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The Crack in the Cosmic Egg: New Constructs of Mind and Reality
The classic work that shaped the thought of a generation with its powerful insights into the true nature of mind and reality.
• Defines culture as a "cosmic egg" structured by the mind's drive for logical ordering of its universe.
• Provides techniques allowing individuals to break through the vicious circle of logic-based systems to attain expanded ways of creative living and learning.
The sum total of our notions of what the world is--and what we perceive its full potential to be--form a shell of rational thought in which we reside. This logical universe creates a vicious circle of reasoning that robs our minds of power and prevents us from reaching our true potential. To step beyond that circle requires a centering and focus that today's society assaults on every level. Through the insights of Teilhard, Tillich, Jung, Jesus, Carlos Castaneda, and others, Joseph Chilton Pearce provides a mode of thinking through which imagination can escape the mundane shell of current construct reality and leap into a new phase of human evolution.
This enormously popular New Age classic is finally available again to challenge the assumptions of a new generation of readers and help them develop their potential through new creative modes of thinking. With a masterful synthesis of recent discoveries in physics, biology, and psychology, Pearce reveals the extraordinary relationship of mind and reality and nature's blueprint for a self-transcending humanity.
• Defines culture as a "cosmic egg" structured by the mind's drive for logical ordering of its universe.
• Provides techniques allowing individuals to break through the vicious circle of logic-based systems to attain expanded ways of creative living and learning.
The sum total of our notions of what the world is--and what we perceive its full potential to be--form a shell of rational thought in which we reside. This logical universe creates a vicious circle of reasoning that robs our minds of power and prevents us from reaching our true potential. To step beyond that circle requires a centering and focus that today's society assaults on every level. Through the insights of Teilhard, Tillich, Jung, Jesus, Carlos Castaneda, and others, Joseph Chilton Pearce provides a mode of thinking through which imagination can escape the mundane shell of current construct reality and leap into a new phase of human evolution.
This enormously popular New Age classic is finally available again to challenge the assumptions of a new generation of readers and help them develop their potential through new creative modes of thinking. With a masterful synthesis of recent discoveries in physics, biology, and psychology, Pearce reveals the extraordinary relationship of mind and reality and nature's blueprint for a self-transcending humanity.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
97 people are currently reading
1774 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Chilton Pearce
41 books90 followersFor nearly half a century Joseph C. Pearce, who prefers to be known simply as Joe, has been probing the mysteries of the human mind. One of his overriding passions remains the study of what he calls the "unfolding" of intelligence in children. He is a self-avowed iconoclast, unafraid to speak out against the myriad ways in which contemporary American culture fails to nurture the intellectual, emotional and spiritual needs and yearnings of our young people. Part scholar, part scientist, part mystic, part itinerant teacher, Joe keeps in close touch with the most brilliant men and women in each field of inure relevant to his guest. He creates a unique synthesis of their work and translates the results into a common language-such a valuable contribution in these days of increasing scientific specialization.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
April 24, 2016
I wasn't sure I'd made a good choice when I ordered this book, as I prefer my data empirical and this seemed to lean more towards the speculative. Coupled with the fact that it was written in the seventies, referenced Don Juan and held Sri Lankan firewalking to be the principle evidence in the flexibilty of reality, made me even more suspect of my own decision making process, but I proceeded to read it regardless. By the end of the first chapter my fears where not confirmed and I began to enjoy the book for what it is.
Basically it's subject matter is the power of belief systems and the extent to which they effect the presentation of reality. The author makes many references to Blake, Jung, William James, David Bohm, to name but a few, so many in fact that he seems, at times, to have no ideas of his own, but that's besides the point I feel, as this work is more of a synthesis of ideas.
I did get the feeling he was out of his depth criticising scientific methods, the suggested ability of scientists to create what they search for seemed to push the boundaries of credibility, but maybe I was reading him wrongly on this point. The final chapters got quite convoluted and preachy as well, which wasn't to my taste but it didn't spoil the overall impression the book made.
So overall there's enough sense talked and presented in a readable fashion to justify it's classic reputation in my view.
Basically it's subject matter is the power of belief systems and the extent to which they effect the presentation of reality. The author makes many references to Blake, Jung, William James, David Bohm, to name but a few, so many in fact that he seems, at times, to have no ideas of his own, but that's besides the point I feel, as this work is more of a synthesis of ideas.
