Far From This Land: A Memoir About Evolution, Love, and the Afterlife

by Michael Gellert

Overview

This book is inspired by the author’s dreams and visionary experiences in response to brain surgery. Unfolding as a dialogue between different parts of his personality, its story is told from the perspective of an alter ego, a skeptical part of him that could not believe and accept these astonishing dreams and visions. Throughout his story, he is resistant to accepting his near-death experience—an extraordinary one by most standards. He has to fight his way to embracing, reluctantly, the implications this experience has for his personal development as well as his understanding of human evolution. The book explores such topics as the workings of the unconscious mind (dreams, visions, and paranormal phenomena); the evolution of consciousness and of our planet; and the psychological and spiritual dimension of climate change. Though very much about the afterlife, it has profound implications for our everyday lives.

“A remarkable book that sets in motion the dreamscape of the unconscious mind. Gellert applies Jung’s active imagination techniques with great originality. The evolutionary material is fascinating, taking a deep dive into the philosophy of theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, among other things.” —Wendy Goldman Rohm, New York Times bestselling author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892541966
Publisher:	Nicolas-Hays, Inc
Publication date:	08/15/2021
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Michael Gellert is a Jungian analyst practicing in Los Angeles and Pasadena, California. He was formerly the director of training at the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles and a humanities professor at Vanier College, Montreal. He lectures widely on psychology, religion, and contemporary culture. Visit him at www.michaelgellert.com.

Table of Contents

Author's Opening Remarks: How to Read This Book 17

Prelude: Initial Consultation and Considerations 27

First Installment: This Must Be a Hallucination 41

First Appointment: What Einstein Saw Inside His Head 49

Second Installment: The Intelligence of This Hallucination 63

Second Appointment: Smoke That Rises to Heaven 71

First Interlude: A "Growing Concern" 83

Third Installment: Turning the Scheme of Evolution on Its Head 87

Third Appointment: A Romantic Notion of the Unconscious 101

Fourth Installment: The Boldest Interpretation of the Apocalypse 113

Fourth Appointment: Shattering Old Containers of Meaning 125

Second Interlude: Watching Your Child Suffer 141

Fifth Installment: Levels of Evolution? 143

Fifth Appointment: A Renaissance Soul 151

Sixth Appointment: The Famous Shadow 163

Seventh Appointment: The Burning Center 175

Postlude: A Capacity We All Possess 203

Coda 217

Appendix I How to Do Active Imagination 219

Appendix II A Bibliographic Note 225

Acknowledgments 227