The Ever-Present Origin, Part One: Foundations of the Aperspectival World and Part Two: Manifestations of the Aperspectival World 1st Edition

by Jean Gebser (Author), Noel Barstad (Translator), Algis Mickunas (Translator)

12 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0821407691

ISBN-10: 0821407694

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Born in Posen in 1905, Jean Gebser came from an old Franconian family domiciled in Thuringia since 1236. A nephew of German chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg, he was a descendant on his mother's side of Luther's friend Melanchthon. He was educated in Breslau, Königsberg, Rossleben, and at the University of Berlin. In 1929 Gebser emigrated to Italy and subsequently lived in Spain where he was attached to the Ministry of Education of the Spanish Republic. From 1937-1939 he lived in Paris in the circle which included Picasso, André Malraux, Paul Eluard, and Louis Aragon. In 1939 he made his permanent home in Switzerland where he became a citizen in 1951. For many years Gebser was Lecturer at the Institute of Applied Psychology in Zürich and was later appointed honorary Professor of Comparative Studies of Civilization at the University of Salzburg, Austria. For his many publications, including books on Rilke, his friend Federico García Lorca, recent developments in the sciences, East-West relations, evolution, and twentieth century civilization and its antecedents, Gebser received several prizes, including a share of the German Schiller prize, the literary award of the Esslingen Artist's Guild, the Koggen prize of the City of Minden, and the literary award of the City of Berne. He died in Berne on May 14, 1973.

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Product details

Paperback: 646 pages
Publisher: Ohio University Press; 1st edition (August 31, 1986)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0821407694
ISBN-13: 978-0821407691
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.4 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 12 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #533,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3440 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Philosophy
- #3463 in Books > Textbooks > Reference
- #9408 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History

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Michael Levenhagen

Gebser’s book is not an easy read, but it may well be the best ...

July 3, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I read the book twice, about 5 years apart. The second time I wrote about 12 pages of notes that I reviewed regularly for years. Gebser’s book is not an easy read, but it may well be the best articulated conceptualization of an era-based development of consciousness for a modern reader.

Kudos to Twiss’s comparison and reference to the postmodern project in these reviews here on Amazon; Twiss’s are apt.

It could be helpful to have working knowledge of philosophy to contextualize Gebser’s notions and understand and integrate them as they are presented on a number of different fronts.

Gebser’s conceptualization of “structures of consciousness” might be a first step for a modern man / woman toward a fuller recognition of “being.” A second step might be characterized as “living it”—viz., an integration of thought with action / non-action. Zen folks remind us that at some point, we have to take one’s practice off the pillow into the world of everyday, mundane life (cf: The Ten Ox-Herding pictures).

Other than benchmark spiritual pointers to “What This Is” (ala, Dzogchen, Kashmiri Saivism, Advaita Vedanta, Ati yoga, Mahamudra, etc.), Gebser’s tome may be the best understanding for contemporary times and seekers interested in the nature of their own consciousness.

I highly recommend Gebser’s book, but it will likely require considerable study and reflection.

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Estersazzy

Great book!

October 11, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The Ever Present Origin is difficult and dense but richly rewarding. A second reading, of some parts at least, may be a good way to go. It is an awesome book and I agree with the previous reviewer who said there is so much for future research to explore. The breadth and scope is immense and comprehensive. A really good summary is provided by John David Ebert on You tube, (although the sound quality is not the best). To be able to recognize the magical, mythic and mental structures of consciousness is liberating, and the essence of Gebser's 'aperspectival' structure. The "mutations" (he does not call it evolution) from one structure to the next are demonstrated through extensive references to art, literature, science, etc. The section on modern art alone is worth the effort of reading up till then. The "aperspectival" structure - the most recent mutation of consciousness that Gebser identifies is characterized by the dawning awareness of Time in the same way that the mental structure began with the discovery of "space" and hence, perspective in painting, appeared (around the time of Leonardo da Vinci.)

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Jeremy R. Twiss

"Waring the Whole"

August 15, 2010

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Two years ago, I had just dropped out of a Philosophy program at USF because I had the intuition that philosophy itself was becoming obsolete. Of course, I thought science and technology were its heirs, but only a few months later, I stumbled across The Ever-Present Origin.

It is the single greatest book I have ever read.

So much of what is contained in this book either corroborates with, correlates to, or strengthens much of what the postmodern philosophers have done since Bergson, Husserl, and existentialism's hay-day. A main strength of the book is something I personally see as contained yet LATENT in the project of postmodernist philosophy at-large: the overcoming of philosophy itself and the overcoming of strictly dualistic ontology through an awareness of reality as a-psychic and a-physical, through something Gebser calls "verition", a spiritual awareness of things in their wholeness. Yet the most important thing contained in the book is the characterization of consciousness as a mutating structure that makes discontinuous jumps, the most "recent" of which is an awareness of time as a quality, not simply a quantity, and the ramifications such a consciousness holds.

In addition to this, the book itself is written soberly, with seemingly endless sources, data, examples, and a simply astonishingly vast scope that still did not strip the book of rigor and attention to detail, as is the danger in such a large undertaking. I can only imagine how limited my insights from Gebser's investigations are in relation to what future generations will take from his book. This book has hardly even begun to be understood. Read it; it will enrich you in a way that philosophy usually can't.

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Dr. Gary Seeman

Addendum to Gruenig review

March 9, 2002

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Hans Gruenig has given an excellent overview of Gebser's monumental work. My review offers a sort of color commentary to augment Gruenig's words. The Ever-Present Origin, which has a generic-looking cover, is an extraordinarily rich survey of art, science, culture, and symbolism from an author who achieved more than scholarly excellence. In a letter written to Georg Feuerstein, Gebser acknowledged achieving satori (see the Feuerstein book cited by Gruenig). A transcendent consciousness shines through this book. One of its highlights is Gebser's scholarly survey of the evolution of soul. Gebser's vision was formed in part through his friendship and acquaintence with many of the leading people of his time, including Einstein, Picasso, and Jung. Although he taught for awhile at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, he asserts an independent vision. An essential Gebserian contribution is his subsuming of the scientific worldview. That worldview crystallized with the linear perspective geometry of the Italian Renaissance, a drawing technique that artificially separated subject and object. Gebser convincingly demonstrates the emergence of an integral consciousness where the time and space of "objectivity" no longer offer an adequate description of our world or personal experience. This book is a masterpiece, written in simple, somewhat repetitive language. It is quite readable, though a bit awkward in translation.

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Amazon Customer

Ken Wilber's got good taste

October 9, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

One of my favorite books to explain the consciousness of the human race. The last few chapters are a must read to explain humanity's future.

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David Watkins

The Emerging Mutation of Consiousness

June 3, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I've read about this book for decades. It provides an important historical perspective.

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Dr. R. Gregoire

A profound discussion of the non-dual universe

June 9, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

A profound discussion of the non-dual universe

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