A. H. Almaas - Wikipedia

A. H. Almaas - Wikipedia

A. H. Almaas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search

hideThis article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) The neutrality of this article is disputed. (March 2013) This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. (January 2015) This biography of a living person relies too much on references to primary sources. (March 2017)

A. H. Almaas
Born	Abdul Hameed Ali 1944 (age 76–77) Kuwait
Nickname	Hameed
Occupation	Spiritual teacher, author
Nationality	Kuwaiti American
Genre	Spirituality, psychology, metaphysics
Notable works	The Pearl Beyond Price (1988) The Point of Existence (2000) Inner Journey Home (2004)

A. H. Almaas (/ˈɑːlməs/ AHL-məss) is the pen name of A. Hameed Ali (born 1944), a Kuwaiti American author and spiritual teacher who writes about and teaches an approach to spiritual development informed by modern psychology and therapy which he calls the Diamond Approach. "Almaas" is the Arabic word for "diamond". Almaas is originally from Kuwait. He is the spiritual head of the Ridhwan School.

Almaas' books were originally published by the Ridhwan School, under the Diamond Books publishing title, but are now published by Shambhala.

Contents

• 1Life
• 2Diamond Approach
  • 2.1Spiritual practice as a phenomenology of being
  • 2.2Principal ideas
    • 2.2.1Structure of reality
    • 2.2.2Essence and the essential aspects
    • 2.2.3Theory of holes
  • 2.3Methodology
    • 2.3.1Presence
    • 2.3.2Inquiry
  • 2.4Motivation
• 3Critiques
• 4Ridhwan School
• 5Bibliography
• 6See also
• 7References
• 8External links

Life[edit source]

A. Hameed Ali was born in Kuwait in 1944. He was a victim of polio at 18 months old and now walks with a crutch as a result.^[1] At the age of 18, he moved to the United States to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Ali was working on his PhD in physics when he reached a turning point in his life that led him more and more into inquiring into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature. His interest in the truth of human nature and the true nature of reality resulted in the creation and unfoldment of the Diamond Approach.^[2]

Diamond Approach[edit source]

The Diamond Approach is a spiritual teaching that utilizes a distinctive form of inquiry into realization, where the practice is the expression of realization. Its aim is absolute freedom that can be described as living realization, a dynamic enlightenment where transcendent truth lives personally in the world. This inquiry opens up the infinite creativity of our being, transforming our lives into a runaway realization, moving from realization to further realization.^[3]

The Ridhwan Foundation is the nonprofit spiritual organization established to support and preserve the integrity of the Diamond Approach teaching. The Ridhwan Foundation is legally recognized as a church and the role of a teacher is equivalent to that of a minister. People are ordained as spiritual teachers of the Ridhwan Foundation, which is the name given to its ministers.

Spiritual practice as a phenomenology of being[edit source]

The Diamond Approach is described as a "response to an important need that is being felt in many quarters, a need for a spiritually informed psychology, or conversely, for a psychologically grounded spirituality. This perspective does not separate psychological and spiritual experience, and hence sees no dichotomy between depth psychology and spiritual work... This body of knowledge is not an integration or synthesis of modern depth psychology and traditional spiritual understanding. The inclination to think in terms of integration of the two is due to the prevailing belief in the dichotomy between the fields of psychology and spirituality, a dichotomy in which the Diamond Mind understanding does not participate." (Almaas)^[4]

The Diamond Approach, according to its followers, can be called a Phenomenology of Being that offers a precise description of the various aspects and dimensions of Spirit or Being and is also a form of spiritual psychotherapy which seeks to heal the wounds of the soul by reconnecting it to Spirit.

Principal ideas[edit source]

Structure of reality[edit source]

In the Diamond Approach, reality is seen as consisting of three elements: God/Being/Spirit, Soul/Self and World/Cosmos.

Being is understood as the inner source and true nature of reality, which is the focus of the great spiritual traditions of both East and West, and is known as Dharmakaya, Shunyata, Brahman or Tao. Being is understood as consisting of five co-emergent "boundless dimensions": Divine Love, Pure Presence, Nonconceptual Awareness, The Logos, and The Absolute.

Soul is understood to be the individual consciousness that connects the world with Being, an idea found in ancient Chinese philosophy. It is believed in the Diamond Approach that the soul can be experienced as a living presence that contains the thoughts, feelings and sensations usually called our "self".

World is understood as the outer manifestation of reality, the multitude of physical forms that all people are familiar with.

Essence and the essential aspects[edit source]

While most spiritual paths conceive of Being as universal, the Diamond Approach also pays a great deal of attention to a more individual way of experiencing Being, called Essence. The concept of Essence is similar to the Hindu idea of Atman. While Being is the true nature of all of reality, Essence is the portion of it that forms the true and personal nature of the soul. It is experienced as a substantial fluid Presence which can differentiate into various qualities or aspects, such as compassion, strength, will, joy, peace, love, value, humanness, personalness, identity, and space.^[5][6]

Theory of holes[edit source]

As our soul develops it is faced with a double challenge: it must learn to function in the World, while also remaining connected to Spirit. For various reasons, some innate and others environmental, we slowly become alienated from our Essence through the development of fixed patterns of perception and behaviour known as the personality or ego. Each of these patterns or ego structures disconnects us from a specific Essential Aspect. In other words, it is built around the "Hole" of this aspect. By exploring its structure, both cognitively and experientially, one eventually confronts the Hole and by going through it the lost aspect is retrieved.^[7]

Methodology[edit source]

The Diamond Approach uses methods which its founders learned from Claudio Naranjo. Almaas' scientific background (he studied physics at Berkeley^[2]) helps explain the emphasis on rigorous (self) inquiry. Several contexts for participation are provided, including regular one-on-one sessions with a trained teacher, seminars and participation in various formats of organized ongoing groups.^[8]

Presence[edit source]

The practice referred to as "presence" is based on two methods, learning to sense one's body (especially one's arms and legs) in an ongoing manner and regularly focusing one's attention on a point in the belly called the "kath center" (known in Chinese philosophy as the dantian and in Japanese culture as the hara). These methods help a person to become more grounded in the body and in physical reality and also, in time, to develop the ability to experience oneself as the presence of Essence.

Inquiry[edit source]

The Diamond Approach centers on practice of investigation of the self, experience and perception. "Inquiry" answers the question posed by Socrates: "How does one set up as the object of one's investigation, that about which one knows nothing?"^{[citation needed]} One starts by wanting to find out, living a question, while recognizing preconceptions, preconditions and expectations as to the nature of what one may learn and instead attending to one's immediate or present experience. While not explicitly acknowledged as such, inquiry in effect combines (as a descriptive mechanism only, as the inquiry process is beyond mere language) the practice of Edmund Husserl's "transcendental phenomenological reduction, or epoché", with Sigmund Freud's psychodynamic exploration. An important feature of inquiry is that a person learns to be aware of both the content of experience (emotions, thoughts, sensations) and the attitudes and reactions towards it. In this way the subject-object dichotomy is transcended and one learns to relate to oneself without having to create inner splits. Open-ended inquiry is both a path to, and the state of, a realized person and in time is understood to be a self-revelation of the mysteries of Being.

Motivation[edit source]

The main motivation for embarking on the spiritual journey in this approach is love for the Truth. "Truth" refers to seeing things as they really are, which ultimately comes down to recognizing Being as the true nature of everything. Love for the truth therefore combines the traditional bhakti and jnana perspectives on spirituality.^[9][10]

Critiques[edit source]

The fees associated with the retreats and other methodologies that are part of the structure of the school have been criticized.^[11] However, the founder and lead teacher, Hameed Ali, regularly^[where?] points out that the Diamond Approach is only one path to truth and cannot in itself be all-encompassing. Students are permitted and even encouraged to question the practices of the school and to explore whether the school is a good fit for them personally.