I did get the feeling he was out of his depth criticising scientific methods, the suggested ability of scientists to create what they search for seemed to push the boundaries of credibility, but maybe I was reading him wrongly on this point. The final chapters got quite convoluted and preachy as well, which wasn't to my taste but it didn't spoil the overall impression the book made.
So overall there's enough sense talked and presented in a readable fashion to justify it's classic reputation in my view.
October 28, 2015
Some interesting ideas. But I thought the author was obnoxiously pretentious.
I also didn't like how he put Carlos Castenada up on a pedestal. Since Carlos is a proven liar.
I also didn't like how he put Carlos Castenada up on a pedestal. Since Carlos is a proven liar.
November 16, 2007
I loved this book it's just great and I ended up understanding everything in the end.... Just good stuff... I would suggest it definitely to those with an open mind or at least those who like to read of new ideas or ones that my questions there own pereceptions. I even liked it so much i blogged about it. So lame am i but the book was really that good. "It is our capacity of production, not our products,
that is key."- joseph pearce
"Desire, passion, curiosity, productivity, lust for life,
ecstacy, joy, adventure, all these are the highest thrusts
of life, the most divine of attributes, the most sacred
of possessions."-j.p.
"Christendom has largely ignored Jesus' insistence that
act greater than his would be a product of his system."
- j. p.
compares jesus to don juan it's just crazy stuff... you know you want to give it a try... maybe just to know how really odd i am?
April 25, 2008
This 1971 book I read in the late 1970s, and I have just reread it. The subject is mind and reality. Our consciousness and perceptions shape our reality, Pearce writes. "Our cosmic egg, that cultural milieu into which we were born, is created by the statistical average of consensus," Pearce says in his introduction to the 1988 edition. The book looks at insights, the Eureka! moment of scientific discovery, and creativity in general.
June 1, 2012
Probably the single most influential book I read in my teens about the inner mind. I re-read this in 2009 as I finished up the manuscript to Beyond the Will of God. There's a lot more going on in their than you know...have a look.
June 25, 2020
A bit dated, but holds up pretty well. Insightful dive into the behaviors which we take to be natural, but which are a product of the culture we live in. Losing our childhood creativity isn’t a natural phenomenon, but a taught behavior.
March 2, 2009
Insightful and well considered. Required reading for anyone exploring reality and our relationship to it.
February 7, 2024
Pulls from a strong idea pool, but over indulged in self-accessorizing by it.
October 14, 2025
A PURPORTED “BREAKTHROUGH” IN OUR VIEW OF THE WORLD
Joseph Chilton Pearce (1926-2016) was an American author who taught college humanities until the mid-1960s, and thereafter devoted himself to writing and lecturing.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1971 book, “Almost a decade has passed since I first experienced the crack in my own cosmic egg, and made tentative attempts to translate it into communicable form… In spite of the radical, fundamental, and shattering effect of the crack personally, it simply would not translate into the common domain… the crack remained, and still remains, a fragile, lonely way of nonstatistical balance in a rough statistical world… I have ended… with the hope that I might be heard by two or three suffering our common concern, and willing to gather together to explore the crack as a mutual way down and out… Here in this crack alternatives ABOUND—but only for the lone reader… And so I write for the reader who cannot stand where he is and has no place to go… There IS a third alternative in this world of exclusive either-ors, but the way out is a way BEYOND…
“I can only approach the crack obliquely… For I must question archaic assumptions that not only underlie science and religion equally… While my book explores this mirroring of thinking and experience, I avoid philosophical arguments, such as the ‘reality’ of the world. What I have explored … is the way we experience the world… Our ‘cosmic egg’ is the sum total of our notions of what the world is, notions which define what reality CAN BE for us. The crack, then, is a mode of thinking through which imagination can escape the mundane shell and create a new cosmic egg. The crack is that ‘twilight between the worlds’ found by the young anthropologist, Carlos Castaneda, in his study of the Yaqui Indian sorcerer, don Juan, and his ‘Way of Knowledge.’ The crack is found as well in that ‘narrow gate’ of Jesus’ Way of Truth… The last portion of my book is theological in intent, though hardly calculated to win applause from the pulpit.”
