The spiritual quest: transcendence in myth, religion, and science

Abstract

This study argues that the spiritual quest is rooted in our biological, psychological, linguistic, and social nature. The quest is not, as most have believed, a rare mystical experience, but a frequent expression of our most basic human impulses. Shaman and scientist, medium and poet, prophet and philosopher, all venture forth in quest of visionary truths to transform and renew the world. Yet this book is not trying to reduce the quest to an “archetype” or “monomyth.” Instead, it presents the full diversity of the quest in the myths and religious practices of tribal peoples throughout the world, from Oceania to India, Africa, Siberia, and especially the Americas. In theorizing about the quest, the book draws on thinkers as diverse as Henri Bergson and Jean Piaget, Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner, Charles Sanders Peirce and Karl Popper, Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, and Noam Chomsky.

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