The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit [Paperback]

Joseph Chilton Pearce (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 2004

Uses new research about the brain to explore how we can transcend our current physical and cultural limitations

• Reveals that transcendence of current modes of existence requires the dynamic interaction of our fourth and fifth brains (intellect and intelligence)

• Explores the idea that Jesus, Lao-tzu, and other great beings in history are models of nature’s possibility and our ability to achieve transcendence

• 17,000 sold in hardcover since April 2002

Why do we seem stuck in a culture of violence and injustice? How is it that we can recognize the transcendent ideal represented by figures such as Jesus, Lao-tzu, and many others who have walked among us and yet not seem to reach the same state?

In The Biology of Transcendence Joseph Chilton Pearce examines the current biological understanding of our neural organization to address how we can go beyond the limitations and constraints of our current capacities of body and mind--how we can transcend. Recent research in the neurosciences and neurocardiology identifies the four neural centers of our brain and indicates that a fifth such center is located in the heart. This research reveals that the evolutionary structure of our brain and its dynamic interactions with our heart are designed by nature to reach beyond our current evolutionary capacities. We are quite literally, made to transcend.

Pearce explores how this “biological imperative” drives our life into ever-greater realms of being--even as the “cultural imperative” of social conformity and behavior counters this genetic heritage, blocks our transcendent capacities, and breeds violence in all its forms. The conflict between religion and spirit is an important part of this struggle. But each of us may overthrow these cultural imperatives to reach “unconflicted behavior,” wherein heart and mind-brain resonate in synchronicity, opening us to levels of possibility beyond the ordinary.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This is a masterpiece of science and spirit, love over law, and the stunning biological truth of the capacity for transcendence that the universe has placed within us. Here, in brilliant and incisive words, is the foundation for a new mind and a new world.”
(Jean Houston, author of A Passion for the Possible and Jump Time )

"The Biology of Transcendence will transform your worldview and change forever your understanding of our past, present, and future. Riveting, insightful, and penetrating, Pearce has laid out one of the most startling and powerful visions of our future. . . . You won't be able to put this book down, and when you've read it, you won't be able to stop talking about it with everybody you know."
(Thom Hartmann, author of The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight )

"I've spent over thirty years pioneering wellness programs, always trying to grasp why it is such a struggle for people to attain and maintain the well-being that is their birthright. In the last decade I finally came to appreciate what Pearce discovered long ago: that the heart and key to wellness lies in how we nurture our young--enabling them to thrive, rather than merely survive."
(John W. Travis, M.D., M.P.H., author of Simply Well and Wellness Workbook )

"Joseph Chilton Pearce has profoundly altered my view of religion and culture and has left me with both the understanding and the tools to go beyond limitations to the joy of love and all its possibilities."
(Carla Hannaford, Ph.D., author of Smart? Moves: Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head and Awakening the Child Heart )

". . . an engaging blend of scientific research and personal accounts of altered states, [this book] outlines the anatomy of levels of consciousness."
(Fran Shaw, Parabola, Fall, 2003 )

"Rarely does a single book encompass such far reaching vistas and disturbing revelations as The Biology of Transcendence."
(Robert Simmons, The Metaphysical Guide to Tucson Gem & Mineral Shows 2004 )

"Revolutionary significance for anyone...seeking clues on how to develop the magnificent but frustrated potential that is our birthright."
(Charles Eisenstein, Progressive Health, Summer 2004 )

"...a survey of spiritual transcendence so linked to science that it earns a place of respect in the spheres of science, health, and metaphysics."
(

The Midwest Book Review

)

"This book must be read by anyone wanting a better future for the world."
(Dr. Roger Taylor, Caduceus, April 2007 )

From the Back Cover

NEW SCIENCE / PHILOSOPHY

“The Biology of Transcendence will transform your worldview and change forever your understanding of our past, present, and future. Riveting, insightful, and penetrating, Pearce has laid out one of the most startling and powerful visions of our future. . . . You won’t be able to put this book down, and when you’ve read it, you won’t be able to stop talking about it with everybody you know.”
--Thom Hartmann, author of The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight

“This is a masterpiece of science and spirit, love over law, and the stunning biological truth of the capacity for transcendence that the universe has placed within us. Here, in brilliant and incisive words, is the foundation for a new mind and a new world.”
--Jean Houston, author of A Passion for the Possible and Jump Time: Shaping Your Future in a World of Radical Change

Why do we seem stuck in a culture of violence and injustice? How is it that we can recognize the transcendent ideal represented by figures such as Jesus, Lao-tzu, and many others who have walked among us and yet not seem to reach the same state?

In The Biology of Transcendence Joseph Chilton Pearce examines the current biological understanding of our neural organization to address how we can go beyond the limitations and constraints of our current capacities of body and mind--how we can transcend. Recent research in the neurosciences and neurocardiology identifies the four neural centers of our brain and indicates that a fifth such center is located in the heart. This research reveals that the evolutionary structure of our brain and its dynamic interactions with our heart are designed by nature to reach beyond our current evolutionary capacities. We are quite literally, made to transcend.

Pearce explores how this biological imperative drives our life into ever-greater realms of being--even as the cultural imperative of social conformity and behavior counters this genetic heritage, blocks our transcendent capacities, and breeds violence in all its forms. The conflict between religion and spirit is an important part of this struggle. But each of us may overthrow these cultural imperatives to reach “unconflicted behavior,” wherein heart and mind-brain resonate in synchronicity, opening us to levels of possibility beyond the ordinary.

