Steve Taylor's May Update - New Video & Poem

Published: Wed, 05/24/17

Dear ,

I hope you are well. Thanks for all the birthday greetings you sent back after my last newsletter. Since then some people have asked me “How does it feel to be 50?” The answer is that it feels great. I actually feel younger now than I did when I was 25. Back then I was confused, depressed and unhealthy. I drank and smoked a lot, didn’t exercise, felt tired all the time, and didn’t know who I was or what my purpose was. Now I feel much healthier and happier, lighter and freer, and know exactly what my purpose is. Hopefully the same will apply when I’m 75!

Thanks also for your advice about my new book - almost everyone suggested I focus on ‘Spiritual Science.’ So that’s what I’ve been doing. In fact, yesterday I wrote to two publishers about the book, sending a sample chapter and a plan. If you’re interested here’s the summary:

Spiritual Science: Beyond Materialism, Towards a New Vision of Reality
by Steve Taylor

In our culture, it’s often assumed that there are two ways of interpreting the world: in a rational scientific way, or an irrational religious way. This book shows that there is a third alternative: a spiritual, or “panpsychist” view of reality that transcends both conventional science and religion, and answers many of the riddles that neither can explain. Spiritual Science portrays conventional materialist science as a belief system that many people accept unknowingly, and which struggles to explain many of the major aspects of human life and the world around us. The book explains how this materialist model of reality developed, and details its cultural consequences, which include a sense of anomie and meaninglessness, and a focus on hedonism and consumerism. The book then presents the evidence for a panpsychist or spiritual view of reality, drawing on the insights of philosophers, physicists, mystics, as well as spiritual traditions and indigenous cultures.

The book’s main purpose is to show that many of the issues that don’t make sense from a materialist perspective can be easily understood from a spiritual or panpsychist perspective. The simple notion that there is a fundamental spiritual energy that is ever-present and in everything, as a fundamental quality of the universe, has great explanatory power. This book proceeds methodically through a variety of issues - such as human consciousness, altruism, evolution, and seemingly “anomalous’ phenomena such as near-death experiences, telepathy, pre-cognition and “higher” states of consciousness or spiritual experiences - explaining the deficiencies of standard materialist explanations of these phenomena, and then showing how easily these phenomena can be understood from a panpsychist point of view.

This book uncovers a vision of reality which is fully compatible with both modern science and ancient spiritual teachings. In this way, the book integrates science and spirituality in a more cohesive and convincing way than ever before. In addition, Spiritual Science may help to free us from the tragic cultural consequences of materialism. It shows how a spiritual view of reality can change our relationship to the world and other living beings. It can help to heal the world, just as it can heal us.

Talks

It may be a bit late now, but on Thursday May 25th I’m giving a talk on ‘The Psychology of Spiritual Awakening’ in Totnes, Devon, at the Consciousness Cafe. For further information and book a place see the Consciousness Cafe.

On July 3rd I’m speaking at Alternatives in London, about The Leap. This will be the third time I’ve spoken there and it’s one of the best places to speak in the UK, if not the world. Such a beautiful venue with an amazing atmosphere. In fact, below is a photo from when I last spoke there, which gives you a sense of how special it is.

I’m also doing a one day workshop through Alternatives in London on Saturday September 9th.

New Video

As I said in my last newsletter, I’ve been doing a lot of interviews about The Leap lately. One of the best ones I’ve done was on a show called ‘Inspire Nation’ with a great interviewer called Michael Sandler. He asked me a lot of interesting questions that I’ve never been asked before, about my childhood, my musical background, and so on. It was probably the most enjoyable interview I’ve done, because Michael has such a great manner and is such a zany character. See the video interview here.

New Poem

I’m going to leave you with a new poem of mine, entitled ‘Two Worlds.’

The Two Worlds

Every moment you have a choice
to be absent or to be present
to be elsewhere or to be here.

Elsewhere is the place where the past and future live -
a shady netherworld, full of the ghosts of past events
that haunt you with bitterness and guilt
and where shadows of the future stalk
and taunt you with bleak scenarios of failure and of loss.

Elsewhere is the place where fears grow -
an open plain full of threats and dangers
and you’re exposed by broad daylight, like an animal
hunted by a thousand different predators.

Elsewhere is the place where desires grow -
a desert full of mirages of pleasure, and illusions of achievement
that gives you nothing except frustration
and turns you into a prisoner of the present
full of a thirst that can’t be quenched.

But look around now - and see what is here.
Look around now, at what is real and true.

Here is like a bright spring morning
where the whole world stands pristine and clear
and each moment shines with is-ness
sufficient to itself, outside time.

Here is like a beautiful painting
a masterpiece of translucent light and infinite space
with colours that become richer, forms that become more perfect
and details that become more vivid and intricate, the longer you look
and that somehow keeps being freshly painted,
as if the artist is always here among us, working secretly.

Here there is no lack, only the wholeness of what is now.
Here there is no doubt, only the certainty of now.
Here there is no complexity, only the simple truth of now.

So why choose absence, when you can be present?
Why be elsewhere when you can be here?

All best wishes and blessings, Steve