Reality

by Peter Kingsley

"This book is a journey back to the source–not only of western civilization but, more importantly, to the source within you. Read it! To understand it is to be transformed."
ECKHART TOLLE, author of The Power of Now

Reality introduces us to the extraordinary mystical tradition that lies right at the roots of western culture. This is the true story of Parmenides, Empedocles, and those like them: spiritual guides and experts in other states of consciousness, healers and interpreters of dreams, prophets and magicians who laid the foundation for the world we now live in. Reality documents the excruciating process that led to their work and teaching being distorted, covered over, forgotten. And most importantly, it presents these original teachings in all their immediacy and power -- revealing their ability, just as vibrant now as at the dawn of the western world, to awaken us to what reality truly is.

"Stunningly original, Reality is momentous in its implications."
HUSTON SMITH, author of The World's Religions and Forgotten Truth

"Peter Kingsley is a successor to Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. His lectures and writings—especially his latest book, Reality—reveal hidden dimensions of consciousness and how it manifests in the world. His message conveys hope and meaning, and reveals majestic qualities of the mind we have forgotten and which have been ignored by Western 'authorities' for centuries. Peter Kingsley is a transformative and life-changing force in our world. Never have we needed such a message as now."
LARRY DOSSEY, M.D., author of Healing Beyond the Body, Reinventing Medicine and Healing Words

"This book contains the purest and most powerful writing I have ever read."
MICHAEL BAIGENT, author of Ancient Traces and The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail

Genres: Philosophy, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Religion, Metaphysics, History, Psychology

591 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Classical scholar and spiritual teacher Peter Kingsley was born in the UK. He received his BA from the University of Lancaster, his Master of Letters from King's College, Cambridge University, and his PhD from the University of London. He is a former Fellow of the Warburg Institute in London and has held honorary professorships or fellowships at universities in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Kingsley's early writings are traditionally academic, and culminate in the 1995 Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition. His more recent works emphasize the lived experience and daily application of the ancient mystical tradition that helped give rise to the western world.

He continues to write and teach, working to make the spirituality and meditative disciplines of Empedocles, Parmenides, and those like them available to people today. His most recent book, Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity, is due to be published in November 2018 and for the first time it shifts the focus of his work directly onto our modern world.

Reviews

[Thewirechild · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had wanted to read this book for a good long while. I borrowed it from the library and found that someone had written on the title page, 'One of those books I've been waiting for my whole life.' In this book Kingsley rereads texts Parmenides and Empedocles as sacred initiatory teachings. No details may be overlooked. It's a magical book about the unlearning of what we know and becoming aware.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent presentation of one spiritual approach, looking to the ancient Western traditions represented by Parmenides and Empedocles. Highly recommended, though not everyone will get with the unusual authorial voice.

[Ankh156 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met P Kingsley when I was an undergrad in the 1970s. He was a high-flying final-year classics student and his presence impressed me. His approach in 'Reality' is slow, non-scholastic and reiterative. By such lightly-treading means he seduces the reader to enter into the mode(s) of thought of the presocratics Parmenides, Zeno, Empedocles and others to reach deep into the historical etymology of their thinking and writing. It's a hefty tome (c. 600pp), set in 12/14pt (or something close) and the chapters are very short - so it's easy to read and one veritably flies through the pages. For a book about classical philosophy from 25 centuries ago it grips the reader and leaves a deep mark. I studied classics in my first year, then philosophy for my major subjects, so if it had been too simplistic or condescending then I'd have quickly noticed, and it isn't. It's given me the desire to read his pithier but somewhat hard to find and somewhat expensive (€78!) 'Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic. Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition' (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1995).
Bravo Peter for an extraordinary exposition of presocratic poetry, philosophy and mysticism.

[Todd Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read... before jumping into philosophy, religion, spirituality & history this book excites and may seem a bit otherworldly ~ not down to earth.

Revisiting this masterpiece, after a more mature understanding of the four areas listed above, has opened an entirely new shift in perspective that confirmed the topic, the historical personage & the very roots of modernity to INDEED be 'othetworldly'.

If you allow it to, "REALITY" will inspire an echo of source to manifest in the world of those who will engage Kingsley's revisited, authoritative & transformational naration of this ancient pilgrimage of 'divine congruencies' that have (in a very large way) given birth to the rational & logical era we find ourselves in today.

[Mark Derderian · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting interpretation of the wisdom teachings of Parmenides, very much coeval with some of the wisdom teachcings of vajrayana Buddhism.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that disturbs, beguiles and illuminates

[Nick Pollitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kingsley identifies the emergence of the Mental Structure in Mediterranean culture ~2500 years ago. The emergence of a rational society, and the fact that the rational structure does not tolerate the existence of previous structures, had led us to forget who we are, underneath our techno-wizardry.