The work of Almaas has received praise from spiritual teachers and explorers such as John Welwood, Gabor Maté, Jack Kornfield and Ken Wilber.^[12] Wilber, while tentatively supportive of the Diamond Approach, disputes some details. For example, he does not agree that infants have essential experiences, maintaining that the infant exists purely in the physical, material world – "instinctual, vital, impulsive, narcissistic, egocentric; living for food, its God is all mouth."^[13] Almaas has responded that Wilber's critique demonstrates a misinterpretation based on Wilber's own linear, four-stage categorization of spiritual development. Almaas' perspective is that infants experience a type of true nature/Spirit, but one that is very distinct from, and less integrated than, the experiences of essentially realized adults.^[14]

Ridhwan School[edit source]

The Ridhwan School is a loosely-knit affiliation of ongoing spiritual groups founded in 1976 by Almaas. The school is dedicated to the teaching of the Diamond Approach. It is principally based in Berkeley, California and Boulder, Colorado with other groups throughout North America and in parts of Europe and Australia. Almaas is the spiritual head of the school and individual groups are taught by qualified Ridhwan teachers. The name of the school derives from the Arabic word for "contentment":

"Ridhwan is a kind of contentment which arises when you're liberated. Your personality becomes contented when you're free. Your personality itself is free from its suffering and conflict."^[15]

The school rejects "quick fixes" and graduation, and the students are engaged in learning and inner work for an indefinite period.^[16] While some might characterize "inner work" (or spiritual work) as therapy, Almaas makes several important distinctions between therapy and spiritual work.^[17]

Bibliography[edit source]

• The Elixir of Enlightenment, 1984, Red Wheel Weiser, ISBN 978-0-87728-613-4
• Essence: The Diamond Approach to Inner Realization, 1986, Red Wheel Weiser, ISBN 0-87728-627-2
• Essence with The Elixir of Enlightenment: The Diamond Approach to Inner Realization, 1998, Weiser Books, ISBN 1-57863-044-4
• Facets of Unity: The Enneagram of Holy Ideas, 2000, Shambhala, ISBN 978-0-936713-14-4
• Luminous Night's Journey: An Autobiographical Fragment, 2000, Shambhala, ISBN 978-0-936713-08-3
• The Inner Journey Home: Soul's Realization of the Unity of Reality, 2004, Shambhala, ISBN 978-1-59030-109-8
• The Power of Divine Eros. Co-authored with Karen Johnson. 2013, Shambhala, ISBN 978-1-61180-083-8
• Runaway Realization, 2014, Shambhala, ISBN 9781611802023
• The Alchemy of Freedom, 2017, Shambhala, ISBN 9781611804461
• Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type. Foreword by Russ Hudson. 2021, Shambhala, ISBN 9781611809435
• Journey of Spiritual Love Series
  • Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart, 2020 Shambhala, ISBN 978-1611808391
• Diamond Mind Series
  • The Void: Inner Spaciousness and Ego Structure (2nd Ed.), 2000, Shambhala, ISBN 978-0-936713-06-9
  • The Pearl Beyond Price, 2000 Shambhala, ISBN 978-0-936713-02-1
  • The Point of Existence, 2000, Shambhala, ISBN 978-0-936713-09-0
• Diamond Heart Series
  • Diamond Heart Book One: Elements of the Real in Man, 2000, Shambhala, ISBN 978-0-936713-01-4
  • Diamond Heart Book Two: The Freedom to Be, 2000, Shambhala, ISBN 978-0-936713-04-5
  • Diamond Heart Book Three: Being and the Meaning of Life, 2000, Shambhala, ISBN 978-0-936713-05-2
  • Diamond Heart Book Four: Indestructible Innocence, 2000, Shambhala, ISBN 978-0-936713-11-3
  • Diamond Heart Book Five: Inexhaustible Mystery, 2011, Shambhala, ISBN 978-1-59030-906-3
• Diamond Body Series
  • Spacecruiser Inquiry: True Guidance for the Inner Journey, 2002, Shambhala, ISBN 978-1-57062-859-7
  • Brilliancy: The Essence of Intelligence, 2006, Shambhala, ISBN 978-1-59030-335-1
  • The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, 2008, Shambhala, ISBN 978-1-59030-559-1

See also[edit source]

• Enneagram of Personality

References[edit source]

1. ^ Schwartz, Tony (May 1995). "Uncovering The Essential Self". New Age Journal. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
2. ^ Jump up to:^a b Almaas, A.H. "A. Hameed Ali". diamondapproach.org.
3. ^ Almaas, A.H. "The Diamond Approach – Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas)". ahalmaas.com.
4. ^ Almaas, A. H. The Void: Inner Spaciousness and Ego Structure, Shambhala Publications, Boston MA, 1986.
5. ^ Almaas, A. H. Essence Weiser Books, Boston MA, 1986.
6. ^ "Essence & Spiritual Presence". www.diamondapproach.org. Archived from the original on 7 July 2008.
7. ^ Ch. 2 – "The Theory of Holes." Almaas, A. H. Diamond Heart Book 1, Shambhala, 2000.
8. ^ "Ways to Engage | Ridhwan". www.diamondapproach.org.
9. ^ "What is the goal of the Diamond Approach?". Ridhwan. Retrieved 15 May2020.
10. ^ "Truth". www.diamondapproach.org. Archived from the original on 25 July 2008.
11. ^ "New path: Ridhwan teaches new way of looking at the world". Daily Camera. 17 April 2009. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
12. ^ Wilber, K. Eye of the Spirit Shambhala: Boston, 1997 (372-373)
13. ^ Wilber, K. Eye of the Spirit Shambhala: Boston, 1997 (362–363)
14. ^ Appendix D in Almaas, A. H. The Inner Journey Home, Shambhala: Boston, 2004.
15. ^ Diamond Heart, Book 2, pg. 11 – Book Excerpts about Ridhwan
16. ^ "Treating the Soul for Life: School rejects 'quick fixes'". The Gazette (Colorado Springs). 23 October 1992. Retrieved 12 July 2008.
17. ^ "Spiritual Work and Psychotherapy". Retrieved 15 July 2019.

External links[edit source]

• Profile on the Diamond Approach website
• Profile on Shambhala Publications website
• Books, Audio, and Courses on the Diamond Approach from Shambhala Publications
• "Lighting Up the Now", a chapter from The Unfolding Now

show v t e New Age movement

show Authority control

[도올김용옥] 동경대전 52 참혹한 우리 민족의 운명을 바꿀 '다시개벽' 아닐런가? - 개같은 왜적노...

폭풍전야

폭풍전야

21 minutes ago

선생님 다 좋은데요 천내인을 부인하면 인내천은 의미가 없어집니다 그러니까 예수 그리스도께서 하나님으로서 이땅에 사람으로 오셔서 우리의 모든 죄를 십자가에서 대속하신 것이 천내인이 될 것이구요 그럼으로써 우리 마음속에 성령 하나님께서 내주하시면 인내천이 되는 것입니다 그게 진정한 수운 선생의 가르침입니다 그런데 인내천은 일반화 할 수가 없으며 내면적으로 우리의 고유의 사상과 마음가짐이 있는 사람만 인내천이 성립이 되는 것이지 토착왜구에게까지 전이시키면 자칫 그러한 토착왜구들에게 면죄부를 주게 되고 그러면 무고한 인내천한 사람들이 피해볼 수가 있다는 것입니다 요즘 보십시오 얼마나 많은 하늘님이 고통을 당하고 있나요 그런 의미에서 그러한 인내천과 관련해서 재정립이 절실한 것 같습니다

성완용

성완용

1 day ago

선천과후천은 분명 있음  ,, 봄과여름은 후천, 가을과겨울은 후천,, 곧음과양이 바뀌는것을 말함,,,  그러니 어찌  가슴이 아프지 않을수 있는가,,

3

성완용

성완용

1 day ago

리와기는  신이 존재해야 이루어짐,,  과연 철학자는 왜 신을 모르는가,,,  삼신의 작용과 삼수의변화도    그러면서  모든철학은 우주가  신이것을 모르니,,,  곧 천지가  신인것을,,,,

5

자기동래(紫氣東來) - "황제는 동쪽에서 왔다"

자기동래(紫氣東來) - "황제는 동쪽에서 왔다"

1 day ago

우리민족의 공통 정신•사상•정서에 대한 자각은,

우리 개개인의 정체성(IDENTITY를)을 가지는 것입니다.]

ㅡㅡㅡ​​

<우리민족의 공통 정신>

자연(하늘•땅)과 인간(사람들 세상)이 조화를 이루어 살아야 된다 = 삼신​

<우리민족의 공통 사상> 

"홍익인간(弘益人間​)하나니, 

제세이화(在世理化​)하게 만들어, 

이화세계(理化世界​)를 이룩한다"

<우리 민족의 공통 정서>

​1️⃣조상님 제사와 살아계신 부모님께만 엎드려 절을 한다.(제,祭)

​2️⃣스승님과 부모님 앞에서만 존경의 의미로 무릎을 꿇는다.(례,禮)

​3️⃣곤경에 처한 사람들을 보면 돕기를 주저하지 않는다.(어진마음, 정,情)​

2

최선식

최선식

1 day ago (edited)

수행이란  내가 어떻게 만들어

졌는지를 아는것 입니다.

그 과정에서창조주를 알게되고

12제국이란 그 깨닫는 단계가

12단계란 뜻이고

그것을 표시하는 석가탑이 열두칸이고 교회의 첨탑이 열두칸이며

우리의 꼬부랑할머니가 얼두고개를 넘어가고

자축인묘가  십이지신이  열둘 입니다.

마지막에 눈동자를 주시는데

이를 화룡점정 이라 합니다.

이런 글은 수행의 결과를 쓴 글이기에

수행을해서 경험해보지 않으면

절대로 지식으로는 이해를 하지못합니다.

비유하면 처음 글을  알았는데

전문서적을 이해한다는것과 같습니다.

그것은 호흡으로 아랫배 단전에

기를 쌓는것 입니다.

모든분이 이루셔서 지혜에 막힘이

없으시길 기원합니다.

태산이 높다하되

하늘아래 뫼이로다

오르고 또 오르면

못오를리 없건만은

사람이 제 아니 오르고

뫼도없다 하더라.

2

이삼봉

이삼봉

7 hours ago

진리는 간단명료하다. 

