Reviews for The Philosophy Of Mysticism, Vol. 1

The average rating for The Philosophy Of Mysticism, Vol. 1 based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-10-14 00:00:00 Bernard Guinta [I gained interest in this book from the multiple references pointing towards Du Prel as having strong influence upon Jung's psychological ideas. I am more interested in accessing insight into the unconscious and dreaming from before modern psychological times than upon focusing solely upon Jung's work.] This first volume is a hodge-podge mix of medical observations and stories of somambules (not solely sleep-walking individuals but more so those who are susceptible to voluntary and involuntary trance states). Much of the "data" used and references cited is not accessible in English or in our present day literature, but some of the evidence can be found by name and case research. The philosophy of mysticism is hinted at and perhaps it is more systematically fleshed out in volume 2 which discusses memory and then goes deep into the "monistic doctrine of the soul". Du Prel does allow us to understand his intent: that sleep and dreams are of the higher order, granting us access to the unconscious and, more so, access to the big 'U' Unconscious (perhaps the influence upon Jung's Collective Unconscious). This transcendent philosophy of the mind tries its best to use the science of its day (late 1800s) to state that our unconscious processes are both of the individual sort and the Transcendant access. To prove this, Du Prel gives an exhaustive list of cases ranging from precognitive dreams of "health-prescriptions" (individuals finding cures within dreams/trance states) and diagnosis of diseases of others that could not be known by a layperson. The title seemed a bit misleading; the word mysticism is generally thought of as a higher ecstatic union with the Absolute typically reserved for shamans, mystics and the religiously devout. Du Prel seems to hone in solely on the dreaming and sleeping states of individuals and the strange experiences of these 'somambules'. A better title would be the Mystical Dimensions of Somnambulism (or Trance States). I suppose nowadays most everyone is aware and can have access to these mystical states through modern science/techniques (binaural audio; psychedelics; meditation; shamanic journeying). Du Prel does not give practical advice which is so common today (his title isn't "How to Become a Somambule in 90 Days and Access the Transcendent Realm") and tries to maintain a solid scientific stance while clarifying that this is speculation and not the typical materialist science. His main focus is upon those individuals who can access the higher dimension and bring back information that otherwise could not be received in waking life or in common sleep experience. Overall this was a fun read. A bit heavy on the anecdotes in the last hundred pages, but may have helped to justify his claims.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-12-29 00:00:00 John Pham Of course the older language takes some getting used to but for a 100+ year old book, the authors had surprising insight into cognition viewed experientially, rather than experimentally. That is, the author was able to conduct many experiments but, lacking the technology to directly observe the physical substrate, e.g. neuronal firing, heart rate, etc, the conclusions are based on descriptions of introspective states. One path that I look for in all of my favorite books, is an underlying story or compelling metaphor that we find applied in other, seemingly unrelated, stories...a gelling narrative such as identifying common elements the hero's journey from different world myths and religious texts. This book has achieved this by its analysis of dream and somnambulistic states as they relate to not only our own latent, or "unconscious," powers of perception but to those even of a primitive shaman. We tend to get pretty cocky about the "silliness" of past science but, the fact is, all of our imaging technologies combined can't really tell us how we perform the most common sense tasks, or tell us anything really about our own introspective states. By extension, they can do very little to quantify the full range of our mental ( abilities. For example, although we account for the "Placebo Effect" in drug trials, we still can't explain the fact that there really *is* a Placebo effect. People really are getting better, apparently based solely on their believe, i.e. their own introspective state, that they are receiving an beneficial medicine. This book attempts to address the true nature of these states by an analogous survey of similar phenomena, e.g. dreams, hypnotism and somnambulism.