Here, in no particular order, are seventeen resources that sit within easy reach on the shelf in my laboratory. They serve as foundations to my current working, playing, thinking, feeling, and being here on Planet Earth. These works inspire me, inform me, shape me, calm me, guide me, challenge me, and teach me. If we’ve largely “lost our elders” in the dominant mainstream culture, these works, and the hearts and minds that created them, serve as elders in my life. These are all works to which I have returned more than once, and to which I expect to return again in the future.

Ishmael and The Story of B (and other works) by Daniel Quinn: It should come as little surprise that these come first to my mind. I’ve certainly spoken about their importance to me many times before. Quinn’s insights have been essential in my own work of learning to notice and call into question the deep, seemingly invisible cultural stories, beliefs, assumptions, and expectations which shape our lives, both personally and collectively. With Quinn, I mastered my ability to hear the whispered urgings of “Mother Culture.” Having heard her voice, I cannot unhear it. That has changed everything.

What to Remember When Waking by David Whyte: This audio presentation, done for Tami Simon’s SoundsTrue, moves me deeply. Whyte, an English poet now living in the Pacific Northwest, with his marvelous voice, his fierce yet gentle tone, his deep wisdom and enchanting words, feels like every elder I’ve ever wanted all rolled into one. This presentation works for me just as the title says: as a guide for living for those who have Awakened™. To me, his thoughts and words and images and stories form a method of divination, like an audio Tarot, a spoken I Ching. Dip into any place in this almost six hours of magic and I find something that fits right into the questions and challenges of my day.

Ultimate Flexibility, an interview with Adyashanti by Tami Simon: Thinking of David Whyte naturally brings me to this podcast, and for similar reasons. Though my own spirituality does not fall into any neat containers, any particular tradition, I find that what Adyashanti says here resonates with me very deeply. And like David Whyte’s work, it serves, for me, as a “how to” for navigating the emotional-psychological-spiritual terrain of this present unraveling/transforming world into which I was born.

Communion (and other works) by Whitley Strieber: This is the book that brought me back into an adult relationship with one of my childhood loves: the UFO phenomenon. Strieber adds a moving and poetic “human face” to the experience while managing to do one of the most important things (in my opinion) we civilized humans need to learn to do: he holds the questions and does not collapse into firm belief. While I consider the UFO phenomenon both Real™ and extremely Important™, I lose interest when any particular researcher or analyst tries to explain “what it all means” or “what is really going on,” as if they have the real, correct, true answer. The phenomenon seems intent on confounding us, and on confounding the overarching materialist paradigm into which most of us were born and raised. For that reason, I consider this topic directly related to the whole Doom™ thang, to which I give so much focus.

The Culture of Make Believe (and other works) by Derrick Jensen: If Daniel Quinn has served, for me, as the voice of the “elder” or “wizard,” Derrick Jensen has served as the voice of the “warrior.” I have found both roles to be very important, and do not consider them mutually exclusive. One can be both, I think, and the “warrior” and “wizard” archetypes have both always inspired me. Jensen’s keen mastery of cultural stories, beliefs, and assumptions compliments Quinn’s, rooting out some of the whisperings of the culture that Quinn did not. And his love for the living world is palpable to me. His earlier works were essential for my own path toward mastery, and resonate still within me, as though Jensen hit the gong of my soul with a soft, firm mallet and set it ringing forever.

UFOs and the National Security State, Volumes 1 and 2 by Richard Dolan: Were I to recommend books about the modern UFO phenomenon, I would recommend Dolan’s amazing histories as essential reading. While my own thinking and speculation about the Reality™ of the phenomenon may sometimes get way “fringier” (I can’t believe spell check is letting that one go by without comment…) than his, Dolan’s approach has been very helpful for me, primarily because he focuses so much on the human (government, military, scientific, etc.) response to the phenomenon and attempts to “peer behind the curtain.” Trying to think and feel my way into the hearts, minds, goals, and motivations of the hidden control levels is something I love to do. I also find Dolan to be a clear and entertaining speaker. I just like the guy. That’s a nice feeling.

