilgrimages to Emptiness: Rethinking Reality through Quantum Physics

“The Perennial Philosophy Reloaded is both provocative and nourishing and an indispensable read for all of us who know both the dire straits we are in and the massive opportunity for renewal and rebirth that our global dark night offers.” —Andrew Harvey, author of The Direct Path and, with Carolyn Baker, Radical Regeneration: Sacred Activism and the Renewal of the World

“There has always been cosmic unity and ultimate meaning, not because human beings have made it up, but because it is simply so. We only have to access and become that already existent truth in awakened states of consciousness—in mystical and psychedelic ways, in particular. This is good news beyond the gospel, robust comparison outside the academic nay-saying, spirituality without the religions. It is exactly, fantastically what we need to hear, right now.” —Jeffrey J. Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought, Rice University; author of How to Think Impossibly

“With his luminous blend of scholarship and accessibility, Dana Sawyer has distilled the quintessence of the inter-spiritual promise into an elixir that is both nourishing and entertaining. The perennial quest for a truth that meets our soul’s deepest longings and requires not an iota of magical thinking is infused with fresh allure in these pages.” —Mirabai Starr, certified bereavement counselor; teacher of contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialogue; author of Wild Mercy

“This profound work gently guides the reader in and through the intuitive depths of human consciousness towards a sacred realm beyond words and concepts. A scholarly and very beautiful gift.” —William A. Richards, psychologist in the psychiatry department of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; author of Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences

“I am a neuroscientist who, through my own mystical experiences and research, have come to embrace Perennial Philosophy. Thus, I was intrigued to read The Perennial Philosophy Reloaded. Each chapter is a goldmine of information. I had difficulty putting it down. It captivated me with its wisdom and heart-opening ways of expressing that wisdom. It is truly a guide home for the mystically inclined.” —Marjorie Woollacott, PhD, professor emerita, Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon; author of Infinite Awareness: the Awakening of a Scientific Mind

“Speaking to those who sense that a mysterious luminosity shines in and through everyone and everything, Sawyer articulates an eloquent defense of the intrinsic and transformative value of spiritual awakening and mystical experience.” —G. William Barnard, professor of religious studies, Southern Methodist University; author of Living Consciousness and Liquid Light

“Dana Sawyer has done us the indispensable service of clearing the thicket of misunderstandings and simplifications surrounding the perennial philosophy, not only by mapping out the emergence of its recent variations, but by comparing these newer versions with one another and with earlier theories advocated by Aldous Huxley and the very different Traditionalist School of perennialism inspired by Rene Guenon and Frithjof Schuon. This is a book of astonishing spiritual breadth and depth and practical advice, applying the insights of older and newer perennialist traditions to raise questions and challenge our everyday assumptions about who we are and what is the goal of our life. Sawyer helpfully weaves together insights and wisdom from philosophy, psychology, world religions, the hard sciences, and the history of mysticism on the mystery of consciousness, thereby providing us with a rich font of information on seminal figures and thought-provoking ideas that we may draw on to help us on our own spiritual quest.” —Bradley Malkovsky, associate professor, University of Notre Dame; former editor, Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies