The Evolution of Future Consciousness: The Nature and Historical Development of the Human Capacity to Think about the Future

The Evolution of Future Consciousness: The Nature and Historical Development of the Human Capacity to Think about the Future
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The Human Condition and the Future

Future thinking through the ages

A comprehensive look at humanity's relationship to the future

A beacon for educators, politicos, & citizens to follow...

The Evolution of Future Consciousness: The Nature and Historical Development of the Human Capacity to Think about the Future
Thomas Lombardo
Manufacturer: AuthorHouse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Special Education | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Education | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1425944469

Book Description

Are there any unique qualities that humans possess that make us special within the world of nature? Since the beginnings of recorded history, we have pondered this question. What if many of humanity's highest qualities and unique achievements, such as technology, civilization, morals, self-consciousness, freedom of choice, religion, and science are all built upon a single distinctive human capacity? It may be that our highly evolved mental power to envision and think about the future is at the core of our greatest accomplishments and most unique human attributes. In The Evolution of Future Consciousness, psychologist and futurist Tom Lombardo examines the human ability to be conscious of the future, to create ideas, images, goals, and plans about the future, to think about these mental creations and use them in directing one's actions and one's life. In the opening chapter, he looks at the psychology of future consciousness and its values and benefits, as well as ways to enhance this human ability. Subsequent chapters describe the emergence of future consciousness in pre-historic times and how it was critical in the development of love and bonding, the family, tools, and human aggression and hunting; the central importance of the future and time in early myths, religions, and classical philosophy; and the rise of modern futurist thinking, covering the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the Western Enlightenment, and the Romantic counter-reaction. The book concludes with Darwin and how the theory of evolution revolutionized humanity's conception of both the past and the future. In its companion volume, Contemporary Futurist Thought, Tom Lombardo completes his survey of the historical development of future consciousness, discussing significant ideas and approaches to the future in the last century, including science fiction, future studies, and an extensive array of recent theories and paradigms of the future.

Customer Reviews:

The Human Condition and the Future.......2007-02-07

While Lombardo's other recent book, Contemporary Futurist Thought, includes the realm of science fiction under its umbrella, this realm and the futures practitioners and scholars considered by Lombardo are relatively familiar to those involved in the foresight universe. In The Evolution of Future Consciousness, the author moves to consider those collateral fields which may have an influence on futures thinking (and vice versa), including psychology, anthropology, theology, sociology, political science and philosophy. While this creative undertaking illustrates the truly `Renaissance' nature of Dr. Lombardo's thinking, it is not clear that every reader, including this reviewer, can match his understanding of so many disparate fields. Accordingly, some may find themselves unable to fairly assess the accuracy of all of his conclusions about the role of `future consciousness' in the evolution of the human condition over the entire history of humanity (such is the breadth of his vision).

Given that caveat, it is easy admire the undertaking and to offer comment in the more familiar areas. The uniting of future awareness to the fundamental `temporal awareness' of humans is a bold move, as it places the future at the very center of most human activity. Hope, motivation, memory, language, ethics, self-consciousness and even basic cognition now seemed shaped by a questing after the future. This bold supposition thus explains the depth of the discussion that follows and why of the two volumes, this is the longer book.

This is not a complaint, but more a statement of awe. The ensuing discussion is cogent, enlightening, entertaining, and at points transformational in its insights. One of the influences on this volume is the work of Leonard Shlain, a leading neurosurgeon who has also found time to write extensively on human cultural evolution and Shlain's breadth of vision clearly matches Lombardo's own, which challenges the reader at each turn in the discussion. Moving from the author's assertion that, "Acting on the future proactively alters one's self identity" to "Changes in human psychology and mental health affect economics and vice versa. Biological and medical advances affect society and social growth" gives just a small sense of the width of the author's reach in this volume.

At points, the benefits of future consciousness begin to approach the feel of a patent medicine show, as it is undoubtedly "improves imagination, creativity and flexibility...facilitates the development of courage and wisdom (and) energizes, enriches and benefits the total human mind." The most impressive aspect of this potential overdose of admiration for the study of the future is that the author then proceeds to systematically illustrate and convincingly support these points. For example, he convincingly aligns future thinking with adaptive learning and anticipatory behavior, a strong ingredient in species and individual success.

