Some one hundred titles are listed in the bibliography of Reason and Wonder. Many have touched the author. Of these, the following stand apart in their ability to dislodge the reader from the cultural mindset of extreme "Cartesian rationalism."
Black Elk Speaks
Black Elk Speaks (1932) is an American classic. In it, University of Nebraska English professor and poet John Neihardt sympathetically recounts the life history and vision of Lakota holy man, Nicholas Black Elk. Black Elk’s remarkable story was entrusted to Neihardt in a number of meetings between the two men during a two-year period that began with a “chance encounter” in 1930. Black Elk Speaks chronicles, in a first-person account, the tragic decades of Custer’s last stand, the ghost dance, and the massacre at Wounded Knee, decades that culminated in the final subjugation of Native Americans and the demise of a 20,000 year-old culture. A profoundly spiritual book, Black Elk Speaks has been called “the North American bible of all tribes.” Its reach, however, extends far beyond Native America. By transporting the reader beyond the Western mindset of materialism and linear time, Black Elk Speaks offers a deep spirituality that recognizes the sacred essence of all things and the interconnectedness of all beings and events.
The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist
At the opposite pole is Lawrence LeShan’s scientifically rigorous The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist, first published in 1966. Having set out as a young experimental psychologist to debunk all “nonsense” regarding so-called paranormal phenomena, LeShan was instead persuaded of their validity by a century of overwhelming evidence. LeShan’s interest abruptly shifted from trying to debunk to trying to understand the paranormal. Soon thereafter, LeShan met Eileen Garrett, a “sensitive” whose inexplicable gifts nevertheless held up under the most rigorous scrutiny. LeShan and Garrett—the “medium” in the story—developed a deep friendship and collaborated for five years. Later, LeShan met Henry Margenau, Sterling Professor of Physics at Yale University, and each Wednesday afternoon for a number of years, LeShan took the train from New York to New Haven to join Margenau—the physicist in the story—in freewheeling discussions on the nature of reality. From the seemingly irreconcilable worldviews of a medium and a physicist, LeShan found common ground: mysticism, the third component and focus of the book. The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist was re-released in 2002. Only the preface was changed, yet the book remains as insightful today as it must have 44 years ago.
How to Meditate
And then there is LeShan’s little classic How to Meditate: A Guide to Self-Discovery. Written as an introductory guide to meditative practice and first published in 1974, How to Meditate has sold more than one million copies. This “simple and deceptively sophisticated book” is both timely and timeless. Although it was written for the novice meditator, those deeply ensconced in meditation keep coming back to it. Writes one long-time practitioner: “If I was forced to choose only one meditation book from my shelf, this ‘basic’ and wonderful book would probably be the one.” How to Meditate is both foundational and practical. Capitalizing on his intellectual breadth and psychological depth, LeShan incorporates insights from a variety of disciplines including Zen, Sufism, yoga, and Christian and Jewish mysticism. An uncommon strength of the book is that LeShan includes short but seminal chapters entitled “The Integration of Psychotherapy and Meditation” and “The Social Significance of Meditation,” the latter of which in particular resonates sympathetically with the themes of Reason and Wonder. Finally, LeShan’s dedication to his mentor speaks volumes about the humanity of the author: “To Max Grossman, who taught me that the opposite of ‘injustice’ is not ‘justice’ but ‘love.’ ” How to Meditate is also available in an audio version.
The Power of Now and A New Earth
That there is hope that humanity will awaken in time to avert ecological catastrophe became clear when Eckhart Tolle’s timeless spiritual classics The Power of Now and A New Earth topped Amazon’s bestseller list, aided by Tolle’s live webcast on Oprah in 2008. Critics point out that there is nothing new in Tolle’s books, which would be irrelevant even were it completely true. What Tolle does is nothing short of phenomenal: he distills and reinterprets the spiritual wisdom of the ages. Tolle accomplishes the spiritual equivalent of restoring the Sistine Chapel. He strips away from the great religious traditions the accumulated layers of soot, dirt, grime, and dogma that have obscured their beauty. The bare essence shines brightly. Tolle weaves together spiritual truths from Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and other religious traditions with modern scientific and psychological insights. The result is fresh: spirituality in its purest form. Reading Tolle is good. Listening is better. His books are recorded, and their gentle power is most accessible when delivered by Tolle himself with his endearing slightly German accent.
The Intuitive Heart
The Intuitive Heart (2000) by Henry Reed and Brenda English is a sleeper. On the one hand, it is a how-to book, written for the average person, offering practical exercises for developing intuition. On the other hand, The Intuitive Heart exposes the tip of a vast iceberg of something much deeper. Reed, a brilliant but maverick experimental psychologist, left the hallowed halls of Princeton University in the 1970s never to return, lured away literally by his dreams. He went on to pioneer what has been called the American Dreamwork Movement and to co-develop a protocol for intentional group dreaming: the Dream Helper Ceremony (DHC). It all sounds woo-woo until you've experienced it, but participants, including the author, find the DHC overwhelmingly positive, altruistic, and therapeutic. The DHC, which strongly reinforces the existence of Jung's "collective unconscious," is but one of many useful techniques Reed has developed to foster the acquisition of intuitive wisdom for the greater good, skills all too atrophied in modern society.
If a Child, Why Not a Cosmos? Lovesongs to Earth and Evolution
This self-published (AuthorHouse, 2006) collection of poems by Charles C. Finn is dedicated to Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme, authors of The Universe Story. As a former Jesuit, Finn discovered the Christian mysticism of Teilhard de Chardin early on, and thereafter has been drawn ever deeper into the story of cosmogenesis: a cosmos that continually unfolds, all the while proceeding toward the higher consciousness of Teilhard's Omega Point. Each poem is a lovesong in celebration of some aspect of that unfolding. Individual selections of the collection make for a great morning meditation.
I began writing Reason & Wonder twelve years ago with only a vague sense of where it was going or how to get there, but had I seen clearly around the bend, I could not have expressed the book's ultimate aims any more eloquently than does Finn in the last four lines of "Commonality Grounded in Awe:"
Would only science and religion throw down their arms,
discover a commonality grounded in awe,
then, casting their respective fates to the winds,
join in the only Dance there is.
I began writing Reason & Wonder twelve years ago with only a vague sense of where it was going or how to get there, but had I seen clearly around the bend, I could not have expressed the book's ultimate aims any more eloquently than does Finn in the last four lines of "Commonality Grounded in Awe:"
Would only science and religion throw down their arms,
discover a commonality grounded in awe,
then, casting their respective fates to the winds,
join in the only Dance there is.
