About the Book
Table of Contents:
Canto Summaries Introduction Canto the First: The Map and Older Tracks; Canto the Second: Memory, Dreams and Separation; Canto the Third: The Earliest Days: Society and Language; Canto the Fourth: Greece and Some Special People; Interlude: Archimedes and Alexandria; Canto the Fifth: The Dark Ages: Monasteries and Muslims; Canto the Sixth: The Renaissance and Liberty; Canto the Seventh: The Enlightenment and Rationality; Canto the Eighth: Modernism and Dissolution; Canto the Ninth: Love and Reunion; Appendix: Saints and Scientists; Afterword; Footnotes to all Cantos; Bibliography; The Author: Philippa Rees
About the Author :
Philippa Rees. The author is not a conventional academic which this book might suggest; instead this work is reflective of a lifetime's experiences, and accumulated languages which contribute to this integration of unsought spiritual insights. It is about all of life but, force majeur, drawn from one life that in many ways has elements of fantasy fiction. Born in South Africa, fatherless before the age of two, Philippa's early years were spent in the wildest parts of rural Africa in the care of her grandfather, on safari for weeks inspecting rural African schools with a cook, a tracker and a folding table. The other extreme was imprisonment in boarding schools studying the Metaphysical poets, Theology and the English Monarchy, and always hungry. These solitary extremes perhaps contributed to the need to reconcile the influences of two worlds, African liberty and European culture. Related to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, it is perhaps not surprising that she should arrive at a poetic narrative to achieve her reconciliation between science and religion, matter and mind. The 'leitmotif' of her writing is characterized by a celebration of the individual, often eccentric, always out of the mainstream. After sampling medicine, architecture, classics and fine art she ultimately achieved degrees in Zoology and Psychology. She has lived on deserted islands in the Indian Ocean, fishing for supper; at the Max Planck Institute in Bavaria observing the work of Konrad Lorenz and the esteemed animal behaviourists who visited; lectured to mature University students in Britain; designed buildings; single handedly built her home, an arts centre and concert hall; raised four daughters, and failed to master the cello. Always reading and writing first. This particular work has underpinned an almost obsessive observation of synchronicities and the penetration of spirit into the apparently mundane. She lives in Somerset in her converted barns with an old collie and a long-suffering husband.
Review :
"I am delighted to have your book. It's beautiful, timely, and very important. I hope millions will be reading it and enjoying it in the course of time!" - Ervin Laszlo Frost Magazine - A Thinker's Lifestyle Magazine - published an insightful interview with the author, who explains more about her book and herself. Fascinating. 'We Love This Book' featured a lengthy extract from Involution on its front page, on July 2nd 2013. SkyBlue Symposia philosophical website conducted two interviews with Philippa Rees, referring to her as a 'Living Mystic'. In the first, she shares her profound spiritual experiences and speaks about her book. The conversation flows into a variety of topics including: action and experience change DNA; that any individual change is a change in the biosphere as well as the collective consciousness; the division between mind/matter, inside/outside, reason/soul. In the second part, Philippa explores moving, letting go, trusting, voice, frequency, fibonacchi numbers and DNA. Phillippa then talks about women, how they embody the process of birth, death and rebirth, a natural and physical mysticism and bring life into the world. In another free flow the conversation touches on topics such as: our searchings, even misdirected in ways such as drugs and sex are glimpses of reunion with the Divine; voice as the original music; altering DNA with sound waves. Phillippa then speaks of what science has given us and also the consequences, and also her vision for the future when science embraces consciousness and what this can bring into the world. "When Philippa Rees offered Involution as a scientific thesis at Cambridge forty years ago, it received open scorn from scientists for its revolutionary hypothesis. It proposed that the language and methods of science precluded perception of what underpins science and creation itself. That was before science caught up; it might be ready now." - from the heading of a two-page article in Watkins magazine. See the full article via the link. Philippa Rees is a polymath brought up in South Africa who studied literature, science and theology and who has brought these strands together with her own experience in this brilliant epic poem telling the story of the Western Odyssey of the mind with parallel explanations in 150 pages of notes. She has been working on this theory of involution for many years and was in correspondence with Arthur Koestler, Konrad Lorenz and EF Schumacher in the 1970s I know of no comparable work covering the Western Odyssey in its many thematic variations and using an interplay of poetry and prose to convey the adventure of the journey and arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of reality as a whole. The authors grasp of the principal elements of Western culture is masterly and her poetic narrative is woven together with extraordinary subtlety and eloquence. The result is a heroic tour de force that deserves the widest readership. David Lorimer, Scientific and Medical Network 'This 'remarkable' book was nominated as a 'close runner-up' in the Scientific and Medical Network's 'Book of the Year (2013)' "That is this poetic works intention, not to offer another theory but to afford the vision of a deeper science; the Odyssey of Mankind whose visionaries are neglected by the scientific mythology. 'Beethoven, Einstein, Faraday, GaussWho found colours in music, numbers in space' What the mystics have perennially known, science has now re-approached, but inspiration has been sciences quiet companion all along. This continuous artesian stream is what this work identifies and traces." - Passionforfreshideas.com March 2014 "At a quick glance, Involution-An Odyssey Reconciling Science to God seems like a scientific or spiritual read, and possibly a dry one, at that. But those too ready to judge a book by its title may be in for a surprise, here: for Involution is in actuality a poetic-based exploration of the Western thinking process, and is more focused on the process of Mankind's incremental rediscovery than scientific or spiritual analysis. It's neither poetry nor science, spiritual reader nor philosophical investigation - but it incorporates elements of each. Nor is it 'fish nor fowl' - which makes its intended audience and placement a bit ambiguous. How do you tell an audience mired in one discipline that there's value to be had (and elements of that discipline) in a book that crosses genres? Therein lies the presentation challenge; for it'd be a shame for the reader of science, spirituality, philosophy or history to miss the unexpected treats embedded in Involution. Incidentally, Involution-An Odyssey Reconciling Science to God has been nominated runner-up Book of the Year (2013) by the Scientific and Medical Network. It's easy to see why it deserves this accolade." - Midwest Book Review June 2014. Diane Donovan (Senior Reviews Editor)
