Aldous Huxley, whose grandfather was T.H. Huxley, the renowned scientist, and whose great uncle was Matthew Arnold, the Victorian poet, was one of the most respected intellectuals of the 20th Century. A close friend of T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, Edwin Hubble, Igor Stravinsky, Bertrand Russell, Timothy Leary, and others, Huxley helped shape the modern mind, first with his satirical novels and later with his moral philosophy and provocative theories regarding humankind's destiny. Earlier biographers focused on Huxley's eleven novels, while this book traces his trajectory as a theorist who framed the "perennial philosophy", the view that all religions have a spiritual core found in the writings of their mystics. Huxley's interests in Asian Religions, psychedelic drugs, and the dangers of mass society, environmental destruction and rampant technology are all covered in Sawyer's short, readable and critically acclaimed biography. The Center for Aldous Huxley Studies at the University of Munster, Germany, called the book, "The best-to-date explanation and appraisal of Huxley's metaphysical position." This enjoyable biography makes clear why and how Huxley became a key influence on such contemporary authors as Ken Wilber, Huston Smith, Ram Dass, Deepak Chopra, Alex Grey, Andrew Harvey and Stanislav Grof.

Aldous Huxley: A Biography

Biographies & Memoirs

Sawyer, Dana

Arts & Literature

Trillium Press

This Element provides a comprehensive overview of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) Movement and its offshoots. Several early assessments of the as a cult and/or new religious movement are helpful, but are brief and somewhat dated. This Element examines the TM movement's history, beginning in India in 1955, and ends with an analysis of the splinter groups that have come along in the past twenty-five years. Close consideration is given to the movement's appeal for the youth culture of the 1960s, which accounted for its initial success. The Element also looks at the marketing of the meditation technique as a scientifically endorsed practice in the 1970s, and the movement's dramatic turn inward during the 1980s. It concludes by discussing the waning of its popular appeal in the new millennium. This Element describes the social and cultural forces that helped shape the TM movement's trajectory over the decades leading to the present and shows how the most popular meditation movement in America distilled into an obscure form of Neo-Hinduism.

The Transcendental Meditation Movement (Elements in New Religious Movements)

History

World

Cambridge University Press

Huston Smith is recognized and revered as the preeminent teacher of world religions while being a prolific author and scholar. His bestselling The World’s Religions, sold more than two million copies and is still the most popular introduction to comparative religion. Huston Smith followed a lifelong spiritual quest that led him around the world many times. He studied the world’s religions and mystical traditions directly with Aldous Huxley, D. T. Suzuki, J. Krishnamurti, Alan Watts, Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr, the Dalai Lama, Joseph Campbell, Ram Dass, and a host of others. Huston, as a renowned philosopher of religion, taught at WashingtonUniversity, M.I.T., SyracuseUniversity, and the University of California–Berkeley, and during his career helped shape the contemporary face of comparative religion, interfaith dialogue, and religious tolerance. As a seeker, he became a citizen of the world, plunging into its various spiritual traditions. His many insights and adventures fill this compelling and edifying book, the authorized biography of a 21st-century spiritual giant.

Huston Smith: Wisdomkeeper: Living The World's Religions: The Authorized Biography of a 21st Century Spiritual Giant

Religion & Spirituality

Fons Vitae

The Perennial Philosophy Reloaded: A Guide for the Mystically Inclined

Other Religions, Practices & Sacred Texts

Monkfish Book Publishing

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Books by Sawyer, Dana