Böcker av Tim Freke

THE EMERGENCE OF SOUL, MEANING AND IMMORTALITYThe grand religious stories that gave meaning to life and death in the past have crumbled under sceptical scrutiny. The dominant mainstream philosophy is now scientific objectivism, which describes a universe that exists for no reason and a life that ends in oblivion. Pioneering philosopher Tim Freke addresses the "e;soul crisis"e; in modern culture that has arisen from lack of meaning. He offers an intelligent "e;spiritual"e; perspective on life and death to help us make sense of a paradoxical world, which is sometimes bleak and banal, but also can be magical and full of significance. He presents a revolutionary paradigm shift in our understanding of reality that integrates the deepest insights of science and spirituality to create a new model of human identity, which makes the idea of the immortal soul intellectually credible. He explores the process of evolution, not as blind chance, but as the momentous story of the self-realising universe. The development of the material world has led to the emergence of "e;psyche"e; or "e;soul,"e; which you are experiencing right now as a stream of thoughts and images that don't exist in space and aren't made of matter. We are not insignificant specks in a vast purposeless cosmos. We are significant participants in the magnificent and meaningful story of soul. The universe is coming to know itself through each one of us and this process doesn't end at death, because the evolution of soul has also been the evolution of immortality.

As the author of more than 20 books on the world's spiritual traditions, Tim Freke is in a unique position to present a revolutionary new approach to spiritual awakening. With astonishing clarity and directness he explains why popular spiritual teachings that urge us to reject the mind, attack the ego and detach from the vicissitudes of life are misguided. Using the powerful tool of 'paralogical thinking', he reveals that everyone has both a 'deep I' and a 'personal self'. The deep I is our spiritual essence, which is one with everyone and everything. We experience the deep I as a feeling of limitless love. The personal self by contrast is our tender humanity; it feels pleasure and pain, hope and heartache, love and loss. The personal self feels separate from the world. Tim's powerful paralogical insights reveal that the personal self is not an obstacle to our spiritual essence which must be overcome but rather a doorway to the deep I. Indeed, it is only through the personal self that we can find and then embody the deep I in our lives. The ego is not the villain but rather the hero of the spiritual journey. When we are deep awake, we wake up to oneness and celebrate separateness. We embrace both our spirituality and our humanity. Authentic spirituality is not about detaching ourselves from life, but about wholeheartedly diving in so that we can express our deep love and our unique human passion in the world.