Month: August 2017

Midwest Book Review:

As informed and informative as it is thoughtful and thought-provoking, Dreams and Resurrection: On Immortal Selves, Psychedelics, and Christianity is especially recommended to the attention of non-specialist general readers with an interest in the nature of death, the concept of an afterlife, the human psyche, and metaphysics. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented.

 

Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M., Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, New Mexico:

Because most of us do not think too seriously about such things as eternal life, nor do we think in a dispassionate way, I cannot imagine that anyone would not profit from reading this well-reasoned, but also ‘faith-filled’ study about our life beyond this life. Read and be energized!

 

Rev. Dr. R. Scott Colglazier, Senior Minister, First Congregational Church of Los Angeles:

. . . wonderfully, exhilaratingly, and convincingly interesting . . . . I’m so glad I spent time with this book. Not only was it intellectually engaging, it shifted some of my own thinking regarding life after death, and more to the point, about what it means to be a human being. And so I say to my friends and colleagues: Buckle up. Enjoy the ride. Prepare to see yourself (and everyone around you) in a new way!

 

Dr. Kurt Smith, Philosophy Professor, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania:

Dreams and Resurrection joins a celebrated history of important philosophical works dedicated to exploring the concepts of death and immortality. In the tradition of great public intellectuals such as Alan Watts and Jiddu Krishnamurti, Jack Call makes a very difficult topic accessible to the non-academic reader without sacrificing the standards of academic intellectual rigor.

 

Simon Small, Priest and author:

A fascinating personal argument for the reality of eternal life and its relationship with Christianity, using the rigorous approach of the western philosophical tradition, spiced with the author’s psychedelic experiences as a young man. Highly recommended.

Continue reading “What they’re saying about Dreams and Resurrection”

https://www.amazon.com/Psychedelic-Christianity-Ultimate-Goal-Living/dp/1785357476/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1536523911&sr=1-1&keywords=psychedelic+christianityOrder your copy today! (That’s not really an order but just what I would like for you to do if you please.)

From Psychedelic Christianity: on the ultimate goal of living

I want absolutely fresh newness, as on the day of Creation, with solids that look like they have just gelled from liquid, and liquids that look like shining solids, and everything breathing and squirming with life.

If life is ultimately meaningless suffering or pleasure – I don’t believe there is such a thing as meaningless joy – for even one person, then it is for me too, and I have missed the ultimate goal.

And here is the flaw of utilitarian ethics: the assumption that there can be an impersonal, objective summing up of the values or disvalues of many subjective experiences.

The ultimate goal from my point of view is deep contentment from every possible or actual point of view.

The truth has already been revealed. It can be forgotten, ignored, seem to be hidden. But it is not hidden. It will be revealed again when it seems most hidden. That is the message of psychedelic experience, and it is the message of Christianity.

A psychedelic Christian is just a Christian who acknowledges that psychedelic experience is a way of learning how to be in the right relationship to God.

What makes the world the way it is, is a person and not a thing or an impersonal force; because if it were a thing or a force, then you and I and everybody else would just be parts of that thing or masses of stuff subject to an external force, like dead leaves blown along by the wind. And we aren’t like that.

As a result of our envy, we think of ourselves as things that can be destroyed and lose consciousness forever. Jesus represents seeing ourselves as loving children of a loving parent, so that even when that which we most feared is actually happening, we are not destroyed but rise again. And all of this is consistent with psychedelic experience.

The more we treat politics like a sport and the less we treat it like a religion, the better off we are.

Are we to say that God can’t bring about his kingdom by a just use of force, but that we can? That hardly seems like piety. Surely it is more accurate to think that God can’t do the logically impossible thing of bringing about love by using force and neither can we.

What can be seen is the outside. What can’t be seen is the inside. But the inside is experienced, directly, by each one of us.

Ironically all too often people who think of themselves as believers in science betray empiricism by accepting unquestioningly the pronouncements of authority figures who claim to speak for science.

Psychedelic Christianity is not an appeal to the Bible as “the inerrant word of God.” The appeal is always and only to what rings true in the light of one’s own experience.

We know our usefulness to others in this life is limited, so we want others to consider us not just as useful, but lovable whether we are useful or not.