The traditional Cartesian, reductionist, mechanical world view has given way to an ecological, holistic systems paradigm, thanks in part to the insights of Chief Seattle, the intuitions of medieval mystics, and recent verifications in new science and cosmology. This new paradigm reverses the relationship between the parts and whole. The old paradigm believed that, by understanding the parts, on...

In Chapter 2 of Beyond Physicalism, I suggest that mystical experience, if a source of genuine metaphysical insight, can shed light on a variety of extraordinary phenomena, including psi and near-death experience, as well as the mystery that is ordinary consciousness. It is striking that mystics are often left with the conviction that they came into contact with deeper realities during their ex...