This is a fascinating journey through history and philosophy to examine how we arrived to our modern state from classical times, and is written in a style that is accessible to everyone.

[Herko Kerghans · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be the weirdest book I’ve ever read.

It’s… hard to describe. Somewhere between illuminating, otherworldly, and unsettling. A scholarly work, on the one hand, and something akin to an anti-platonic manifesto on the other. Which probably doesn’t make any sense, but…

… well, as noted above: hard to describe.

[EdMohs · Rating 5 out of 5]

breaks new ground in the pre-socratic lexicon
faR reaching and thoughtful reflecions on early thought processes

[Parson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent overview of the nature of reality and the meaning of Western civilization with in.

[Kirsten Walz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. Beautiful. Didn't want it to end!

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best possible kind of pretentious. Concerns Parmenides and Heraclitus, and their magical powers of being right about everything.

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful adventure into ones self and imagination.

[Noella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ik heb dit boek vroeger al eens gelezen en toen vond ik het echt goed. Omdat ik er niet veel meer van wist, besloot ik het te herlezen. Ik heb iets meer dan 100 pagina's gelezen, en ik kom er echt niet meer door. Om de een of andere reden stoort de schrijfstijl me nu verschrikkelijk. Ik ben dus gestopt met lezen.

[Jan Broux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our current western society is looking to eastern philosophies in search for "ways to get out of the prison of mind" as i would call it. This book tells us it's not necessary because of the mystical origins of our western civilization and the birth of reason. One striking example is the use of the words 'common sense'. Use your 'common sense' is what we say when trying to help someone find a meaning or explanation, while it is originally meant in pre-Socratic times as using your common senses, all of your senses at the same time, to become aware and merge with the infinete stillness all around us.

To use the words of Peter Kingsley in an interview:
"Even simpler than emptiness, this is an openness that gives birth to the silence. It’s actually a tremendous act of humility just to listen, to sense, to receive. It’s a totally simple presence—natural and rare. To perceive that you are perceiving, aware of yourself seated on a chair, seeing and hearing and feeling together—that is the original meaning of the expression common sense. And Aristotle, God bless him, sent the whole thing in the wrong direction when he proudly insisted that of course we’re aware that we are aware, of course we perceive that we perceive. He didn’t see how rare this state really is, because he was thinking rather than looking. He didn’t see how we go off to sleep. And we‘ve been in this sleep for over two thousand years."

[Dan Sumption · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astounding book, not quite like anything else I have ever read. For the first 300-or-so pages, Kingsley analyses the remaining scraps of a poem written by Parmenides, supposedly the father of logic and Western rationalism, and demonstrates that Paremenides' words have been completely misunderstood for over 2,000 years. The way he does this is both persuasive and surprisingly easy to follow. In highlighting the misinterpretation of Parmenides' poem, from Plato and Aristotle onwards, Kingsley brings alive the language and riddles of the Greeks of the early first millenium BCE, and reintroduces us to a Western mystic tradition that has been obscured by our worship of rationality.

The rest of the book follows Parmenides' disciples, particularly Empedocles but also Zeno and Gorgias, in order to fill in the details of Parmenides' spiritual message.

The gentle hand-holding prose of the book is very easy to follow, although the deep concepts get increasingly hard to think about - indeed, the message of the book is that thinking is superfluous. I can imagine that some readers would soon tire of Kingsley's know-it-all tone of voice, and in particular the way that he repeatedly introduces passages which have been misinterpreted for millennia by saying that the actual meaning is "so simple". These aspects did begin to grate for me a little towards the end of the book, but I cannot help but sit awestruck at the skill and, well, mêtis with which Kinglsey dissects the ancient texts.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

My important takeaway is, "Mêtis was the Greek term for cunning, skillfulness,practical intelligence; and especially for trickery. It was what could make humans, at the most basic and down-to-earth level, equal to the gods. Mêtis might sound like jut another concept. But really it was the opposite of everything we understand by concepts. It meant a particular quality of intense awareness that always manages to stay focused on the whole: on the lookout for hints, however subtle, for guidance in whatever form it happens to take, for signs of the route to follow however quickly they might appear or disappear.”

[Imogen Crest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gripping, revelatory reading, on the nature of thought and psychology. Highly recommended.

