The Guru Papers
In this online excerpt from Rational Mysticism, Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality, journalist John Horgan interviews the authors of The Guru Papers about the dangers of cults, gurus, and spiritual authority. "In 1999, just after I started researching a book on mysticism, I asked for advice from J.P., a man who works for a holistic-learning institute in New York City. J.P. cautiously recommended a book that critiqued the enlightenment industry and had caused a stir after its publication in 1993. Although the book makes valid points about the dangers of mystical traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, J.P. warned me, it "throws out the baby with the bathwater." That's how Mr. Horgan's article begins. The approach of weeding out careful, gradual amounts of spiritual bathwater is an excellent one. Keep doing that and one will eventually scrape the bottom of the bathtub and discover there is no baby. I was trying to explain this to Friar Jerry from Africa who randomly Instant Messaged me this weekend in order to evangelize me. He wanted to know "what happened" to make me non-theistic. There was no crisis point for me at which I suddenly ceased to be a dogmatic fundamentalist Christian and became a committed secularist. The breaking down of emotional barriers were many and varied, and so were the educational experiences such as reading Talkorigins.net. It was a process of gradual growth.
Now, whether or not the kid in The Matrix was correct that "there is no spoon," yeah, there probably is a spoon. The score so far: Spoon 1, Baby 0. :D Anyway, United Universists will present a live online chat with Mr. Horgan this Wednesday, September 15 at 8:00 p.m.
Comments
cosette-valjean on Sep. 13, 2004 10:22 AM — Spoon/Baby
Interesting metaphor. Don't baby's like spoons? ;-)
Anyway, this book sounds interesting. The chat should be good.
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