"Supreme Awakening" is a collection of experiences of higher consciousness from great figures in history. The author, Dr. Craig Pearson, is Academic Vice-President of Maharishi University of Management (MUM), Fairfield, Iowa. (At MUM, all students, faculty and administration use a meditation technique, Transcendental Meditation® (TM®), as part of the learning environment.) Pearson connects historic descriptions of higher states of consciousness to modern day personal development, drawing on his many years of experience with Transcendental Meditation, both personally and as an educator.
The book begins by answering the question, "Do higher states of consciousness exist — beyond the ordinary states of waking, dreaming, and sleep?" The response is a resounding, "Yes!" Throughout history people have experienced great moments of awakening.
- "Time and destiny stand still, merge. Past and future melt into one Infinite Eternal Now. There is neither self nor other, just the Unbounded One. Pure, radiant Knowingness pervades our entire being. The chaos of life recedes and gives way to monumental Unity and cosmic Purpose. Love fills our heart and we are one with everything and everyone. Then, mysteriously as it came, the moment fades. Ordinary mundane reality is back. We are left alone again to contemplate the puzzling paradox of human existence."
Nevertheless, for the great figures of history these moments of exaltation seem to be more common, and in many cases they did not fade at all, but grew, consolidated and had life-altering consequences.
- Thomas Merton : "A door opens in the center of our being...all eternity seems to have become ours in this one placid and breathless contact." (p. 173)
- Charlotte Wolff : "An unknown and powerful force had got hold of me. . . . It gave me a feeling of omnipotence. At that moment I knew the Universe, which I held and beheld inside myself." (p. 245)
- Vaclav Havel : "I seemed to be experiencing, in my mind, a moment of supreme bliss, of infinite joy: it was a moment of supreme self-awareness, a total and totally harmonic merging of existence with itself and with the entire world." (p. 261)
- Charles Lindbergh : "I had been flying while neither asleep or awake. I seemed to extend outside of my plane, independent of worldly values, appreciative of beauty, form and color without depending on my eyes." (p.248)
- Anwar Sadat : "Time ceased to exist. . . . Everything came to be a source of joy and delight. All creatures became my friends...Everything in existence became an object of love." (p176) In "Supreme Awakening" Pearson has assembled numerous examples from the writings of the world's greatest philosophers, poets, writers, saints, scientists, even athletes — Billie Jean King, Black Elk, William Wordsworth, Albert Einstein, Laozi, Jesus, Buddha, St. Teresa of Avila, and others — excerpts describing personal experiences of higher human development from history's great women and men. Then, Pearson identifies a common thread of higher consciousness running through all these excerpts. He correlates these with the model of seven states of consciousness put forward by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, noted scientist of consciousness and founder of Maharishi University in Fairfield. In this model, the ordinary adult waking state is just the starting point for higher levels of human growth, traditionally referred to as enlightenment . Finally, the author presents scientific research on the numerous practical benefits of growth to higher states — reduced stress and anxiety; better health and longer life; increased intelligence and creativity; improved personal relationships and work performance — achieved through practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique. The conclusion: higher states of consciousness are open to anyone. A recent reader, a former Catholic monk, was so excited about these findings that he devoured the entire 500 pages in one marathon night of reading. Other readers’ comments on this Amazon page .
- Review copies available upon request.
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Joseph Boxerman, Office of Public Relations Maharishi University of Management Press • Fairfield, Iowa • 52557-1155 • Order line: 800.831.6523 • Direct Line: 641.451.5000 jboxerman@mum.edu