진리를 길게 부연 설명하면 그것은 모두 진리가 아니라고 보면 된다. 

철학이나 종교의 근본적인 목적은 올바른 가치를 밝혀 세상에 실현하는 것이다. 

그런데 우주의 작동 원리를 모르면서 무엇을 기준으로 올바름을 논할 수 있겠는가? 

그러므로 우주의 이치를 모르면서 떠드는 철학자나 종교인들의 말은 모두 개소리라고 보면 된다. 

인간은 불완전한 존재며 그 불완전한 존재의 인식기관으로 체득한 것도 불완전하다. 

그러므로 명상이나 참선과 같은 체득 방식으로는 절대로 깨달음에 이를 수 없다. 

종교인이나 수행자가 참선이나 명상을 통해서 얻었다고 하는 깨달음은 모두 환각이나 착각이다. 

왜 수행자들이 수천 년 동안 참선이나 명상을 했지만 명확한 깨달음을 얻지 못했을까? 

우주(대우주)와 생명(소우주)의 이치를 올바르게 이해해야 진정한 깨달음을 얻을 수 있는데 아직도 과학 수준이 그 정도에 미치지 못했기 때문이다. 

인간은 귀로 소리를 듣지만 소리는 실제로 존재하는 것이 아니라 공기의 진동을 소리라고 착각하는 것이다. 

눈으로 색깔을 보지만 색깔은 빛이 만든 현상에 불과하고 빛이 없는 밤이 되면 사라진다. 

온도가 높은 물체를 만져보면 뜨겁다고 느끼지만 실제로 온도가 있는 것이 아니라 분자의 진동이 커지면 뜨겁게 느낄 뿐이다. 

모든 물체의 무게는 중력이 만들어내는 현상이며 무중력 공간에 가면 무게는 사라진다. 

이와 같이 인간은 실제로 존재하지 않은 것들을 존재한다고 착각한다. 

선과 악은 인간이 만든 단어에 불과하며 우주는 선과 악을 구분하지 않고 오직 힘에 의해서 작동하므로 대부분 악이 선을 이긴다. 

51%가 모여서 힘으로 49%를 제압하는 것이 민주주의다. 

지난번 대통령 탄핵에서 선이 악을 이긴 것이 아니라 강자가 약자를 몰아낸 것이다. 

약한 촛불이 많이 모여서 강자가 되었으므로 세력이 약해진 기득권을 몰아낸 것이다. 

그러므로 좋은 세상이 되려면 선한 사람의 숫자가 51%를 넘어야 한다. 

과학과 종교에 대한 기존의 상식을 완전히 뒤집는 혁명적인 책(제목; 얼굴이 밝은 성직자는 가짜다)이 나왔다. 

검색해서 목차만 봐도 왜 혁명적인지 알 수 있다. 

이 책을 보면 새로운 우주의 원리와 그 원리에 부합하는 올바름의 기준과 인간의 본질도 이해할 수 있다.

이 책은 성경 속에 숨겨진 암호를 해독해서 성경의 내용을 180도 바꿔놓는다. 

종교인이나 수행자가 이 책을 보면 엄청난 충격을 받으며 새롭게 태어날 것이다.

1

남이승연

남이승연

1 day ago

다시, 동학입니다.

2

옥동호

옥동호

1 day ago (edited)

임진왜란은 조선과 일본과의 전쟁이 아니라 로마 카톨릭 예수회의 조선침략입니다.

임진왜란 때 100만명의 조선인을 학살했지만 기독교 포교에 실패합니다.

이런 역사도 모르고 기독교를 믿는 한국인들이 많습니다.

진해에 세스페데스 공원이 있더군요.

개탄할 일입니다.

오다 노부나가는 처음에는 예수회를 환영했습니다.

그러나 조선과 만주를 침략해 예수회 교회를 세우고 싶다는 예수회의 요구엔 반대했습니다.

그러자 예수회는 오다 노부나가를 암살합니다.

이로써 오다 노부나가는 평화의 순교자가 됩니다.

뒤를 이은 토요토미 히데요시는 오다 노부나가의 암살배후에 예수회가 있다는 것을 알고 자신이 살기 위해 조선과 명나라를 침략해 예수회 교회를 세워 줄테니 더 많은 조총을 팔아달라고 합니다.

그리고 아우구스티누스 고니시 유키나카를 선봉장으로 기독교 신자만으로 구성된 부대를 조선침략의 일진으로 보냅니다.

고니시 유키나카는 십자가 깃발을 앞세우고 조선을 침략해 단숨에 서울을 함락하고 평양까지 진격합니다.

임진왜란 중에 토요토미 히데요시는 사망하고  뒤를 이은 도쿠가와 이에야스 에도막부는 대대적인 기독교 탄압을 합니다.

그래서 현재 일본의 기독교 인구는 일본인구의 0.5%입니다.

Memoir Writing: Write a Personal Story for a Universal Audience (Courtney Maum). Online Course | Domestika

Memoir Writing: Write a Personal Story for a Universal Audience (Courtney Maum). Online Course | Domestika

Courses
Memoir Writing: Write a Personal Story for a Universal Audience

Memoir Writing: Write a Personal Story for a Universal Audience
A course by Courtney Maum, Author and Book Coach
99% Positive reviews (82)
1984 students
Audio: English
English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian

Information
Content
Community
Projects
Students


Share
Lists
Learn how to write a compelling personal narrative by exploring different literary devices and story structures


There’s no right way to tell a story but author and book coach Courtney Maum believes there is a right way to structure one. She’s been using stories to learn about the world for most of her life and, having written and published several with some of the biggest publishing houses in America including Penguin Random House and The New York Times, she knows a thing or two about how to write them.

In this course, she guides you through creating a compelling personal story using a three-act structure and a double timeline. Learn how to use them as a foundation to write about real people and real stories in a way that captures the reader’s attention from the first page.




About this course

COURSE TABLE OF CONTENTS
U1
Introduction
U2
Memoir and Nonfiction Writing
U3
Finding Your Story’s Structure
U4
Tips and Tricks to Keep Writing!
FP
Final ProjectView details


Get to know Courtney and where her love of books first began. Then explore the influences which have inspired her work over the years and find out more about what to expect from the course.

Learn what a memoir is, why they’re so popular, and the different forms a personal narrative can take. Then decide which one suits your story best before delving into narrative voice and how to find yours. Courtney shares her advice for knowing what to include and leave out of your personal story.

Start building your memoir by developing a three-act story structure with two timelines. Find out how this structure can help you to develop a personal story of any length and combine it with a double timeline to add complexity and dimension to your memoir.

To finish the course, Courtney shares her tips and tricks for staying focused and more importantly, inspired. Discover how she holds herself accountable during the writing process and how to generate a buzz around your story.
What is this course's project?


Write an essay that tells a personal story with a three-act structure and double timeline.




PROJECTS BY COURSE STUDENTS


By jesuslastra.r


By cmaum


By amrigby

+10
Who is it for?


Anyone interested in memoir writing or learning new techniques and structures to incorporate in their writing.
What you need


No previous experience is necessary for this course.

You will need paper and colored pencils or highlighters for planning.





Reviews
1984Students
82Reviews
99%Positive ratings


isabel.dl.pascua
about 15 hours ago



esta muy bien el curso viene muy completo y lo mejor que puedo repasarlo cuando quiera tengo la intención de tomar mas cursos como este


View translation



sherifakinpelu PRO
about 24 hours ago



Lovely course. I enjoyed it.


atta.hanson
a day ago



Course was concise and straight to the point.


santagostinobaldiveronica17
a day ago



Corso interessante e comunicazione semplice ma chiara ed esaustiva.
Molto amabile e diretta la responsabile delle lezioni.
Lo consiglio!


View translation



dfgcom
3 days ago



Excelente curso y una traducción bastante clara. Quedé muy contento y satisfecho. Muchas gracias...


View translation


More reviews


Courtney Maum
TEACHERPRO
Author and Book Coach
Follow






Joined February 2021


American author and book coach Courtney Maum has used stories to make sense of the world since she was a child. She studied comparative literature and French translation at university before going on to work in advertising agencies as a copywriter and corporate namer. She has used her love of storytelling to create compelling backstories for everything from nail polish to electric cars.

Courtney is fascinated with the creative process and has written and published several books with some of the biggest publishing houses and editors in America, including Penguin Random House and The New York Times. She also founded a collaborative retreat for creative professionals and has a regular newsletter, Get Published, Stay Published, in which she shares her tips for staying motivated during the writing process.
Contents

U1
Introduction


About Me

Influences
U2
Memoir and Nonfiction Writing


Conquering Fear and Guilt

What Memoir Is and Does

Deciding What Will Make It Into Your Story

Voice: What Is It and How to Find Yours?
U3
Finding Your Story’s Structure


Plot, Sub-Plot and the Double Timeline

The Three-Act Story Structure

Putting It All Together!
U4
Tips and Tricks to Keep Writing!


Accountability

Generating “Buzz” Around Your Story

Giving Yourself Permission to Write
FP
Final Project


Memoir Writing: Write a Personal Story for a Universal Audience
What to expect from a Domestika course

Learn at your own pace

Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and an easy-to-follow method. You set your own timetable.

