Felser - The way back to paradise: restoring the balance between magic and reason

Acknowledgments

The book that you hold in your hands is very different from the one I began writing almost eight years ago. This is the third or fourth versiontruth be told, I've lost count. The project evolved over time, often in surprising and unpredictable ways. New experiences and new questions continually forced me to reexamine what I was doing, how I was doing it, and, most importantly, why I was writing at all. What began life as a strictly academic treatise became, of necessity, a very personal story. Things change.

The one delightful constant in all this is the encouragement and support that I have received from numerous friends along the way. Of course, none of them can (or should) be held responsible for any errors I might have made in these pages. Also, I would not expect any of them to agree with everything I've written here. Above all, however, I'm grateful that each and every one of them joined me for at least a part of my journey. And, to borrow a phrase, what a long, strange trip it's been!

Thanks galore, then, to Suzanne Brown, Rob Butts, Bob Cracknell, joel Funk, Gina Galate, Michael Grosso, Sam Keen, Paul Newman, Ken Ring, Steve Rosen, Charles Tart, Raymond Van Over, Sheila Reynolds, Sandra Stevens, Rhea White, and Colin Wilson.

I owe a very special debt of gratitude to Hal Zina Bennett. Hal is a superb teacher and coach. Thanks, Hal, for helping me find my authentic voice.

A hearty round of appreciation goes out to all my Virginia friends: Nancy (Scooter) and Joe McMoneagle, and the entire staff of The Monroe Institute (TMI), especially Dr. Darlene Miller, the institute's program director. Bob Monroe was a true visionary.

I owe a special thank you to Frank DeMarco, who was enthusiastic from the start. Thanks also to Richard Leviton, my editor at Hampton Roads, who made a number of helpful suggestions and comments.

I am grateful to my students for sharing their personal stories with me.

Without my wife, Cynthia, it would not have been possible.

And Katahdin, our golden retriever, wisely saw to it that I took frequent breaks for ballplaying and other important spiritual pursuits. Thanks, pup!

Another kind of debt is owed to my father and my (late) mother. Mom, you asked me what it all meant to me. Well, here it isfinally.

My faculty union, the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York (PSC-CUNY), provided grants that funded part of the research for .

About the Author

Joseph M. Felser received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Chicago. He has taught at various colleges in the New York City area and is presently on the faculty of Kingsborough Community College/CUNY in Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of numerous articles on religion, myth, parapsychology, and the paranormal. His essays and reviews have appeared in both scholarly journals and popular magazines, including The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, Mythosphere, and The Anomalist. For the past seven years he has served as an editorial advisor to Rhea A. White's groundbreaking journal, Exceptional Human Experience. He lives with his wife and their golden retriever in suburban New Jersey and spends most of his summers on Maine's majestic Sebago Lake, where he enjoys writing, swimming, walking, and watching the sun set over Douglas Mountain and the Saddleback Hills.

Dr. Felser is currently conducting research for his second book, a study of individuals who had premonitions of the 9/11 attack on America. For more information on this and other works by the author, please visit his web site www.magicandreason.com.

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