Reality
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, healers…
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 India—it is a fact usually ignored—were poets. Kingsley’s work is a deeply engaging challenge to more “prosaic” 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 “is” in a way later resolved by Plato.
By taking Parmenides’ poetry seriously as a record of contemplative experience—even of ritualized sensory deprivation—Kingsley helped me to question my own assumptions and to explore ways of changing one’s own mind and motivation that are more effective and more disquieting than merely…
From Stephen's list on understanding ancient Mediterranean thought.
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