Jed McKenna's Theory of Everything: The Enlightened Perspective (The Dreamstate Trilogy)

Boy was I wrong read till the end:I've read his other books and one is better than the other. This book is repetitive and rambles. It's very disappointing and feels like it's written to write another book.. Ok disciples I'm a disciple too. As one, I believe in the truth. How can this guru do that, well he is only an ego, I mean he is still here.Update after eight weeks.Went from two stars to three. Gave the book to my companion. She wanted to try it or I would never have. She is a Jed fan also. She told me I'm crazy, she gave it 5 stars. Now we are in our seventies so that's saying something. I'm going to try again because after the first chapter I really didn't give the book a chance and skimmed it, maybe my ego killed it.Updated to 5 starsWow was I wrong. Took me a year to get back to this, I disliked it so much on first reading. I've read it a few times now. Althogh I still get that rambling feeling its just Jed's style. The book is truly the theory of everything. When it hit me, I cant get it out of my head. You don't need to be brillant to read it. It reads easy if your ego allows it.Updated several years later still 5 starsMy companion has decided this book is not for her. Why because in my opinion after discussing it with her she hates the idea that we don't exist. In other words she is backing off from ACIM and Jed because she abhors the void and prefers to live the illusion. I'm sort of with her. Jed calls this an amusement ride. I agree and just want to take the ride. However, there is no question in my mind that Jed is speaking for truth. I have purchased the book on CD and go walking every morning with one of the Jed Books. You can't become enlightened that way, but I'm hoping to reach adulthood.

Many, many thanks. Several of Jed McKenna's books are so helpful to point and guide through the process of unrealizing untruth. This is one of the five or six from Jed to take to the desert island and be the Wilson(s) to the unraveling process, if so inclined. This plus the Enlightenment Trilogy plus Jed Talks. This one was especially helpful in refining the fierce thinking about what I meant by Truth and working through sufficient proof over here about what it is and isn't.

You don’t find this book, it finds you and that’s not a random accident. So first just read it, then when you don’t understand because you won’t understand just wait. You’ll forget all about it until it calls you back. Don’t worry about when that will happen it just will. Then read it again, this may go on a few times. Meanwhile read all the other books and do your spiritual autolysis (first book)( eventually you will )and when you are done with the 10 million words, you’ll find yourself right back here. That’s when your life will actually begin.

Jed McKenna is a rare phenomenon in the field of spirituality and awakening, this book primarily deals with the extent of what it is possible for human beings to know. According to McKenna, it's actually not a lot.Edit:After reading some other books I have a different opinion on McKenna's theory now. Not long ago I had a similar experience to McKenna's, in December of 2013, after a bunch of pretty "definite" and "hard" spiritual experiences, I said two things:"Everything that can be known, has been known."and"Everything that can happen, has happened."I originally encountered McKenna's trilogy when I was 16. McKenna explains in the books that it's common to encounter his books when a person is about to make a breakthrough into Human Adulthood or Spiritual Enlightenment. In my case it seemed to be a mix of both. The event that happened in December of 2013, happened when I was 20. This was right before my 21st birthday.I was initially intrigued by McKenna's descriptions of absolute knowledge, both in his trilogy and in this book. Initially, McKenna's explanation of a hard limit on knowledge was pretty simple: the only thing that can be known is Brahmanic Consciousness. Which is a sort of corner-like, fundamental, not-you. The question of the existence of everything else is a non-question, since the only thing that can be directly known is B.C. Therefore, there is no need for an explanation for the apparent (and thus illusory) existence of the self (Atman), or anything else (the universe, all Maya).Yet my experience of absolute knowledge is distinct from McKenna's and bears a resemblance to Stephen Jourdain's "I knew all there was to know." But Jourdain himself failed to explicate what it is he knew anyway.My experience of absolute knowledge is different. Instead my knowledge tends to pan out as a form of an interconnecting gridlock or web, a sort of synthetic whole or processor that can organize everything and see these immanent weaving patterns branching out into all themes of existence. In other words my knowledge is like a two dimensional Cartesian graph. I know the corner, and by implication, everything else.McKenna's knowledge seems akin to knowledge of one object that is the sole reality. In McKenna's theory, there is simply no need to explain the existence of anything else, simply because there is no need to attribute existence to those things.Yet this explanation is not a true explanation for the mysteries of existence. It does not synthesize or harmonize opposing viewpoints by bringing information into alignment. It doesn't resolve contradictions. It merely states that those things are non-questions to begin with.So in sum, I'd have to say that McKenna's viewpoint is correct from his viewpoint. Paradoxically, his viewpoint is also wrong. It's wrong in that it's limited, and thus not a true explanation for everything in existence. It's right in that it's right from his perspective, and the truth is is that that's all that he (McKenna) sees.I'd like to close with a quote:“Here arises a fundamental controversy in philosophy. This is about the fundamental unity for which the word is ‘absolute’. Now, if the absolute is one, it is not many; if it is unity, it is not plurality. The Vedantists uphold unity but decry plurality which is the world on the ground that it is a grand illusion (maya). But to give such a huge thing the name of illusion is not to explain it. The Jainas have not done such a thing. They have accepted the world in all its plurality, and starting from it, they have sought to arrive at the fundamental unity.”— Sramana Bhagavan Mahavira: Life & Doctrine (by K.C. Lalwani)Something to think about.I've changed my rating to a 4 (from a 5) to reflect this. McKenna's writing is excellent, it's a great product. But the theory is, perhaps incomplete.N.B. Previous title of this review was “Knowledge”, it is now “Epistemology”.Edit 2:Minor grammar edits and changes.Edit 3:More grammar and minor changes.Edit 4:Minor edit.

