and simultaneously the psyche of the Great ALL, in which we all reside
340885
If one is to understand this novel, one must understand the concepts of Gnosticism, the 7 Chakras/Planets/vowels/Hermetic Principles, and specifically one's own brain or mind:(Maskull.....Ma/My Skull).

The Journey is through the psyche, and simultaneously the psyche of the Great ALL, in which we all reside.

This os a great work, you just have to open your mind to see beyond the surface, using the esoteric premise as a guide.
2473570
This book by Mr. Leadbeater gives us a clear look at the SELF, the GOD SELF of which we are an extension of. Mr. Leadbeater shows us how we as personality are the agent of free will, for the soul, the higher mental  vehicle (the Christ Self) and the Monad (the I AM Presence). He clearly  explains the fact that we as co-creators with God are constantly imposing  our thoughts, feeling and actions upon the elemental essence of the mental  astral and physical planes. In the book Mr. Leadbeater and his collegues  perform a multitude of experiments in this regard, where they use their  clairvoyant vision to see the truly beneficent effects of the freewill  releasing positive and loving thoughts, desires and deeds upon the  elemental essence of the three corresponding planes. As well they did note  the disasterous ultimately boomeranging results of imposing a negative or  hateful will/matrix upon such an innocent and serving nature as the the  elementals.
  "Surely yea are God.", I believe to be just one  of the many truly deep and profound truths to be found in this book The  Monad. Mr. Leadbeater in this book teaches us about enlightened self  interest, not only "to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as  doves", but as mature souls to take our altruism in hand. The Monad  gives us many great tools to do just that; So visualize a friend and or a  loved one recieving the love of your heart, poof! it is done, the elemental  flys off to do your will. But think an ill thought or send an agressive  feeling and the elemental that forms is then bound by that negativity (much  like a curse)and like the loving elemental it must go and seek away to  bestow this energy upon our unsuspecting victim. The victim who in the end  shall be, through the law of karma, ourselves! The returning negativity  greatly compounded by the havoc and negative karma this poor creature  creates on its outbound thrust at our intended target and its returning  trip back to our very own hearts as the sender.  As Leadbeater himself  has said, the Light of the Brotherhood shines through the one who trys to  help without thought of self. The Monad tells us that that can only be done  through the SELF that resides in us all. We of course must have the  discernment to know the difference between self and SELF, in that, this  book The Monad gives us many coordinates to do so. What I do to you I  ultimately do to me, hence the wisdom of the Golden Rule.  Dear fellow  traveller,I hope you enjoy this enlightening work by Mr. Leadbeater as much  as I did. Namaste.
183597
Being an avid reader I have over the years, come to believe that each teller of tales has either consciously or unconsciously, a portion of the truth behind this physical universe we find ourselves in.  For me, this is especially true with this volume.  Some have criticised the lengthly descriptions as being overlong.  I find them completely complementary to the story.

More and more, we are being drawn towards the subject of quantum physics, where, at subatomic levels, energy becomes though and effect precedes cause.  Dean has pointed us towards the concept of faith and science coming together at this sub atomic level, and pointing I think to the domain of the creator or if you like, Supreme Being.

I think that a universe so complex cannot, to any rational being, be dismissed as happenstance.  That we go on, either to other lifetimes or ascend to higher etherial levels must be given serious consideration.

Certainly this is a shot in the arm to seekers after truth.

In this volume, Dean has, in my opinion, pointed the way for serious thinkers, nay believers, to follow their own star to the level of spiritual perfection that we must all eventually aspire.

I do hope that Dean will be inspired to give us more of the same, so like the sower and the seed, some of it will find fertile ground and reproduce an hundredfold.