In the first chapter, he states, “It used to be thought that the physical was a fixed entity ‘out there,’ unaffected by anything our transient, incidental thoughts might make of it… Yet there is a way in which physical and mental events merge and influence each other… For instance, as a young man I once found myself in certain somnambulistic, trance-like states of mind which I will later in this book define as autistic. In the peculiarities of this frame of reference I suddenly knew myself to be impervious to pain or injury. With upwards of a dozen witnesses I held the glowing tips of cigarettes against my palms, cheeks, eyelids, grinding them out in those sensitive areas… To the real consternation of my dormitory fellows, there were NO after-effects, no blisters, no later signs of my folly.” (Pg. 2-3)
He suggests, “There remains a certain… childlike quality, in all creative people. In them, somehow, a thread remains intact between their primary modes of thought. It is a return to the primary-process thinking which brings about … conversion, the ‘Eureka!’ illumination of creative thinking… It was this re-entrance into this primary-process thinking by the adult, matured, reality-adjusted mind that brought about Jesus’ Kingdom.” (Pg. 20)
He acknowledges, “There is nothing orderly or logical to the function I am trying to outline. I find no evidence that great cosmic powers keep the process on an upward trend, keeping an eye on us to assure our eventual success. There is no hierarchy of criteria or value for what it or is not ‘realized,’ made real, by the function… We are the source of value and choice, the source of ideas around which the procedure of our reality orients.” (Pg. 47)
He explains, “the volume, ‘The Teachings of don Juan,’ verifies my contention. The author, a young anthropologist named Carlos Castaneda, is probably one of the bravest and most intelligent persons I have ever read about, and I plainly loved don Juan, the Yaqui Indian Sorcerer, of whom Carlos wrote… I envied Castaneda his experience…” (Pg. 132)
Later, he adds, “Critics have complained that Castaneda’s dry analyses at the back of his book were in effect a ‘sellout’ to the mechanistic gods of the time. This is unfair and misses the point… That Carlos DID sustain his sharp, trained intellect throughout these traumatic, often dreadful experiences, and retain his analytical perspective, is in itself a remarkable display of strength of mind… Surely Castaneda in no way disbelieved that other world… In spite of his remarkable objectivity and his final analysis, Carlos never retreated to scientific dodge or psychological cliché.” (Pg. 137)
He asserts, “By now I think I have laid some groundwork for a defense of that saying by Jesus that ‘what we loose on earth is loosed in heaven,’ and I believe we have the materials for updating and reinterpreting the ontological insights afforded us by that genius’s metaphor ‘heaven.’ If the religious metaphors prove archaic and stand in the way, they should be thrown out. But save the FUNCTION toward which they point.” (Pg. 151) He continues, “Parapsychology failed also to materialize as an opening through which our position might have clarified. Like the figures of don Juan and Jesus, though, it gives indications of the overall picture.” (Pg. 153)
He observes, “Recently a little book called ‘The Cross and the Switchblade’ sold over sixteen million copies… Perhaps it sold so well because in it a man told a believable story of psychic activity of an extraordinary kind… The little book smacked on the crack in the egg.” (Pg. 157)
He says, “The idea of eschewing products, and seizing the very process by which reality ORGANIZES is the radical departure found in don Juan’s Way of Knowledge, and in Jesus’ Way of Truth. Don Juan and Jesus consider the world to be an arbitrary construct, not an illusion as in the East… Both don Juan and Jesus have as a goal the seizure of the ontological function itself and both attempts hinge on a complete surrender TO the function.” (Pg. 162)
He concludes, “Any path we choose is arbitrary, but in our choice we shape the world as it is for us…. I have claimed that reality is what we DO know, that the world as it is for us is one we represent for ourselves for our own response. So it is with nature, God, ‘ultimate matter,’ and so on. We can never get at these as such. Everything we say about them, our sciences, dogmas and creeds, are only representations we seem fated to make and to which we are fated to responded. God as surely as ‘Nature,’ is a concept shot through and through with the mind of man.” (Pg. 193)
This book has always struck me as too derivative of Castaneda; but it may interest some who want a more philosophical and theological approach to such topics as Castaneda dealt with. (But readers should be aware of critiques of Castaneda by Margaret Runyan Castaneda---his former wife---and Richard de Mille ['Castaneda's Journey' and 'The Don Juan Papers'.])
