Manish Soni was born in New Delhi, India and has lived in Moscow, Cairo, Kuala Lumpur, London, Sydney, and Boston. He holds degrees from the University of Sydney, Australia, and from Tufts University. He currently resides in Boston, where he continues to ponder the primal sources of inspiration that inform Eastern and Western cultures and emerge inexorably in even the most "popular" forms of entertainment.

Rock and roll, and archetypal symbolism? The same primal source from which mythology, dreams, folk traditions and poetic insight arise must also be the inspirational source for painting, music, literature, and other modes of creative human...

Rock and roll, and archetypal symbolism? The same primal source from which mythology, dreams, folk traditions and poetic insight arise must also be the inspirational source for painting, music, literature, and other modes of creative human endeavor. Elitists may dismiss popular entertainment as not properly belonging to this sphere of creative expression, but modern genres such as popular music and film-making deserve their place alongside the recognized works of classical and traditional art forms - as the following pages aim to make clear. While much of popular music undoubtedly was produced for commercial profit rather than as a means of true expression, many of the genuine pioneers of the rock and roll genre perceived music as a means of connecting with the mystical source of energy and creation that lay within their beings. Citing John Lennon and Carl Jung, the Upanishads and Schopenhauer, Led Zeppelin and Taoism, Freud, Bob Dylan and Bob Marley, the author aptly makes his case.Exploring the nexus between mysticism, religion, and psychology, Soni considers topics ranging from archetypes and the collective unconscious, and the hero journey, to the use and effects of psychedelics, Gaia theory, and reincarnation and karma. With an insider's appreciation of Eastern and Western cultural traditions, he shows that mankind's ongoing inquiry into the nature of the self and society and the search for higher meaning are universal, and he shows that many highlights of recent musical history draw on the same primal source from which mythology, dreams, and poetic insight arise.

PART ONE — Mysticism Chapter 1: The Spirit of Mysticism Mysticism versus Religion. The Mystical Life.Detachment, Renunciation, Wu-Wei.Chapter 2: The Nature of the World and the Self. The World a

PART ONE — Mysticism Chapter 1: The Spirit of Mysticism Mysticism versus Religion. The Mystical Life.Detachment, Renunciation, Wu-Wei.Chapter 2: The Nature of the World and the Self. The World as Illusion. Form and Matter. TheUnity of all Consciousness. Time and Change.Chapter 3: Awakening of the True Self Realization of the Great Unity. The Higher Dimension. Love as Mystical Union. The Roots of Discord.Transforming Perception. Kundalini —Ascent of the Serpent Power.Chapter 4: The Mystical Perspective The Original State of Mind. Emergence of Ego andConsciousness. Unity of Opposites. The Web ofLife/Gaia Theory. Reincarnation and Karma. EgoDissolution and The Great Void.PART TWO — PsychologyChapter 5: Psychology and Mysticism—The Similarities. The Differences. The Natureof the Unconscious. Imbalance and Compensation.Chapter 6: Mind, World and ProjectionThe Mind and Its Productions. Archetypes and theCollective Unconscious. Childhood Psyche.Psychoanalysis and Childhood.Chapter 7: Society and the IndividualThe Nature and Function of Society. Society andEgo. To Thine Own Self Be True. Society andSanity. From Nurture to Nihilism.Chapter 8: Expansion of ConsciousnessThe Infinite Mind. The Destructive Unconscious. Mystic and Hallucinatory Visions. The Use andEffects of Psychedelics. Drug Abuse and Psychic Inflation.The Velvet Underground's Heroin.PART THREE — The Hero JourneyChapter 9: The Call to AdventureThe Inward Journey. Discontentment and Separation,— Descent into the Deep.Chapter 10: The Struggle and the ReturnThe Mother Archetype. Bob Dylan’s Isis. Returnto the Worldly Plane.