This book appears to be a re-evaluation of the “Perennial Philosophy,” which was immensely popular in the 1960s. But quickly, Dana Sawyer shows why this way of understanding the world is in full renaissance and how it connects to the popularity today of teachers including Mirabai Starr, Ken Wilber, Joan Borysenko, and Richard Rohr.
Chapter 1, “What Is Really Going On?” begins to lay out how Perennial Philosophy views human existence, first by describing what Perennialists see that others do not: “When considering what’s the best informed and most scientifically viable assessment of what’s really going on, many people have arrived at the conclusion that our lives are devoid of inherent meaning. Life, generally speaking, is the search for something to keep you occupied until you die, whether or not it’s also sometimes pleasant or fun. Life, in short, is busy work. But what if this position, prevalent as it has become, is simply wrong? What if life has an inherent meaning and value but it’s delivered mainly through a level of consciousness or noetic experience that our society has not trained us to access? Perennialists believe that is the case.”
Reading this book may help you discover where you stand and find kindred spirits. It traverses “big” subjects from religion to God, from science and knowledge to love and enlightenment, and then psychology, nature, and art. It does this in quick fashion, with a conversational tone, using less than 150 pages.
Sawyer also includes among his topics of discussion the current renaissance of psychedelics, which was even discussed on NPR the other day. Sawyer writes that we are in the midst of what many have called “a rebirth of interest in psychedelic experience, not only for its possible therapeutic value but for its growth potential relative to the lives of 'healthy normals' — which, after all, is most of us.”
It seems that nearly every teacher we admire finds their way in here. Hafez and Rumi are here, as are Marianne Williamson and Rami Shapiro.
If you believe that consciousness is fundamental to reality, noetic experience is a valid way of knowing, awakened consciousness leads to spiritual awakening, and there is a shared “unitive mystical experience” across cultures and across religious and spiritual traditions — then this book may help you feel at home.