Jed's new book showed up in my dream. Ok. What is this showing me about the content of my mind? First, the feeling tone. Reading the sample, I was hooked...compelled to read more. As I began my first read of the book, uneasiness, even trepidation came up. What was happening? What was the meaning of my emotional reaction? I was recognizing the truth of what Jed wrote. Worse, I was identifying with Jed. This identification is a direct threat to sustaining my belief in an ego-centric personality. Reading this book felt like a threat. But I didn't want to stop. Read the whole thing with some agitation, jumpiness, stop and go, and fidgetiness.Today I am 53% through a careful second reading, including highlighting and adding my commentary. I'm having a conversation with Jed. And how do I feel now? The agitation is gone. Now I am experiencing the comfort of finding a friend who understands my experience.As Jed wrote: Done can be a strange and lonely place. However, Jed is helping me to understand what happened to me and is happening now. There is much comfort in that.

The book will find you when you need it and readyAll answers are within you, All you have to do is ask.

This is the book I've been looking for. Here he tackles science, religion and philosophy, and shows why they fail under scrutiny. He leaves a couple things unanswered, mainly the question of why we need something to perceive in the first place (although he kind of answers it through p3 - perceiver, perception and perceived are 1. You need something to perceive), but he answers it in more detail in the 2nd book in the dreamstate trilogy.

Ele tenta abordar o mesmo tema por varios ângulos. Apesar desse ter sido o objetivo dele, achei cansativo. Fora isso eh maravilhoso.

In the sense of Jed McKenna's done!All my life I feel I have been heading to this goal and now the way is clearTo me and open. To me I have never enjoyed this theme / amusement /fun parkOf a world.Sure I have had some nice and happy even wonderful times BUT they haven'tLasted and not made me content. This world is made for those that enjoy theContent..... I don't . Increasingly ,like Neo in the matrix , I find the world thatOn the face of it to be deep and challenging ,but have come to see its shallowAnd deceitful . THE ONLY WAY TO BLEND WITH YOUR GOD IS TO LOSEYOUR EGO there is no other way . You can get SOME way close by beingGood and kind and noble and worship and truthful BUT your ego will alwaysBe that barrier to your god defeat maya and be free to blend with your self!I have deep gratitude to you Jed for your profound IS ness,And everlasting respect for what you have given me and all those who findValue in what you have shared in your books. Infinite blessings to you.

Great trilogy, really shifted something in me, thank you!