The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit

by Joseph Chilton Pearce

Book Overview

Uses new research about the brain to explore how we can transcend our current physical and cultural limitations - Reveals that transcendence of current modes of existence requires the dynamic... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892819901
• ISBN13: 9780892819904
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Park Street Press
• Length: 279 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A book written with the clarity of someone who understands deeply the unrealized birthright of human

This is an excellent and important book - a must read for those who have noticed the incongruence immanent in our culture, and are concerned about well being of the planet and themselves. I was raised an evangelical Christian and realized in my late teens that there was a deep disconnect between what Jesus said and how some Christians behaved. They didn't suspend judgment as Jesus said, "Judge not", but condemned and punished those that didn't fit the prescribed norms of the community. The response I got when I addressed that issue was, "We are all sinners: we were born sinners and we need Jesus in our lives to save us from sin. This is what everyone must do if they don't want to go to hell." It was a steady diet of fear, fear and more fear. Someone handed me a small brochure this morning that asked me on the front cover, "Where will you spend Eternity?" It goes on, "1. You have sinned against God. 2. God is a holy, sin-hating God. 3. God's holy nature demands that all sin must be punished. 4, Though God hates sin and has to punish it, He loves you so much that He came down to earth and received the punishment that you as a sinner deserved when He suffered and died on the cross." There is more but I've quoted you enough to get the drift of my early enculturation. Chilton Pierce contrasts the Paul oriented culture of Christianity, as we know it, the church that espouses damnation, guilt and fear, and Jesus as the Model of the transformed life. Chilton says, "Christianity turned Jesus from our evolutionary model into the greatest tool of culture. Converted into the Christ, Jesus became the Mediator. No longer the model of higher development, the one who draws toward him through lifting us up, Jesus as the Christ became a go-between, mediating between the wrath of that same old tyrant Jehovah and the same old sinful, victimized, and helpless human". He says elsewhere, "The Christian accusation of sin is part of the very fabric of our culture, and the more subtle its presence, the more powerful its effect." "By their fruits you will know them" is the one observation no power system can tolerate, above all the institution of Christianity." Chilton speaks with the clarity of someone who understands deeply the unrealized birthright of humanity, built into our brain, which he beautifully and concisely describes. He created for me a scientific basis for spiritual truth describing the natural development cycle of the quadrants of the brain as an evolution into transcendence. After teaching 36 years at the college level, a persistent trend has become obvious to my colleagues and me: the ever-diminishing capacity of our students over the years to do assignments. While I have been very consistent with my core content, students are proving to be less and less capable on average. Much conversation and debate about this perceived problem in its many forms (I was recently told that over 30 percent of our students have a clinically diagnosed psycho

A Must-Read for People Interested in Consciousness

Reviewed by Elliot A. Ryan and Charles O. BubarMany books have one or a handful of fundamental concepts. This book has dozens, woven together in a powerful fabric to provide intelligent clothing for a new paradigm of transcendence. A major argument of this book is that transcendence, the ability to go beyond limitation and restraint, is our biological birthright, built into us genetically, and blocked by enculturation. It is an inspired and heretical work as all great truths are heretical in the context of the culture that encounters them.Depending on your cultural and religious background, it will be either joyful or somewhat disturbing to read. Nevertheless, for those who deeply understand its profound implications, The Biology of Transcendence can be a blueprint for a new paradigm in child development.In this powerful work, Pearce draws on research from a wide range of the physical, social, biological, and medical sciences. His bibliography contains over 100 sources from Frederick Leboyer on birth and bonding to Paul MacLean on the brain, Jean Piaget on development, John and Beatrice Lacey on the heart, the Holy Bible on religion, David Bohm and Rupert Sheldrake on science, and Rudolph Steiner on spirituality.Joseph Chilton Pearce reveals the biological and neurological underpinnings that help us discover the underlying principles of our own deepest nature. This is a book which can be productively read numerous times, each time grasping more of the interrelationships among the fundamental concepts and understanding their implications for our own lives and those of our children.This book deserves to be a best seller, yet even as the Bible is a best seller, the Bible is often not read by those who own it - or if read, may be fundamentally misunderstood. In the same way that the Bible is a profound affirmation of spiritual possibility and an indictment of "the world", The Biology of Transcendence is an affirmation of our transcendent birthright and an indictment of cultures which oppose this birthright.An important goal of culture is to inhibit destructive impulses and behaviors. Unfortunately, culture can result in a failure in nurturing and a consequent failure in the brain development of the child's prefrontal cortex - the brain system which, when developed and integrated, internally inhibits the same destructive impulses and behaviors in children and adults which culture has failed to externally control.Pearce offers evidence of the growing failure in nurturing of children in the United States and the increase in destructive impulses and behavior. By the end of the 20th Century, 6000 American children and teens were being killed annually by their peers. Further, suicide has become the third highest cause of death by youth between ages 5 and 17, with suicide attempts in this age group occurring on the average every 78 seconds.Pearce shares many of the transcendent experiences of his own life of 83 years, which provided his powerful pe

For Our Magnificent Adventure

The life each of us is living is a magnificent adventure - an adventure of discovery of our Self, what is actually going on in human life, what the universe is, and what the meaning and purpose of life are. All that, in order to lift ourselves up from misperception and rote choices - to transcend the mundane and unfulfilling. These are our responsibilities to create for ourselves. "The Biology of Transcendence" actually EXPLAINS why we can choose to do that which is unfulfilling, and how we can choose to do that which fulfills us. Decades ago, Pearce's "The Crack In The Cosmic Egg" changed my life, by helping me make a quantum leap in vision, in my perceptions of how life "happens" to me. "The Biology of Transcendence" can help you do the same, by showing you what the alternatives to mundane and rote are, how they work in you, and how you can choose transcendence. This is a must-read for everyone on a conscious, deliberate journey to wholeness.

The Synthesis of a Lifelong Spiritual Seeker

It is not often that lifelong spiritual seekers are ever open to new possibilities rather than being content to believe that they have arrived and/or becoming gurus. Likewise most spiritual seekers are inimical to scientific research and knowledge. However, Joseph Chilton Pearce does not fit that bill. Here in this remarkably comprehensive synthesis he demonstrates that even as he nears 80 years of age he is still seeking, still exploring, and still being the humble visionary that he has been for almost 50 years. (He started writing his first book, The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, in the late 1950s). In this brilliant book he points out the pitfalls of how we raise, educate and enculturate our children and more often than not short circuit their fullest possible development. Similarly, he presents methods of overcoming those errors and of moving ourselves into an ever-present spiritual mode of perception and behavior. Do we dare? Let's hope so!

My Favorite Book

Have you ever had the feeling that you were missing something, that something big was supposed to happen but didn't? Have you ever been in love and literally felt it in your heart? Would you like to overcome your fear reaction and use your highest powers to deal with stressful situations? Would you like to know how we can stop the damage to our children's minds? These things and many more are explained. This book is a roadmap for immediately re-starting human evolution. It bridges biology and meta-physics. If you aren't familiar with Pearce, be forewarned, he will rock your world. Even if you are familiar, you may want to buy an extra copy for a literate friend because you will NEED to talk to somebody about this book. You may not want to give up your copy. I'm re-reading mine and will be indefinitely. In my opinion, this is Pearce's best, a fine distillation of remarkable experiences and work.