Just want to say thank you everyone for their wonderful suggestions, it will take me a long time to read all those books. Also I just received and devoured "Prometheus Rising" by Robert Anton Wilson in a single day. What a wonderful read! Especially since I read it right after I finished Carl Sagan's "The Dragons Of Eden" it feels like a continuation of what Sagan was talking about. Can't believe I never heard of Robert Anton Wilson now I'm definitely going to get more of his books, but right now I have some really interesting NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) books to finish so that I can put Wilson's meta-programming concepts into practice.

From the beyond, Meta

I'm currently reading, "The Self-Aware Universe - (How Consciousness Creates the Material World)" by Amit Goswami.

It's extremely interesting. I'm not done with it yet, but it is very powerful so far. As empirical science and intuitive mysticism begin to converge, I can't help but feel we are living in a most exciting time. After all, all paths to truth should eventually end up in the same place.

I'm re-reading 'The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch' by Philip K Dick having read it about 15 years ago.Fantastic book even the second time around. Can D or Chew Z? Chew Z me thinks.....

Just read Valis by Philip K. Dick...and..wow. What can i say

Also, recently i read sheldrakes updated theory in his new book Morphic Resonance. Some extremely compelling evidence in there! This man is a genius..I eagerly recommend it to the stout materialists among us

Portals & Corridors: A visionary guide to Hyperspace by Monicu Szu-Whiteney and Gary Whitney
(you might gawk as i did at site of the title and think "GUIDE? to hyperspace!? yeah right!" but its more like her technique, her method, to the inner realms-so don't let that discourage you, its a great book.

Mavericks of the Mind by David Jay Brown is also good. He did interviews with alot of the great thinkers of our time. I came across it randomly in the library once and it really impacted me heavily early on. i need to pick up a copy eventually.

peace to all

If you like creative fiction, Haruki Murakami is good

The wind up bird chronicle
Hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world
Kafka on the shore

This summer I have been reading Ice and Fire by George Martin between other books. It is a fantasy series of four books and is not a heavy read in the language sense, but the story is captivating.

He makes many references to a three-eyed crow visiting various characters in their "dreams" and near death experiences. The crow pushes them to overcome life obstacles and puts them through the excruciating process of pecking a void in their foreheads to open the third eye.



Another section describes a guild of warlocks who live in "the city of dust" and drink a blue liquid which turns their lips, eyes and fingernails indigo.


Many notable fantasy authors seem to be quite familiar with the psychadelic state and have made references to it in their writing. I have noticed heavy influences in Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun and even in the works of Tolkien.

3 books Ive read recently and been educated/impressed with are:

A Treasury of Khalil Gibran: I bought this in Bcharres, the Lebanon when I visted the place a couple of years ago and this is where he was born.This man is a visionary whose prose evokes the most sublime of emotions and crosses all cultural/religious divides.

Messages to the World- The statements of Osama Bin Laden: informative to say the least.Certainly is good to hear his views directly without all the media hype/distortion.

Cains Book by Alexander Trocchi-if any of you good people have read The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera and can recall its sombre tones and tinges of despair and alienation, you will enjoy this one.

Currently reading Denial of Death by Ernest Becker. It's giving me an understanding on what 'breaking through' might be about, and how psychedelics can be a tool for deconstructing personality to get a glimpse of the raw universe.

From what I understand so far, our personalities are constructs to help us survive in an utterly astonishing and terrifying universe. The price for the psychic fortress is we feel less alive. Escaping our personality leads to psychosis - we just cannot accept the wonder and terror of existence without going insane.

So, psychedelics can act as a temporary escape from the personality with all its repressions, and one inevitably comes face to face with psychosis. But with the safety of coming back to the self.

Sometimes i wonder if your first time will be "oh no" or "aha"
hehehe

Goedel, Escher Bach - Hofstadter
The Stargate Conspiracy - Lynn Picknett
Nothing in This Book Is True But it's Exactly How Things Are - Bob Frissell
House of Leaves - Danielewsky (I can't believe this wasn't mentioned before)
Anything by Robert Anton Wilson
Anything by Philip K. Dick
The Third Policeman - Flan O'Brian
Grace and Grit - Ken Wilber
White Oleander - Janet Fitch
The China Study - T. Colin Campbell
The Malazan Book of the Fallen (seeries) - Steven Erickson
1984 - Orwell (classic!)
...

I recently finished 'The Cosmic Serpent' by Jeremy Narby which really is essential reading for everyone here. Currently I am working on 'The Way of the Shaman' by Michael Harner (a classic bit of text on the subject), 'The Fabulous Fibonacci Numbers' by Alfred Posamentier (for anyone interested in number theory) and I started 'Crime and Punishment' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky forever ago and really should start reading it again.

There are a lot of great suggestions in this thread, quite a few I have added to my future reading list.

Anyone read this?

My Big TOE

I've seen a couple of Dr. Thomas Campbell's talks on YouTube, but can't see my local library getting in a copy of his book. Is it good?

I've just given up reading The Invisible Landscape. I love McKenna, and the Time Wave Zero theory impresses the hell out of me, but I found this book unreadable. To be fair, the edition I read was prefaced with introductions by the McKenna brothers that revealed they were aware of the book's shortcomings.

The book did turn me onto Hans Jonas, with a passage from The Phenomenon of Life that blew my mind. Infact, I think it might be the synthesis between Christianity and Vedanta that I've been yearning for.

Anyway, The Invisible Landscape is for analytical, mathematically inclined people. I'm hoping True Hallucinations will contain what I'm looking for: an account of McKenna's experiences, and especially his dialogue with the Mushroom Intelligence.

The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self by Thomas Metzinger

Couldn't agree more, nor emphasize this enough


Wizard of the Upper Amazon~ F. Bruce Lamb
^^Just read this in a day..what kickass story. Its a true recount about Manual Cardova-Rios, who was kidnapped in the amazon by Indians and eventually became their chief and shaman. I forget who recommended it to me in the chat, but thank you!

My top two books -

The Little Prince- probably one of the most profound things I have ever read.

The Dark Tower - Utter genius. Really. Made me laugh, made me amazed, horrified, upset and astounded. Just class. read it.

Also I recently read ''Never Grow Old' the novel of gilgamesh. A brilliant novelization of the oldest written story of all time, told in a realistic and quite beleivable way, well worth checking out.

Almost done with Ayahuasca in my blood by Peter Gorman

Easily one of the best books I've ever read

I finished and honestly recommend 'George Crane - Bones of the Master: A Journey to Secret Mongolia'

Now I'm reading 'Dan Simmons - The Terror'

Lots of great suggestions here...I'm currently re-reading the original Dune novels...For anyone who likes sci-fi especially cyberpunk check out Alfred Bester's - The Stars My Destination. Awesome read!

I dont know if your in the UK or not but where I am if I order a book that the library doesnt have they will buy it, was great when I was homeless, oh I fancy that and they would buy it for me!

Loads of great suggestions, need some new books!