The Leap: The Psychology of Spiritual Awakening (An Eckhart Tolle Edition) Kindle Edition

If you’ve been wondering what ‘spiritually awakened’ or ‘enlightenment’ means, this book is a must read. If you’ve made progress on the path of awakening, this book will validate your journey. If you’re having intense spiritual experiences, confusion, and dark nights of the soul, this book could save your life.Steve Taylor explores the awakened state of consciousness from a psychological perspective in simple, crystal clear language. The book is based on his scientific study of hundreds of people who had various awakening experiences, on his vast knowledge of ancient spiritual traditions, and on his own personal journey.His approach is free from archaic terminology, dogma, and cultural baggage which sometimes obscure the spiritual brilliance of ancient teachings. His model of psychological awakening can be helpful to practitioners on any spiritual path as well as to fervent atheists who are having awakening experiences.Taylor says that ordinary adult consciousness is a state of deep sleep characterized by a sense of separateness, discontent, anxiety, and constant mental chatter. To escape this discomfort, we pursue happiness through money, success, power, etc., or sedate ourselves with compulsive entertainment or mind altering substances. It doesn’t work.The author distinguishes between awakening experiences and the awakened state. Awakening experiences are temporary episodes of spiritual uplift, which can range from mild awe, reverence, and harmony to full blown mystical ecstatic union with an all pervading spiritual force. Most people have had at least the mild versions, often from nature or artistic beauty. Taylor goes more deeply into temporary awakening experiences in his book, Waking From Sleep.The Leap, however, focuses on the awakened state, which is permeant wakefulness. Taylor says that with permeant wakefulness, a new, higher-functioning self-system emerges, which often feels like rebirth.The author provides a list of characteristics commonly seen in people who are spiritually awake. The intensity of these traits corresponds to the intensity of the person’s wakefulness. I’ll mention just a few: serenity, reduced mental chatter, ability to live primarily in the present moment, emotional wellbeing, pleasure in simple activities, empathy, compassion, altruism, and an enjoyable oneness with nature, other people, and a spiritual force. He describes these characteristic and many more in fascinating detail.Of particular importance, this list of characteristics can be used to evaluate the authenticity of spiritual teachers who claim to be enlightened. Unfortunately, some ‘perfect masters’ are self-deluded, or simply fraudulent. As a result, followers get injured.Awakened people are far more common than most people realize, says Taylor. Most live ordinary lives and are not spiritual teachers in any formal sense. Many do not comprehend what happened to them as they awakened from the normal adult sleep state. Taylor reports rare instances of people who are naturally awake, who never completely succumbed to adult drowsiness. He describes others who awakened gradually, often through spiritual practices. But the majority of people he studied had sudden, unexpected awakenings, triggered by extreme psychological turmoil and suffering. He gives brief case histories portraying a variety of awakening experiences.One of my favorite chapters is The Natural Wakefulness of Children, which discusses similarities between the consciousness of young children and of spiritually awakened adults. They share such characteristics as spontaneity, curiosity, openness, present moment orientation, freedom from excessive mental chatter, joy in living, vitality, dynamic creativity, and felt connection to the external world. However, since children lack an adult self-system, their wakeful traits are often overridden by impulsive selfish desires.In a great quote, Taylor says, “Sometimes, when I discuss childhood wakefulness in talks or lectures, I joke that children are a combination of enlightened beings and narcissistic monsters.” He then asks, “But isn’t that a good description of some spiritual teachers?”Taylor then cracks open eleven myths about the awakened state or what some call enlightenment. His discussion as to why these commonly held beliefs are incorrect is based on his empirical research, his knowledge of ancient scriptures, and his extraordinarily powerful insight. In addressing these myths, he summarizes most of the important points in the text. This chapter is worth the price of the book!Here are the eleven beliefs he demythologizes: Myth 1: Wakefulness is exceptional and extraordinary. Myth 2: It’s not possible to live in a continuous state of wakefulness. It would make it impossible to live in the world on a day-to-day basis. Myth 3: You are either enlightened or not. There is no middle ground. Myth 4: Wakefulness is the end point, the culmination, of our development. Myth 5: Awakened people live in a state of continuous bliss and ease, free from all suffering and difficulty. Myth 6: Awakened individuals are incapable of behaving improperly. Myth 7: Awakened Individuals are detached from the world. They become indifferent to worldly affairs and are content for the world to remain as it is, without interfering. Myth 8: Awakened individuals—or mystics—are passive or inactive. They just sit and meditate all day, immersed in their own blissfulness. Myth 9: In wakefulness, the world is revealed to be an illusion. Myth 10: In wakefulness, the self disappears. There’s literally “no one there.” Wakefulness is a state of selflessness. Myth 11: You can’t make an effort to wake up.In the final chapter, The Evolutionary Leap: A Collective Awakening, Steve Taylor suggests that the evolutionary force that has been driving life on earth toward increasing complexity for billions of years, is nothing less than the universe seeking to become more fully awake and aware of itself. By aligning ourselves with that force, humanity may be able to leap into a new world of collective wakefulness. Planetary turmoil may hasten the process. Taylor makes the case that that is exactly what is happening worldwide as increasing numbers of people are awakening. He cautions, however, that there is no guarantee that we will successfully make the leap rather than self-destruct.This book could easily become a classic on awakening with the staying power of Cosmic Consciousness (1901) by Richard Maurice Bucke, Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) by William James, and Mysticism (1911) by Evelyn Underhill. That’s assuming humankind awakens from the nightmare produced by the constricted consciousness currently driving us to annihilation. Again, this book gives abundant hope that we will.Eckhart Tolle supplies an excellent forward to the Leap. To my mind, no one explains ‘be here now’—the essence of the awakened state—better than Eckhart. But when it comes to providing empirical data and explaining the psychological details of spiritual awakening, no one is better than Steve Taylor. And I am making these statements as someone who is not a newcomer to the spiritual rodeo.Nearly 50 years ago, I had a powerful but fleeting awakening experience and since then have studied everyone from D.T. Suzuki to Suzuki Roshi; Ramakrishna to Krishnamuriti; Gopi Krishna to Muktananda; Ramana Maharshi to Maharishi Mahesh; Allan Watts to Allen Ginsberg; Chogyam Trungpa to Rajneesh (Osho); Timothy Leary to Ram Dass; Patanjali to Yogananda; Thich Nhat Hanh to Peace Pilgrim; Ken Wilbur to Michael Washburn; Aldous Huxley to Stan Grof; Houston Smith to Jean Houston; Meister Eckhart to Eckhart Tolle; Carl Jung to Joseph Campbell; Jack Schwarz to Jack Kornfield; St. Teresa of Avila to St. John of the Cross; Walt Whitman to Gary Snyder; Annie Besant to Charlotte-Joko Beck; St. Hildegard to Thomas Merton; Evelyn Underhill to June Singer; Matsuo Basho to William Blake.And again, to my mind, no one describes the psychological details of spiritual awakening better than Steve Taylor. Take The Leap home and enjoy.