[Alex Delogu · Rating 2 out of 5]

The content of this book is very interesting and is what kept me going through the tedious, belaboured style. Allow me to satirise.
Scholars have been tirelessly working for the past two millennia to make sense of the enormous depth of the ancient Greek philosophers. There are countless pages of dense thought that have tried to explain the infinite subtlety of those early Giants of thought. You may think that all this work could not possibly be in vain. But you would be wrong. Any attempt to capture the extraordinary precision of meaning in these thinkers has been misguided because they have completely and utterly missed the message that was so carefully crafted for us so long ago. It takes a supremely attuned mind to discern the magical insights and otherworldly knowledge brought over to us from these magicians, wanderers in other worlds. It is easy to think they have laid the foundations for our logic, our source of intellectual pride. On the contrary they did no such thing. The type of intelligence they were committed to was far more subtle and to understand that, it takes a very special kind of mind. You might want to rush into this kind of thing, get straight to the point of a matter of such importance. On the contrary let us take our time to let things grow inside us like a germinating seed waiting for the right conditions. What I have figured out here, unlike all those misguided philosophers of the rational mind before me, will change the very fabric of your existence. Nothing will ever be the same again. On the contrary: it will be the same as it has always been but renewed and there is no turning back once this message seeps into your organs. It is nothing short of immortality.

[Kaalomai]

i didnt really read it. waaaaaaaay too pedantic for my tastes. pretty much whenever i try to read philosophy books i think two things. one: Duh; and two: this book could have been two pages long! scholars do like to go on, and on, and on and on and on.... this is a very fat book. but for those who are interested in one person's take on "history" in so much as anyone of modern times can "know" it, i can see how it could be fascinating. to me it is tedious and thoroughly unnecessary. i loved one fellow's review that said it was "outrageously pedantic" lol, totally. dig it if you do, otherwise just be here now and thats all anyone really needs to know. the point of life is to live it. vaya con dios and namaste to you all. kaalomai out.

[Trevor Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting and outrageously pretentious at the same time.

[A.M.L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reality was the book for me that defined precisely why it was, that even while having a thirst for such subjects from an early age (I loved Mythology and Folk Lore most of all) when I attempted studies in Philosophy and Ancient History in my early thirties my whole being was possessed and compelled by a seething inhuman repulsion that exploded beyond belief. Frankly I felt incredibly hostile to the scene. There was the University itself, and within that brightly lit space of people clad in tracksuits, I was aware I was on the ‘wrong team’. The display of revolting hubris and tedious back-slapping did make my gorge rise, I tried to turn a blind eye, but that could not come close to explaining my inner disgust.. It could only have been a touch of madness, or was it?

Why is it important for me to say this? Well it’s because it is clear that there is dire need of people such as Kingsley in this impoverished landscape we inhabit. For people like myself, if not everyone. There was good reason for my feelings and I never dismiss or ignore my gut reaction though it may take years to digest.

It was that is this culture of the West was once great, worth saving, worth fighting for, was sacred, and some part of me knew that even then. What I witnessed, was a corruption that sent me reeling from my very depths. I couldn't tell why. That year I had taken to spelling my name Aemilia - maybe I was just a weird, introverted and dejected woman who simply didn’t belong. That’s certainly nothing new for me. I knew I could never repeat with my heart in my chest the slimy bombast and braggadocio that came booming like a recording from those cosy mouth-pieces into a space which seemed appropriate for a rock concert. I simply had to leave.

After some years, I recovered from the distaste and aversion to Philosophy and tentatively explored some scattered works of Traditionalists, and through that door (it was Corbin) found the way back to Peter Kingsley, whom I had stumbled upon in 2012 and forgotten. Yes, the last thing Peter could possibly be is forgotten, though I had not yet read his books only seen a short clip of him speaking. Those were chaotic times. Two years before I so hastily fled the university, perceiving that I would soon be roped to the stake.

Six years later Reality was the text that brought into focus in kaleidoscopic fashion an understanding of the reason for my standing apart from so much - everywhere. A view on how Peter Kingsley’s work can be differentiated from so many others. He shows something at work that holds up every day in every detail in reality, because it is reality. If you are only observant, honest and brave enough to prove it to yourself. Better still, let go and it will prove itself.

[George Eraclides · Rating 5 out of 5]

A complex, allusive book, imitating to some degree the equivocal philosophical poems and recorded utterances of the Pre-Socratics. The focus is an analysis of a famous fragment of a poem by Parmenides. Then we encounter Empedocles and other mystical thinkers. If you have a background in Philosophy (as I do), you would have probably been taught (somewhat dismissively) that there is not much to the Pre-Socratics. Merely a kind of early groping towards philosophy which only bloomed with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and besides, philosophy up to the Middle Ages and beyond is really just footnotes to Plato. Not so. The early philosophers, especially Parmenides, are highly important thinkers and deserve serious attention. Peter Kingsley provides a new translation and analysis which reveals the fragment of Parmenides (The Goddess addressing him) is an initiatory tract to enable us to understand reality and our divine nature; how the world is our creation to some extent, an outpouring from divine nature. All is real in the one. A hard read but you have to stick with it because it is worth it.

[Reneesarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am sure when I say I did not enjoy reading this book that there will be some people who say that I did not get it, that I am one of those people wandering blindly at the crossroads, just going back and forth. The tone of the book was book was pretentious- over and over again we are told how others didn't understand, others didn't get it, missed it entirely- but our author understood the true meaning of a passage or a poem. This tone of superiority gets tedious to read and I found it depressing to slog through the entire book.

There are other mythologies, other stories, other paths that will take us to the same place that Kingsley describes. There are as many routes back into the essence of ourselves as there are people to make the journey that ends where they began.

[Seth · Rating 3 out of 5]

If this book was 50 pages I would have given it 5 stars.
When I first read it, I got so frustrated with the stop/start flow of actual information and back into high verbosity, that I committed book sacrilege.
I bought a second copy and used a yellow highlighter to underline any paragraphs of actual teaching.
I read and reread that one several times. It has been a few years now however and I am planning to read the un-desecrated book again, because despite P.K's writing style leaving a lot to be desired, he is teaching a deep and amazing system and view of the world.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

fascinating re-read (or is that 'first accurate read'?) of Empedocles... I had always assumed that it was for political and pecuniary ends in the so-called Renaissance and subsequent - equally misnamed 'Age of Reason' that the Western World had gone awry, but - along with his 'Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic' and his read of Parmenides in 'In the The Dark Places of Wisdom' - if Kingsley is even half way right, we've been completely off the track for far longer than that.

[Penn Kemp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound and beautifully written. This book will shift your perception of the whole of Western culture from Plato on!

[Cristian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A somewhat overconfident, sometimes know-it-all, in some places downright unsympathetic author. With a strong thesis. Sometimes timing is everything and it is the book I had to read NOW, it closes in an uncanny way exactly that gap that I did not know existed. A blast.

[Anna Minis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I already wrote a review on Reality. There were typos because of an eye disease at the time. Of course i meant to say ''archaic Greek'' (not ''subjective archaic Greek'' which is nonsense).
Reality is a fascinating view on Parmenides ans Empedocles. How to approach them? Was Parmenides ''the father of logic'? then you take him as a ''philosopher''...which he was not. He was a priest of Apollo, Kingley sais, and there is archeological proof for this.
What was the message this priest left to us? Did he really need all these hexameters just to say: Use your brains!( the famous krinai logoi)
Parmenides is not for academics, Kingsley sais. I think he is right, because academics are often trained in philosophy. But what you need in the first place is a training in philology. In the first place the question is: WHAT is the author actually saying? and then: HOW does he say it? and WhY does he say it like this?
I think Kingsley did a great job as a classicisist. Knowledge of the archaic Greek is necessary reading Parmenides and Empedocles. And he had a sharp intuition in reading what Parmenides intendet to say.
Empedocles as a magician is the other poet in the book. I read what Kingley said, and the translations in the book.
For myself, I read Parmides in Greek and was impressed by his pure, beautiful Greek. Empedocles style seems more baroque, but also very impressing.
Kingsley wants us to be transformed reading Parmenides and Empedocles. That did not happen to me yet,But I read and reread Reality along with the Greek texts.
I hope Kingsley will write some day about Heraclitus as well.

[Anna Minis · Rating 5 out of 5]

''Reality'' is (together with Ancient Philosopphy, Mystery and Magic) one of my dearest books. Peter
Kingsley unfolds the texts of Parmenides and Empedocles with utmost respect for their own words,
leaning on his profound knowledge of the Greek language and knowledge of subjective archaic Greek literature.
Is he too subjective?Idon't think so. Of course he brings in his own personality, every interpreter does
Complete objectivity is an illusion. But he does not force his own ideas on Parmenides and Empedocles---he follows them on their path taking their words as a guide. He does not involve ''philosophical'' assumptions or a system of modern logic. He has his own experience as a mystic, helping him to understand another mystic, that's all.
Parmenides is a fabulous poet. I take it for granted that he really had the experience of another world--that he was not using the first person singular to authenticate the story, to make it more believable.
Empedocles is a very emotional, dramatical poet. His description of the banished daimoon is hearbraking. Reading these is rewarding, and Realty will contribute to your experience of these fascinating texts