Finding Meaning in Death, Psychedelics, and Sobriety

Processing Reality

Book: Processing Reality
Finding Meaning in Death, Psychedelics, and Sobriety

In "Processing Reality: Finding Meaning in Death, Psychedelics, and Sobriety," John Buchanan details his search for a paradigm capable of integrating the diverse kinds of data arising out of the scientific endeavor, our philosophical heritage, and insights from extraordinary experience, as well as recognizing fully the value and importance of nature and everyday life.

The author traces both his personal and his academic journey to discover a worldview adequate to all the experiences and ideas from his studies in psychology, philosophy, and religion, as well his encounters with alcohol and drugs, psychedelics and non ordinary states, and addiction and recovery. Using some pivotal experiences—including psychedelic ones—to illuminate the most important questions and revelations that arose in his life, Buchanan attempts to make more accessible the sometimes difficult, often novel, and always fascinating ideas and theories found in process thought and transpersonal psychology.

In particular, the book "Processing Reality" acts as an in-depth introduction to Stanislav Grof's transpersonal psychology and Alfred North Whitehead's "philosophy of organism." It is argued that these two revolutionary theories, working together, form the basis for a postmodern paradigm capable of unifying science, religion, and human existence in a way that recognizes the achievements of the modern world, while rescuing spiritual values and vital dimensions of human experience and the natural world that have been lost or obscured along the way. With Whitehead's process philosophy providing a uniting worldview, and Grof's transpersonal psychology fleshing out the spiritual dimensions of Whitehead's thought, as well as offering experiential access to these spiritual depths, this reenchanted worldview is poised to help us address the crises that are facing our society and our planet.

Editorial Reviews

"John Buchanan has searched the relevant literature with peculiar thoroughness in quest of a developed vision that does justice to both the objective and the subjective worlds. . . . For one who has been testing Whitehead in similar ways in other fields for fifty years, Buchanan's enthusiasm is profoundly gratifying. It is hard to see what more can be asked of Whitehead before his thought will be recognized as having solved the need for a unified cosmology."

--John Cobb, Claremont School of Theology, emeritus
"Ever found process thought--with the whole universe pulsing and sparkling in every quantum--a bit of a trip? John Buchanan confirms your suspicion! This irresistibly readable narrative of psychedelic exploration, of a long path ultimately sober and all the more visionary, opens a stunning new portal into our shared reality. We discover not just a remarkably lucid introduction to Whiteheadian theo-cosmology, but--aimed right at our self-destructive civilization--the chance of a spiritual awakening."

--Catherine Keller, Drew University
"Occasionally, the story of a life is so well told that it draws you in, becoming your story. And occasionally, theory and personal experience are woven together so tightly that each sheds light on the other. Here, both happen. In understanding the author, one understands transpersonal psychology, process metaphysics, and (dare I say?) something of non-ordinary states, the mystical quest, and God. The result is one of the most compelling accounts of conscious and unconscious experience I have read in years."

―Philip Clayton, Claremont School of Theology