Learn from the best professionals

Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.

Meet expert instructors

Each instructor teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.

Earn a certificate with every course
NEW

Get a personalized certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.

Get front row seats

Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.

Share knowledge and ideas

Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate as you about creativity.

Connect with a global creative community

The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.

Watch professionally produced courses

Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.
Frequently Asked Questions


What are Domestika's online courses?

When do the courses start and when do they finish?

What do Domestika's courses include?

Have you been given a course?

When do I get the course certificate? NEW

남친이 제 신혼집 조건 듣더니 파혼하재요 – 체인지그라운드

남친이 제 신혼집 조건 듣더니 파혼하재요 – 체인지그라운드



남친이 제 신혼집 조건 듣더니 파혼하재요

2020년 11월 30일
admin


결혼이라는 게 생각보다 만만찮은 일이다. 사실상 우리나라에서 결혼이란 두 사람의 일이라기보다는 집안 대 집안의 일이라고 봐야 할 것이다. 이렇다 보니 그저 마음만 맞는다고 이루어지는 것도 아니고, 잘 되어간다 싶다가도 엎어지는 경우가 생각보다 많다. 주변의 방해 때문에 결혼이 엎어지면 정말 피눈물 나게 슬플 것 같다. 그런데 많은 파혼 사례를 보면 제 발로 파혼에 뛰어드는 경우가 의외로 많다. 다음 사례도 저 스스로 자빠지는 파혼의 대표적인 사례가 아닐까 싶다.







1) 상식이 필요합니다



서울에 있는 30평 이상 신축아파트의 가격은 어느 정도나 할까? 2020년 6월 기준 신축아파트(1~5년)의 평균 매매 가격이 13억 8,743만 원이라고 한다. 서초구가 25억을 넘었고, 대부분 지역이 10억 이상을 기록했다. 즉, 위에 적힌 조건을 만족하려면 최소 10억 이상은 있어야 한다는 말이다. 20대 후반의 청년이 과연 그 돈을 마련할 수 있을까? 택도 없는 소리다. 결국 10억짜리 신혼집을 구하려면 다음 3가지 중에 하나를 택해야 한다. 첫째, 로또에 당첨된다. 둘째, 부모님께 손을 벌린다. 셋째, 10억 모을 때까지 기다렸다가 40살이 넘어서 결혼한다. (그 사이 집값은 안 오르나?)



본인이 내건 조건이 얼마짜리 조건인지 모른다면 생각보다 심각한 일이라고 생각한다. 아무리 서울 집값이 비현실적으로 비싸다고는 하지만 (ㅠㅠ) 그렇다고 그 값이 얼마인지, 어떤 의미인지 파악조차 못 하는 것은 분명 문제가 있다. 20대에 1억만 모아도 열심히 살았다고 칭찬받을 텐데, 10억을 가져오라는 건 너무 세상 물정을 모르는 소리가 아닐까?



2) 조건보다 중요한 것



조건 없는 사랑이 가능할까? 나는 불가능하다고 생각한다. 왜냐하면, 조건도 매력의 중요한 요소이기 때문이다. 흔히 외모나 능력을 보고 사랑에 빠지면 속물이라고 생각하는 경향이 있지만, 사랑에는 본능적인 면이 있고, 그런 만큼 본능적인 요소에 끌리는 게 당연한 일이다. 외모나 능력을 본다고 부끄러워할 필요는 없다. 특히 결혼은 집안 대 집안의 일이기 때문에 조건이 꽤 중요한 요소가 되기도 한다.



하지만 처음에 본능적 요소에 끌려 호감을 갖더라도, 사랑을 결심할 때는 성격과 인성을 살펴보게 마련이다. 결혼도 마찬가지다. 조건을 아예 안 볼 수는 없지만, 행복한 결혼 생활을 이루는 데는 조건보다 중요한 것들이 많이 있다. 대표적인 것이 가치관이다. 아무리 세속적 매력이 강렬해도 핵심 가치관에서 차이가 나면 사랑을 지속하기가 쉽지 않다. 돈에 관한 가치관, 양육에 관한 가치관 등 핵심적인 부분에서 이해와 합의가 이루어질 수 있어야 한다.




그런 면에서 조건은 최소한의 마지노선이라고 보는 게 옳다. 이 정도면 사는 데 문제없겠다는 수준으로 낮게 잡아야 한다. 조건을 높게 잡으면 결국 조건만 보고 만날 수밖에 없다. 더 중요한 것은 마음이 맞는 사람을 찾는 것임을 잊지 말아야 한다.



3) 의존하되 자립할 줄 알아야 한다



결혼은 서로에게 의존하는 일이다. 이 험한 세상을 혼자 살지 않고 배우자에게 기대어 살아가겠다는 다짐이다. 여기서 중요하게 생각해볼 점이 있다. 서로가 기대려면 각자가 스스로 자립할 수 있어야 한다는 점이다. 제 발로 서지도 못하는데 누군가 기대오면 어떻게 될까? 그 관계는 넘어질 수밖에 없다. 서로 의존한다는 말은 내가 상대에게 기댄다는 뜻이기도 하지만, 상대도 나에게 기댄다는 뜻이기도 하다. 상대의 무게를 버틸 힘이 없으면, 서로 기대는 관계가 아니라 일방적으로 업혀 가는 관계가 될 수밖에 없다.



그런 관계가 오래 지속되면 안 좋은 결말로 이어지기 쉽다. 의존하기만 하는 사람은 상대가 떠날지도 모른다는 불안에 휩싸일 것이다. 그러는 동안 상대방은 기댈 곳 없이 받아주기만 하느라 스트레스가 쌓일 것이다. 그런 관계는 결국 깨지거나, 아니면 뒤틀린 채로 이어지게 된다. 설령 깨지지 않더라도 한 사람의 마음속에 시커먼 우울감이 자라날 확률이 높다.




남자친구에게 신혼집을 요구할 게 아니다. 남자친구가 구하지 못한다면 제 손으로 구할 생각이 있어야 한다. 제 손으로도 못 구할 거면 정신 차려야 한다. 그 집은 분수에 맞지 않는 집이다. 두 사람이 힘을 모아 장만할 수 있는 현실적인 집을 찾아봐야 한다. (솔직히 둘만 살 거면 20평대도 충분하다) 사실 조건이란 이렇게 ‘맞춰가는 것’이다. 미리 정해놓고 넘어야만 결혼에 골인할 수 있는 장애물이 아니다.



물론 조건을 맞춰가는 과정이 쉽지도 않고, 때로는 그것 때문에 싸움이 벌어질 수도 있다. 하지만 그런 과정을 극복하고 이겨내는 것 또한 결혼의 일부이자 묘미이기도 하다. 둘이 함께 고민해서 장만하는 신혼집은 10억짜리 집보다는 못해도 나름의 만족감을 선사할 것이다. 함께 무언가를 해낸다는 것이 무척 즐거운 일이기 때문이다. 그런 재미를 조건이라는 이름으로 내팽개치지 않기를 바란다.



참고 : 남친이 제 신혼집 조건 듣더니 파혼하재요, 네이트판

5년이 지나도 회자되는 불교신문 답변 레전드 – 체인지그라운드

5년이 지나도 회자되는 불교신문 답변 레전드 – 체인지그라운드

5년이 지나도 회자되는 불교신문 답변 레전드

2020년 11월 27일
admin




5년 전 불교신문에 한 학부모가 고민을 보냈다. 내용은 고1 아들이 게임에 너무 빠져서 걱정이라는 것이었다. 처음에는 그렇게 심하지 않았는데, 점점 피시방에서 보내는 시간이 길어지더니, 이제는 집에서도 새벽까지 게임을 붙잡고 있다고 한다. 심지어 카드 명세서에 게임 아이템 구매로 100만 원이 나와 아이 아빠와 함께 혼냈더니, 친구들한테 잘 보이려면 그 아이템이 꼭 필요하다고, 엄마 아빠가 그런 거 하나 못 해주냐며 도리어 역정을 냈다고 한다.



그런데 이에 대한 답변이 정말 대단했다. 단순 처방을 넘어서 중독의 본질을 돌아보고 실존에 관한 고찰이 담긴 명문이었다.

===============


“중요한 것은 중독행위 자체가 아니라, 중독에 빠진 이가 어떠한 심리적 이득을 얻고자 하는가입니다. 이 경우 아이는 게임을 통해 친구들과 친밀한 관계를 얻고 싶어 하는 것 같습니다. 친밀한 관계를 얻고자 게임에만 몰입한다는 것은, 역으로 얘기하면 게임 외에는 친밀한 관계를 그 어디에서도 얻지 못하고 있다는 의미이기도 합니다. 아이에게 있어서 게임이라는 도구는 자신이 바라는 친밀한 관계를 제공할 대상과 접촉할 수 있는 유일한 수단일 것입니다.”

그다음에 이어진 말은 존재론적인 내용까지 이어졌다.