Thank you amazon for bringing this book to my attention.
3665073
I cannot add more or different praise than has already been written so eloquently by the reviewers before me. I can only say that this remarkable panegyric upon humanity must be shared . . . each "read" must certainly elevate the planet's consciousness. When I finished the book, I kept hearing the words of John Donne whispering in the background: No man is an island - When the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. We are ONE, let's start believing it, let's commit to kindness with each new dawn.
638312
Again, Joseph Campbell endows us with his superb view of global mythology, its synthesis and comparative wellness ok knowledge, clarity of perception and eloquence. A delight of insight.
4396982
It has been a pleasure reading the reviews of others  of this magisterial work. We form a kind of brotherhood across space and time in the task of praising to the outside world the grandeur of the work Mann himself considered his magnum opus. I once owned the previous Lowe-Porter translation and could get precisely nowhere with it. Now Mr. Woods has made it accessible to any literate spirit. I use the term "spirit" advisedly. For in the Prelude, entitled "The Descent into Hell," Mann sets forth a cosmogony derived from Gnosticism apparently, in which God permitted the soul, at its urgent request, to descend to earth to intermix with matter and then, in order to redeem the soul from this entanglement sent out a second emissary, as it were, the spirit, from the heavenly realm. But the spirit also got itself overengaged with this earthly compound of soul-matter, losing sight, one might say, of its original mission of rescue, much as an ambassador to a foreign land, if he stays there too long, loses the sense of his original representation and instead becomes an advocate for the foreign country, as Mann points out with exquisite irony. But then, gentle reader, the bombshell explodes, and Mann cuts through all of his own thick and multilayered ironies to set forth what I, at least, consider the strongest sentence I have ever encountered, anywhere:

[The spirit] remains, no matter how it presents itself, what it is: the messenger of
warning, the principle of opposition, umbrage, and wandering, which stirs up
within the breast of one individual, among all the great host of the lustily
complacent, an uneasiness at our preternatural wretchedness, drives him out
of the gates of the past and the given and into the extravagant adventure of
uncertainty, and makes him like the stone that, once it has broken away and
begins to roll, is destined to set in motion an ever-growing, rolling,
incalculable cascade of events.  [pp. 35-6]

And from this immediately ensues the epic spiritual adventure of Abraham into the uncharted domain of grasping for an understanding of and relationship with  the sole and ultimate source of sovereignty in the universe. And if this weren't enough, Mann then goes on to equate Abraham's adventure with the adventure of the storyteller (!) in daring to reach out to compose a tale such as this one.
Obviously I could go on forever in this vein, but my sole object is to plant my flag with the other on-line reviewers here and perhaps by this to induce some innocent wandering passerby of a reader to get out there and buy the book and read it, and by that act of participation, under any view a daunting and time-consuming committment, to join in Mann's festival of life, of storytelling as high art, of recapitulating in himself or herself the tradition of absorbing one's own cultural roots at the deepest level of joy and satisfaction. So there.--Mark B. Packer
4543291
When a man dreams of becoming someone, he goes through any minor and major obstacles to achieve this dream. When I thaught about the fact that one mans reality can be another mans illusion,is the primary definition of self separated agenda.

My perception of this book is the matching definition of ones reality and illusion. Beyond my opinion of this vast but not so unfamiliar knowledge, it is very wise to understand that not all will accept nor follow the path of the wise, and what we consider wise is soley upon each and every indivisual.

I was born with the ability to see beyond the perception of a human being. Ive always consider my self abit different from the ones who consider themselves normal. I cannot accept the theory that we are the only living inteligence bataring our way through the universe.

If the knowledge contain inside is true then indeed the world is on a path to freedom.
253437
If only, if only, if ONLY all educated people were required to read this book, then perhaps the world would be less full of idiots.

This work is one of astounding honesty. While half the world is bickering about one thing and the other half another, both of them convinced that they are absolutely, positively correct, RAW comes and quietly writes a book condemning all such forms of hypocrisy. His key point is that it is impossible to know what anything IS. We can only know what we perceive. And on top of that, since we can only know what we perceive, we should live in constant awareness that we may, in fact, be wrong.

Our perceptions are not even wholly our own, but are the result of a cacophony of influences ranging from our birthplace to our parents to our teachers to our language to differences in the way our brains are formed.

RAW's opinion is that agnosticism--not only about God, but about everything--is the only way to live in truth. And this is the key to begin understanding each other...
157763
Oh! You got me at the first poem, Ms. Johnstone.  Thank you for saying out loud what we are seeing and feeling for ourselves.  It is all of our collective experience you speak of, and you comfort us by reassuring us that you notice it too.  Thank you for being a guide in the dark for so many.  The illustrations seem otherworldly, as if our own experiences are as well.  I suppose they are.  This is for sure not a reality we had imagined for ourselves.  It is sometimes a cold and desolate place here, but somehow I have comfort knowing people are you are in it. Thanks for offering your hand, and your eyes.  Well done.
246616
Once again, Daniel Quinn guides us through the maze of our own mythology.  Three very different characters take turn after turn and yet as each corner seems to bring them more and more confusion, the end arrives to cast light upon the dark corners of our own souls. Here we discover the beliefs, ideas and reasoning that have been woven into the fabric of our lives and that continue to choke us of the very breathe of freedom that all souls desire.
If it sounds too unbelievable then you haven't met ISHMAEL.  If you have, then I'm sure you'll agree that the awakening of the mind and spirit Daniel offered forth in that book, as with his subsequent writings, has again been visited in a different yet equally compelling tale of how the chains that bind us are each our own to break.
3731617
This is one of the finest books of all time, containing layers upon layers of insights into life, spirituality, pursuit of truth, intelligence, love, etc.  For anyone interested in these studies, this is a priceless book.  It can be picked up at any time, opened to a random page, for some instant insight...  or it can be read again and again and again gaining something new each time..

