PHYSICSs
Quantum Tantra is physics-assisted deep union with Other Minds. Perhaps
in the process of expanding the reach of our minds physics will also come
to understand better the commonplace mystery of how we actually make contact
with what we call inanimate objects--a deep and subtle question that physicists
call "the measurement problem".
1. Nick Herbert "Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics" Doubleday
(1985) One of the most accessible introduction to the quantum reality question--of
which Einstein remarked: "Who could have imagined that we would come
to know so much and understand so little?"AMZ
2. Nick Herbert "Elemental Mind" Dutton (1993) A popular
review of today's fledgling models of consciousness including an entire
chapter on James Culbertson's visionary notions. AMZ
3. James Culbertson "The Minds of Robots" University of Illinois
(1963) The most ambitious and daring model of inner experience to date--sets
a high standard most mind scientists fail to meet.
4. Morris Shamos "Great Experiments in Physics: Firsthand Accounts
from Galileo to Einstein" Dover (1987)" Includes Heinrich Hertz's
first production and measurement of radio waves. AMZ
5. John Archibald W heeler & Wojciech Zurek , eds "Quantum
Theory and Measurement" Princeton (1983) A collection of important
original papers on the "quantum measurement problem--a thick red paperback
book expressing physicists' deep distress concerning their lack of understanding
of ordinary material existence--how potential happenings become "real
events" AMZ
6. Daniel Greenberger, Ed "New Techniques and Ideas in Quantum
Measurement Theory" New York Academy of Sciences Volume 480 (1986)
Papers from a recent conference on the measurement problem that especially
emphasize experiments that bring this problem into sharp focus.
TANTRA
Can we reach a deeper understanding of the material world by treating Her
not as a haphazard collection of dead particles but as the naked and holy
Body of the Beloved?
7. Nik Douglas & Penny Slinger "Sexual Secrets: the Alchemy of
Ecstasy" Destiny Books (1979) Comprehensive account of classical tantra
from many cultures. One reviewer called this book "the whole-earth
catalog of tantra."AMZ
8. David & Ellen Ramsdale "Sexual Energy Ecstasy: A Practical
Guide to Lovemaking Secrets of the East and West" Bantam (1993) A
modern approach to classical tantra both sophisticated and commonsensical.
A marvelous guide to expanding your sensual awareness. Highly recommended
by Doctor Jabir. AMZ
9. Indra Sinha "The Great Book of Tantra: Translations and Images
from the Classical Indian Texts" Destiny Books (1993) Good historical
background for understanding the roots of classical tantra. Many beautiful
illustrations ranging from inscrutable Hindu diagrams to Moslem pornography.
AMZ
10. Alan Watts "Nature, Man and Woman" Vintage Books (1991)Watts
eloquently argues that Western sexual attitudes are distancing us from
deep truths about ourselves and Nature. AMZ
11. Starhawk "Dreaming the Dark: Magic Sex & Politics"
Beacon Press (1982) Starhawk explores feminist paths for healing the rift
twixt humans and the natural world. AMZ
12. Nisargadatta Mararaj "I Am That" Acorn Press (1982) A
collection of interviews with an Indian male who claims to have achieved
Oneness with Nature and convincingly reports on his extraordinary state
of being. AMZ
NEW RELATIONSHIPS WITH NATURE
Attitudes, rituals, voices, and scientific tools which expand our sympathy
with other forms of being are all steps towards theinevitable science of
quantum tantra.
13. Susam Griffin "Woman & Nature: the Roaring Inside Her"
Harper Colophon (1978) An imprtant feminist commentary on the blindspots
of modern science. AMZ
14. Evelyn Fox Keller "Reflections on Gender and Science"
Yale University More feminist analysis of science's patriarchal biases
and suggestions for a more true and balanced "successor science"
AMZ
15. Alan Watts "The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry
of Consciousness" Reports from a philosophically trained observer
of the world observed through a chemically-enhanced nervous system. AMZ
16. Dale Pendell "Pharmako/Poeia: Plant Powers, Poisons and Herbcraft"
Mercury Press (1995) An eloquent and experienced description of "the
poison path"--the use of plant-derived substances for altering our
relationship with Nature. Sophisticated, heartfelt and truthful--an example
of drug education at its finest. AMZ
17. David Abram "The Spell of the Sensuous" Pantheon Books
(1996) A lovely and lively account of how the acquisition of written language
closed many possible paths for relating more intimatel;y with the natural
world. AMZ
18. Italo Calvino "Cosmicomics" Harcourt, Brace & World
(1968) An imaginative account of the experiences of some of the invisible
minds that inhabit the "inanimate" world. AMZ
19. Joachim-Ernst Berendt "Nada Brahma: The World is Sound: Music
and the Landscape of Consciousness" Destiny Books (1987) Relating
to the world thru our sense of hearing as an antidote to our excessively
visual orientation to nature. AMZ
20. Jerome Rothenberg, ed "Technicians of the Sacred: a Range
of Poetries from Africa, America, ASia, Europe and Oceania" University
of California Press (1969) A collection of rituals both ancient and modern
for ceremonially altering our customary relationships to the world. AMZ
EMPATHY-EXPANSIVE POETRY
While working to realize a working-model convivium we can prepare our minds
for wild forms of union by wallowing in empathy-expansive language--a poem
is a small machine made of words.
21. Walt Whitman "Leaves of Grass" Bantam Classic (1983) The
most expansive poetry on the planet: No one (so far) beats Whitman in declaring
his intentions to embrace the Universe's every existent form of being.AMZ
22. Ernesto Cardenal "Cosmic Canticle" Curbstone Press (1993)
Catholic priest and former Sandinista Minister of Culture eloquently celebrates
the minds and the sexuality in things. AMZ
23. Robinson Jeffers "Not Man Apart" Sierra Club (1965) Jeffers
urges us to align ourselves with greater concerns than the petty projects
of humankind. AMZ