Religion of Tomorrow

[Matt23]

rating:  6.5-7/10

 

Just finished reading The Religion of Tomorrow.  -- so keep in mind that this review is ad hoc and not well-thought out yet. Just general first impressions. 

Phew.

Goddamn that was a piece of work.  Lots of words, that's fosho. 

My dislikes/issues with it:

I guess my general first impression is that the first 3/4 or so was just repeating a lot of stuff ad nauseum, as well as a bit of self-promoting (which I think is throughout the book and his work in general).  It could've been condensed down to 1/4 the size in my opinion.  Also, there was lots of more passion-infused writing talking about God which, to me, could have been significantly shortened which, in my opinion, would have preserved the message's quality.  Rather, it came off a bit overboard, excessive, and extravagant. 

Here's an example paragraph of what I'm talking about in terms of being a bit too superfluous in his writing sometimes, rather than educational and informative (remember, this is one of many):

•   "But as the leading edge of evolution itself (uniting both the highest structure and the highest state in an ongoing, unfolding manner- fully bringing together Growing up and Waking up for the first time in all of Kosmic history), the Supermind is an embodiment and epitome of the outrageous miracle that evolution itself is: the single, greatest, all-pervading, driving force (Eros, Spirit-in-action) running through out the universe in literally all domains the one imprint that no existing phenomenon anywhere in the universe does not feel; the bright Brilliance of the nondual union of the ultimate, infinite Divine Reality with its everyday, ordinary, finite operations; the intersection of the unimaginable creative involutionary currents (creating Something out of Nothing) and the equally creative evolutionary drives (creating Something out of Everything), each serving the other in the most intimate of ways; the radical nonduality of an Absolute Truth in desperate love with the productions of Relative Truth, which themselves are in helpless adoration of their Lover; the very mechanism where, in a sense, the entire Kosmos reaches down (Agape) and pushes up (Eros) in the creation and manifestation of each and every single new entity and event; the Kosmic Address where can be found the perfect intersection of the Mind of God and the mind of Humanity as they become perfectly indistinguishable' and the cutting, biting, leading edge of an unfolding Humanity on the verge of moving into its own Sperhumanity, a trans-transhuman superfuture in which an entirely new era in the history of the Kosmos beings unfolding, in which the two fundamental dimensions of Reality disclosed thus far - Absolute and Relative - come into a nondual binding junction that will henceforth be the always present, all-pervading, common unity-ground of each and every thing unfolding during that subsequent era (and hence allowing a new dimension, a new Ground, of all previous Grounds to come into actuality, and hence an entirely new and profound and even Greater Liberation).?

...Phew!  holy crap.  lol.  Ok... sooo... you get my drift now?  I dunno, I just think using words like "superfuture" decreases his credibility.  Like, for me anyways, it just seems too "out there" and extravagant.  

 

I also don't want to "dig" him or his book too much, since I believe he's a good dude doing some good work, with a few things I think he can improve on.  My two cents.  

There was a lot of work done with it, it seemed anyways.

the parts I liked best

• I think the last 1/4 of the book was my favorite as he introduced new concepts and didn't go over the same-old same-old.  Things like semiotics (the study of languages) and how he sees that tying into his ontology, as well as how that could help improve our current spiritualities and human development.  
• It was also nice to go through the section on dysfunctions to get a more specific understanding of how he views neuroses, including going over several types of neuroses and how they connect with and are characteristic of certain levels of development.  
• Though I think I notice him referring to the same people, studies, and concepts a good amount, he did introduce some new thinkers, books, and theories to investigate further.  People I've never heard of, which I can research further to broaden my exposure to new ideas.  

 

I might try to compile all the concepts from his book (or the ones I remember) into bite-sized pieces with summarized definitions so people can scan through them in "chunks" without having to read the whole thing.  Hopefully this helps people get the gist of what was in it.  Then I might try to connect conceptual "chunks" together where necessary. 

Not sure yet though.  If I do, I might just do it under these notes.  Or maybe it makes more sense to create a new post in the High Consciousness Resources section.  

 

General impressions

Overall, maybe it wasn't the most useful or practical book for me right now.  But, it was on my mind for a while so I thought I'd just knock it out of the park and see what I thought.   It was enjoyable, frustrating, boring, long, interesting, repetitive, and extravagant.  I think it's strength is probably mostly as an introduction to certain ideas and thinkers in a general sense.  Which, therefore, it lacks in certain spots specificity in explanations. 

I question how practical it is in terms of psychologists or spiritual teachers using it.  Yes, perhaps it does provide frames for explaining reality in a very comprehensive way.  But as for actual usage, I'm suspect.  Jamie Wheal speaks to this in an interview with Rebel Wisdom where he said, since he was a student of Wilber's, that he had taken the AQAL framework to try and improve some organizations.  They found that, ultimately, to get any practical results happening, they had to simplify the model down to A) individuals, B) groups, and C) organizations.  But as a spiritual, psychological, model nerd, ya, it's nice for sure . 

 

Anyways, give it a go if you feel up for it.  I got it at the library here so it wasn't a huge investment.  Maybe not the best choice for people who are not super serious about spirituality and psychology.  You'll probably get more benefit from reading the regular self-help stuff.  But still, you never know, it's not like there's nothing worthwhile in the book.  It's just dense and, ya, you heard the shpeel already.  

Enjoy.  

[Bob Seeker]

Maybe it’s better for spiritual or political leaders to read?

 

[Matt23]

8 hours ago, Bob Seeker said:

Maybe it’s better for spiritual or political leaders to read?

 

Maybe.  

Or even people who are really passionate about that stuff, or eho are perhaps professionals in the field, like psychologists, researchers, theorists, and ya, like you said, political leaders (or any type perhaps) and spiritual teachers.  

Again though, it's not like i think it's worthless for regular peeps to read.  There's lots of gpod stuff in there.  Just, maybe some of it gets too heady and conceptual.  I dunno. 

There are a few practical exercises which is nice.  Maybe it's a gpod book to follow up on the sources and people he cites to dig deeper and more specific.

...

I guess i'm starting to not view concepts and theories as importantly as i did before since, even though I've been studying and reading and watching this type of thing for many years, i don't know how kuch knowing these theories have really improved my life.  It's also not like people haven't grown without knowing them.  So. May e im just more in favor of practical stuff (or stuff you can DO) at the moment (not that i totally embody this... more of a thought-preference).

Edited February 18, 2022 by Matt23

[Bob Seeker]

Right.

I’ve got it still on my shelf, I don’t think I’ll read it for a while

[Matt23]

On 2/18/2022 at 1:22 PM, Bob Seeker said:

Right.

I’ve got it still on my shelf, I don’t think I’ll read it for a while

I will say this though...

Reading books on things definitely gives more  and is different than only watching videos. 

[eggopm3]

I'm nearing the end of this book myself. Already having read a number of Wilber books (of which SES is clearly the best), the style and repetition was par for the course so didn't really hit me as a big negative. I liked how he talked about the shadow at every level of consciousness, and there were enough new insights that made it worthwhile. Not the place to start with Wilber but if you like his model (I certainly do) then this fleshes it out even more.