The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot: I’ve probably read this book five times now, once out loud to Sally. That’s saying a great deal for somebody with as extensive a “to be read” list as I have. For me, it’s a “wow!” book. It takes pretty much every single topic that interests me and rolls them all together into a big, fun, intriguing ball of everythingness. Love it… a possible TOE (theory of everything) with clear scientific roots and spiritual branches. And once I learned to see the Universe in holographic terms, it has opened me to fun and intriguing new realms of thinking. To me, all that “peak oil, climate change, mass extinction, and population overshoot” stuff is not only about questioning such assumptions as “perpetual growth,” “human exceptionalism,” or “ruling the Earth.” It’s also about challenging the scientific/materialist paradigm that sits underneath our current collective predicament. This book does that.

Fingerprints of the Gods, Supernatural (and other works) by Graham Hancock: As may be obvious by now, I follow other guides besides just the “rational, scientific reasoning” I was taught to use as a member of the dominant culture. I follow intuition. I follow my excitement. I follow signs and portents and synchronicities. And I read the reviews on Amazon. In Hancock’s case, I must say, I never smile as much, and my heart never beats quite as excitedly, as when I’m in the middle of one of his analyses of our deep human past and our collective human situation. So many fear to wade into the “fringe” pool because it looks to them chock full of shouting, giggling nutballs tossing around beach-balls filled with groundless speculation, hopeful salvation fantasies, and unexamined filters and beliefs. You may find Hancock in that pool, but he’s up to something very different, I think. Speculative? Sure. Challenging? Yep. Rejected by mainstream historians and scientists? Largely. But Hancock does not feel like a giggling nutball. My discernment meter tells me that he’s a clear thinker who’s onto something important.

The Party’s Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies (and other works) by Richard Heinberg: I got the environment piece way earlier than I got the oil piece. My friend Tom tried to give it to me a couple of years before I was ready for it. Sally handed me Thom Hartmann’s The Last Hours of Ancient Sunshine, and Matt Savinar surely scared the bejesus out of me, but it was Heinberg’s book that sealed the deal. That may be largely due to Heinberg’s confident, calm voice. Sure, he says, this might be frightening. There are big changes coming. But let’s just sit together, take a breath, and think about how we might wish to respond. I can still feel astonished that the basic concepts of “peak oil” are still as up for question in the mainstream mind as they are. But then I have to be astonished at my astonishment.

F#A#∞ by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, American Woman by The Guess Who, Nantucket Sleighride by Mountain, The Power and the Glory by Gentle Giant, Remain in Light by Talking Heads, Ænima by Tool, and Version 2.0 by Garbage: Where would I be without music? I would be locked in a padded cell, my arms constrained, with a dab of spittle hanging from my chin. Music saved my sanity and my soul when I was a kid. It saves me still today. Okay, so maybe Sally would be enough to keep me out of the padded cell, but really, without music? Why would I want to even be here? As I continue to stare at the world situation, there are just some days when I need a reason to love my fellow humans. Music always brings me back to that. Always. There are thousands of other titles I could insert above. These are today’s.

The Importance of Human Beings by Terence McKenna: Though I have a used copy of McKenna’s Archaic Revival in a stack on my desk, I have yet to read it. I’m sure I will one day, but I find McKenna’s audio so compelling that I fear I may not like him as much in written form. I’m not sure which planet McKenna comes from, but it must be near my own. The man makes me laugh. He makes my eyes grow wide in wonder. He challenges me and pisses me off and loses me and holds my attention. And he gives me pieces I get nowhere else. This particular speech is one to which I’ve returned numerous times. It challenges what I see as the over-reactionary Doomer™ judgments regarding human exceptionalism, and the Scientific™ judgments regarding directionality in the Universe. Opening up these topics for dialogue is just the sort of thing I love to do in my lab.

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History (and other works) by Stephen Jay Gould: I pretty much read everything Gould wrote in my teen and early adult years. His popular books on evolutionary theory, punctuated equilibrium, and the history of science excited and informed me. One might think that Gould’s general insistence that evolution has no inherent drive toward long-term progress, no particular directionality beyond that of diversity, stands in direct opposition to McKenna’s address above. One might be right. I, for one, love paradox, and any chance I can find to hold seeming opposites together at the same time. To my mind, one must take such crazy steps, if one wishes to stumble into a new paradigm.