Review of "The Leap" by Steve TaylorI enjoyed this book. It is about Non-Duality but written in a rational style rather than revelatory or inspirational. It's an easy read. I like the theory that Waking Up is a part of the scheme of evolution. He offers a good definition of awakening: "an experience of clarity, revelation, and joy in which we become aware of a deeper or higher level of reality, perceive a sense of harmony and meaning, and transcend our normal sense of separateness from the world." He outlines some of the typical conditions with which awakening occurs, and differentiates between temporary glimpse and permanent awakening. He has a nice section on wakeful states in various world spiritual traditions. He aligns the permanent wakefulness with sahaja samadhi which I think is correct. He gives some beautiful examples of awakened artists, Walt Whitman, D.H.Lawrence. He surprised me on Lawrence. Also Peace Pilgrim and some other average folk culled from Taylor's own research and work. There are some really interesting case histories. He also covers the aftermath of awakening with examples and stories, always fun to read. This book has something of the style of the Near Death Experience literature, some case histories, some theory, something of a social topological map. He has a helpful summary of the characteristics of wakefulness and the awakened personality in life. One of my favorite parts is listing the common misunderstandings about waking up. I liked Satyam Nadeen's list also in "From Seekers to Finders." I found it helpful when just starting out. If you are used to shocking counter-intuitive pointers to enlightenment, the world is an illusion, there is no self, "there's just what's happening to no one," "There is no teacher, no student," this book does not take that approach. It is rational, comforting and down to earth. A good read.

An excellent overview and summary of the teachings and experience of awakening (aka enlightenment). The book gets to the core of mystical teachings from many traditions, religions, and ideologies, and then simple explains the information in a format the is very clear and accessible to the reader. Often the book is more easy to understand than the great religious texts from which these very ideas are expressed and drawn from. An great companion book to all inquiry into the basic experience of spirituality as opposed to the ideology of spirituality. I would call it an overview of the perennial experience of spirituality found at the core of all mystic teachings. There is a catch 22 in that to understand some of the concepts you must have had at least a little direct experience with them yourself. The good news is that most people have had touched on this experience even if only briefly. This book may help reinforce the taste of awakening that some people have experienced and help it grow and expand into a higher, deeper experience of awakening.

