The Heavy Stuff Bookshelf - The Dirty Dozen
Hello, thanks for visiting The Heavy Stuff (THS) today. If you are a regular, I had to go to this new format-theme to be able to maintain a sidebar on my posts that are by individual pages - most likely the manner that you arrived (via a link) today (meaning a link ending with a post number). That said, I like this look - new understated theme for `heavy’ ideas.
Ok, today’s post is literally to look - briefly - at my personal bookshelf - the books - so to say - that made my mind the way it is ( and that you read on THS). The reviews below are ones that I wrote years ago for my squidoo site - I’ve copy and pasted them here for you to get my sense of how `heavy’ these books are. And yes, they are in the order of the heaviest first .
Number One
The systematic analysis of the philosophy of Being - the book which `lays out’ what existentialism IS. Includes such amazing chapter titles as Being-In-Itself; The Ontological Proof, and The Origin of Nothingness. This is the book for you if you want to have even the smallest grasp on `Temporality’ or `Transcendence’. The paperback version is over 800 pages — get ready for the read of a lifetime. Heavy rating of 10+.
Number Two
Quite simply the BIBLE of phenomenology and consciousness thought. If you think you have thought about the `issues’ of mind and matter — think again — unless you have read this very very rare book. Husserl thought out the ideas of Phenomenology in the late 1800’s and to this very day you can find people meeting in groups to discuss these mammoth ideas. Personally, my FAVORITE `heavy’ book of alltime. Heavy Rating 10+
Number Three
Is this the heaviest book written in the last 50 years? I’d say it could be. What else could possibly be heavier than being the first person to actually `figure out’ all the most perplexing astronomy data — and then to — `explain it’ to the rest of the scientists in the world. Yes, this is the man who figured out the `problem’ with the BIG BANG — and thought of the solution. The solution was INFLATION. Those amazing moments next to creation that included the notion that `space’ can expand `quicker’ than the speed of light. Indeed, if Guth is right (and one experiment after another has confirmed inflation) the universe we live in is huge in a manner that you have probably never even considered. For example, you may know that the `edge’ of our VISIBLE universe is about 13.7 billion years away — however, BEYOND that `visible edge’ lies OUR SAME UNIVERSE — we simply can’t see it (and never will) — but it is there with stars and worlds just like `here’ in our visible portion. But, get this, that `unseen portion’ of our universe is TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS times the size of our `visible’ portion. Yes, you need this book — how can you say NO to the heaviest book of the 1900’s? Heavy Rating 10+.
Number Four
In the 1970’s a student at UCLA wrote of his meetings with an Indian medicine man and sorcerer. These meetings involved gaining the actual understanding of the sorcerer’s worldview. This worldview supposedly led Castaneda into a `separate reality’ on occasion. These separate realities of the sorcerer included everyday phenomena and entities which lived in the special reality. Other special realities included controlled lucid dreaming - often described by researchers as a different mind state. This is NOT a book you want to say that you’ve NEVER read - a must read selection. Heavy Rating 10+ (I’ve read at least 7-8 Carlos Books BTW - this was the best.)
Number Five
Like the ideas of Husserl, the ideas of Ouspensky and Gurdjeff also have people STILL TO THIS DAY forming groups to discuss how heavy the thoughts are. Indeed, they are heavy; some would say that this is the BEST consciousness book ever written — the most intense examination of `mind’ ever undertaken. If the book was to be `summed up’ in one sentence it would be `THE ONLY THING IS TO AWAKE’. Heavy Rating 10. (Like Castaneda, I’ve read several of Ouspensky’s books too.)
Number Six
Another very rare book — you’d NEVER run across this out of print in the store so here is your chance. If you have ever wondered about the many various `types of time’ — this is your book. Most interesting are the chapters devoted to the very idea of FREEWILL and DETERMINISM and their relation to time and dimensional time. Can any time be real that isn’t here now? This is the book if you want the speculative answers. Heavy Rating - 10.
Number Seven
Here’s my bow to religion on earth for humans — and, indeed, it’s very heavy. It seems non-attachment is a universal theme in a lot of esoteric thought — you won’t find a better writer on the subject than the late Alan Watts. This is Zen Buddhism at it’s very best. If you lean to the spirtitual side this might be for you. Heavy Rating - 10. (One of several Watts books I’ve devoured.)
Number Eight
Many folks feel that `Bucky’ Buckminster Fuller was the greatest thinker of the 1900’s. If you have never seen his world map without distortion - you haven’t seen the world in true proportion. Bucky was such a great thinker that a type of CARBON is named after him — is there a greater honor than that. You must be familiar with this book and some of his greatest ideas. Heavy Rating - 10.
Number Nine
A recent book which explores some `oddities’ in Utah in the mid 1990’s. Huge oddities. Of every type. That suggest that the multi-verse may be an answer for the unexplainable anomalies. Co-written by a TV reporter still active in Las Vegas, this is a well documented book. Very enjoyable and a fairly quick read for `heavy ideas’. Heavy Rating - 9+
Number Ten
This is a must book if you think you want to work on your own `consciousness’. Ouspensky’s Guru and the last of the wandering esoteric Masters. Great story. Heavy Rating - 9+ (Yes, this isn’t the only Gurdjieff book I’ve read.)
Number Eleven
Physics taken to the new limits of the 2000’s — this version saying that `time itself’ does not exist. This version says that only `space’ exists. And, that `that’ space — is `chosen’ via a method that compares one moment to another by selecting the `next space’ that is the `most similar’ with the least intrinsic difference from the previous `space’. Wonderfully heavy book by a renegade Physics writer. Heavy Rating - 10
Number Twelve
Further discussions of this `Hyperspace’ which seems to allow for every moment of time to be extended in a way. The way for space to be moved thru without time constraints. The actual answer to many anomalies perhaps. Hyperspace. You need to read more. Heavy Rating - 9+
Lastly, if you desire - you can see the last 7 of my heavy bookshelf at the two links below - and those too are with description.



