Book description
New edition (2020) of this classic book first published in 2004
REALITY introduces us to the extraordinary mystical tradition that lies right at the roots of western culture.
This is the true story of Parmenides, Empedocles, and those like them: spiritual guides and experts in other states of consciousness, healersâŚ
Why read it?
1 author picked Reality as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
The earliest philosophers in both Greece and Indiaâit is a fact usually ignoredâwere poets. Kingsleyâs work is a deeply engaging challenge to more âprosaicâ interpretations, especially of Parmenides, whom most modern scholars interpret as someone struggling to articulate elementary logical distinctions, posing puzzles about negation and the many meanings of âisâ in a way later resolved by Plato.
By taking Parmenidesâ poetry seriously as a record of contemplative experienceâeven of ritualized sensory deprivationâKingsley helped me to question my own assumptions and to explore ways of changing oneâs own mind and motivation that are more effective and more disquieting than merelyâŚ
From Stephen's list on understanding ancient Mediterranean thought.
If you love Reality...
Ancient Evenings
Ancient Evenings is a study of consciousness presented as a series of fictional philosophical dialogues set at the height of the Roman Empire. These dialoguesâon good and evil, truth and falsehood, life and deathâare historical re-enactments of what persons representing the major Hellenistic schools of philosophy might actually have saidâŚ
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