Throughout history philosophers have posited souls, vital spirits and other active principles in living beings in order to explain their differences from non-living beings. With the arrival of genetics and evolutionary biology, however, it now seems possible to account for these differences without assuming such principles. Living beings are henceforth to be understood mechanically, as products of self-replicating microscopic objects and selective environmental conditions, rather than pneumatically, in terms of active principles. It is very remarkable, therefore, that physics has since abandoned the mechanical model of explanation, which it gave to biology, and returned to the pneumatical model, applying it not merely to living beings but to matter quite generally. The conceptual origins and philosophical significance of this remarkable development are explored in the present work. Part One examines the crucial role played by field theory in the decline of mechanism in physics and its replacement by pneumatism. Part Two discusses the importance of this development for metaphysics and the theory of human nature. 

Pneumatology of Matter

Politics & Social Sciences

Gunn, David

Philosophy

Iff Books

After decades of analyzing his dreams, a professor of psychology finds that some of them anticipate future events. Not only does he dream the exact day of the year on which one of his books is accepted for publication, but he learns how to use these dreams to create better outcomes in his life. Working with a medium for his research as well as in the classroom, he finds that the medium often gets correct information to which she does not have any ordinary access during apparent conversations with the dead. As his experiments continue to meet with surprising results, the author comes to accept the idea that reality is much more interesting than conventional science has led us to believe.

The Impossible Happens: A Scientist's Personal Discovery of the Extraordinary Nature of Reality

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Barušs, Imants

Psychology & Counseling

Karma is an Eastern word that has now entered the Western lexicon. Most people are familiar with the idea yet, paradoxically, few understand it. It is a vast, subtle and all-encompassing concept. It affects us all; it is one of the prime influences on our life’s journey. An understanding of Karma can be of benefit to each of us as individuals, and possibly to mankind as a whole. But it must be an understanding based on reason and honesty, not on fear or a desire for comfort.

The Karma of Everyday Life: A Logical Exploration Of The Law Of Karma

Religion & Spirituality

Lacey, David

New Age & Spirituality

Beyond God is the product of a scientist’s decade-long journey through Eastern and Western philosophy and religion inspired by the dramatic changes in modern science. Beginning from the perspective of secular Western atheism and believing the world is largely as we see it, the author considers the nature of reality more deeply: what science really tells us, what that means for religion and philosophy, and what that implies for how we choose to live. The result is an exploration of the key ideas in religion and philosophy that are compatible with recent scientific developments, which form the basis for a synthesis of Eastern and Western thought on the path to happiness. Beyond God considers the purpose of existence, what science really means for our view of the ‘meaning of life’, and how we should live it.

Beyond God: A Scientist's Search For the Meaning of Life in the 21st Century

Papadakis, Emmanuel

Science & Math

People worldwide are questioning the materialistic, mechanistic scientific pradigm that has been the dominant cosmology for the past one hundred years or so. The purpose of The New Paradigm is to provide a philosophical foundation for a spiritual cosmology that can incorporate both modern science and ancient wisdom. This is a paradigm that many have hoped would arise to usher in the predicted New Age of elevated spiritual awareness and understanding. The New Paradigm offers insights into the nature of people and their relationship to the one universal Spirit they have called God. This philosophical treatise makes a strong case to the effect that people are created from the substance of Spirit and hence are powerful spiritual beings who have forgotten their true nature and origin.

The New Paradigm - A Spiritual Scientific Cosmology: Utilizing Twelve Fundamental Archetype at Base of the Laws of Physics

Miller, Sharon

We are in the midst of a culture war between science and religion. In this struggle science portrays itself as the white knight of enlightenment truth defending humanity against the dark forces of religious fundamentalism, ignorance and gullibility that threaten free thinking and progress. But is there really the fundamental difference between science and religion that the culture warriors like us to believe? This book takes the reader on an inside journey through science showing how scientific beliefs are made. It will show science as a human activity that is shaped by power struggles, personal interests, cultural prejudices, beliefs and values...and yes, experimental data as well.

The Science Myth: God, Society, the Self and What We Will Never Know.

Chu, Dominique

The present framing of the cultural debate in terms of materialism versus religion has allowed materialism to go unchallenged as the only rationally-viable metaphysics. This book seeks to change this. It uncovers the absurd implications of materialism and then, uniquely, presents a hard-nosed non-materialist metaphysics substantiated by skepticism, hard empirical evidence, and clear logical argumentation. It lays out a coherent framework upon which one can interpret and make sense of every natural phenomenon and physical law, as well as the modalities of human consciousness, without materialist assumptions. According to this framework, the brain is merely the image of a self-localization process of mind, analogously to how a whirlpool is the image of a self-localization process of water. The brain doesn't generate mind in the same way that a whirlpool doesn't generate water. It is the brain that is in mind, not mind in the brain. Physical death is merely a de-clenching of awareness. The book closes with a series of educated speculations regarding the afterlife, psychic phenomena, and other related subjects.

Why Materialism Is Baloney: How True Skeptics Know There Is No Death and Fathom Answers to life, the Universe, and Everything

Kastrup, Bernardo

The Vagabond Spirit of Poetry demonstrates that poems are vital now more than ever because they can transform our relations with each other and with the earth. It acknowledges the awesome power of poems by providing you with fresh ways to apprehend their profound spiritual insights. You will be surprised by how sharp your imagination becomes once you start following the paths opened by Edward Clarke's original readings. This region is full of unexpected turns and pleasant clearings. Beginning in the middle of things with Wordsworth, you will be taken on a journey from Shakespeare to Wallace Stevens. Significant older poets, including Homer, Virgil and Dante, will enliven conversations with the wisest British, Irish and American poets of the modern age. As you proceed, poetry will teach you how to put into practice its perennial wisdom.

The Vagabond Spirit of Poetry

Clarke, Edward

An unforgettable trip from the foundations of physical and biological existence to the psycho-social maladies currently undermining human prospects, "Escape from Quantopia" exposes the twin failings of science and capitalism, the double helix of the modern world. Prefigured by the deranged imperative to subsume nature and consciousness to deterministic equations, imperial America is killing the earth in the quest to dominate it. Why do elites pursue policies ultimately harmful even to themselves? How did warfare, whether military or economic, take on a life of its own beyond the reach of reason and compassion? Making the case for insanity at the group level, the author finds the basis of collective memory and mind in the pioneering work of CS Peirce, Henri Bergson, David Bohm, Rupert Sheldrake and Lee Smolin. Whether arising from primordial chemical soup or the unexamined recesses of the human mind, living systems tend to self-perpetuate. In light of the organic underpinnings of contemporary crises, Ted Dace proposes "organic socialism" as the best hope for establishing a new order of thought and life.

Escape from Quantopia: Collective Insanity in Science and Society

Dace, Ted

Look at it this way... Everywhere we look, "framing" affects how we see things. Frames restrict our view, keeping us from seeing the whole truth, and subtly influencing our take on everything from deck-chairs to democracy. This upbeat, punchy guide to framespotting will open your eyes and your mind. Learn to notice frames and it's amazing what else you'll see: fresh ideas; how and why you're being hoodwinked; and how you're part of the transition from growth to growing up. Framespotting is empowering and liberating. And you'll never look at sprinklers or economists the same way again. "hopeful, realistic and original" - Rowan Williams, Former Archbishop of Canterbury

Framespotting: Changing How You Look At Things Changes How You See Them

Matthews, Alison

Matthews, Laurence

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