A thoughtful, surprising work on the nature of consciousness.
Richheimer questions our assumptions about the basic structure of the universe in this work blending philosophy, spiritualism, and physics.
What if the world is not made of atoms, as science teaches us, but of consciousness? Richheimer suggests this in his treatise on the ways modern people misunderstand the nature of reality. The materialism of the title refers not to consumerism, of course, but to the concept of literal material: the upward causality theory of reality in which elementary particles form the basis of everything we experience. The alternative, which Richheimer calls spirituality, says just the opposite: “It postulates that consciousness is the ‘ground substance’ of creation and follows ‘top down’ causality since it hypothesizes that consciousness is transformed into cosmic mind and then into the material world.” While spirituality seems almost by definition beyond the purview of science, Richheimer argues that recent developments in quantum mechanics and biology have suggested otherwise. He takes the reader through such mysterious territories as near-death experiences, the mind-body connection, animal instinct, and life after death. By eschewing dogmatism and approaching each topic with an open mind, the author hopes to challenge the reader’s assumptions regarding how the universe really operates. Despite the specialized material, Richheimer’s prose is accessible enough for the general reader to follow: “There is no question that psychedelic drugs can produce many of the same experiences described by mystics,” he writes. “This has led many neuroscientists to label all mystical experiences as a product of abnormal brain chemistry.” The author has a doctorate in chemistry, but the influence of New Age spiritualism suffuses his work. The book is dedicated to the spiritual guru Shrii Shrii Anandamurti—Richheimer’s “spiritual preceptor and guide” and inspiration—and there’s some talk of God. While the premise might alienate some readers, Richheimer approaches his arguments with honesty and curiosity and little preachiness. Those interested in the intersection of spiritualism with contemporary hard science will find him to be a suitable guide: knowledgeable, nonjudgmental, and expansive.
A thoughtful, surprising work on the nature of consciousness.Pub Date: July 15, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 308
Publisher: Innerworld Publications
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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