Fifth Dimension: An Exploration of the Spiritual Realm Book

	Introduction : the big picture	1
Pt. I	Drawing the picture
1	Where we start today : the naturalistic assumption	13
2	Naturalism as bad news for the many	19
3	The big bang and the ambiguity of the universe	25
4	Windows on the transcendent	31
5	The key to understanding	38
6	Turning the critical realist key	45
Pt. II	The meaning of life
7	The religious meaning of life	53
8	Cosmic optimism in the East	61
9	And in the West	70
Pt. III	The gods and absolutes as manifestations of the real
10	The real experienced as God	83
11	The real experienced as the absolute	97
Pt. IV	Religious experience and mysticism
12	Altered states of consciousness	105
13	Religious experience	116
14	Visions - a case study of Julian of Norwich	124
15	Lady Julian's fruitful heresies	135
16	Unitive mysticism : literal unity	142
17	Unitive mysticism : metaphorical unity	150
18	The dark side	161
19	The criterion	169
Pt. V	The saints come marching in
20	One living saint is worth ten dead ones	179
21	Gandhi : a case study	186
22	The politics of truth	197
23	Gandhi's truth for us today	205
24	An activist and a contemplative	211
Pt. VI	The present and time future
25	What we don't need to know	225
26	Living within a true myth	235
27	Death and beyond	247