Wednesday, December 14, 2011

"Cosmic Consciousness"

Below is an excerpt from an interesting book, "Cosmic Consciousness".
It can be found on Amazon on paper or electrons. (Be sure to get the right one, by Richard Maurice Bucke, it's a century old.)

(Click for easier reading.) 

8 comments:

Laurie said...

Jeff and I love this book. Very inspiring.

Laurie

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes.
I've only read a bit yet, but a couple of things I find very interesting: 1) how long there has been solid evidence of higher consciousness. 2) how certainly he declares it to mean there are no accidents or evil in the world, and that the world is unsubstantial. 3) the declaration that the mind above the Conceptual Mind is an intuitive one. This has long been a strong belief of mine.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Also that religion or any spirituality seems to be accidental to people getting these experiences.

BTW, McKenna poo-poo's such experiences unless they are "abiding". I think he's a bit hard-headed. OK, they may not be Enlightenment yet, but obviously they have to be very important milestone on the road.

Laurie said...

yes, re. McKenna. And very nicely done, your synopsis Mr. Stobblehouse. I particularly liked the story of Jacob Boehme. I question a bit his adoration of Walt Whitman, although Whitman was no doubt very very clear. Jeff came upon this book at a crisis point in his life about 15 years ago and it rather saved him. He recognized his own (to a certain extent) experiences, and felt not alone.

Laurie

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Funny, somebody just posted a spam comment with a link to replicas of very expensive fashion handbags. Under *this* post of all places. :-)

Laurie said...

I wouldn't know about such things, lol...

Laurie said...

note: one of McKenna's comments on Richard Bucke (whom he admired in his own way.) His comment also refers to Frank, of his third book, father of Lisa:

"Neither Bucke nor Frank ever traveled that road (the road of Awakening.) They both dug in and became self-appointed spokesmen for a journey they never took, making optimistic guesses and extrapolating futures they would never see."

interesting. I would say this is largely true of many writers who write a lot about exceedingly difficult passageways with seeming ease. Ken Wilbur, for example. It's just an intuition when you read them that they themselves didn't come as far as they write about. My sense, anyway.

L.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

That might explain why one so rarely hears about the extreme hardship it can entail.