12 Monkeys by Terry Gilliam, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick, Amadeus by Miloš Forman, The Big Lebowski by the Coen Brothers, Dead Man Walking by Tim Robbins, Fight Club by David Fincher, and Harold and Maude by Hal Ashby: (Yes, I know it is unfair to single out directors like this. Deal.) As with music choices, I could have named a thousand films. These are just a few that jumped out. Also as with music, films have helped keep me sane and in touch with something good at the times I’ve really needed those things. And, since the artists and creators behind both music and films are often struggling with the same questions about life, the universe, and everything with which I tend to wrestle, they’ve given me valuable signposts, images, words, and metaphors to use on my own journey. My lifelong love of films, books, and music also makes me a competitive player at Trivial Pursuit.

Journeys Out of the Body (and other works) by Robert Monroe: I’ve read books about this since I was in high school - books on Near Death Experiences, Past Lives, Reincarnation, Remote Viewing, Shamanic Journeys, Psychedelic Trips, and Out of Body Experiences. (Look at all of the CAPITAL LETTERS!) There’s something obvious, exciting, and yet mysterious about the notion that our consciousness, whatever that is, is not strictly tied to our bodies, whatever those are. Though I’ve yet to really experience much of this myself (I’ve “dabbled” enough to get a few, vague “hits.”) I’ve read reports of studies that leave me fairly convinced that there’s something to it, even as I refuse to collapse into firm belief. Monroe stands out in my mind as a pioneer in the field. His books are great fun.

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (and other works) by Richard Bach: There’s something about Bach’s writing that always stirs my heart and gifts me with tears. His simple stories are gentle yet firm, intensely grounded yet reaching toward the stars, and portray the very teachers and elders and seekers and visionaries I long to meet in my Real™ life. Like some of Quinn’s novels, Illusions feels like it was written directly to and for me. And there are so many pithy quotes to use, so many concise spiritual equations to hold in my heart and mind. I love quotes and equations.

Cosmos by Carl Sagan: Along with Stephen Jay Gould I was reading every book by Carl Sagan that I could get my hands on. While Gould took me into deep-time, Sagan took me into deep-space, from the Cosmos to the inner quantum. (Yes, I know, both of these gentlemen wandered further afield that I’m indicating here…) I remember watching the PBS series based on this book (or was it the other way around?) and feeling such soaring wonder about, love for, and connection with the physical Universe into which I was born. Seeing ol’ Carl resurrected by the Symphony of Science folks brought that all back to me.

Slapstick or Lonesome No More! (and other works) by Kurt Vonnegut. I could have named a slew of other Vonnegut novels – Cat’s Cradle, The Sirens of Titan, Slaughterhouse Five, Galapagos – and I could have named a passel of other writers – Larry Niven, Stephen Donaldson, Frank Herbert, Tom Robbins, Orson Scott Card, Russell Hoban - but for reasons known only to my dentist, Slapstick stands out this morning as the book to highlight. There’s always been something about this strange, post-apocalyptic tale of freaks and Presidents and variable gravity and creative genius that has resonated with my own life experience. Vonnegut always moves me with his fierce humanity, his astonishment, his wry assessment of our collective predicament, and his hopeless insistence on the basic goodness of people, even in the face of so much seeming evidence to the contrary. Like music and films, there are many novels which serve me simply by reminding me that there is good in the world. That, too, is true. As true as all the Doom™, all the horror, all the injustice, all the pain, all the destruction, all the insanity. I need those reminders.

I note, upon looking over my list, that, with the exception of Shirley Manson, Tina Weymouth, and Sophie Trudeau (who play in some of the bands named above) and Tami Simon (as an interviewer) my list seems to be constructed entirely out of white men. Rather than go back and toss Chellis Glendinning, Vine Deloria, or Malidoma Some into the mix in an attempt to “correct” this, I think I will just leave it as is, noting it with interest as just the sort of thing I like to look at in my lab.

Onward…