The Radiance of Being: Amazon Kindle Edition
—What is Enlightenment Feb-April 2004
“…An exhilarating tour through the grand possibilities of our own being and our own becoming, an adventure that spans the entire spectrum of consciousness from body to mind to soul to spirit, honoring science at every turn yet going beyond it when evidence demands yet further depth, pointing unmistakably to the heart and soul of a humanity destined to awaken.”
“The Radiance of Being is a very exciting book, reflecting a very exciting time in the exploration of consciousness and evolution.… The death of deconstructive postmodernism has signaled the rebirth of “big pictures” and “grand visions.” The Radiance of Being isabout various leading-edge approaches to these grand visions—visions big enough to include the best of premodern, modern, and postmodern insights into consciousness, evolution, and the nature of the human soul and spirit.”
“I believe that we of today do indeed face an opportunity unique in history: the chance to create maps, models, and practices that embrace the entire sweep of human possibilities. The Radiance of Being is a wonderful guide to the very best of these more integral approaches—approaches that cover not just theory but also practice: not merely ways to think about this vast potential, but ways to actualize it, realize it, live it and breathe it as part of one’s own extraordinary birthright, even here and now.”
—Ken Wilber (from the Foreword)
“Combs has done the kind of research that God himself would envy. Inclusive, detailed, whimsical and pervasive.”
—The Book Reader, Fall/Winter 2002-3
Winner of Best Book of the Year of the Scientific and Medical Network of the U.K.
“Allan Combs...adroitly presents the grand possibility that systems/complexity theory, cognitive neuro-science, and the great mystical traditions can work together to illuminate that most ordinary yet mysterious power we all possess, which Combs prefers to call “subjective presence” or more plainly, “consciousness”.... Combs centers his reader in a consciousness that beholds the entire living museum and artifice of mental structures while also describing the most evolved, if distant-sounding stages in the evolution of consciousness. If while reading The Radiance of Being you become a bit giddy, perhaps it will be because Combs’ words and incisive quotes have guided you into, then out of the labyrinth of the mind and onto that “farther shore” where only the One Shines, ever-new.”
—Stuart Sovatsky, California Institute of Integral Studies, Cybernetics & Human Knowledge, Vol. 6, No. 4, 1999
“There is a new interest in the nature of consciousness in the scientific and scholarly communities, an interest vitally needed in our times of fragmented and forgotten values. Too often, though, this interest is too specialized, too narrow. It is refreshing to find Combs, in The Radiance of Being, prepared to deal with the full spectrum of human consciousness, and deal with it both competently and creatively!”
—Charles Tart, Transpersonal Psychologist; author of Waking Up
“Trained in mathematics, mechanical engineering, and philosophy, Combs attempts to present in The Radiance of Being the full theory of human consciousness, and deal with it competently and creatively. This book will be required reading for any serious student of the mystery of what we are, and are to become.”
—Word Trade: A Readers Guide to Recent Books and New Media
“Combs’ style is vigorous, clear and reader-friendly.
He presents consciousness as a process with an evolutionary history. It is an autopoietic system that, self-organized, now acts back on the physical substrate from which it has emerged.... The author is to be congratulated for laying out a broad and suggestive range of ideas that will help new readers to become familiar with some exciting trends in contemporary consciousness studies.... The style in which the book is written, too, leaves a pleasant impression of someone presenting his own views in an honest way that leaves it open to the readers to make their own truth from what they read.”
—John Pickering, Journal of Consciousness Studies
“This book will be required reading for any serious student of the mystery of what we are.”—Herbert Guenther, Buddhist scholar
“In an era when consciousness studies have finally received the attention they deserve, Allan Combs has provided his readers with a perspective that is creative, unique, and comprehensive. Unlike many other theoretical approaches, Combs’ position is fertile with research possibilities and practical applications. Radiance can be read and re-read because of its width and its depth. I heartily recommend it to anyone interested in the cutting edge of scientific and philosophic inquiries into the nature of consciousness.”
—Stanley Krippner, PhD, Co-author of Personal Mythology: The Spiritual Dimensions of Healing; Professor of Psychology, Saybrook Institute
“Here Combs transcends the faded antimony of "The Two Cultures" and demonstrates the unity of human knowledge in his lucid synthesis of modern brain dynamics with a broad sweep of history and mythology. It is a stunning achievement.”
—Walter Freeman M.D., Professor Emeritus; University of California, Berkeley, author of Societies of Brains
“Consciousness is the first and last challenge of scientific and philosophical inquiry. This extraordinary book chronicles, evaluates, and positions the most significant developments in recent consciousness research. Allan Combs demonstrates that psychology can be made relevant and accessible as well as enjoyable. He masterfully navigates in the deep waters where psychology and spirituality meet and highlights the most fruitful pathways for further exploration.”
—Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D., author of Structures of
Consciousness
“In The Radiance of Being, psychologist Allan Combs explains the insights of the world’s spiritual traditions in terms of the latest developments in evolutionary theory, systems theory, and chaos theory. The result is a cutting-edge reconceptualization of consciousness as a complex dynamic system capable of widely different states and higher structural reorganizations....
The Radiance of Being is an important book which advances our understanding of consciousness and spirituality.”
—Michael Washburn, Professor of Philosophy; author of The Ego and the Dynamic Ground
“Combs proceeds to show us not just in words, but in a compelling journey through the research and theory of both Eastern and Western philosophy and science what consciousness seems to be in all its many dimensions. I think his book will be a benchmark for a long time to come.”
—David Loye, Ph.D., Author of The Sphinx and the Rainbow; Center for Partnership Studies
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword to the Second Edition by Ken Wilber
Foreword to the First Edition by Herbert Guenther
Introduction: The roots of consciousness
I Complexity
1. Minding Consciousness: Consciousness and mind
2. The Fire and the Rose: Beauty in chaos
3. Like a City Built across the Ages: Consciousness and the brain
II Evolution
4. Here and Elsewhere: Historical tales of evolution
5. The Ever-Present Origin: The diaphanous landscape of Jean Gebser
6. They Climb Indra Like a Ladder: The Myriad Tiers of Being
7. All Quadrants, All Levels: From Eden to the Grand Integral Vision
III Emergence
8. Right in Front of our Eyes: The perennial philosophy
9. A Benchmark for Evolution: Complexity, evolution, and the farther reaches
of human nature
10. While the Mind is Utterly Indivisible: Unconscious thoughts
11. A Condition of Complete Simplicity: Conscious evolution and spiritual practice
12. Living the Integral Life
Epilogue
Appendix I: Technical Terms
Appendix II: States, Structures, and Lines: A Conversation with Ken Wilber
Endnotes
Quotation Sources
Bibliography
Index
ALLAN COMBS teaches at the University of North Carolina, Asheville, and The Saybrook Institute in San Francisco. He is the author of over fifty articles, chapters, and books on consciousness and the brain. His recent books include Synchronicity: Science, Myth, and the Trickster, with Mark Holland. He is the co-founder of The Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology, and belongs to the 100-member Club of Budapest.
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