Heavens and Hells of the Mind: Overview & Review
Epic Series on Human Spirituality by Imre Vallyon up for Major Award
Aug 14, 2008
Heavens and Hells of the Mind, a 4-book series on human consciousness and contemporary spirituality by Imre Vallyon, who fled communist Hungary in 1956 to establish the worldwide Foundation for Higher Learning, was published earlier this year. Now it is up for a prominent achievement award.
The Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust Book Award is presented to books that "encompass a wide range of beliefs", demonstrate "higher consciousness, expanded awareness and enlightenment" as primary objectives, focusing upon "human relationships" and "becoming more perfectly loving."
The scope of this project is beyond impressive. The set is a hefty 2142 pages long, comprising over 72 treatises on esoteric wisdom. It includes a 353-page lexicon and index, and comprises three distinct sections:
- Knowledge
- Tradition
- Transformation
“A human being is a complex being, a compound being. Each human being is an incarnation of God, and is both an imperishable Individuality and a perishable Personality.”
So begins Volume 1: Knowledge, which synthesizes the spiritual knowledge of most major world religions, demonstrating the areas where they are linked, and esoteric movements which include Theosophism, the Golden Dawn and Alice Bailey. Detailed explanations and diagrams describe the human soul and personality, karma and reincarnation, psychology, evolutionary stages of human consciousness, the mysteries of the heart---far too many to list.
The second book, Tradition, provides insight into the contributions of religion, examining the different streams through which people have expanded their spiritual awareness. There are chapters on Zen, the desert fathers and Sufism, Christianity and Gnosticism, the western Hermetic Schools, Hinduism and yoga, and others. These details can be summed up in Vallyon’s opening, “The Eternal is One.”
These books start from wherever the reader is in their awareness. They approach religion, philosophy and metaphysics in a concise fashion, the essence being that growth and evolution is a continuous process and even the greatest minds, the most loving hearts, the most powerful action-oriented people have more to learn, express, heal and inspire.
The third section describes the different techniques and methods a person can use to experience higher consciousness and enlightenment. Vallyon emphasizes experience, not belief. Transformation provides practical suggestions for what a person can do to expand the experience of the spirit in their lives. The topics address meditation, prayer, different forms of yoga, breath, silence, chanting, acts of service, and the differences between being and becoming, and many others.
The difficulty with reviewing such a detailed and encompassing book is that it is like reviewing the Encyclopedia Britannica. It was fairly easy to follow from start to finish. The book series is designed so a reader can leap around and look at the subjects that really grab the eye, but it also lays out knowledge in a way that the reader's understanding changes as inner experience and knowledge develop. They are clearly meant to be read many times. The objective is enlightenment, an ongoing process, so the publisher offers the books either as a boxed set or individually.
The criteria for an Ashton Wylie Award includes excellence in authorship, as well as high production values such as illustration and graphics, jacket design, general book design, typography and editing. Philip Carter is the chief editor for Heavens and Hells of the Mind, a project which he says took him nearly 20 years to fulfil. Once a reader cracks open that first page, it is easy to see why.
The complete set of volumes sells for $99.00 USD and can be ordered directly from Sounding-Light Publications.
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