G William Barnard

Bio:

Dr. G. William Barnard, (B.A. Antioch University; M.A. Temple University; Ph.D. University of Chicago) is a Professor of Religious Studies, as well as a University Distinguished Teaching Professor. His primary areas of research interests are the comparative philosophy of mysticism, contemporary spirituality, religion and healing, and consciousness studies. Professor Barnard’s new book Liquid Light: Ayahuasca Visions and Embodying Divinity in the Santo Daime Religious Tradition, on a syncretistic, entheogenically-based new religious movement that emerged in Brazil in the mid-twentieth century, is currently in production with Columbia University Press.  Professor Barnard is also the author of Living Consciousness: The Metaphysical Vision of Henri Bergson as well as Exploring Unseen Worlds: William James and the Philosophy of Mysticism, both published by State University of New York Press. In addition, Professor Barnard is the co-editor of Crossing Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism. Professor Barnard has also written many journal articles and book chapters on a variety of topics, such as pedagogy in religious studies, the nature of religious experience, issues in the psychology of religion, and most recently, entheogenic religions and spirituality.

I’m reading LSD and the Mind of the Universe by Christopher Bache.  Fascinating, intriguing text.

My most nourishing daily practice is chanting a sutra from the Radiance Sutras (a free-form “translation” of an important Hindu Tantric text, the Vijñana Bhairava); then reading various commentaries on that sutra; then meditating while aligning myself with that metaphysical/practice orientation.  I do this every night before bed, the same sutra for a week, leading up to me leading a study group on that sutra on Monday night.

Big thanks to our sponsor The Apricot Grove!