num_pages: 426
description: When Paul Marshall began to pay attention to his dreams after reading psychologist C. G. Jung, he could not have anticipated the transformative experience that would follow. A massive expansion of consciousness exposed the insignificance of his familiar self but also revealed unsuspected depths of mind, even a deeper self, in which the universe seemed to have its existence. In The Shape of the Soul, Marshall - now a mysticism scholar - draws on his own experiences and a wealth of religious, philosophical, and scientific ideas to explore the possibility that there is a deeper mind or self common to us all. Marshall adopts an idealist and panpsychic reading of Leibniz's philosophy of monads, according to which mind is more fundamental than matter and the basic units of nature are perceptual beings who strive to actualize their potential. But he modifies the philosophy in innovative ways, finding support in mysticism and modern physics, and then works out how it might address questions about the origin of the universe, evolution, reincarnation, suffering, and the nature of God.
title: The Shape of the Soul: What Mystical Experience Tells Us about Ourselves and Reality
publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers