Collapsing Consciously: Transformative Truths for Turbulent Times
✍️ Carolyn Baker, John Michael GreerCurrently unavailable
This book is sold out right now. Leave your email — we'll let you know if it comes back, and you'll get 10% off any book today.
In stock now — readers of this book also loved:
Carolyn Baker's collection of essays and meditations offers a profound spiritual guide for navigating the impending decline of industrial civilization. Rather than focusing on prevention, this work challenges readers to acknowledge the systemic collapse of our consumerist society as an unavoidable truth. It champions inner transformation, providing a framework for emotional and spiritual preparedness, and encouraging a deep exploration of personal meaning and purpose amidst global uncertainty. Baker invites us to view this era not just as loss, but as an opportunity for profound spiritual growth and conscious adaptation.
Praise for this book
“Carolyn Baker's new book Collapsing Consciously: Transformative Truths for Turbulent Times is a breath of sanity in a world gone mad. Her contemplations are like a much needed multi-vitamin for the psyche that the deeper field of consciousness has secreted so as to compensate our madness. The fact that a book like Collapsing Consciously has arrived in our midst at this time of multiple world crises is evidence that our species is beginning to awaken from our self-created nightmare.”
“Carolyn Baker knows that people tend to define a comfort zone in which they feel competent, and then to get bored even as they feel secure. She encourages not warding stuff off but experiencing it fully, and venturing out to encounter more of the mystery. Her main vision is that, in the course of growing up, humans will construct, sooner or later, a better society, and in any case will live intensely in the present.”
“Carolyn Baker presents a no-denial appraisal of the global dark night that our species has created. Even in a time of collapse she finds room to talk wisely about joy, and to ask what despair has to teach us. Baker is a truth teller who dares us to go deeper into the night rather than to flee from it with superficial happy talk. I praise her for this very useful and very real book of rich meditations and practices.”
📝 Description: Collapsing Consciously: Transformative Truths for Turbulent Times
📑 What's inside
- Foreword: A Guide for the Journey / John Michael Greer
- Introduction
- Part 1. Collapse, Transition, the Great Turning
- The Joy of Mindful Preparation
- A Light in Dark Times: Winter Solstice
- Contagion: One of Many Collapse Scenarios
- My Body, My Life
- Emotional Resilience in Turbulent Times: Fukushima, March 2011
- Hoping for Happiness or Metabolizing Meaning?
- It's All about Down
- Masculine, Feminine, Collapse, and the Next Culture
- The Elephant in Every Collapsing Room
- Collapse and the Wild Self
- Collapsing Interdependently
- What Myth Will Replace the American Dream?
- The Deeper Meaning of Debt
- Hospice Workers for the World
- Getting Real about Our Predicament: A Climate Researcher on Collapsing Consciously
- A Culture of Two-Year-Olds and the Gifts of Collapse: Part 1
- A Culture of Two-Year-Olds and the Gifts of Collapse: Part 2
- Part 2. Transformative Truths for Turbulent Times
- Fifty-Two Weekly Meditations on the Collapse of Industrial Civilization
- About the Author
💎 Expert review
📖 Why choose it
Why this book is worth reading
Readers grappling with eco-anxiety or disillusionment with modern industrial society will find profound comfort and direction in this text. It is ideal for those seeking to transform their fear of systemic collapse into spiritual empowerment rather than despair. If you are ready to let go of the illusion of control over global events and focus instead on inner resilience, this book offers a vital framework. It serves as a compassionate guide for anyone wishing to align their personal purpose with the reality of impending societal change, turning uncertainty into a sacred opportunity for growth.
⭐ Reader reviews
Reader rating
Baker provides a necessary, if stark, perspective for those prepared to face the end of industrial civilization head-on. The collection succeeds in reframing loss as a gateway to deeper meaning, offering practical meditations for emotional survival. However, it will likely frustrate readers seeking technical solutions, political activism guides, or denial-friendly narratives that promise salvation through policy alone. It is not suitable for those attached to consumerist lifestyles or unwilling to confront the inevitability of decline. This is a spiritual manual for the end times, demanding acceptance rather than offering quick fixes.
❓ Frequently asked questions
📖 Who should read this
If you're grappling with the daunting realities of our world and seek a spiritual path through uncertainty, this book is for you. It offers solace and a framework for inner resilience, challenging you to find purpose beyond what is ending, and to consciously prepare your spirit for future shifts.
🎯 Key themes and symbolism
Accepting Societal Collapse
This book posits that the current trajectory of industrial society—marked by environmental degradation and economic instability—is unsustainable and its collapse inevitable. It moves beyond doomsaying to advocate for a radical acceptance of this reality, urging readers to shift focus from external solutions to internal readiness for profound global changes.
Spiritual & Emotional Preparedness
Baker emphasizes that true resilience in turbulent times stems from deep inner work. The essays guide readers to process the complex emotions—grief, anxiety, despair—associated with systemic breakdown, fostering a spiritual foundation that can withstand external shocks and find meaning beyond material loss, cultivating an inner sanctuary.
Redefining Purpose Amidst Change
Far from a narrative of pure tragedy, the book explores how the demise of our current paradigm can unlock new avenues for individual and collective purpose. It encourages readers to delve into their inner 'treasures of the soul' to discover profound gratification and a renewed sense of meaning, even as the world around them undergoes radical transformation.
📜 Historical context
📚 Glossary
- Industrial Civilization
- Collapse
- Conscious Collapse
📔 Questions to reflect on
- What emotions arise when you contemplate the potential collapse of current societal structures, and how might you consciously process them?
- If consumerist culture were to significantly diminish, what 'limitless treasures of the soul' or inner resources would you rely upon or seek to cultivate?
- How can you reframe the concept of 'loss' in a collapsing world to discover new forms of purpose and gratification in your own life and community?
📖 Read on the blog
📖 From the series “Sacred Activism”
All books in the series →
🏛 Books from this publisher North Atlantic Books
All books from this publisher →
You might also like
See more →
Have a question about this item?
Ask about the edition, condition, delivery or anything else — we reply by email or phone, usually within a day.