“저희가 여기에서 조금 더 나아가볼 수 있을 것입니다. 아이는 게임 내에서 통용되는 비싼 아이템을 구매함으로써 게임 내 자신의 가치를 드높이고자 한 것이죠. 즉 아이는 100만 원을 게임 내 자신에게 투자함으로써, 자신이 적어도 100만 원만큼은 가치 있고 소중하다는 사실을 발견하고 싶어 하는 것입니다. 질문자님의 아이는 게임에 미쳐 100만 원을 쓴 바보나 중독자가 아니라, 100만 원을 쓰지 않고는 자신이 얼마나 귀한 존재인지를 좀처럼 실감할 수 없었던 슬픈 소년입니다.”

그리고 이 명문은 소년을 측은하게 여기는 마음으로 마무리되었다.

“그 소년은 친밀한 관계 속에서 자신이 참으로 귀하다는 사실을 얼마나 간절히 확인하고 싶었을까요. 또 그런 것들을 쉽사리 얻지 못해 얼마나 쓸쓸한 마음으로 작은 모니터 속으로 들어가야 했을까요. 질문자님의 관심이 향해야 할 곳은 질문자님의 게임중독자 아이가 아니라, 이 세상에서 내가 귀한 것을 누가 좀 알아달라고 목놓아 외치고 있는 바로 그 슬픈 소년일 것입니다. 그 소년의 목소리를 한번 들어보세요. 반드시 듣게 되실 거예요. 그 소년은 우리 모두에게 속한 까닭입니다.”

1) 게임은 중독일까?

책 <중독의 시대>에 따르면 2018년 세계보건기구(WHO)에서 국제질병분류에 ‘게임 이용 장애’를 추가하여 게임의 중독성을 공식적으로 인정했다고 한다. 아직 이에 관한 논란의 여지가 많기는 하지만, 게임 때문에 일상생활을 망치는 사람이 존재하는 게 사실이고, 그들의 뇌를 살펴보면 중독자와 비슷하게 작동한다는 사실도 확인할 수 있다. 도파민 수용체를 활성화하여 게임을 갈망하게 되는 것이다. 나도 열렬한 게임 팬이기는 하지만, 게임 중독을 무시할 수는 없는 증거와 예시가 충분히 갖춰졌다고 생각한다.

2) 모두가 게임 중독에 빠지는 것은 아니다

그렇다고 게임이 손대는 것만으로도 중독에 빠지는 위험한 물건은 아니다. 사실 담배도 알코올도 중독성이 있지만, 모두가 골초나 술고래가 되는 것은 아니다. 그럼 무엇이 중독을 일으키는 걸까? 미국의 심리학자 티모시 리어리와 정신분석학자 노먼 진버그는 사고방식(Set)과 환경(setting)이 중요하다고 주장했다. 그리고 이는 심리학자 브루스 알렉산더의 실험을 통해 입증되었다.

브루스는 쥐를 실험하는 환경이 쥐들을 중독으로 내몬다고 생각했다. 조금한 철창 우리에 갇혀 있으니 중독에 빠져든다는 것이다. 그래서 그는 쥐들을 위한 놀이공원을 만들었다. 그곳에서 쥐들은 자유롭게 뛰어놀 수 있었고, 친구 쥐들과 함께 놀거나 자유롭게 짝짓기도 할 수 있었다. 그러자 놀라운 일이 벌어졌다. 쥐들이 더는 중독 물질에 손을 대지 않았던 것이다.

3) 관심과 사랑이 중요한 이유

게임 중독은 분명 존재한다. 하지만 그렇다고 게임이 아이들을 중독시키는 악의 축이라고 생각하면 곤란하다. 오히려 아이들을 중독으로 내모는 것은 충분히 즐겁지 않은 환경이다. 우리나라 아이들은 어릴 때부터 입시 스트레스와 교내 괴롭힘 문제에 시달린다. 그런 환경이라면 철창에 갇힌 쥐들보다 더한 스트레스 환경이라고 봐도 무방할 것이다. 그러니 현실에서 도피하고 싶어지고 게임에 과몰입하게 된다.

이를 해소하려면 사고방식과 환경을 바꿔야 한다. 어떻게 하면 아이들에게 긍정적인 사고방식과 살기 좋은 환경을 만들 수 있을까? 어려운 일이 아니다. 관심과 애정이 답이다. 게임에 100만 원이나 써야만 했던 슬픈 소년의 심정을 헤아리듯이 우리 아이들의 마음을 보듬어줄 수 있다면, 게임 중독이라는 심각한 사회 문제를 없앨 수 있을 것이다. 그리고 게임은 가족이 함께 즐기는 좋은 여가 생활로 거듭나게 될 것이다. 그게 게임과 함께 살아갈 수밖에 없는 우리 아이들을 올바르게 지키는 길이 아닐까 싶다.



당신이 중독에 관하여

알아야하는 모든 것

교보문고 바로가기(링크)


참고
1) 게임에 미쳐 사는 애 때문에 힘들어요, 불교신문
2) 책 <중독의 시대>



※ 본 콘텐츠는 로크미디어로부터 제작비를 지원받았습니다.

Aldous Huxley: A Biography by Sybille Bedford | Goodreads

Aldous Huxley: A Biography by Sybille Bedford | Goodreads

Aldous Huxley: A Biography

 Want to Read

Rate this book

1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars

Aldous Huxley: A Biography

by Sybille Bedford

 3.98  ·   Rating details ·  128 ratings  ·  13 reviews

In this dazzling conjunction of subject and author, the great English novelist Aldous Huxley, the wholly civilized man, is brought wholly alive in a magnificent full-scale biography by the brilliant English novelist Sybille Bedford, an intimate friend of the Huxleys through four decades. With a pointillistic richness of moment, place, and talk, she re-creates not only the private Huxley and the literary Huxley but the entire intellectual and social era to which he was central. Despite the almost total loss of his sight at age sixteen, Huxley became a titan and cultural hero of the decades after World War I, on terms with the outstanding writers and artists of his day, from D. H. Lawrence to Stravinksy and Auden. He had two separate and large careers as Crome Yellow and Point Counter Point, flag-bearer of England s Bright Young People through the 1920s, and romancer of glittering women; and later, in America, as the increasingly philosophical and utopian thinker, and a pioneering explorer of the frontiers of the human mind. Drawing on his letters and diaries, the memories of his intimates, and her own sharp and sensitive comprehension of Huxley s writings, Mrs. Bedford has written a masterful biography. "Her novelist s eye," writes V. S. Pritchett, "brings the writer to life. Huxley becomes a living, deeply attractive presence, while his great contemporaries flash through these pages in memorable and moving encounters. Mrs. Bedford s biography stands as the major work on a major figure in the literary and intellectual history of the twentieth century." (less)

GET A COPY

KoboOnline Stores ▾Book Links ▾

Paperback, 769 pages

Published July 22nd 2002 by Ivan R. Dee Publisher (first published 1973)

Original TitleAldous Huxley: a biography. volume one - The apparent stability

ISBN1566634547 (ISBN13: 9781566634540)

Edition LanguageEnglish

Other Editions (7)

Aldous Huxley: A Biography 

Aldous Huxley: a biography. volume one - The apparent stability 

Aldous Huxley 

111x148 

111x148

All Editions | Add a New Edition | Combine

...Less DetailEdit Details

EditMY ACTIVITY

Review of ISBN 9781566634540

Rating

1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars

Shelves to-read edit

( 958th )

Format Paperback edit

Status

September 16, 2021 – Shelved as: to-read

September 16, 2021 – Shelved

Review Write a review

 

comment

FRIEND REVIEWS

Recommend This Book None of your friends have reviewed this book yet.

READER Q&A

Ask the Goodreads community a question about Aldous Huxley

54355902. uy100 cr1,0,100,100 

Ask anything about the book

Be the first to ask a question about Aldous Huxley

LISTS WITH THIS BOOK

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia PlathConfessions by Jean-Jacques RousseauA Writer's Diary by Fyodor DostoevskyA Moveable Feast by Ernest HemingwayWill in the World by Stephen Greenblatt

Literary biographies

452 books — 103 voters

More lists with this book...

