Spiritual Science, by Steve Taylor

Author: Steve Taylor. Review by Noël Staples

Many of us do not realise how much our thinking is structured by materialism. Yet we Friends centre our lives around mystical experience, for which we have no material basis or explanation. It is the beating heart of Quakerism. Steve Taylor’s challenging book about panspiritism (the idea that spirit is in everything, and is a fundamental quality inherent in all space as well as in all material things) works with the idea that consciousness is external to our brains. Our brains are receivers as well as processors.

Materialism is a religion with dogmas and doctrines like any other. Taylor describes these, outlining materialsm’s negative effects, but acknowledges that they are outweighed by the benefits. Materialist consumerism has, however, led us to treat the planet badly. In his final chapter Taylor contrasts his ten dogmas of materialism with his ten tenets of panspiritism.

The easiest way to give an idea of the thrust of the book is to list the chapter headings: ‘The Origins of Materialism: When science turns into a belief system’; ‘The Spiritual Alternative’; ‘The Riddle of Consciousness’; ‘The Primacy of Mind: Puzzles of the mind and brain’; ‘How the Mind Can Change the Brain and the Body: More puzzles of the mind and brain’; ‘The Puzzle of Near-Death Experiences’; ‘Waking Up: The puzzle of awakening experiences’; ‘Keeping the Account Open: The puzzle of psychic phenomena’; ‘Complexity and Consciousness: Puzzles of evolution’; ‘Why Do Selfish Genes Behave So Unselfishly? The puzzle of altruism’; ‘Quantum Questions: Mysteries of the microcosm’; and ‘The Spiritual Universe: Moving beyond materialism’. The book has a good index and an excellent bibliography of over 200 books and articles.

From the 1980s onwards Consciousness Studies became increasingly popular (Francis Crick found consciousness a much tougher nut to crack than DNA). In 2007, a seminal study Irreducible Mind brought together much of this work, repudiating the conventional theory that consciousness is a material epiphenomenon that can be explained through physical brain processes. Taylor acknowledges this as inspiration.

We have to read Taylor’s book with an open mind; to do so is a rewarding experience. We may be reminded of Carl Jung’s collective unconscious and his archetypes. Through its index and extensive bibliography we have the means to explore further, perhaps through Rupert Sheldrake’s The Science Delusion, in which we also find discussed ten tenets of materialism. But we come no closer to the ultimate nature of consciousness or mind. Somewhat frustratingly we may feel that we have more of a ‘god of the gaps’ theory than a realistic conclusion.  Nevertheless, I recommend this book’s attempt to get beyond the materialism that so shapes our thinking.

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