Carrie Melmoth

The daily practice I find most nourishing is nidra yoga. I have struggled with anxiety since I was little, and a couple years ago at a writing retreat I discovered nidra yoga and it's been really transformative. While knowing that there is a way to soothe my mind and sink into a perfectly peaceful featherbed of calm is a relief, it's also increasingly deepening the sense of peace there is in other sources (sitting in the garden meditating listening to classical music, for instance), and in ... tuning into to Source (is the best way I can think of putting it). So that's an unexpected bonus! There are lots of nidra yoga videos online, and I'd recommend Tanis Fishman's videos.

 

I'm *always* reading 'The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick' (the 2011 edition predominantly). It's tantamount to being my bible. It got me much more deeply into philosophical questions than any book ever had before, and continues to be a book I have an ongoing dialogue with. Do I agree with everything Dick writes in there? No, and neither does he. But the core concepts are sound. This is basically neoplatonism in the 1970s, a (hefty) footnote to Plato, and as good a lamp as any to lead the way out of the cave.

 

'Cromwell and Communism: Socialism and Democracy in the Great English Revolution' by Eduard Bernsein (1930) is both really interesting in terms of how Britain could theoretically have become a very early uptaker of (neo)communism à la Gerrard Winstanley, and just historically fascinating because it includes sizeable quotes from the seventeenth century from people who were considering (when it come down to it) the same political questions that we're considering today. It's all surprisingly relatebale.

 

'The PDA Paradox: The Highs and Lows of My Life on a Little-Known Part of the Autism Spectrum' by Harry Thompson (2019) is about something that I ... I wouldn't say have so much as am. The whole autism discourse, however well-intentioned (and it isn't always), usually annoys the life out of me. It's a very important subject, particularly at a time when there is a lot of debate, even within "the autistic community", around whether autism is a disability/pathology, or whether pathologisation can itself be a form of disablement/discrimination. For one thing, the statistics are that in the UK 22% of ("diagnosed") autistic adults are employed. The vast majority of the rest have to subsist on a benefits (welfare) system that the UN has said violates human rights obligations. So clearly there's a lot to be addressed and written about in terms of autistic rights (and maybe I should write something). But this is just a memoir by someone who is quite a lot like me, talking about a way of being that is very like my own, and that's really refreshing. There are lots of books about autism, but not very many specifically about PDA.

 

And last but by no means least The Red Book by Carl Jung. It's a lot like The Exegesis. The visual imagery is striking (even in the edition without the illustrations - the illustrated edition is very expensive but the"reader's edition" in more accessible and also beautifully produced). Reading it is like dreaming someone else's dream. But he emphasises that it's important to dream your *own* dream. I think that's what writers like Dick and Jung are for me, examples of people who have done the sorts of things I do and want to do. People with lanterns in a relay race. 

 

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