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Showing 1-30

 Average rating3.98  ·  Rating details ·  128 ratings  ·  13 reviews

Search review text

All Languages

More filters | Sort order

Sejin,

Sejin, start your review of Aldous Huxley: A Biography

Write a review

Lizzie

Mar 29, 2011Lizzie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biography, read-in-2006

I don’t know if this is the best or most objective bio of Huxley, since the author was a friend and doesn’t have much bad to say about him, but it was certainly interesting. He was an interesting guy. I’d read and loved Island and Brave New World, and knew he’d taken LSD. I hadn’t known he’d had such a hard childhood (he lost his mother and eyesight in the same year) or that he was interested in Dianetics, or was such a committed pacifist. It was time well spent.

flag4 likes · Like  · comment · see review

Mark

Nov 22, 2011Mark rated it liked it

Shelves: biography

Well I will personally dispense with reading the early part of this, simply because Woodcock's book covered it very well, and this is more a hagiography albeit by a personal friend. But already one thing I never knew, and I am sure most of you did not, either, is that Huxley's famous "grey flannel trousers" seen as "miraculous" beneath the expansion valve of the mescaline experience, were actually blue jeans. Just think how many more pairs of Levi's they could have sold! (yuk, yuk.) Were it not for Mrs. Huxley's editorial primness, hoping to reach a more highbrow audience. Well it's just one of the fascinating trivia available in this version of the man's biography. But I'd put the emphasis here more on the trivia, as, unlike Woodcock, she focuses on the human being and his trials, than on the literature and the message. Not that they were few, nor un-noteworthy. Her insights as to the message of his book Island (a culmination of the better part of his life's work) is off a little, but perhaps only because she had no particular part to play in the psychedelic movement- which would have given the author a wider range of understanding, as well, for some of Huxley's conclusions regarding the proper social role of these substances. And yes, he was very annoyed with Tim Leary's "marketing schemes"- as in retrospect I am myself. Some things just aren't for everyone, and if such interesting and "out of self" experiences can be induced naturally in certain people, it might do them a world more good than tripping. (There's lots more I could say about that, but, I like keeping reviews to the point...) (less)

flag3 likes · Like  · 2 comments · see review

Dexter Boniface

Jul 05, 2019Dexter Boniface rated it it was ok  ·  review of another edition

This is a tedious book that will probably only be enjoyed by diehard fans of Aldous Huxley. As other reviewers note, the book has a slow pace and bland style and Bedford’s writing is sometimes hard to follow. For those that are willing to overlook these significant shortcomings, the book does offer an exhaustive and intimate portrait of Aldous Huxley’s life and work.

In terms of the writing style, Bedford’s biography has a ‘one thing after another’ quality that begins with Huxley’s birth and ends with his death. In other words, the book is devoid of a central theme, arc or interpretation of Huxley’s life that might help to carry the book from start to finish. The question of who Aldous Huxley was is answered, but only indirectly. Furthermore, Bedford’s writing is confusing since she relies on a patchwork of letters to construct her narrative. An added frustration (for me anyway) is that Bedford often quotes passages in their original French but rarely offers a translation (Huxley’s first wife, Maria, was from Belgium and she and Aldous often spoke to one another in French).

In terms of the book’s content, readers will of course learn a lot about Huxley’s life and work: his charmed but tragic childhood; his peculiar marriage to Maria; his prolific writing habits (including insights into his entire cannon of work); his forays abroad and long stints in the French Mediterranean and Hollywood; the constant ups and downs of his health; the evolution of his ideas about war, pacificism, the environment, and spirituality; his experimentation with psychedelic drugs and hypnosis (among other esoteric pursuits).

(less)

flag1 like · Like  · 1 comment · see review

Sam Schulman

Dec 14, 2009Sam Schulman rated it it was amazing

It's hard to remain interested in Aldous Huxley through this long, respectful biography, but it must be read because - shyly revealed in the course of the telling - Sybille Bedford was a troubled teenager taken in by the Huxleys in the 30s - and she actually make the reader (or at least this reader) fall completely and actually in love with Laura Huxley as you read. It's a completely unique experience - perhaps unique to me - to have this experience with a real person (I certainly had it with Tess Darbyfield of Tess of the D'Urbervilles but that's different). Bedford wrote "A Legacy," which is another of the great fictional reconstructions of what it's like to be a German - so truthful-to-life that for a long time I thought it must have been a translation. But the fact is that Bedford can do things with prose that no one else can do.

(less)

flag1 like · Like  · comment · see review

katie

Mar 20, 2007katie rated it really liked it

Exhaustive. Not the most amazing writing style, but CERTAINLY packed full of info on Aldous and anyone he was close with. I enjoyed it to the very end. But then again, I am a die hard Huxley fan (read : loser). haha.

flag1 like · Like  · comment · see review

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley | Goodreads

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley | Goodreads

Brave New World

by Aldous Huxley

 3.99  ·   Rating details ·  1,567,691 ratings  ·  34,817 reviews

Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, inhabited by genetically modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist. (less)

GET A COPY

KoboOnline Stores ▾Book Links ▾

Paperback, 268 pages

Published September 1st 1998 by HarperPerennial / Perennial Classics (first published 1932)

Stephen

Nov 17, 2010Stephen rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobook, science-fiction, classics, world-in-the-shitter

BabyClone v2

I need to parse my rating of this book into the good (or great), the bad and the very fugly because I thought aspects of it were inspired genius and parts of it were dreggy, boring and living near the border of awful. In the end, the wowness and importance of the novel's ideas as well as the segments that I thoroughly enjoyed carried the book to a strong 3.5 star rating.

THE REALLY GOOD/EXCELLENT - I loved the first third of the book in which the basic outline of the "Brave New World" and its devalued, conveyer belt morality is set forth. The narrative device employed by Huxley of having the Director of Hatchery and Conditioning provide a walking tour to students around the facility as a way to knowledge up the reader on the societal basics was perfect. We learn of the cloning/birthing process, the caste system and the fundamental tenets upon which the society is organized.

Photobucket

This was as good a use of infodumping exposition as I had come across in some time and I was impressed both with the content and delivery method. The reader gets a crash course in world and its history in a way that fit nicely into the flow of the narrative without ever feeling forced. This was easily the best part of the novel for me, and Huxley's mass production-based society of enforced hedonism and anti-emotion was very compelling. Sort of like...

Mr_Spock-1 v2

Now, long jumping to the end of the novel...

I also thought the final "debate" near the story's climax between John (the "savage") and Mustapha Mond, the World Controller, was exceptional. This last chapter/ending of the book, while abrupt, was masterful and struck the proper chord with the overall theme of the book.

Thus, a superior 4.5 to 5.0 stars for this portion of the book.

THE BAD/AWFUL - I thought the middle of the book including both the trip to the "reservation" and John's initial return to London was a sleeping pill and felt disconnected from the rest of the narrative. Throughout this entire portion of the book, all I kept thinking was...

Photobucket

The only purpose of this long, long.....LONG section seems to be to allow the reader to see Bernard Marx do a complete 180 in his views on the society once he finds himself in the role of celebrity by virtue of his relationship with John the savage. Sorry, this just did not strike me as a big enough payoff for this dry, plodding section. It was a test of endurance to get through this portion of the book, so I'm being generous when I give it a weak 2.0 to 2.5 stars. I could just have easily summed it up by just saying...

Photobucket

Bottom-line, I think this is a book that should be read. It's important book and there is much brilliance here. Plus, it is short enough that the stale boring segments aren't too tortuous to get through. However, as far as the triumvirate of classic dystopian science fiction goes...1984 is still the undisputed champ.

3.0 Stars. Recommended. (less)

flag1104 likes · Like  · 98 comments · see review

Kemper

Aug 02, 2011Kemper rated it really liked it

Shelves: dystopia, future-is-now, 2011, famous-books, playing-god, sci-fi

Warning! The following review contains humor. If you read it and actually think that I'm being critical of Huxley, try reading it again. (Here's a hint. Look for the irony of the italicized parts when compared to the previous statements.) If you post a comment that asserts that I'm wrong/ stupid/ crazy for this and/or try to lecture me on all the points you think I missed then I'm going to assume that you read it literally, missed the joke, didn't read the other comments where I've already answered this about a dozen times, and I will delete your post.

I have to apologize for this review. The concept of this book was so outlandish that I think it made my mind wander, and you may find some odd random thoughts scattered in it.

Anyhow, this book was so silly and unrealistic. Like any of this could happen. In the far future the babies are genetically engineered and designed for certain stations in life with a large workforce bred to be happy with menial jobs that don’t stress them physically or mentally. I really should look into getting that data entry position I saw in the job postings. It’d be a lot less stressful than what I‘m doing now.

In addition to all the genetic modifications, the children are raised by the state, and words like ’father’ and ’mother’ are considered obscenities. Subliminal messaging through infancy and childhood also condition people to repeat idiotic platitudes as if they are genuine wisdom. I’ve been in a bad mood today. I need to turn that frown upside down. And since the world economy depends on constant consumption by the highest classes, they’re encouraged to be wasteful The collars on a couple of my shirts are a little frayed. I should go buy some new ones and throw the old ones out. and to engage in activities that demand spending and resource use. Should I get a new set of golf clubs? I lost my old ones when we moved, but I hadn’t played in a long time. But would I play more if I got new clubs? There‘s that really nice looking course right down the street. I don‘t know how they keep the grass that green in this heat. The population even gets to zip around in their own private helicopters rather than cars. Man, when are they going to come out with jet packs for everyone. It’s 2011 and I’m still driving around in a car like a chump. I want my jet pack!

Casual sex is actively encouraged. Wow. These condom commercials on TV have gotten really racy. The population is also programmed to be constantly partaking of some form of entertainment and to never just sit quietly and think I’m bored. Writing is boring. or to be alone Let’s check Facebook and see what all my friends are doing.

One of the sillier ideas is that the foundation of this society is Henry Ford’s assembly lines and that Ford has become the most revered figure in history. Like a businessman could ever become that popular. Is Steve Jobs making any announcements this week? I get itchy when there‘s no new Apple products.

