2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Best Book Finalist
2020 Ashton Wylie Best Mind, Body, Spirit Book Awards: Best Book Finalist
Each of us is a conscious individual living in the world. Most daily experiences are predictable and humdrum. Occasionally we have a deliciously or shockingly intense experience. Very occasionally we have a profound experience that leads us to change our life. Then there are marginal experiences so bizarre we have difficulty understanding what occurred. The Lantern In The Skull explores a selection of these unsettling yet intriguing experiences.
A camera previously in perfect working order, which inexplicably won’t photograph a fetish in an African village chief’s basement, provides the first stop on Hugh Major’s engaging survey. Using his own experiences as a springboard, he considers telepathy, psychic perceptions, psychedelic insights, artistic transports, near death experiences, and much else.
Human consciousness is sufficiently elastic to accommodate all these experiences. Yet the nature of consciousness itself is a conundrum, and the evidence for marginal experiences remains contentious. Hugh Major provides a timely snapshot of current research into ‚marginal zones of the extraordinary‘. In precise, jargon-free language, he indicates the territory being explored and outlines major directions researchers are travelling. There are numerous captivating, and surprising, discoveries along the way.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
The Consciousness Dilemma
Prologue: A House of Loyal Fetishes
MARGINAL ZONES
1. Driving a Forked Stick
2. Mind Excursions
3. Peak Experiences
THE SEVERED STATE
4. An Ever-Widening Rift
5. Running Like Clockwork
6. The Ultimate Scintilla
VISIONS OF THE APEX DWELLERS
7. Sovereign Mentality
8. Esalen’s Luminaries
9. The World Behind the World
References
Author’s Acknowledgements
Über den Autor
Hugh Major studied English and Philosophy at Auckland University and has taught these subjects at secondary schools, as well as English and Drama in both Scotland and Japan. He has also taught mask-making and the culture and history of masks at Auckland College of Education.Hugh studied painting at La Bottega d’arte Fiorentina, the studio of Gabrielle Panerai in Florence, and with Dr David Cranswick at the Great Western Studio in London. He has exhibited in Yokohama and Auckland. Between 2002 and 2008 he was a finalist in four of the Adam Portraiture Awards, administered by the National Portrait Gallery in Wellington. In 2011, he was a finalist in Sydney’s Gallipoli Art Prize.
In his writing, Hugh explores new thinking in the fields of consciousness, science, spirituality and culture. Five times he has been a finalist in New Zealand’s premiere Ashton Wylie Award for writing in the mind, body, spirit genre. His published books include Notes on the Mysterium Tremendum (2010) and From Monkey to Moth (2015).
Hugh lives in Matakana, New Zealand, with his partner Kirsty.