This just came out at the right time in my life. After going through some awakening shifts, I found this very helpful and confirming what has been happening to this being I call me. There are not enough books out there that talk about what it is like after, most only discuss how to get there. Thank you Steve Taylor for this wonderful work. It is my hope that others who are going through this shift in awareness will get to read it and realize they are not going crazy, but quite the opposite, instead they are dropping all stories and settling into a new being with less filters and 'stories'.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in spirituality. The book describes what awakening is, and gives anecdotal accounts and stories from people who have experienced some kind of awakening. Previously I've read books by Eckhart Tolle and the Dalai Lama. It has greatly complemented my own understanding of awakening, and as I find myself with a terminal illness, the book gave me some guidance and comfort. I am not too hard on myself now.....

This is the first of Steve's books that I have read but it certainly will not be the last. Very well researched and very well reasoned - and also engagingly personal at times. Steve is a gifted writer as well as an insightful psychologist and philosopher of consciousness, making this an enjoyable as much as an extremely informative read. I can see I will now need to work my way through all his other books. I urge others with an interest in this field of study to do so too!

Ordered this book after a chance noticing of it whilst casually browsing in Waterstones, was drawn in by the ‘Ekhart Tolle edition’ written on the cover.Took this book with me on a month long hiking & camping trip in the back country of the US Pacific Northwest and Canada. Excellent location of solitude and nature to be able to absorb into the content fully, align with the writers ideas & intent and meditate/reflect on the meanings.Simply reading this book took my awareness and consciousness to a higher level.The fact the the author teaches at my hometown university, (I discovered this after purchase), added an extra connection. The empirical stories could really be felt deeply, understood and subsequently integrated into my own being.

If I'd had this book in 1985 it would have explained what happened to my mind during my awakening and saved me a lot of confusion. An excellent book for those people who have experienced an awakening and want a psycho-spiritual explanation. However, only 3 stars because Steve reckons that the physical brain has nothing to do with the awakening experience, an attitude that I feel seriously limits his understanding of the process.This book is an interesting starting place, but in my view, incomplete.

This publication offers a comprehensive framework for identifying what constitutes ‘awakening’ (often termed ‘enlightenment’), the means and circumstances through which it is attained, who attains it, and to what degree of intensity and duration. In this, it offers considerable value to those simply curious about what ‘awakening’ is really about, and to those who, whereby deliberately or inadvertently, are already engaged in a process of waking. Due to these elements, this work is indeed ‘enlightening’ and a strong recommendation to read it can be made.Of course, some of the author’s contentions on the key characteristics of ‘awakening’ are open to debate. But that is a not a great problem. It is well established that one of the characteristics of ‘awakening’ is indeed the commitment to investigation. (For example, classical Buddhism offers a list of seven ‘awakening factors’ of which #2 is ‘investigation’.)What is a problem is that an author with a background in scientific research, and who makes claims to ‘demythologise’ (notably in chapter 15), should be so prone to ‘mythologise’. He perpetuates the myth of a ‘golden age’, purportedly occurring in two periods. One was in the past, with a ‘Fall’ from the awakened state, some 10,000 years ago. The other, predicted for an indeterminate future, is an ‘evolution’ to a higher consciousness for the human species as a whole. Thus the ‘Leap’ in the book’s title has at least two aspects, individual awakening and collective awakening. Whilst the book documents the former very ably, its treatment of the latter involves a leap into speculation. There is no proof of a golden age in the very distant past – we simply have no records. Likewise, we can know very little about what the future holds – the human species will probably ‘evolve’, but whether forwards or backwards is uncertain, and it may disappear altogether.Further, in espousing the ‘New Age’ idiom, the author seems to be overlooking – or at least underestimating in this publication – two invaluable lines of inquiry. One is to ask what ‘evolution’ has actually occurred over the past 5,000 years or so of relatively well-recorded history. (Of course, this topic is usually treated under the term not of ‘evolution’ but ‘civilisation’ in a copious literature to which the author may be disinclined to add, for understandable reasons.) The other is to document whether, going forwards, the propensity to awaken is increasing, decreasing or static. In other words, does the proportion of the population that is awake or awakening change over time? And if so, to what degree and for what reasons? Are some factors and methods stronger - more effective and/or more reliable - than others? Can the best methods be further refined, and just how do we do that? At the moment, all we do is to guess and proceed on the basis of (often individual) trial and error, because we do not have a historical baseline for comparison. Indeed, perhaps all our generation can do, through the good offices of researchers such as Steve Taylor is to establish a baseline in relation to the present day which can be utilised over the longer term to discover in what direction we are going, individually and collectively, and why. That research project is a lot more modest than New Age myth-making, but it is potentially a greater gift and legacy to future generations. Though it calls for significant resources, it does seem within reach.