The Death of Religion and the Rebirth of Spirit: A Return to the Intelligence of the Heart [Kindle Edition]

Beware! The photo of the author on the book jacket is deceptive. It pictures a soulful, Quaker like grandfather--when all the time the contents of his book are loaded with intellectual hand grenades aimed at the very heart of our culture!

I began writing this review in the usual manner, underlining a phrase here, a word there, scribbling little notes at corners, on the edge--you know, the usual. But after a couple pages I saw that practically every word, every phrase was highlighted, and that there were copious notes all over the place. The book contains so much knowledge, so much insight, and addresses so many of the most vital subjects of life--that to attempt restricting myself to a few ideas here and there seemed almost sacrilegious.

And in the most positive sense this book IS sacrilegious.

In his call for humans to approach the next step of evolution, JC Pearce challenges us to overcome the greatest obstacle to that evolution--our very culture based on organized religion and orthodox science, that in turn arise from humanity's apparent need for PREDICTION and CONTROL. The author is such a master of phraseology that he'll have you convinced in a matter of a few pages that, yeah, they really ARE holding us back.

Pearce is no mere iconoclast--he skillfully demonstrates that the natural replacement for these cultural misconceptions exists and has existed all around us from the beginning of our collective jump from chimp to human (via the common shrew we are now told.) The author illustrates the power & biological source of both the individual & collective creative process, and how they interconnect in "fields of mind." We go along with the author on a developmental human journey from pre-natal conditions, thru birth and from there to the many stages that, where they should release ever higher levels of freedom & pleasure, in reality bind us ever tighter to conformity, frustration & social violence.

And never fear--just because THE DEATH OF RELIGION is a mental revelation, it's a pleasure to read. The writer's source material is life itself & is a record of every day situations and their evolutionary potential.

Reading THE DEATH OF RELIGION allegorically feels like lifting a boulder from one's very soul.

This is one of the most relevant books of our time.

It's a stunning achievement.

Do your Mind a favor & read this book!

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Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld

I ordered this, Pearce's latest offering, together with his preceding 2002 effort, "Biology of Transcendence" and read them back to back, in chronological order. This is the one book, in his output so far, Joseph Pearce needn't have written.

Given that Pearce's incentive for writing this book (p. 190) was triggered by an altogether demonic experience, that behold-and-become function stressed so often in his authorship has here become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Really, a previous reviewer put it mildly in saying "Death of Religion" shows the author retreading familiar ground. In fact, this is an about 80% rehash or rewrite of his previous title "Biology." The very same material has been reorganized, rewritten - sometimes expanded upon a bit, sometimes contracted. I would not say the presentation of it has improved, it is merely a different version. It even uses the same batch of quotes from a select number of, to Pearce's mind, outstanding thinkers.

So because the bulk of the contents is yet again the discussion of the "New Biology," the title of the new book is a bit of a misnomer. The post 9/11 impetus to writing a book on "violent culture" is a thin veneer, a couple of dozen pages bracketing the older material. Pearce carries over not only his favourite quotes but even repeats a number of his own punch lines already used up in "Biology."

Some mistakes slipped through editing: using cases from, to some, controversial para-psychology, one would expect facts to be absolutely in order. Still famous French explorer Alexandra David-Neel turns into an Englishwoman (and gets her name slightly misspelled). From where Pearce got the etymological explanation that "sin" originally meant "separate" (p. 166) baffles. See [...]resource for more trustworthy facts. From "Biology" one remembers Pearce explaining "existence" as "to set apart" (p. 78), e.g. separate, so perhaps he misread his old notes while revamping them.

Commenting upon the ability to live without food (p. 178) without previously having introduced the subject, is another hint this book was hardly the fruit of that "Heureka! effect" Pearce is rightfully fascinated by. Presumably a paragraph was lifted out from an early draft and this reference to supernatural non-food eaters remained in place.

I heartily recommend the previous "Biology of Transcendence" as a great reading experience, upon which this rewrite has nothing substantially more to offer. The book gets three stars given the intrinsic value of Pearce's observations and if you have not read "Biology," nor intend to, you may consider this a very thought-provoking read. But as Pearce devotes quite a number of pages to describing a theory of Julian Jaynes' (The Origin of Consciousness) - a summary not present in his previous work - I really recommend you to go for Pearce's previous "Biology" and also Jaynes' 1970s classic in its entirety instead. That would be a crucial reading experience.

The Death of Religion and the Rebirth of Spirit: A Return to the Intelligence of the Heart could've been featured in our New Age column but deserves wider mention here for its far-reaching survey blending philosophy, religion and sociology. The study begins with a survey of violence in human society and the question of whether cruelty is part of human nature - and argues that the roots of human behavior aren't violent, but a cultural imprint. Chapters use recent neuroscience, cultural anthropology and brain development research to explore the violent trends, spiritual understanding, and how to reverse violence to achieve a higher level of being. It's a pick recommended for any spirituality collection - particularly at the college level - strong on added cultural analysis.