Das Energi [Paperback]

Paul Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1980

In this "strange little book" that grew out of the author's experiences living in an experimental commune during the early '70s, "capital" has replaced "land" as the key to human economy. Now is the time for human energy to replace both capital and land as the essential human possession, with which all other things can be achieved.

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Entwhistle Books (April 1, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0934558000
• ISBN-13: 978-0934558006
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #242,327 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The spirituality of economics, and vice versa, May 31, 2002

By 

John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Das Energi (Paperback)

There are two books I regard as the absolute cream of "hippie spirituality"; this is one, and the other is Stephen Gaskin's _This Season's People_. This one is something like a hippie _Tao Te Ching_, and (as another reviewer has noted) its focus is on the energy that some traditions call "ch'i".

Paul Williams originally published this book in 1973 and it became an underground classic in pretty short order. Its title is intended to parallel Marx's _Das Kapital_; Williams's essential thesis is that just as capital replaced land in modern economies, so "energy" will replace capital. (I'm putting the word "energy" in quotation marks so that it won't be misunderstood as having something to do with, say, solar heating or wind electric power generation.)

Readers with a background in economics may find Williams unconvincing on this point if they don't see what he's really driving at.

For example, at one point he declares roundly that money and property are obsolete concepts. What he really means is that we're on the verge of transcending these concepts _as_ the concepts on which the economy is founded. But he doesn't mean we just won't use money or property any more, or that we'll do away with the concepts altogether; after all, we didn't just stop using land when we started using "capital," did we?

The real, underlying point is that money and property can't be shared in the way that ideas and energy can be. If I give you some of my physical/material property, I have less myself; but if I share an idea with you, then we _both_ have it. (Which is, by the way, a powerful argument against legally enforceable patents, as distinguished from copyrights and other sorts of intellectual property.) Similarly, if I share my "energy" with you, I don't become less conscious or receive less of what I need; just the opposite.

For Williams, the spiritual laws governing "energy" are the true foundation on which the human economy is really based. Williams states these spiritual laws and fleshes out the book with lots of spiritual advice of the hippie-wisdom variety; you can look at the book's sample pages to get an idea of where Williams is coming from in this regard.

Again, Williams's essential thesis is that the role of these laws in the spiritual economy is about to become clear. Writing in 1973, he was convinced that a sea change in human consciousness was just around the corner and we were about to take the next step in planetary evolution.

Was he wrong? I don't think so, but this isn't the place for an extended discussion of the point. Suffice it to say here that the growth of the Internet and the recent development of intellectual property law, prosaic though these phenomena may seem to some, are also an indication that the economy is moving in exactly the direction Williams describes in this book.

At any rate, this book is a modern spiritual classic, a masterpiece of "hippie spirituality," and a good exposition of perennial philosophy. It also, but less obviously, belongs to a sort of "underground libertarian" tradition that predates the '60s: the "energy" in this book is the same "energy" Isabel Paterson was writing about in _The God of the Machine_.

Williams's approach to spirituality also goes well with Mary Ruwart's _Healing Our World_, a book I strongly recommend to any libertarian hippies (and anyone else) who may be reading this review.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Nerve and Sinew of Truth, October 22, 2002

By 

Virginia Lore "rumtussle" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Das Energi (Paperback)

Das Energi by Paul Williams lives on my bookshelf between Richard Bach's Illusions and Hugh Prather's Notes to Myself. I got this book as a gift when I was in my twenties, and it changed my whole view of the world. Since then, I have given multiple copies to other people as gifts.

Paul Williams wrote Das Energi originally in the early '70's as a series of journal notes. The collection of thoughts soon developed an underground following for its insight, challenge to the dominant paradigms of truth, and breezy me-decade prose. Beauty, God, fear, truth, money, good, evil--these are just some of the topics dealt with in this browsable amalgamation of brief paragraphs and good humor.

Paraphrasing one thought from the book: you don't grow just from getting up and getting another beer from the refrigerator; you grow when you do things you don't know if you can do. This particular thought stuck with me and has come back to inspire me to face what is difficult from time to time.

Definitely worth your time...one of the few books that I keep in my permanent collection!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless enlightenment with a hippie feel!, March 21, 2004

By 

Tim Burness (Brighton, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Das Energi (Paperback)

"This is God speaking", says Williams at one point. Well yes, reading this book does rather feel like that much of the time. "Das Energi" is a mighty powerful and inspirational read. A dynamic (VERY dynamic) mix of Zen ideas, taoism, positive thinking and maybe a bit of Christian morality thrown in for good measure. However, some of the language does place the book firmly in the late sixties and early seventies (man!). Its still brilliant.

Paul Williams presents us with quick, sharp "blows to the head" such as "Beware means be aware.", "Vote with your life. Vote yes.", "Stop showing off. It isn't what you do. Its what you are that matters.", "Babies see things as they really are" and so on. The uneven format of the book (could be a sentence on one page, a short paragraph on the next, then a short essay on the next) helps you to think more consciously in itself.

Having read the book several times over, I finally realized what was missing for me. A sense of humour! An inspirational classic such as "Illusions" by Richard Bach for example, has the same enlightening quality but gives you a good chuckle too. Still, this is an extraordinary book and I thank Paul Williams for it wholeheartedly. Read this and WAKE UP! ;o)