Joseph Chilton Pearce (1926-2016) was an American author who taught college humanities until the mid-1960s, and thereafter devoted himself to writing and lecturing.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1971 book, “Almost a decade has passed since I first experienced the crack in my own cosmic egg, and made tentative attempts to translate it into communicable form… In spite of the radical, fundamental, and shattering effect of the crack personally, it simply would not translate into the common domain… the crack remained, and still remains, a fragile, lonely way of nonstatistical balance in a rough statistical world… I have ended… with the hope that I might be heard by two or three suffering our common concern, and willing to gather together to explore the crack as a mutual way down and out… Here in this crack alternatives ABOUND—but only for the lone reader… And so I write for the reader who cannot stand where he is and has no place to go… There IS a third alternative in this world of exclusive either-ors, but the way out is a way BEYOND…
“I can only approach the crack obliquely… For I must question archaic assumptions that not only underlie science and religion equally… While my book explores this mirroring of thinking and experience, I avoid philosophical arguments, such as the ‘reality’ of the world. What I have explored … is the way we experience the world… Our ‘cosmic egg’ is the sum total of our notions of what the world is, notions which define what reality CAN BE for us. The crack, then, is a mode of thinking through which imagination can escape the mundane shell and create a new cosmic egg. The crack is that ‘twilight between the worlds’ found by the young anthropologist, Carlos Castaneda, in his study of the Yaqui Indian sorcerer, don Juan, and his ‘Way of Knowledge.’ The crack is found as well in that ‘narrow gate’ of Jesus’ Way of Truth… The last portion of my book is theological in intent, though hardly calculated to win applause from the pulpit.”
In the first chapter, he states, “It used to be thought that the physical was a fixed entity ‘out there,’ unaffected by anything our transient, incidental thoughts might make of it… Yet there is a way in which physical and mental events merge and influence each other… For instance, as a young man I once found myself in certain somnambulistic, trance-like states of mind which I will later in this book define as autistic. In the peculiarities of this frame of reference I suddenly knew myself to be impervious to pain or injury. With upwards of a dozen witnesses I held the glowing tips of cigarettes against my palms, cheeks, eyelids, grinding them out in those sensitive areas… To the real consternation of my dormitory fellows, there were NO after-effects, no blisters, no later signs of my folly.” (Pg. 2-3)
He suggests, “There remains a certain… childlike quality, in all creative people. In them, somehow, a thread remains intact between their primary modes of thought. It is a return to the primary-process thinking which brings about … conversion, the ‘Eureka!’ illumination of creative thinking… It was this re-entrance into this primary-process thinking by the adult, matured, reality-adjusted mind that brought about Jesus’ Kingdom.” (Pg. 20)
He acknowledges, “There is nothing orderly or logical to the function I am trying to outline. I find no evidence that great cosmic powers keep the process on an upward trend, keeping an eye on us to assure our eventual success. There is no hierarchy of criteria or value for what it or is not ‘realized,’ made real, by the function… We are the source of value and choice, the source of ideas around which the procedure of our reality orients.” (Pg. 47)
He explains, “the volume, ‘The Teachings of don Juan,’ verifies my contention. The author, a young anthropologist named Carlos Castaneda, is probably one of the bravest and most intelligent persons I have ever read about, and I plainly loved don Juan, the Yaqui Indian Sorcerer, of whom Carlos wrote… I envied Castaneda his experience…” (Pg. 132)
Later, he adds, “Critics have complained that Castaneda’s dry analyses at the back of his book were in effect a ‘sellout’ to the mechanistic gods of the time. This is unfair and misses the point… That Carlos DID sustain his sharp, trained intellect throughout these traumatic, often dreadful experiences, and retain his analytical perspective, is in itself a remarkable display of strength of mind… Surely Castaneda in no way disbelieved that other world… In spite of his remarkable objectivity and his final analysis, Carlos never retreated to scientific dodge or psychological cliché.” (Pg. 137)
He asserts, “By now I think I have laid some groundwork for a defense of that saying by Jesus that ‘what we loose on earth is loosed in heaven,’ and I believe we have the materials for updating and reinterpreting the ontological insights afforded us by that genius’s metaphor ‘heaven.’ If the religious metaphors prove archaic and stand in the way, they should be thrown out. But save the FUNCTION toward which they point.” (Pg. 151) He continues, “Parapsychology failed also to materialize as an opening through which our position might have clarified. Like the figures of don Juan and Jesus, though, it gives indications of the overall picture.” (Pg. 153)
He observes, “Recently a little book called ‘The Cross and the Switchblade’ sold over sixteen million copies… Perhaps it sold so well because in it a man told a believable story of psychic activity of an extraordinary kind… The little book smacked on the crack in the egg.” (Pg. 157)
He says, “The idea of eschewing products, and seizing the very process by which reality ORGANIZES is the radical departure found in don Juan’s Way of Knowledge, and in Jesus’ Way of Truth. Don Juan and Jesus consider the world to be an arbitrary construct, not an illusion as in the East… Both don Juan and Jesus have as a goal the seizure of the ontological function itself and both attempts hinge on a complete surrender TO the function.” (Pg. 162)
He concludes, “Any path we choose is arbitrary, but in our choice we shape the world as it is for us…. I have claimed that reality is what we DO know, that the world as it is for us is one we represent for ourselves for our own response. So it is with nature, God, ‘ultimate matter,’ and so on. We can never get at these as such. Everything we say about them, our sciences, dogmas and creeds, are only representations we seem fated to make and to which we are fated to responded. God as surely as ‘Nature,’ is a concept shot through and through with the mind of man.” (Pg. 193)
This book has always struck me as too derivative of Castaneda; but it may interest some who want a more philosophical and theological approach to such topics as Castaneda dealt with. (But readers should be aware of critiques of Castaneda by Margaret Runyan Castaneda---his former wife---and Richard de Mille ['Castaneda's Journey' and 'The Don Juan Papers'.])