JOSEPH CHILTON PEARCE is the author of The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, Magical Child, and Evolution’s End. For the past twenty-five years, he has taught about the changing needs of children and the development of human society. He lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Park Street Press (August 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594770166
• ISBN-13: 978-1594770166
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #28 in Books > Science & Math > Reference
  • #69 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Mysticism

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Synthesis of a Lifelong Spiritual Seeker, May 15, 2002

By 

David J. Spillane (Chiang Mai, Thailand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit (Hardcover)

It is not often that lifelong spiritual seekers are ever open to new possibilities rather than being content to believe that they have arrived and/or becoming gurus. Likewise most spiritual seekers are inimical to scientific research and knowledge. However, Joseph Chilton Pearce does not fit that bill. Here in this remarkably comprehensive synthesis he demonstrates that even as he nears 80 years of age he is still seeking, still exploring, and still being the humble visionary that he has been for almost 50 years. (He started writing his first book, The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, in the late 1950s). In this brilliant book he points out the pitfalls of how we raise, educate and enculturate our children and more often than not short circuit their fullest possible development. Similarly, he presents methods of overcoming those errors and of moving ourselves into an ever-present spiritual mode of perception and behavior. Do we dare? Let's hope so!

64 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book written with the clarity of someone who understands deeply the unrealized birthright of humanity, August 4, 2005

By 

Brant "Joseph" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit (Hardcover)

This is an excellent and important book - a must read for those who have noticed the incongruence immanent in our culture, and are concerned about well being of the planet and themselves.

I was raised an evangelical Christian and realized in my late teens that there was a deep disconnect between what Jesus said and how some Christians behaved. They didn't suspend judgment as Jesus said, "Judge not", but condemned and punished those that didn't fit the prescribed norms of the community. The response I got when I addressed that issue was, "We are all sinners: we were born sinners and we need Jesus in our lives to save us from sin. This is what everyone must do if they don't want to go to hell."

It was a steady diet of fear, fear and more fear. Someone handed me a small brochure this morning that asked me on the front cover, "Where will you spend Eternity?" It goes on, "1. You have sinned against God. 2. God is a holy, sin-hating God. 3. God's holy nature demands that all sin must be punished. 4, Though God hates sin and has to punish it, He loves you so much that He came down to earth and received the punishment that you as a sinner deserved when He suffered and died on the cross." There is more but I've quoted you enough to get the drift of my early enculturation.

Chilton Pierce contrasts the Paul oriented culture of Christianity, as we know it, the church that espouses damnation, guilt and fear, and Jesus as the Model of the transformed life. Chilton says, "Christianity turned Jesus from our evolutionary model into the greatest tool of culture. Converted into the Christ, Jesus became the Mediator. No longer the model of higher development, the one who draws toward him through lifting us up, Jesus as the Christ became a go-between, mediating between the wrath of that same old tyrant Jehovah and the same old sinful, victimized, and helpless human". He says elsewhere, "The Christian accusation of sin is part of the very fabric of our culture, and the more subtle its presence, the more powerful its effect." "By their fruits you will know them" is the one observation no power system can tolerate, above all the institution of Christianity."

Chilton speaks with the clarity of someone who understands deeply the unrealized birthright of humanity, built into our brain, which he beautifully and concisely describes. He created for me a scientific basis for spiritual truth describing the natural development cycle of the quadrants of the brain as an evolution into transcendence.

After teaching 36 years at the college level, a persistent trend has become obvious to my colleagues and me: the ever-diminishing capacity of our students over the years to do assignments. While I have been very consistent with my core content, students are proving to be less and less capable on average. Much conversation and debate about this perceived problem in its many forms (I was recently told that over 30 percent of our students have a clinically diagnosed psychological or learning disorder) has consumed many hours of our academic lives. Until this book I had no clue as to "real" causes behind the student's diagnosed disorders. With the breadth and insight Mr. Pierce brings to the dialogue, I now have a more substantial understanding of the issues we face. What I once saw as the possibility of transcendence for everyone became far more real when I realized that it is built right into the "hardware", the brain. The "software", enculturation, is at the root of our unrealized potential.

Before you can get somewhere you have to know where you are. This book provides a very accurate description of where we are and where we can possibly get to as a society. I'd like to recommend Ariel and Shya Kane's books, "Working on Your Self Doesn't Work" and "Working On Your Relationship Doesn't Work" as compliments to Mr. Pierce's work. You will find that what they offer works as a catalyst for "transformation" as they put it. What Chilton describes as our present state and possible transcendent state are the meat and potatoes of the Kanes' work. They support those who are willing to take a look at their lives and their enculturation. By simply observing behavior, without shame or judgment, lives transform. I have found their books a great resource for living a transcendent life. I have found that working with them in New York and spending time with them their workshops has been the best thing I've done for myself in the 67 years I've been on this planet. "By their fruits you will know them." can be applied to the Kanes who walk their talk. They are the real thing!

Thank you Chilton for an excellent book.

62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Book, May 2, 2002

By 

Ernest Cooley (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit (Hardcover)

Have you ever had the feeling that you were missing something, that something big was supposed to happen but didn't? Have you ever been in love and literally felt it in your heart? Would you like to overcome your fear reaction and use your highest powers to deal with stressful situations? Would you like to know how we can stop the damage to our children's minds? These things and many more are explained. This book is a roadmap for immediately re-starting human evolution. It bridges biology and meta-physics. If you aren't familiar with Pearce, be forewarned, he will rock your world. Even if you are familiar, you may want to buy an extra copy for a literate friend because you will NEED to talk to somebody about this book. You may not want to give up your copy. I'm re-reading mine and will be indefinitely. In my opinion, this is Pearce's best, a fine distillation of remarkable experiences and work.