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Title: The Future of the Body: Explorations into the Further Evolution of Human Nature by Michael Murphy ISBN: 0-87477-730-5 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: April, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Who is the subject of evolution?
Comment: With some reservations I found this compendium of disparate information a useful survey and a flying question mark about the meaning of the term 'evolution', a term long since fallen into a ditch whence it stumbles forth into still more confusion, with a black eye from the brain-dead Darwin debate. The number of wild pitches (the phantom index in most such books being high)is not out of hand. The New Age attempts to define the term 'evolution' are at their best as an indirect comment on Darwinian versions, but fail as soon as they attempt to remap its meaning in 'spiritual' terms. Nevertheless this text indicates the only avenue of approach, which is to map out just what creature it is that we are supposed to be explaining. And the answer is that we don't know. The temporary ongoing 'conclusion' is that we can't produce a theory of evolution because we haven't the foggiest what man's 'evolutionary psychology' really is. But one thing is clear, Darwinism is very far off the mark, and the current ostrich style of pontificating the subtle side of man out of existence in the name of Darwin's phoney theory can't go on forever. Or maybe it can. Scientists simply don't respond to suggestions that they don't have a grip on man, and who man is.
The standard problem with books like this (and this one is much better than most)is the 'passing of bad pennies', sudden passages of garbage in, garbage out. That is, metaphysical versions of occult or other 'spiritual' phenomena. The road is long and hard here, but, taken with reserve, we have grounds for protest at the amputation of man being enforced in an age of Big Science dogma.
One problem is that New Age thinking has spawned a category of 'self-evolution' and this has become the favorite of many gurus, and others. This attempt to appropriate the word 'evolution' adds still more confusion. The problem is that 'evolution' is confused with 'self-realization', the evolution of that self being unknown, a mystery of the descent of humans in the Paleolithic. Sometimes evolution and involution are confused or braided together. It is not true that realized men have a better understanding of evolution. Indeed, the legacy of gurus show they can't reckon their own history,let alone the large scale development of the species man. It is worth noting the legacy of German classical philosophy, as this suggests, prior to such figures as Hegel, the 'noumenal' aspect of the conscious subject. That insight might be helpful in putting the labyrinth in perspective, for the New Age field is littered with metaphysical zoo items mixed with the genuine insights into the sheer complexity of human nature that make the 'sociobiology crammed down our throats' an episode of primitive hi-tech cavemen. The implications of the Axial Age concept and data give one hint of the scale of 'macro evolution' that transcends even the insights of the Enlightened, for there we see the 'generated' aspect of world religion, acting beyond the realm of the oblivious yogi, what to say of the mechanized monotheist.
Usefully provoking book, taken with considerable caution.
Rating: 5
Summary: Interesting Book
Comment: I gave this book 5 stars because it is very extensive in its scope - it is not, however, the final word on this topic, there is more - I guess there is always more and there are always even more amazing stories. The book explores different phenomena, some rather rare and unusual, as in the following excerpt:
"Thurston quoted a sister Margherita Cortonesi:
"On one occasion, among others, when [Sister Veronica] being in a trance state was reciting her Office alternately with some invisible being, she was observed gradually to stretch out until the length of her throat seemed to be out of all proportion in such a way that she was altogether much taller than usual. We, noticing this strange occurrence, looked to see if she was raised from the ground, but this, so far as our eyes could tell, was not the case. So, to make sure, we took a yard-measure and measured her height, and afterwards when she had come to herself we measured her again, and she was at least a span (ten inches or more) shorter. This we have seen with our own eyes, all of us nuns who were in the chapel."
In 1629, a Donna Hortenzia Ghini stated under oath that:
"Sister Lisabetta Pancrazi, formerly a nun in the same convent, told me that on one occasion, seeing that the said Sister Veronica when in ecstasy seemed taller than in her normal state, took a yard-measure and measured her height, and that after the said Sister Veronica came to herself she measured her again with the said yard-measure, and she found that she was half an arm's length shorter."
Among other religious who allegedly exhibited elongation, the Capuchiness Abbess Costante Maria Castreca was said to have grown a considerable height from the ground during a religious ecstasy; the Venerable Domenica dal Paradiso grew taller in trance, according to her spiritual director and confidants. Because such phenomena were not thought to be marks of holiness, they were noted simply because they were unusual.
I include such phenomena in this discussion because they indicate the body's responsiveness to altered states of mind. When consciousness is released from some of its ordinary constraints, whether in ecstasies or dissociated states, ligaments and muscles are sometimes liberated too.:
Rating: 4
Summary: Encyclopedic, Compelling, but Not Entirely Convincing,
Comment: This is an ambitious book, and must have been a labor of love for Mr. Murphy. It is a thorough treatment of every conceivable mystical or healing arts practice, with plenty of anecdotal evidence, some of it well supported, some not. I say the book is not convincing because so much of this stuff is so bizarre that I need to "see it to believe it." For example, exhumed bodies of highly religious poeple, such as saints, that show no decomposition after years of being buried. How could that be possible? Without photographs you just have to take the witnesses' words as gospel...or not.
If you want a thorough survey of these themes, though, this is definitely your book.
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Title: The Life We Are Given: A Long-Term Program for Realizing the Potential of Body, Mind, Heart, and Soul (Inner Work Book) by George Leonard, Michael Murphy ISBN: 0874777925 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: September, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment by George Leonard ISBN: 0452267560 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: February, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Essential Spirituality : The 7 Central Practices to Awaken Heart and Mind by Roger Walsh ISBN: 0471392162 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 21 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Way of Aikido: Life Lessons from an American Sensei by George Burr Leonard ISBN: 0452279720 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: 05 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Ultimate Athlete by George Burr Leonard, Ken Wilbur ISBN: 1556433492 Publisher: North Atlantic Books Pub. Date: 30 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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