Madness, Mystery and the Survival of God
Publication details - O Books - Nov 2008
The
conventional scientific world view cannot accommodate God. Yet, the
world wide
resurgence of religion, particularly in
its most fundamentalist forms, flies in the face of science. Our seemingly secular society cannot tear
itself away from fascination with the supernatural.
Alongside the attraction of drugs, this
reveals a yearning for something beyond.
This
book offers a new way into the paradox.
The feared experience of madness becomes the key to the human
ability to
operate in two ways at once. Science
studies our individual side but is blind to our potential to
participate in a
reality beyond that which we can precisely know - the territory of
religion.
Isabel
Clarke is a psychological therapist, at home in her work with the
experience of
people diagnosed with psychosis and other severe mental health problems. Familiarity with their experience, together
with a knowledge of the spiritual literature and of research into the
processing capacity of the brain, led to her central conclusion:that
psychosis
and spiritual experience both inhabit that other reality - a reality
that is
integral and vital for all humans.
This
new perspective on faith and psychosis offers insight into the
unshakable
conviction of both delusion and religious fanaticism.
The survival of faith and superstition in a
secular age is explained. God is located
within the scientific world view in a way that respects mystery and so
enlarges
rather than diminishes our vision.
Contents
Preface. Experiences, Songs
and Poems.
Chapter 1.
The Religion
versus Science Debate
Chapter 2.
Two
Assumptions.
Chapter
3. Truth and Myth.
Chapter
4 Religion: A Survival Story
Chapter
5. ‘the doorsill where the two worlds meet.’
Chapter 6. A Scattering of
Saints and
Visionaries.
Chapter
7. Travellers Across the Threshold.
Chapter
8. Making Sense of the Transliminal.
Chapter
9. Pathways in the Brain.
Chapter
10. A Neuron’s Eye View and Facing the Critics
Chapter
11. Shifting the Centre of Gravity – Towards Relationship
Chapter 12. Ideas
and Power: Spotting the Transliminal at Work.
Chapter 13.
Creativity and the Transliminal
Chapter
14. Mystery and Originality.
Chapter
15. About God
Books, CDs
and Websites.