Optimism: The Lesson of Ages - Softcover

Blood, Benjamin Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0979998913 ISBN 13: 9780979998911

Publisher: Eirini Press, 2009

Synopsis

“He is in the light of the eye, and in the object that it shines on. He is not a curiosity, a member of a species, or a thing to be represented by any device. He is the One—the original—the all in all.”Benjamin Paul Blood’s Optimism (1860) is a testament to the idea that spiritual experience must precede religious knowledge. Impassioned by his own mystical experiences, Blood spells out an eternal nondual philosophy in a distinctly American voice that helped shape the work of William James (Varieties of Religious Experiences) and the 19th-century religious philosophers.In Optimism, we find a timeless, practical guide to faith and acceptance of whatever life delivers.

About this title

About the Author

Benjamin Paul Blood (1832-1919) is perhaps best known as a formative mystical influence on William James. The son of a wealthy landowner, Blood lived in Amsterdam, NY. While not committed to any one profession, he had an early interest in inventing and held patents for a reaping machine and a reinforced side saddle. His writing became a constant through his adult life, the bulk of which was in the form of letters and columns for a variety of newspapers in an era when the discourse was much like today s blogs. Through the newspapers, Blood was able to bring his philosophical ideas to a churchgoing public that he considered largely immoral.Although initially receiving a lukewarm response, Blood s most influential work, especially on William James, was the Anaesthetic Revolution and the Gist of Philosophy (1874), a 37-page pamphlet expounding on the mystical revelations prompted by the taking of ether.

Edition details

• Publisher: Eirini Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0979998913
• ISBN 13: 9780979998911
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 150