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**** elib Exclusive ****Help us keep elib.tech all the more special for its exclusivity.Out of respect for the original authors and publishers,please do not make this product available outside of our community.Thanks for keeping elib.tech awesome!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            GB Status :  CLOSED GB Page : Clare W. Graves – The Online Spiral Dynamics Principles Program GB                                                                                                                                Quote:I read the book twice, about 5 years apart. The second time I wrote about 12 pages of notes that I reviewed regularly for years. Gebser’s book is not an easy read, but it may well be the best articulated conceptualization of an era-based development of consciousness for a modern reader.Kudos to Twiss’s comparison and reference to the postmodern project in these reviews here on Amazon; Twiss’s are apt.It could be helpful to have working knowledge of philosophy to contextualize Gebser’s notions and understand and integrate them as they are presented on a number of different fronts.Gebser’s conceptualization of “structures of consciousness” might be a first step for a modern man / woman toward a fuller recognition of “being.” A second step might be characterized as “living it”—viz., an integration of thought with action / non-action. Zen folks remind us that at some point, we have to take one’s practice off the pillow into the world of everyday, mundane life (cf: The Ten Ox-Herding pictures).Other than benchmark spiritual pointers to “What This Is” (ala, Dzogchen, Kashmiri Saivism, Advaita Vedanta, Ati yoga, Mahamudra, etc.), Gebser’s tome may be the best understanding for contemporary times and seekers interested in the nature of their own consciousness.I highly recommend Gebser’s book, but it will likely require considerable study and reflection.Quote:The Ever Present Origin is difficult and dense but richly rewarding. A second reading, of some parts at least, may be a good way to go. It is an awesome book and I agree with the previous reviewer who said there is so much for future research to explore. The breadth and scope is immense and comprehensive. A really good summary is provided by John David Ebert on You tube, (although the sound quality is not the best). To be able to recognize the magical, mythic and mental structures of consciousness is liberating, and the essence of Gebser’s ‘aperspectival’ structure. The “mutations” (he does not call it evolution) from one structure to the next are demonstrated through extensive references to art, literature, science, etc. The section on modern art alone is worth the effort of reading up till then. The “aperspectival” structure – the most recent mutation of consciousness that Gebser identifies is characterized by the dawning awareness of Time in the same way that the mental structure began with the discovery of “space” and hence, perspective in painting, appeared (around the time of Leonardo da Vinci.)Quote:Two years ago, I had just dropped out of a Philosophy program at USF because I had the intuition that philosophy itself was becoming obsolete. Of course, I thought science and technology were its heirs, but only a few months later, I stumbled across The Ever-Present Origin.It is the single greatest book I have ever read.So much of what is contained in this book either corroborates with, correlates to, or strengthens much of what the postmodern philosophers have done since Bergson, Husserl, and existentialism’s hay-day. A main strength of the book is something I personally see as contained yet LATENT in the project of postmodernist philosophy at-large: the overcoming of philosophy itself and the overcoming of strictly dualistic ontology through an awareness of reality as a-psychic and a-physical, through something Gebser calls “verition”, a spiritual awareness of things in their wholeness. Yet the most important thing contained in the book is the characterization of consciousness as a mutating structure that makes discontinuous jumps, the most “recent” of which is an awareness of time as a quality, not simply a quantity, and the ramifications such a consciousness holds.In addition to this, the book itself is written soberly, with seemingly endless sources, data, examples, and a simply astonishingly vast scope that still did not strip the book of rigor and attention to detail, as is the danger in such a large undertaking. I can only imagine how limited my insights from Gebser’s investigations are in relation to what future generations will take from his book. This book has hardly even begun to be understood. Read it; it will enrich you in a way that philosophy usually can’t.Quote:Hans Gruenig has given an excellent overview of Gebser’s monumental work. My review offers a sort of color commentary to augment Gruenig’s words. The Ever-Present Origin, which has a generic-looking cover, is an extraordinarily rich survey of art, science, culture, and symbolism from an author who achieved more than scholarly excellence. In a letter written to Georg Feuerstein, Gebser acknowledged achieving satori (see the Feuerstein book cited by Gruenig). A transcendent consciousness shines through this book. One of its highlights is Gebser’s scholarly survey of the evolution of soul. Gebser’s vision was formed in part through his friendship and acquaintence with many of the leading people of his time, including Einstein, Picasso, and Jung. Although he taught for awhile at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, he asserts an independent vision. An essential Gebserian contribution is his subsuming of the scientific worldview. That worldview crystallized with the linear perspective geometry of the Italian Renaissance, a drawing technique that artificially separated subject and object. Gebser convincingly demonstrates the emergence of an integral consciousness where the time and space of “objectivity” no longer offer an adequate description of our world or personal experience. This book is a masterpiece, written in simple, somewhat repetitive language. It is quite readable, though a bit awkward in translation.https://www.amazon.com/Ever-Present-Origin-Part-Aperspectiva…                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   )