Shadow Culture: Psychology and Spirituality in America Book PDF, ePub eBook

Join our eBook service for unlimited books & audiobooks. Get a free 7 day subscription! ↓↓↓↓↓


Book Descriptions:
Shadow Culture traces the lineage of the contemporary New Age movement through three centuries of American spirituality.. Writing a modern Varieties of Religious Experience , Eugene Taylor traces the lineage of the contemporary New Age movement through three centuries of American spirituality as sustained in a continuous shadow culture outside the religious mainstream.Americans are witnessing a third Great Awakening, an explosion of interest in esoteric and mystical religious experience. Often referred to as New Age or pop psychology--especially by its detractors--this third Great Awakening is profoundly psychological, stressing the alteration of consciousness, the integration of mind and body, and the connection between physical and mental health. Its practitioners comprise a shadow culture of seekers, whose experiences are best understood in the context of three centuries of the American search for the sacred. Taylor begins his story with Americas first generation of visionaries, Jonathan Edwards, who rescued a declining Calvinism, and his lesser-known peer, Conrad Beissel, who led the Ephrata mystics, a monastic community that became the model for many utopian social experiments to come. Together they spearheaded the first Great Awakening, spanning the years 1720 to 1750. Trance states, ecstatic whirling, automatic utterances, and falling down in the spirit became common occurrences sanctioned by many of the governing church bodies, particularly the Shakers, for whom altered consciousness served as a primary source of spiritual inspiration. The second Great Awakening blossomed during the westward expansion of the early nineteenth century and was characterized by utopian experiments in Christian socialism. Taylor paints fresh portraits of that eras towering visionaries--Emerson, Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller. In the folk psychology of that era, ties between spiritualism and mental healing likewise burgeoned in the diverse practices of homeopathy, phrenology, and mesmerism. Like todays Great Awakening, with its roots in the experimentalism of the 1960s, each of the two previous was propelled by a shadow culture.Today, that shadow culture can be found flourishing in every region and sector of American society--the Christian practitioners of Hindu yoga or zen meditation, the Jewish psychologists attaining the rank of Moslem Sufi masters, the American-born Buddhist nuns. Though outside the mainstream of religious and psychological institutions, these recombinant pilgrims have paradoxically come to play a dominant role in our popular culture. For it is through awakenings that a nation explores wisdom, gains respect for itself, and comes into more harmonious relations with the physical universe. A brilliant work of historical and cultural synthesis, Shadow Culture will appeal to anyone seeking an accessible history of the resurgence of spiritualism in America, from New Age seekers to Gnostics, from agnostics to Unitarians, from Swedenborgians to practicing Buddhists. Since the 1960s Americans have embarked on a third Great Awakening, best understood in the context of three centuries of the American search for the sacred. The first Great Awakening took place in 17201750 as a reaction against the strictures of Calvinism. Trance states, ecstatic whirling, automatic utterances, and falling down in the spirit became common occurrences fully sanctioned by the governing church bodies. The second blossomed during the westward expansion of the early nineteenth century and was characterized by utopian experiments in Christian socialism. William James first explored these movements from the perspective of the thenrelatively new science of psychology, concluding that these experiences, while ephemeral, carried a sense of a deeper knowledge than obtainable through rational intellect.Each of the three Great Awakenings has been propelled by a shadow culture outside the mainstream of Judeo-Christian Protestantism. Today, its inhabitants are the white men and women who have lived successfully among native American Indians, the Christian and Jewish practitioners of Hindu yoga and meditation, the Caucasian musicians who have mastered the African drums, the Jewish psychology professors who have attained the rank of Moslem Sufi masters, and the American women who have become Buddhist nuns. Taylor argues that through awakenings a nation grows in wisdom, in respect for itself, and into more harmonious relations with other people and the physical universe.

Shadow Culture: Psychology and Spirituality in America by Eugene Taylor

From reader reviews:

Ann Fout:

What do you think of book? It is just for students since they're still students or the idea for all people in the world, what the best subject for that? Only you can be answered for that problem above. Every person has different personality and hobby for each and every other. Don't to be pushed someone or something that they don't wish do that. You must know how great and important the book Shadow Culture: Psychology and Spirituality in America. All type of book is it possible to see on many solutions. You can look for the internet methods or other social media.

Raymond Hernandez:

Beside this kind of Shadow Culture: Psychology and Spirituality in America in your phone, it could possibly give you a way to get nearer to the new knowledge or information. The information and the knowledge you may got here is fresh through the oven so don't always be worry if you feel like an older people live in narrow commune. It is good thing to have Shadow Culture: Psychology and Spirituality in America because this book offers to you readable information. Do you occasionally have book but you would not get what it's exactly about. Oh come on, that wil happen if you have this with your hand. The Enjoyable arrangement here cannot be questionable, just like treasuring beautiful island. Use you still want to miss the item? Find this book and also read it from at this point!

Jose Longoria:

Do you like reading a book? Confuse to looking for your favorite book? Or your book was rare? Why so many problem for the book? But any people feel that they enjoy with regard to reading. Some people likes examining, not only science book but additionally novel and Shadow Culture: Psychology and Spirituality in America as well as others sources were given expertise for you. After you know how the great a book, you feel need to read more and more. Science book was created for teacher or students especially. Those guides are helping them to add their knowledge. In various other case, beside science e-book, any other book likes Shadow Culture: Psychology and Spirituality in America to make your spare time much more colorful. Many types of book like this one.

John Rowland:

Book is one of source of understanding. We can add our expertise from it. Not only for students but also native or citizen require book to know the up-date information of year to be able to year. As we know those publications have many advantages. Beside we add our knowledge, also can bring us to around the world. From the book Shadow Culture: Psychology and Spirituality in America we can consider more advantage. Don't you to be creative people? Being creative person must prefer to read a book. Just simply choose the best book that ideal with your aim. Don't become doubt to change your life at this book Shadow Culture: Psychology and Spirituality in America. You can more desirable than now.