Ways to Go Beyond and Why They Work
Seven Spiritual Practices in a Scientific Age
Published on 6. February 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-1-4736-5344-3 (ISBN)
Description
To go beyond is to move into a higher state of consciousness, to a place of bliss, greater understanding, love, and deep connectedness, a realm where we finally find life's meaning - experiences for which all spiritual seekers seek.
Dr Rupert Sheldrake, writing as both a scientist and a spiritual explorer, looks at seven spiritual practices that are personally transformative and have scientifically measurable effects. He combines the latest scientific research with his extensive knowledge of mystical traditions around the world to show how we may tune into more-than-human realms of consciousness through psychedelics, such as ayahuasca, and by taking cannabis. He also shows how everyday activities can have mystical dimensions, including sports and learning from animals. He discusses traditional religious practices such as fasting, prayer, and the celebration of festivals and holy days.
Why do these practices work? Are their effects all inside brains and essentially illusory? Or can we really make contact with forms of consciousness greater than our own?
We are in the midst of a spiritual revival. This book is an essential guide.
Dr Rupert Sheldrake, writing as both a scientist and a spiritual explorer, looks at seven spiritual practices that are personally transformative and have scientifically measurable effects. He combines the latest scientific research with his extensive knowledge of mystical traditions around the world to show how we may tune into more-than-human realms of consciousness through psychedelics, such as ayahuasca, and by taking cannabis. He also shows how everyday activities can have mystical dimensions, including sports and learning from animals. He discusses traditional religious practices such as fasting, prayer, and the celebration of festivals and holy days.
Why do these practices work? Are their effects all inside brains and essentially illusory? Or can we really make contact with forms of consciousness greater than our own?
We are in the midst of a spiritual revival. This book is an essential guide.
Reviews / Votes
His is a rare voice and a needed one in an apocalyptic time like ours that requires both grounding and expansion of human consciousness amid the turmoil that confronts us. The practices he espouses do not take us out of the world but put us back in. * Matthew Fox, author of Original Blessing * Sheldrake is a very engaging writer. * The Telegraph * nothing is more important in our melancholy era than a renewed vision of hope and promise that can see us through. The messages in Rupert Sheldrake's Ways To Go Beyond are wonderfully clear and inspiring... I regard this as one of the most important books of our generation. * Larry Dossey, MD * An affable erudite manual to show how life need not be boring and seem meaningless. * Jonathan Benthall, The Times Literary Supplement * Read the book just because it's funny, wise, full of whimsical weirdness, and drawn from a massive hinterland of knowledge and reflection. Read it because it'll give you lots of strange stories to tell, and because it'll make you ontologically queasy, make you wonder what you are and make you easier to live with. * Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast, Literary Review * Praise for Rupert Sheldrake * : * Sheldrake will be seen as a prophet. * The Sunday Times * Rupert Sheldrake does science, humanity and the world at large a considerable favour. * The Independent * Certainly we need to accept the limitations of much current dogma and keep our minds open as we reasonably can. Sheldrake may help us do so through this well-written, challenging and always interesting book. * Financial Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Hodder & Stoughton
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
239 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4736-5344-3 (9781473653443)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
01/2019
1st Edition
Hodder & Stoughton
€3.99
Available for download
Person
Dr Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of more than eighty technical papers and ten books, including A New Science of Life. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, where he was Director of Studies in cell biology, and was also a Research Fellow of the Royal Society. From 2005-2010 he was the Director of the Perrott-Warrick Project for research on unexplained human abilities, funded from Trinity College, Cambridge. He is currently a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California, and a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute in Connecticut. He is married, has two sons and lives in London. Follow Rupert on Twitter @RupertSheldrake. His web site is www.sheldrake.org