Dr. Lombardo then proceeds to weave in the `discovery of death,' the evolution of family and human love, the development of agriculture, etc., weaving each into a context with future consciousness. The conflicting impulses toward conquest and cooperation and other central dualistic concepts are well explored, as is the power of myth and story and the development of human religions. The author argues that reciprocity is one of the central concepts of cultural development and that foresight is a central element as well. The continuing conflicts between the doctrines of destiny and free will are traced and explicated, setting the stage for the modern world and the struggle between authoritarianism and individuality (with future consciousness displaying a strong affinity for the latter).

Lombardo closes the book with a review of modernist scientific and philosophical thought. Darwinism, pragmatism, and even psychotherapy have been productive partners in the more recent and ongoing development of future consciousness and this is certain to continue. The term `holistic' is used in the book to describe the connection between futures thinking and the rest of human experience and it is a testament to the author that by the end of the book, the reader is likely to be sympathetic to his closing assertion that "Clearly, future consciousness has been of pivotal importance in defining the meaning and purpose of human existence for people around the world."

Future thinking through the ages.......2007-01-15

THE EVOLUTION OF FUTURE CONSCIOUSNESS is an engaging, readable and informative tour through major themes of human evolution, from myth and early religions through several schools of psychology and fields of science. To me it represents a maturing of future studies, placing it solidly within the larger frameworks of human thought, and I would recommend it to anyone practicing or teaching in that field.

A comprehensive look at humanity's relationship to the future.......2007-01-01

Rarely does an author cover an area of knowledge so comprehensively that there is little more to say about it. But that is what Thomas Lombardo has done with his two recently published books about humanity's relationship to the future. THE EVOLUTION OF FUTURE CONSCIOUSNESS focuses on the psychology of the phenomenon he calls future consciousness and the history of its development in many cultures, from ancient times through the 19th century. CONTEMPORARY FUTURIST THOUGHT focuses on the various expressions of future consciousness in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

THE EVOLUTION OF FUTURE CONSCIOUSNESS is devoted to giving the reader a sense of what Lombardo means by future consciousness. His short definition is that future consciousness is "the total integrative set of psychological abilities, processes, and experiences humans use in understanding and dealing with the future." Among these are

* the perceptual awareness of time;

* emotional feelings about the future and ingrained attitudes coming out of them such as hope, fear, despair, goals, purposes, motivations, etc.;

* thoughts about the future; and

* higher cognitive skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, planning, decision making, ethical thinking, and (ideally) wisdom.

The remainder of the book is devoted to outlining the evolution and complexification of future consciousness. Lombardo begins by discussing its origins in prehistoric times. He then discusses the effect on future consciousness of the many mythic, religious, and philosophical developments that occurred in East and West from about 3000 BCE to roughly 1000 AD. He concludes with a discussion of modernism, the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, the theory of secular progress, and important 19th-century theories such as those of Marx and Darwin.

If you are interested in our complex relationship to the future and would like to know more about it, you will find this book and its companion volume to be highly informative and satisfying reads.

A beacon for educators, politicos, & citizens to follow... .......2006-08-26

Being able to be "conscious" of the future is perhaps, as Dr. Lombardo suggests, the most unique and adaptable feature of the human mind. Here, in "The Evolution of Future Consciousness", Lombardo takes on one of the most pressing yet heretofore unarticulated matters of our time: how individuals adapt to change of unprecedented speed and scale.

Lombardo's grasp on philosophy, psychology, and the study of time is simply incredible - making this book quite a tour de force. This would be an excellent companion to Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat" - as this book outlines the underpinnings of strategies for dealing with the monumental global changes rearranging social, economic, and technological interactions that Friedman explores.

The pursuit of Future Consciousness is a cornerstone of our species and of our planet's survival.

Read This Book.

Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In: Appreciations, Castigations, and Reminiscences by Ram Dass, Andrew Weil, Allen Ginsberg, Winona Ryder, William Burroughs, ... Huston Smith, Hunter S. Thompson, and Others

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The battle against drug hypocrisy
important and revealing
A little rain on the celebration
Multiperspective View of Leary
a refreshingly honest multi-angled profile of Leary

Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In: Appreciations, Castigations, and Reminiscences by Ram Dass, Andrew Weil, Allen Ginsberg, Winona Ryder, William Burroughs, ... Huston Smith, Hunter S. Thompson, and Others

Manufacturer: Park Street Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Timothy Leary: A Biography
I Have America Surrounded: A Biography of Timothy Leary
Your Brain Is God
Change Your Brain
The Politics of Ecstasy (Leary, Timothy)

ASIN: 0892817860
Release Date: 1999-03-01

Book Description

A memorial volume to one of this century's most colorful and pioneering figures in the consciousness movement

â€¢ A wide array of individuals from all stages of Leary's life provides a comprehensive view of the man and his impact on American culture

One of the most influential and controversial people of the 20th century, Timothy Leary inspired profound feelings--both pro and con--from everyone with whom he came into contact. He was extravagant, grandiose, enthusiastic, erratic, and an unrelenting proponent of expanding consciousness and challenging authority. His experiments with psilocybin and LSD at Harvard University and Millbrook, New York, were instrumental in propelling the nation into the psychedelic era of the 1960s. From the 1980s until his death in 1996 he fully embraced the possibilities of freedom offered by the developments in computer technology and the instant communication made possible by the Internet.

The essence of Leary's life has often been reduced to the celebrated formula of "Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out." The wider implications of this esoteric call to communion have been lost, just as the multifaceted nature of Leary's personality was obscured by the superficial spin put on his life and ideas. In this book a wide array of individuals from all stages of Leary's life, friends and foes alike, provides a more complete view of the man and his impact on American culture.

It is still too early to know how posterity will judge the man and his ideas, but Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In shows that Leary was often so far ahead of his time that few could follow the extensive range of his thought.

Customer Reviews:

The battle against drug hypocrisy.......2006-09-21

Regardless of one's personal opinions about Timothy Leary, one cannot really deny the fact that he was a great man; great in the sense that his thoughts and ideas influenced an entire generation (and continues to do so), and that A LOT of people had - and still have - A LOT of strong feelings about everything he stood for. Perhaps it's too early to figure out how extensive his influence actually was. Everything he talked about didn't revolve around LSD, even though many tend to think just that. What many don't know, for instance, is that he contributed greatly to the field of psychology and developed different tests that are still in use today.

Robert Forte has edited a book, not about Leary's life, but more about people who met him, were familiar with him, were close to him, were affected and influenced by him, and all in all had some sort of relation to him. Some of these people are Winona Ryder (to whom Leary was godfather), Hunter S. Thompson, Albert Hofmann (the chemist who synthesized LSD in 1938), Ken Kesey (another "psychedelic pioneer"), Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Robert Anton Wilson, and many more.

Some of the contributions consist of Forte simply interviewing the individual in question, while in other cases the contributor has written the piece him/herself. But it's not all about Leary all the time. Timothy Leary is more a book about the psychedelic revolution itself than about one of its leading advocates. Richard Nixon referred to him as "the most dangerous man in the world", and sure, a great deal of the content is about him, what he accomplished, different incidents in his life, and so on. However, another great deal is about the use and abuse of psychedelic drugs, how they shaped and changed society and individual consciousness, how dangers (or harmless) they actually are, what happens to people who choose to try them, and how these now criminalized drugs could be used beneficially in different sorts of therapies.

