Two Books that Blew my Mind

[Anelior]

Hey guys,

I am very much an intuitive reader, i.e. I read what my intuition leads me to read.  I've gobbled up things from Tolkien's writing to writing on spirituality/philosophy, etc.

In the last half-year there are two books which I've read which have heavily shaped me.  They are great books for opening your horizon to new thoughts, if you have been used to very religiously rigid parameters.

The first book is called, "The Biology of Transcendence" by Joseph Chilton Pearce.  He is also the author of the book, "The Crack in the Cosmic Egg".  You may be able to get it online from the publisher if you go to http://www.innertraditions.com, but I picked it up at Chapters in Canada.  
Essentially, this book shows you how the human spirit is intricately linked with our biology.  The most interesting idea in it is about the development of the frontal lobes as structures where we can operate separate from our reality-based perceptions, much like we see "enlightened people" doing.  The book blew me away because it is so full of comparisons to the words of Jesus (Pearce uses him as a model throughout as the ideal enlightened being) and the biological evidence that has emerged recently.

The second book is called "The Jesus Mysteries" by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy.  This book is for those who want to see the value of Christianity as a metaphor.  If not, then this book will seriously test one's faith.  The authors, with stunning (and I mean STUNNING...must be about 5000 footnotes in the back to refer to!) diligent research and very good flow/direction, go through the entire Jesus story and the history of the developing church to show how evidence suggests that it was just a modification of the perennial dieing/resurrecting God-man who in Egypt was known as Osiris, and in Greece was known as Dyonysis.  The book really makes you think, and is very well presented.

Anyway, if you've already read it and would like to add feedback, please do, or if you haven't and have additional questions, if you post here I'll tell you more.


Happy reading!

Graeme

[Nostic]

The first book is called, "The Biology of Transcendence" by Joseph Chilton Pearce.  He is also the author of the book, "The Crack in the Cosmic Egg".  You may be able to get it online from the publisher if you go to http://www.innertraditions.com, but I picked it up at Chapters in Canada.  
Essentially, this book shows you how the human spirit is intricately linked with our biology.  The most interesting idea in it is about the development of the frontal lobes as structures where we can operate separate from our reality-based perceptions, much like we see "enlightened people" doing.  The book blew me away because it is so full of comparisons to the words of Jesus (Pearce uses him as a model throughout as the ideal enlightened being) and the biological evidence that has emerged recently.

Graeme

I was just thinking about this subject actually. The typical astral projector (even the very experienced ones) seem to have major difficulties when it comes to integrating their expanded knowledge into the "real world". For instance, you may be able to project, and just with your thoughts, you might be able to make objects appear out of thin air. But can you do such a thing in the physical world? I believe the problem here is that the "circuitry" of the physical body has not yet become appropriately hard-wired in order to function at such a level. This, I also believe is where problems with reality fluctuations come into play- if you disconnect from your physical self, this is symbolic of disconnecting from the physical world. But what if you merged both aspects of yourself- the physical and the mental (or spiritual, whatever you choose to call it)?
Isn't that what every great spiritual master has done? Including Jesus?

[Anelior]

You are very right about that - the merging of the physical body with the spiritual body.  Often times, people who become aware of the realm of the spirit (i.e. astral and mental planes and their being shaped from even higher planes of being) cannot properly manifest in the physical.  

I like to use the metaphor of the person as a tree.  You have your roots (connections with the physical body) which extend into the ground (your unique temporospatial co-ordinates in the physical plane.  Your branches (connections to the spirit) reach upward, toward the sun which compels their growth (the spirit body itself, the *true self*, or God, whatever you choose to term it), and are connected to the roots by the trunk (the illusive *self* which you are presently confined to).  

Any tree that does not have deep roots will topple in a very strong wind.  Similarly, anybody who does not root their spiritual growth into the physical world is in extreme danger of deluding the *self*.  Just as the greater the growth of a tree's branches means it must have deeper, stronger roots, so is the one initiated to develop their spiritual body and incorporate it into the *self* required to root themselves in the physical.

I can appreciate this model, because I've experienced its truth.  It's very easy to receive insight from the spirit, be taken by it, and then collapse because you didn't have anything to make it "useful".  We are not here to unplug from the physical world, but to grow into it.  Grow meaning manifest our true self, the spirit body, in the physical and in so doing, transform into images of the spirit and not just the physical, illusive body.