Savage & Beautiful Country

by Alan McGlashan

Alan McGlashan presents a sensitive view of the modern world and of time, of our memories and forgetfulness, joys and sorrows. He takes the reader on a safari into regions that are strange and yet familiar - into the savage and beautiful country of the mind. No cures are offered, but we are provoked to reflect on our roles and attitudes in the contemporary world jungle.

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up off the street the other day, what a lucky surprise. There is the outer world, we know 'bout that. Then there's the inner world. Dream, fantasy, paranoia, point of view, general malaise caused by fatty food, deep, passionate love that makes us do crazy things! The Tibetans said the Western world has been focusing on the outer world for thousands of years, while during that same time they've been focusing on the inner. Who's better off?
There's something so exciting and secret and full of possibility about considering the things in this book. He talks a lot about duality, the Janus face and seems to find hope in "fraught times" by wondering if the clamor we experience, the feeling that something is "about to burst" in the outer world may actually be reflecting a phenomena occurring in our own psyches. A psychic evolution, a transcendence. He writes, "Out of the royal union of thinking and feeling will be born the inner force that alone can pull man back to safety from the high and narrow window ledge on which he now stands, screaming silently."

[Qing Wang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Live at the moment while being conscioulsy aware of the Timeless of Time.

Surely this book offers no answers to the many intriguing questions it poses. It just tries to get us, as a reader, to think, to reflect, to get something out of the tragedy of forever forgetting and remembering in human history.

Who is the Dreamer, what does the dreaming mind want to tell the conscious one? If the only meaningful way to change the world must start with personal transformation, and it's only from the savage and beautiful country of unconsicous could the conscious/spiritual horizon of individuals be expanded, let people learn to look inside.

love has no immediate answer to overwhelming power

Where does the ghost dwell, in the internal world or the external? Do we look inside to overcome our own evil, or to get the wisdom and courage to fight the monster outside?

the scientific impluse and the religious impulse -- the search for fact and the search for value

[Robby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book. It became my Bible. Enough said.

[Mark Matzeder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1988 this collection of essays is a bit dated (geopolitically) but addresses some timeless questions on human consciousness and the nature of humanity. I rated it highly because McGlashon discusses many issues which I have been pondering (and/or wrestling with). There were many times I stuck my finger in the book to hold my page and sat mulling over a point he made.

[Julius · Rating 2 out of 5]

Schön geschrieben und interessante Sichtweisen in Bezug auf die "innere Welt", der Psyche, im Gegensatz zur "äußeren Welt", der Betrachtung des Selbst in der Umgebung. Allerdings bin ich offensichtlich für diese Esoterik kaum empfänglich.