It's not the best book on the market if you want to learn more about Timothy Leary's opinions and messages, but on the other hand, it's a great book if you want to know some of the influence and the affect he had on his surroundings. Furthermore, through its use of sensible discussions by and with well-informed and rational people, the book offers great knowledge about the absurd American "War on Drugs" and all the hypocrisy this futile and senseless war is built upon.

important and revealing.......2006-08-24

This is a rich and revealing book that I always recommend to anyone trying to grasp the contradictory figure that was Timothy Leary - not least because many of its subjects are still struggling to grasp exactly what hit them when Leary entered their lives. Highlights for me include the essays by Ram Dass, Robert Anton Wilson and Ralph Metzner, as well as William Burroughs' ability to use a few brief words so well. Winona Ryder's eulogy is also terrific -- it has since been included in Copeland's book on the greatest eulogies of our time, and I liked it so much I used it as the foreword to my own biography on Leary, 'I Have America Surrounded'.

As Forte writes in his introduction, this is "not a biography of Leary, nor an in-depth study of his ideas", and as such the critical review on this page by R. Goldstein seems to have missed the point of the book. Forte is not attempting to be a 'cheerleader' or promote his 'thesis', as is claimed, but instead provides a forum where those who knew Leary could record their memories and reminiscences. True, the majority are positive and loving, but this is no reason to criticize the book. The fact is Leary was deeply loved by many - which is something that those who condemn his character find it convenient to overlook. For this reason the book is an important record, but perhaps more importantly it is those who knew him best who often have the most revealing insights - and this is why the book is so valuable.

A little rain on the celebration.......2006-08-05

This book is a source of comfort to anyone disgruntled by Robert Greenfield's less than appreciative bio of Timothy Leary. Editor Robert Forte calls his project a "festschrift," which, if my rusty German holds up, loosely means "celebration of writing." It is by no means balanced; its cover promises castigations but delivers only one, ironically from former outlaw chemist Owsley Stanley. There are polite rebukes of Leary's methods from Huston Smith and Myron Stolaroff, but the rest of the book is mainly a chorus of paeans, a love fest that gets sloppy in places.

Part of Forte's thesis is that Leary will come to be vindicated and revered as another Socrates or Galileo. Inevitably the uptight world will recognize the transformational power of psychedelics and, grasping the keys to the missing link in evolution, start popping them like vitamin supplements. Why millions of grateful acid veterans haven't united to demand a change in the drug laws goes unexplained. Like a lot of other issues the book grazes. Why was Eldridge Cleaver not more supportive of Leary in Algeria? Why was Art Linkletter hostile to Leary? What happened to Leary's children? What was "The Brotherhood" that Forte cryptically refers to a couple of times? What about the charges that Leary betrayed friends, including the lawyers who helped him avoid lengthier prison time? Although Forte concedes that Leary failed "to confront his shadow," the negative aspects of his life, he left the shadowy particulars for Robert Greenfield to detail.

There are other shortcomings. The correspondence between Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard is vacuous, discussing where and when they plan to meet next. Albert Hofman's contribution is brief. Hunter Thompson's more caustic criticisms of Leary are absent, replaced by a short, all-is-forgiven comment. Some of the respondents use a pretentious argot prevalent in the `60s, reflecting the mindless blather of the drug-addled. And there are outrageous claims that transcendentalist philosophers Emerson and Thoreau took drugs, that psychedelics brought forth the computer revolution and the Internet. At least Forte didn't suggest that psychedelics are "the only visible hope for a race tottering on the brink of extinction." That claim was in a recent letter of complaint from the Leary estate to The New Yorker over the favorable review its critic gave to the Greenfield book.

I don't blame Forte for being a cheerleader. He was only 11 years old during the '67 Summer of Love, so he didn't see the zombies walking down Haight Street and other hippie enclaves ingesting not only psychedelics but other wares sold by hierarchical criminal outfits (such as the Brotherhood?) engaged in the "democratization" of drug distribution. Gosh and golly, why would law enforcement ever consider LSD a gateway to heroin, methamphetamine and crack? Set and setting indeed.

I thought I'd had enough of Leary after reading the Greenfield book, but I picked this one up after browsing its table of contents. It has limited appeal, so I give it three stars: one for the interview with Huston Smith, one for the interviews with Metzner & Stolaroff, and one for likening Leary to Huck Finn. Greenfield mistakenly linked him to Tom Sawyer.

Multiperspective View of Leary.......2002-08-28

Timothy Leary is a mythological figure. Almost everyone has an opinion of him, even if they have never read a word he wrote.
Often opinions are second-hand filtered through this or that media source.

The editor for this book, Robert Forte, one
of Mircea Eliade's last students at the University of Chicago,
does not provide us with second-hand information that he has digested, but instead, gathers an anthology of viewpoints from those who knew Timothy Leary. Not all are positive, and I was surprized to read the negative remarks of Owlsley Stanley in regards to Leary. Thanks to this compendium, we are allowed past the veil of the myth and get a glimpse of the human Timothy Leary.

Robert Forte knew Timothy Leary personally and has edited another book, Entheogens and the Future of religion, that I highly recommend.

Thomas Seay

a refreshingly honest multi-angled profile of Leary.......2000-11-16

Robert Forte is one of the most important living documentarians of psychedelic history and phenomonology. In this book, he's gathered a myriad voices of people who were really "there" when Leary was influencing people and who therefore have valuable commentary worth hearing -- both positive and negative. The folksy, chatty style of this book make it a pleasure to read. Along with his other book "Entheogens and the Future of Religion," Forte is performing an important informational and documentary service toward a fair assessment of the role that drugs have in society and also of the real-life figures who have affected this. This book is a must read for anyone interested in what Tim Leary (and for that matter, ...) were really like.

History's Shadow: Native Americans and Historical Consciousness in the Nineteenth Century

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History's Shadow: Native Americans and Historical Consciousness in the Nineteenth Century
Steven Conn
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Citizen Indians: Native American Intellectuals, Race, and Reform
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ASIN: 0226114953

Book Description

Who were the Native Americans? Where did they come from and how long ago? Did they have a history, and would they have a future? Questions such as these dominated intellectual life in the United States during the nineteenth century. And for many Americans, such questions about the original inhabitants of their homeland inspired a flurry of historical investigation, scientific inquiry, and heated political debate.

History's Shadow traces the struggle of Americans trying to understand the people who originally occupied the continent claimed as their own. Steven Conn considers how the question of the Indian compelled Americans to abandon older explanatory frameworks for sovereignty like the Bible and classical literature and instead develop new ones. Through their engagement with Native American language and culture, American intellectuals helped shape and define the emerging fields of archaeology, ethnology, linguistics, and art. But more important, the questions posed by the presence of the Indian in the United States forced Americans to confront the meaning of history itself, both that of Native Americans and their own: how it should be studied, what drove its processes, and where it might ultimately lead. The encounter with Native Americans, Conn argues, helped give rise to a distinctly American historical consciousness.

A work of enormous scope and intellect, History's Shadow will speak to anyone interested in Native Americans and their profound influence on our cultural imagination.

“History’s Shadow is an intelligent and comprehensive look at the place of Native Americans in Euro-American’s intellectual history. . . . Examining literature, painting, photography, ethnology, and anthropology, Conn mines the written record to discover how non-Native Americans thought about Indians.” —Joy S. Kasson, Los Angeles Times

LOST CAUSES: HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN VICTORIAN LI (VICTORIAN CRITICAL INTERVENTIO)

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LOST CAUSES: HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN VICTORIAN LI (VICTORIAN CRITICAL INTERVENTIO)
Jason B. Jones
Manufacturer: Ohio State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

French | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

What if we didn't always historicize when we read Victorian fiction? Lost Causes shows that Victorian writers frequently appear to have a more supple and interesting understanding of the relationship between history, causality, and narrative than the one typically offered by readers who are burdened by the new historicism. As a return to these writers emphasizes, the press of modern historicism deforms Victorian novels, encouraging us to read deviations from strict historical accuracy as ideological bad faith. By contrast, Jason B. Jones argues through readings of works ranging from The French Revolution to Middlemarch that literature's engagement with history has to be read otherwise. Perhaps perversely, Lost Causes suggests simultaneously that psychoanalysis speaks pressingly to the vexed relationship between history and narrative, and that the theory is neither a- nor anti-historical. Through his readings of Victorian fiction addressing the recent past, Jones finds in psychoanalysis not a set of truths, but rather a method for rhetorical reading, ultimately revealing how its troubled account of psychic causality can help us follow literary language's representation of the real. Victorian narratives of the recent past and psychoanalytic interpretation share a fascination with effects that persist despite baffling, inexplicable, or absent causes. In chapters focusing on Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens, Charlotte BrontÃ«, and George Eliot, Lost Causes demonstrates that history can carry an ontological, as well as an epistemological, charge--one that suggests a condition of being in the world as well as a way of knowing the world as it really is. From this point of view, Victorian fiction that addresses the recent past is not a failed realism, as it is so frequently claimed, but rather an exploration of possibility in history.

Blackwater, historical studies in race, class consciousness, and revolution

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Blackwater, historical studies in race, class consciousness, and revolution
Manning Marable
Manufacturer: Black Praxis Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Historical Consciousness: The Remembered Past (Library of Conservative Thought)

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Historical Consciousness

Historical Consciousness: The Remembered Past (Library of Conservative Thought)
John Lukacs
Manufacturer: Transaction Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Philosophy of History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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Customer Reviews:

Historical Consciousness.......2003-06-23

While studying for a Master's degree in history in the 90s, I found John Lukacs "Historical Consciousness" one of two influential contemporary history books (the other being Ernst Breisach's "Historiography") that influenced my views on historiography - the study or view of history.

While I am a conservative Protestant and he is a conservative Roman Catholic, I found his view of historical consciousness or, perhaps rather, imagination - one of the truest written in contemporary times. This is perhaps, because he holds a Pauline or Augustinian view of human nature - which sees people in their true human condition, yet doesn't blanch at human inconsistency.

Added to that his observation that history is made up of so many elements in a person's and a people's collective history or memory, wherever they are from, and that it is important for a person to know his history, to help him move on in his own history. This text is useful for any developing historiography.

Against leading current trends that spend too much time spinning political spins, Lukacs' is the notion that history is personal.

No matter where a person is from - it is what they think and believe that defines their path. But, for him the pursuit of the historian is the pursuit of truth, as best can be achieved. The historian must understand his limited capacity, as only God holds the total story.

His ruthless pursuit of getting it right is similar to that of the late-George Orwell, yet in a different fashion (this will appear pedantic to some). This is also a good book for aspiring journalists, so they are wise enough not to burn out in a profession that has been defined, for too many years, by political cynicism.

Magic & The Western Mind: Ancient Knowledge and the Transformation of Consciousness (Llewellyn's Western Magick Historical Series)

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Do you know the difference between theurgy and thaumaturgy?

Magic & The Western Mind: Ancient Knowledge and the Transformation of Consciousness (Llewellyn's Western Magick Historical Series)
Gareth Knight
Manufacturer: Llewellyn Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Witchcraft | Earth-Based Religions | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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Applied Magic

ASIN: 0875423744

Customer Reviews:

Do you know the difference between theurgy and thaumaturgy?.......2002-01-29

If you would understand the history of true magic, this volume is an excellent overview. When I wrote my own thesis in metaphysics this book was my primary reference, and inspiration. There is nothing of the cheap and sensational here. On the contrary, Knight focuses on the central fact that any magic worthy of the name is a sacred pursuit and draws its effectiveness from the realm of the Divine itself. Do you know the difference between theurgy and mere thaumaturgy? The difference is of profound importance. Knight was one of the first to point out the roots of western magic in the ancient mystery religions and their connection with the hermetic tradition. Then he went on to cover everything from Ficino's theory of natural magic, to Pico's interpretations of the Qabalah and spiritual magic, to the hermetic rediscoveries of Fludd and Dee. He even reveals that Bacon, Keplar, and Newton were primarily Theurgists who would have reguarded their findings in natural philosophy ("science") to be among their lesser pursuits and accomplishments. You will even find hints of the "Invisible College" here....