While everyone seeks to be constantly entertained, all of the entertainment panders to the lowest common denominator. Hey, Jersey Shore is on! and the emphasis is on presenting it with gimmicks to engage the audience like ’the feelies’, movies that the audience can also smell and feel the sensation from. I wonder if they’ll re-release Avatar at the movies so I can see it in 3D again like James Cameron intended? At one point, a character complains about the feelies, “But they’re told by an idiot….works of art out of practically nothing but pure sensation.” I should go see that new Michael Bay Transformers movie.

Perhaps the most far fetched idea in this is that the population has been trained to sedate themselves with a drug called soma that relives any potential anxieties and keeps people from thinking about anything upsetting. I want a beer.

I guess this Huxley guy might have gotten lucky and predicted a few things, but he was way off base about where society was going.

(less)

flag1235 likes · Like  · see review

Madeline

Feb 07, 2010Madeline rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, the-list

Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1932. That's almost eighty years ago, but the book reads like it could have been written yesterday. (especially interesting to me was how Huxley was able to predict the future of both genetic engineering and the action blockbuster. Damn.)

I think I liked this one better than 1984, the book traditionally considered to be this one's counterpart. Not really sure why this is, but it's probably because this one has a clearer outsider character (the Savage) who can view the world Huxley created through his separate perspective.

In this light, I will give the last word to Neil Postman, who discussed the differences between Orwell and Huxley's views of the future:

"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.

Orwell feared those who would deprive us information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.

As Huxley remarked in 'Brave New World revisited,' the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny 'failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions.'

In 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' people are controlled by inflicting pain. In 'Brave New World' people are controlled by inflicting pleasure.

In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us." (less)

flag1157 likes · Like  · 37 comments · see review

Emily May

Jun 06, 2012Emily May rated it did not like it  ·  review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 2012, sci-fi

Wow, the anger over this rating! My first post for this book was a quote and a gif of Dean from Supernatural rolling his eyes and passing out. And people were pissed. How dare I?

Lol. I'm honestly just so tired of all the dumb comments demanding that I (all caps) "ELABORATE". It's been going on for SIX YEARS now. So I will: This is still one of the most boring emotionless books I have ever read. It seemed like a natural choice after I loved Orwell and Atwood but, my god, Huxley is a dry, dull writer.

Another reviewer called this book a "sleeping pill" and that is a fantastic description. After all the hullabaloo with my original post, I borrowed Brave New World from my local library with the intention of reading it again to give a more detailed review for those freaking out in the comments. And I returned it after suffering through only a few pages. A few years later I got the ebook, thinking I would eventually make it through somehow. But I haven't. It's so mind-numbingly dull. I don't want to do it to myself. The Globalization of World Politics was more enjoyable than this book. (less)

flag584 likes · Like  · 156 comments · see review

Sean Barrs 

Oct 02, 2018Sean Barrs rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition

Recommends it for: Fans of 1984, the Handmaid's Tale and Fahrenheit 451

Shelves: reviewed-for-fantasy-book-review, sci-fi, 5-star-reads

“But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”

These are words uttered in the face of tyranny and complete oppression, though they are very rare words to be spoken or even thought of in this world because every human passion and sense of creativity is repressed and eradicated through a long and complex process of conditioning.

And that’s what makes this novel so powerful; it’s not unbelievable. Like Orwell’s 1984 and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, there’s just enough truth within Brave New World for it to be real. It’s a cruel mirroring of our own existence, should we follow a certain path too strongly. And that's the wonder of speculative fiction, though unlike the other two books, there’s no violence involved in Huxley’s world. It’s just as controlling and scary, but it’s done in a more indirect way.

Sex is on tap, everybody should be happy.

People don’t go missing in the night nor are they stoned to death by a group of their peers, but they have just as little freedom (even if they don’t realise it.) In this dystopia they are trained from birth to think and feel in a certain way, and, for whatever reason, should they ever deviate from their ordained path, they are fed drugs that induce happiness and serenity; thus, the populace is kept within their desired space, and persist with the tasks they were born to do. Very few of them even consider that this is wrong; this is all they have known. And to make things even more maniacally clever, all physical and sexual needs are fulfilled completely as everybody belongs to everybody else in every sense with the ultimate goal of people never developing desire. All desire should be fulfilled, nobody wants for anything else.

People are machines and houses are factories. They are mass produced and designed to be one thing and one thing only. All values are inverted. The idea of showing any emotion is horrific and repulsive. Love is unknown and alien. Death is associated with sweetness and relief. Children are fed candy when they are thought about death, so they associate the two together, so when as adults they see death they think of treats rather than the loss of someone they have known and worked beside for years.

In Brave New World people are husks, empty and detached, without ever realising it.

description

-John, the savage, as he enters the new world

I can only admire and praise Huxley’s genius through the writing. Like all effective dystopian societies, reading and information plays an exceedingly important role. As with Ray Bradbury'sFahrenheit 451, all books have been destroyed and made inaccessible. John, one of the few characters who was born away from the new world, stumbles across a volume of Shakespeare and it changes his life. He can only think and feel in Shakespearean language and begins to view the world through a semi-romantic lens and only finds depravity when he walks into the new world.

It’s everything he hates. He has been termed the savage, though he knows and understands the real meaning of the term even if those who call him such do not. Naturally, he becomes depressed and isolated in this new space, a space that he cannot be a part of or accepted in (not that he would want to be.) And I found him by far the most interesting and compelling character within the story because he is the only one to really look beyond the boundaries of his own experience and to find it wanting.

So this is a terribly important novel and I can’t believe I have only just read it. If you haven’t read it already, you know what you have to do. This isn’t something to be missed. It’s a novel that made me think and imagine in a way a book hasn’t done in quite some time.

___________________________________

You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree.

__________________________________ (less)

flag501 likes · Like  · 18 comments · see review

Erin

Feb 29, 2008Erin added it

Shelves: ew-high-school-english

remember that last semester of english class, senior year, where every class seemed painfully long and excrutiatingly pointless? when everybody sat around secretly thinking of cute and witty things to put in other people's yearbooks? when the teachers realized we were already braindead from filling out three dozen student loan applications and college housing forms? that's when honors english started getting a little lazy.

not that i minded. everybody got a book list. then everybody got split up ...more

flag420 likes · Like  · 56 comments · see review

Ahmad Sharabiani

Oct 07, 2010Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 1001-books, literature, classics, science, british, 20th-century

(Book 649 From 1001 Books) - Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley. Published in 1932.

The novel opens in the World State city of London in AF (After Ford) 632 (AD 2540 in the Gregorian calendar), where citizens are engineered through artificial wombs and childhood indoctrination programmes into predetermined classes (or castes) based on intelligence and labor.

Lenina Crowne, a hatchery worker, is popular and sexually desirable, but Bernard Marx, a psychologist, is not.

He is shorter in stature than the average member of his high caste, which gives him an inferiority complex.

His work with sleep-learning allows him to understand, and disapprove of, his society's methods of keeping its citizens peaceful, which includes their constant consumption of a soothing, happiness-producing drug called Soma.

Courting disaster, Bernard is vocal and arrogant about his criticisms, and his boss contemplates exiling him to Iceland because of his nonconformity. His only friend is Helmholtz Watson, a gifted writer who finds it difficult to use his talents creatively in their pain-free society. ...

Huxley and God: Essays on Religious Experience by Aldous Huxley | Goodreads

Huxley and God: Essays on Religious Experience by Aldous Huxley | Goodreads

Huxley and God: Essays on Religious Experience

by Aldous Huxley, 

Huston Smith (Introduction), 

Jacqueline Hazard Bridgeman (Editor)

 4.32  ·   Rating details ·  117 ratings  ·  4 reviews

With three new biographies published in the last year and the continued success of his 1932 novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley is experiencing a remarkable resurgence. In this mind-bending collection of essays, Huxley explores the notion of divinity from a variety of perspectives, including his deep knowledge of Eastern philosophy. Will be of great interest to fans of the East and Huxley's own growing group of followers and devotees. (less)

Paperback, 320 pages

Published March 1st 2003 

by The Crossroad Publishing Company (first published 1992)

https://archive.org/details/huxleygodessays00huxl

Renewable every hour, pending availability.More info

-----------------------

 Average rating4.32  ·  Rating details ·  117 ratings  ·  4 reviews

-------------------------------

Susan

Dec 30, 2011Susan rated it it was amazing

Before reading this book, my relationship with Huxley was confined to a bit of fiction and his historical account of political religiosity in, “The Devils of Loudon”. “Devils” made a great impression on me in my youth, and helped me to work out issues of forgiveness and compassion by exploring politicized selfishness and cruelty. But I didn’t know what to expect from this collection of essays on the nature of the divine.

On this, my first pass-through of the text, I don’t yet have the “umph” to adequately record my feelings, because I’m just not ready. I’ll have to go back to the book later to strip away its layers. I’m sympathetic to Huxley’s views on the personal search for meaning, with the accompanying personal responsibility to think and act for oneself. His clean language camouflages the profundity of his arguments – arguments that I have read before in eastern (translated) texts.

