Celebrating Ultimate Spiritual Books and Art in 2016

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning that at no additional cost to you, I will receive a commission if you click through and make a purchase. HarvBishop.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program to provide a means to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

BY HARV BISHOP

What does it mean to be a lightworker in our politically divided country? The mystic David Spangler has some ideas. In other ultimate spiritual reads of 2016 a gifted writer famed for encounters with “aliens” joins with a comparative religion professor to find meaning in difficult transcendent experiences. In the second read, the genius film director David Lynch celebrates the connection between meditation and creativity. Third, the always provocative Gary Lachman celebrates one of his heroes, the too little known Colin Wilson, one of the few recent intellectual heavyweights to take the paranormal and higher consciousness seriously. Plus you can enter to win a free art print from New Thought artist Tim Botta. Learn how at the end of this blog.

Many of us, myself included, have grieved since the presidential election, while other New Thought sisters and brothers have celebrated the results. What approach can we share to heal our divided nation?

I came across these wise words from the mystic David Spangler recently that I think points out a way to experiment with.

Light does not attack or contest. What Light does is to evoke itself within a system. It’s not so much that we ‘send’ Light to someone or someplace as it is that we evoke through resonance their own Light or the Light of that situation to emerge and make itself known. Light operates by changing the environment. Here the metaphor of physical light can be useful. If I step into a dark room and turn on the light, the light doesn’t start fighting the darkness and forcing it to retreat. The light simply is, and where it is, darkness cannot also be. Light alters the environment, whether we’re talking about physical light or sacred Light. In a strict sense, then, there are no ‘Warriors of Light.’ Rather there are Light-bearers, those who can bring into and evoke from a situation potentials for sacredness in expression. –David Spangler, “Views from the Borderland,” Year 6 Vol III.

Spangler’s quote hit me like a thunderbolt. I found it helpful in deciding how to respond to this politically charged historical moment. Author and mystic David Spangler’s philosophy, which he calls Incarnational Spirituality, is unique. Where traditional belief systems — including the mystical— portray humans as hollow reeds who at their best learn to channel Divinity, Spangler says that we incarnate with a unique Self Light to share our gifts with the world. Traditional systems are derived from observing the sun, he says, and regard humans as passive reflectors circulating the sunlight. Spangler instead sees an ecosystem of spiritual energy where everyone and everything is a source of light.

I can’t think of a better guide to the subtle realms than this Washington-based mystic and veteran of Scotland’s famed Findhorn spiritual community. This year he released “Working with Subtle Energies,” a sequel to his seminal 2010 book “Subtle Worlds.” 2015’s “Journey into Fire” is a wonderful introduction to Incarnational Spirituality.

More Ultimate Spiritual Books of 2016

 

#CommissionsEarned

“The Super Natural” by Whitely Strieber and Jeffrey Kripal (Tarcher Perigee 2016). This book is one of the most provocative and rewarding spiritual books of this or any year. I’ll have more on the blog about it this spring, but for now, here are three takeaways. First, you may remember Stieber from “Communion” fame, the harrowing book and movie about his encounters with apparent extra-terrestrials. Strieber was made fun of and lost friends. What we didn’t see behind the wacky stereotype is that Strieber is a lifelong mystic and seeker and never claimed that extraterrestrials were the explanation for what he experienced. Second, in this collaboration with Kripal, a celebrated Rice University professor of comparative religion, they unpack the sometimes-traumatic side of encounters with the transcendent, something that is too often overlooked in our hope that all such experiences are love and light. Third, the authors stress in many ways that our experiences of the Divine are real but filtered through our human psychology, cultural beliefs, and biological predispositions. The upshot: They argue that questions are more important than answers and dogmatism to evolving consciousness and our world.

#CommissionsEarned

Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity: 10th Anniversary Edition, David Lynch” (Tarcher Perigee 2016). This series of essays by the legendary director and advocate for Transcendental Meditation (TM) is described well in its title. His stories about making films from “Eraserhead” to “Blue Velvet” would be enough to recommend the book. But a precious glimpse into the working methods of an extraordinary spiritually-minded creative artist takes it over the top. It’s no secret he credits his meditation practice with many of his best ideas. This dynamic approach to meditation is a nice contrast with methods that demand detachment from whatever arises. Lynch interviews Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr for the concluding chapters. Sir Paul tells about getting ideas for songs during his time at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram. He confessed to the Maharishi that he feared he wasn’t meditating correctly. The Maharishi assured McCartney his experience was fine as it was and that his creativity was a good thing.

#CommissionsEarned

“Beyond the Robot: The Life and Work of Colin Wilson Gary Lachman” (Tarcher Perigee 2016). Lachman’s books never disappoint. If you are familiar with his earlier works on the evolution of consciousness and spirituality you know that he was greatly influenced by the English writer-philosopher Colin Wilson. Wilson came of age in 1950s England and eventually found himself in the unusual position of being a life-affirming existentialist. Life, Wilson argued, had meaning unlike such pessimistic plays as Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.” His work eventually turned to studying peak experiences and examining the paranormal. Wilson was always hunting bigger game and his writings placed transcendent experiences in a much larger socio-cultural context than a mere recording of apparently weird experiences. Lachman skillfully unpacks Wilson’s fascinating intellectual growth and the impact of his life experiences. As a longtime Wilson family friend, Lachman had unprecedented access to the Wilson family and Colin Wilson’s papers.

Below are artist Tim Botta’s drawings of a winter scene with Dr. Ernest Holmes, founder of the Science of Mind philosophy and incarnational spirituality mystic David Spangler. I am grateful for Tim’s contributions to this blog and his amazing work portraying New Thought icons. Visit his website at TimBotta.com.