I see there's only one left of this edition, the newest edition can be found through Absolute Publishing Group's website.
4970540
Inspiring and daunting all at the same time.
126673
We are all defined by many titles: our sex, family status, career, ethnicity, zodiac, religion and political affiliation.  This collection of photographs and poetry reminds me that above all I am American.  This book is especially timely yet a book for the ages.  A wonderful read to ponder time and again.  The author's insights are quite insightful!
1817256
Deep, profound and usable by those who walk the Path of Truth, that all is Source attempting to bloom through the individual a greater expression and creation of Being. Thank you in all directions.
1682310
This is one of THE most important books for anyone interested in the varieties of the human mind. Thanks to the compulsive thoroughness of an early 14th century inquisitor (a bishop who became pope), lengthy quotes from the people that he was interrogating came to be preserved in the Vatican library. The accused are heretics, stubborn country folk supporting "the resistance", as it were, that handful of Cathar holy men hiding in the woods following the Church's campaign savage against the flourishing southern French civilization around the town of Albi in the first quarter of the 13th century. In spite of the slashing and burning that had laid waste to the land of the Cathars in the previous century, the folks of Montaillou were stubborn in holding to their beliefs, and here it gets interesting.

What on earth were these people like, what issues could possibly matter enough to medieval farmers for them to put their lives on the line over subtle theological distinctions, like whether the Trinity was indivisible? LeRoy Ladurie thankfully quotes extensively from the sources, and a picture emerges of a Christian religion influenced by contact with the Eastern Gnostics, leaning towards a belief in reincarnation and the virtues of vegetarian asceticism. The Catholic Church was seen as a nasty political beast at odds with a true faith, and the villagers turn out to have been surprisingly sophisticated, reading books, for instance, at a time when only hand-copied manuscripts existed. It is apparent that many popular religious movements preceded the protestant schism.

In their literal testimony we glimpse the villagers' daily lives, their sense of time and reality, their relations with neighbors (like the Moors of northern Spain), as well as a social organization that was more communal (and less class-divided) than our unconsciously marxist-influenced history books would have it. The lady of the manor is seen regularly spending time gossiping in the kitchens of the farmers, the shepherds tend each others' flocks on cash contract, and when it's safe, religion is vigorously debated by the fire. It's not a dark oppressed feudal world. The romantic entanglements of the village priest alone are enough to liven the place up. If we had such documents for other times and places, in which people's thinking was as thoroughly documented, we might better appreciate our origins. This book is a gold mine.
3573230
In this book George Orwell depicts a world in which a collective consciousness is imposed and controlled by a superbeing called the Party, which by excerting control over every individual's mind obtains control over what it calls 'truth'. Every person is one with the Party, which is personified by the infallible and omnipotent (but nonexistent) Big Brother. Through the individual story of Winston Smith, who initially attempts to rebel against the Party and is later tortured and molded to accept the 'truth' Orwell shows how a heartless totalitarian state might emerge and remain in power permanently by stripping people of all of what we tend to call 'human nature'.

The book has the clear purpose of warning the reader of the dangerous path our society is following. Throughout the course of the twentieth century, and even in the present day, we can see signs of the kind of mind control described in this book, as well as several instances of blatant declarations of omnipotence. It is up to us (humans) to keep the gruesome world described by Orwell from ever coming into existence.
140874
In this seminal book, Thomas Eric Bates masterfully argues that it is possible to be all-Christian, all-Native American, all at once. The original research on contextualization is solid. The presentation is lucid. And the case study, which brings Bates's theory to life, is compelling. This path-breaking study deserves a wide audience, both in the academy and beyond.