 Huxley weds eastern and western mysticism to form a surprisingly modern perspective on comparative religion. He offers many opportunities for understanding: Taking a mindful approach to the divine has often been criticized as being pragmatic and therefore, coldly cerebral. But Huxley understands the mystical, loving side of mindfulness that is, I strongly believe, misunderstood in the west. He also grasps the complexity of ritualism. It’s true that rituals help the human mind to focus. But the actual equipment and protocol of a ritual, though dear or sacred to the supplicant, is unimportant. A ritual is a vehicle towards satisfying personal or society needs. Huxley “gets” that we forget to revaluate our needs and motivations with an almost stunning consistency, and instead place primacy on the ritual itself -- which is missing the point.

Bottom line: I give this book a 5 star rating because it makes me think and feel in a tolerant, compassionate way. Sophisticated cynics beware: Huxley advocates for love, but he does it without being trite. (less)

flag4 likes · Like  · comment · see review

Alison

Oct 09, 2008Alison rated it it was amazing

He is such a smart man ,that Huxley. My favorite essay so far has been the reflections on progress. His vast vocabulary is very impressive as well but makes me feel like a moron sometimes except I get what he's saying.If anyone has the time they should probably read anything he has written. (less)

flag2 likes · Like  · 1 comment · see review

Kenny

Aug 11, 2009Kenny rated it liked it

This book overall just barely got three stars, but not because it is consistently mediocre. The book is a collection of essays. Some individual essays are wondeful, some individual sections/passages are great, but much of the book I find poorly reasoned and not very interesting. So it's all over the place, and on balance averages to something under 3 stars. Definitely not for everyone, and even if this is your cup of tea read discriminatingly... (less)

flag1 like · Like  · comment · see review

Sara

Sep 25, 2015Sara rated it liked it

Two and a half stars. While I appreciated his wit and his Vedantic stance on religious philosophy, Huxley was very much a product of his Victorian upbringing. His pronouncements on mysticism and living life correctly were rather dry and judgmental. For anyone who has already read more original sources on mysticism, both Eastern and Western, this wouldn't present anything new or noteworthy. (less)

flagLike  · comment · see review

===

‘Diseclipsing’ the Light : HUXLEY AND GOD: Essays on Mysticism and Spirituality, 

 By Aldous Huxley Edited by Jacqueline Bridgeman (Harper San Francisco: $13; 285 pp.)

BY CHARLES MAROWITZ

NOV. 22, 1992

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-11-22-bk-1833-story.html

--

 MAROWITZ IS A DIRECTOR AND WRITER WHO LIVES IN LOS ANGELES. HIS MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS ARE "RECYCLING SHAKESPEARE" (APPLAUSE BOOKS) AND "BURNT BRIDGES" (HODDER & STOUGHTON)

It is ironic that Aldous Huxley and John F. Kennedy both died on the same day--Nov. 22, 1963--for while the President espoused a “new frontier,” it was Huxley who to a large extent discovered one.

Rarely has there been an essayist-novelist-sage who, from the vantage point of the 1920s and ‘30s, prophesied the events of our contemporary world so accurately. Huxley, grandson of scientist T. H. Huxley and great-nephew of classicist Mathew Arnold, was deeply embroiled in our modern agenda: overpopulation, birth-control, polluted oceans, dwindling forests, the absorption of human values by an all-engulfing science and technology. He predicted the invention of surface-to-air missiles, genetic engineering, pharmacological highs and the insidious colonization of society by media and advertising interests.

After writing a brace of biting social satires (“Crome Yellow” and “Antic Hay”), he produced his Utopian nightmare “Brave New World,” which did for the 1930s what George Orwell’s “1984" was to do for the postwar generation. Throughout, he wrote essays, religious tracts, political analyses, newspaper articles, even drama criticism.

Then, much to the chagrin of his earliest supporters, in his later years he wandered into the murky grottoes of religious mysticism (Buddhism, Hinduism, Vedanta, the paranormal) and--what was even more horrifying--personally experimented with mescaline and LSD. “The Doors of Perception,” Huxley’s 1954 account of his experiences with these hallucinogens, was, in many ways, the opening shot of the ‘60s; to that generation he became a culture-hero, and his book a kind of psychedelic Baedeker.

Although he first made his mark as a novelist, he was never very comfortable in the genre. He viewed novel-writing, according to his friend Christopher Isherwood, “as a necessary nuisance.” The actual weaving of fiction “bored him.” But in his essays, that multifaceted intelligence that could juggle science and history, religion and art, psychology and politics shone with a luciferous light. In “Huxley and God,” editor Jacqueline Bridgeman has culled together 26 pieces that convey Huxley’s fascination with the impenetrable and the unknowable.

The essays range from microscopic analyses of things like the Lord’s Prayer and a speech from “Henry V” to weighty discourses on subjects such as time, progress, contemplation, knowledge and understanding. One or two are cribbed from larger works such as “Time Must Have a Stop,” “The Perennial Philosophy” and “Grey Eminence,” but most are little-known pieces originally published by the Vedanta Society. The most accessible, and in many ways the most arresting, are the texts of lectures delivered to that society in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Whatever the subject, Huxley’s theme of “diseclipsing” the light that stands between ourselves and true enlightenment runs through the pages like an ominous seismological crack.

Through a weird kind of synchronicity that often brings the right man into the right milieu, Huxley settled in California in 1937. His mystical predisposition and pre-New Age predilections fitted in perfectly with his adopted home. Although his reasons for moving here were the terrain and the clear and abundant southwestern light, there was also, as it turned out, an affinity for cults and spiritual disciplines which, then as now, made him a kindred spirit in Los Angeles. (There is even a kind of odd relevance in this book being published by a San Francisco publishing house.)

Huxley’s fascination with spirituality was in large part an extension of the intellectual’s fascination with tantalizing abstractions. “True philosophy,” he told Andre Maurois, “is religion or else it is art, which is simply another form of religion.” Every self-contained system of thought holds out the promise that it will reveal the secrets of “ultimate reality,” a phrase that crawls endlessly through these pages like an elusive caterpillar through high grass. One feels that what constantly eludes Huxley, and what he is most intent on capturing, is not so much the State of Grace or some higher degree of karma, but a most finite articulation of what these spiritual states consist of. It is their definition that excites him, not necessarily their realization in his own nature.

And yet throughout these essays, Huxley is propounding the paradox of language obstructing the route to higher consciousness. He reminds us of St. Paul who talked about “the newness of spirit” and the “oldness of the letter” and how “the letter killeth” and “the spirit giveth life.” The search for Buddhahood fails because one is too consciously striving for it; by overvaluing words, we mistake the thing described for the thing itself; the conscious mind tries to hold truth in its grasp, but like water, it trickles through our fingers.

This fascination with the transcendental is often most intense in the mind of a voracious intellectual like Huxley, who has already digested the secrets of science and technology, psychology and religion, art and literature. For such people mysticism, like space-travel for the astronomers, represents the unconquered universe--the last hold-out against verifiable human knowledge.

When he is following his hunches and soaring on the wings of speculation, we experience a dazzling flight through vast and unexpected landscapes, but sometimes his zeal grounds him and then it is a little like being buttonholed by a Hare Krishna loony in an airport lounge. In chapters like “Distraction,” Huxley exhorts us to abandon the trivial and the inconsequential, which, in his view, diverts us from the jollies of the higher consciousness. In such moments, it is as if he is denying God a “happy hour” or a Sunday morning goof-off with the funny papers. In his earnest quest for deeper in sights, there is a distinct tendency to undervalue ordinary human existence, which is understandable in a man whose inner circle contained scientists, physicians, mystics and philosophers, but deplorable in that it prevented him from enjoying the distinctive pleasures of junk food, junk ideas and junk people. Which also explains somewhat his deficiency as a novelist for, as Chesterton pointed out, “A great novelist must above all be vulgar because life is vulgar and men are vulgar and because it is the novelist’s object to reproduce life.” As a writer and as a man, Huxley was a patrician whereas the greatest novelists were always, at base, plebs.

When he was a young man at Eton, a streptococcus infection attacked his eyes, and he was virtually blind for a year. Throughout his life, he had partial sight in only one eye and, given this impediment, the volume and breadth of his reading is staggering. Like Beethoven, who entered an even more plangent world of sound when he was deaf, Huxley experienced his greatest insights when his vision was most impaired.

It is that enforced introversion perhaps that accounts for his mystical tendencies. In a way very different from you or me, Huxley inhabited an “inner world” and, despite publicly held positions on a wide variety of social and political issues, it was in that interior world that he conducted his most painstaking research. Although in his last years he immersed himself completely, the preoccupation with mysticism was apparent from his earliest works, even in “Crome Yellow.” It is a mistake to see it as the aberration of a writer fading into his twilight years. It is much more the logical conclusion of the intellectual quest that began during his first years in Oxford. There was, from the very first, an ongoing relationship between Huxley and God.

The urbanity and literary sophistication that Huxley brings to subjects that could so easily become soupily spiritual or turgidly transcendental is what gives this collection its special tang and makes it intensely readable even when the author is vainly trying to define the ineffable.