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Written by a neurologist who has practiced thirty-nine years, this is the story of a bipolar man who suffered from mania and depression alternately for fourteen years before a major seizure finally brought about a correct diagnosis in 1983. The seizure caused religious hallucinations which prompted him to begin a spiritual quest for the meaning of life soon after. He describes his gradual association with hypnosis, a Bible camp, the Methodist church, and eventual acceptance of the Gospel of Thomas, a non-canonical book of “sayings” of Jesus unearthed with the Nag Hammadi manuscripts found in 1945. Preferring a “mythic” approach to the gospels, he stresses the inner and meditative over the exoteric and literal. Also described are the stages of his career in neurology and a critique on the excesses and dangers posed by modernity.
Told in a first-person, direct style, this is part memoir, part autobiography, and part theological and philosophical speculation. It is very much a scientist’s foray into the realm of theology, and his concern for rationality never leaves the narrative. Bringing Freud, Jung, and even Aldous Huxley into the discussion, the writer sees no rational basis for there to be a conflict between science and religion. He does not find creationism to be rational and quotes modern Bible critics like Tom Harpur (author of The Pagan Christ) who posit the Egyptian Book of the Dead as a source for most of the Bible stories. Certainly a unique approach to religious belief, this is a learned and sincere exploration of the perennial questions of meaning, purpose, and what comes after our short biological histories. Nonsectarian in the extreme, the writer hopes to point a way beyond the conflicts inherent in creeds, cultures, and class.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review