Consciousness of Artistic Form: A Comparison of the Visual, Gestalt Art Formations of Children, Adolescents, and Layman Adults With Historical Art, Folk Art, and Aboriginal Art

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Consciousness of Artistic Form: A Comparison of the Visual, Gestalt Art Formations of Children, Adolescents, and Layman Adults With Historical Art, Folk Art, and Aboriginal Art
Henry Schaefer-Simmern , Roy E. Abrahamson , and Sylvia Fein
Manufacturer: Gertrude Schaefer-Simmern Trust
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0974203912

Shivitti: A Vision (Gateways Consciousness Classics) (Consciousness Classics)

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dangers of psychedelic psychotherapy
a witness to the greatest atrocity in history
haunting good book

Shivitti: A Vision (Gateways Consciousness Classics) (Consciousness Classics)
Ka-Tzetnik
Manufacturer: Gateways Books & Tapes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Customer Reviews:

dangers of psychedelic psychotherapy.......2007-05-05

Yehiel Dinur, Ka-Tzetnik 135633 survived the horrors of the Holocaust only to discover that survival alone would not end his torment. Hunted by distressing symptoms of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) he underwents a supervised LSD treatment program. Unfortunately after many sessions his situation deteriorates and he decides to leave the program. He writes near the end of the book: "I can't stop thinking that maybe I shouldn't have provoked fate by trying to rewrite my life script. Maybe I should never have made that trip to En-Dor, should never have used LSD to conjure up the secret that a Hand, keeping its own counsel, had cared enough to hide from me."

Short, honest and heart-wrenching book highly recommended to all transpersonal psychotherapists, underground psychedelic therapists, Holotropic Breathwork practitioners and everyone else interested in the depths of human psyche.

a witness to the greatest atrocity in history.......2003-01-04

This book is a great insight into the personality of the author Yehiel Dinur a.k.a Katzetik. The book stands on its own as a powerful recording of the events that took place in the life of the author during the holocaust. As with all of Katzetnik's books the events are heart wrentching. Particulary worth recalling in this book is when he for the first time goes to a beach in Europe during his medical treatment of the 1970s and exposes his arm that was tatooed in Aushwitz with his inmate number 135633. The scene is chilling and unforgetable. The premise of the use of LSD to come to terms with his lifelong nighmares about his experiences of the holocaust is secondary except for the fact that it is through this means that the author comes to terms with his pain caused by the cruel germans and their helpers. Overall, this book is an important read and is even more stunning if you read Katzetnik's other books. Katzetmik is one of the most powerful and important authors on the subject of the holocaust and his books are a must read for everyone lest the world forget what happened.

haunting good book.......1999-06-28

This book is not for the faint hearted or for the person whio is interested in history. The premise of the book is that the author relives his Aschiwitz experence through LSD treatment by a psychogist. Some things he remembers are likley to have happened to him, and some are a nightmare of things he cannot escape. If you want to read any of this authors books you need to have a strong stomach, It is a very rewarding and powerfull book if you are up for it

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Theorizing Historical Consciousness

Manufacturer: University of Toronto Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Historiography | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Study & Teaching | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0802087132

Book Description

Our understanding of the past shapes our sense of the present and the future: this is historical consciousness. While academic history, public history, and the study of collective memory are thriving enterprises, there has been only sparse investigation of historical consciousness itself, in a way that relates it to the policy questions it raises in the present. With Theorizing Historical Consciousness, Peter Seixas has brought together a diverse group of international scholars to address the problem of historical consciousness from the disciplinary perspectives of history, historiography, philosophy, collective memory, psychology, and history education.

Historical consciousness has serious implications for international relations, reparations claims, fiscal initiatives, immigration, and indeed, almost every contentious arena of public policy, collective identity, and personal experience. Current policy debates are laced with mutually incompatible historical analogies, and identity politics generate conflicting historical accounts. Never has the idea of a straightforward 'one history that fits all' been less workable. Theorizing Historical Consciousness sets various theoretical approaches to the study of historical consciousness side-by-side, enabling us to chart the future study of how people understand the past.

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