May 26, 2019
Overall, I liked some of the thought presented in this book, but after I finished, I was left with this feeling that his motive in writing it was to rationalize, categorize, and scientifically prove "breaks in reality" and other spiritual experiences. I find this distasteful considering he criticized this act several times in the book. By his own statements, there are just some experiences that can't be explained by reason or logic.
January 31, 2021
Despite what 2000 years of church history has to say, Joseph Chilton Pearce, the Chosen Enlightener of the Unbelieving West, has figured out Jesus! Turns out his gospel is quite simple and the “Christ” is just a slightly more socialist version of don Juan but without the peyote.........four stars for Pearce’s main idea, one star for his disjointed delivery and awkward imagery, and negative three stars for his insufferable hubris and vanity. Final tally: one star.
July 10, 2017
Excellent
Very interesting. Thought provoking. The concepts/ideas in this book are more common these days, which is good, but JCP has his own unique way/style of writing which is easy to follow & very interesting.
Very interesting. Thought provoking. The concepts/ideas in this book are more common these days, which is good, but JCP has his own unique way/style of writing which is easy to follow & very interesting.
November 28, 2020
A thoroughly challenging read. Pearce’s effort to integrate the ingredients of human emotional, spiritual and experiential growth and knowledge is amazing to me.
I read through this book, sometimes understanding and often stretched beyond understanding.
I read through this book, sometimes understanding and often stretched beyond understanding.
April 16, 2019
Enjoyable.
July 24, 2019
This Book Helped Propel Me Beyond The Stale Boundaries Of Junior High School.
July 27, 2019
Solid! No real egg-cracking revelations for me, but I've studied this stuff a lot. A pleasant and fascinating read. I'll be handing it out to people I think could use it.
January 6, 2023
Found this book in my university library and was immediately drawn to it. Pretty solid, lots of interesting stories and points
April 6, 2021
Provocative title for book that seeks to expand consciousness by breaking "cosmic egg' (culture). Did not find edifying, then, not presently, in this age of knee-jerk reactive, social media. Maybe reduced estimation to self-help in conscious expansion - a premature look for quick-fix when, later discovering, intellectual pursuit is lifelong and partial? Apt metaphor for epiphanies?
April 30, 2009
His thoughts on expansive thinking. How the Autistic mind works, how the artist thinks, how scientists have made huge theoretical jumps. He also explains how people can walk on fire and cure themselves from illness.
August 24, 2009
This book got me thinking, and that's always a good thing (hence three stars). Described in its rerelease as a "New Age Classic," it purports to show the readers paths out of the "egg of rationality." I read it when it came out, but by then my own cosmic egg had long since cracked.
June 20, 2008
You gotta know . . . You gotta know, man!
February 2, 2010
An interesting book and ahead of it's time when it was written
April 1, 2017
This book is totally mindblowing! I have read it twice now and will probably read it again. His thoughts are reflected in many books I have read.
May 5, 2013
"I read it in my teens"...I see a few other reviews say the same thing. It didn't totally blow my mind. I should lookk into it it again.
June 20, 2013
hated it!
Read
September 22, 2014Okay time to read it again as I originally read it about 40 years ago, and carried it with me to SD, so I must have thought it was worth having around.
July 7, 2016
William Blake had a very supportive Mother.
February 23, 2017
Difficult to read, didn't feel it was worth the best use of my effort
June 15, 2019
A good introduction to the many aspects of consciousness, perception and reality.
Want to read
May 20, 2019I've started reading this book a couple times eons ago but just never got through it which is very much unlike me since I have a neurotic thing about finishing books that I start. One of these days, I'll finally start it again and get through it sometime before I die. When I do, I'll come back and give it a fair rating.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews