How Plato and Pythagoras can save your life : the ancient Greek prescription for health and happiness

How Plato and Pythagoras can save your life The ancient Greek prescription for health and happiness

Nicholas Kardaras, 1964-

Book - 2011

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Subjects
Conduct of life.
Self-consciousness (Awareness)
Philosophy, Ancient.
Published
San Francisco, CA : Conari Press 2011.
Language
English
Main Author
Nicholas Kardaras, 1964- (-)
Physical Description
xvi, 238 p. : map
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781573244756
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Part I. My Personal Odyssey
  • 1. Tripping the Night Fantastic
  • Exercise 1. Who-and What-Am I?
  • 2. The Journey Home
  • Exercise 2. Take Me to the River
  • Part II. The Being Human
  • 3. White Crows: Mystics, Savants, and Other Harbingers of Human Potential
  • Exercise 3. Mystic Mind (or How to Crack Open the Cranium)
  • 4. Wake Up! Greek Philosophy Breaks the Trance
  • 5. The Ultimate Cage Match: Philosophy, Science, and Religion (or Togas, Bibles, and Microscopes: Why Can't We All Just Get Along?)
  • 6. Homo Anxious: I Think, Therefore I Worry
  • 7. Newsflash: Science Declares God Is Dead-But Can't Prove It! (or The Scientific Atheism Fallacy)
  • Exercise 4. Mindfulness Walk: "Being" Without Thinking
  • 8. Why Philosophy Matters
  • Exercise 5. Am I a Neuron in the Mind of God?
  • Part III. Reality Bites
  • 9. The Physical World: The Tip of the Reality Iceberg
  • Exercise 6. More to Reality Than Meets the Eye
  • 10. Real Deal Reality: Beyond Sense and Beyond Reason
  • Exercise 7. Beyond Logic: Riddles and Paradoxes
  • Part IV. Pythagoras, the Big Beat, and Cosmic Consciousness
  • 11. Pythagoras Squared: Who Was This Mystic Mathemagician?
  • Exercise 8. Infinity: The Ultimate Mind Trip
  • 12. Good Vibrations: Pythagoras and the Big Beat
  • Exercise 9. The Cosmic Symphony: Music from the Universal Orchestra
  • Part V. Escaping Plato's Cave
  • 13. Plato's Retreat-from the Material World
  • Exercise 10. The Universe as One Big Thought
  • 14. On the Nature of Change: The More Things Change
  • Exercise 11. Change: The Great Illusion
  • 15. Death: The New Birth
  • Exercise 12. Incubation (or How Death Can Transform Your Life)
  • Part VI. Yes, But ... What Does It All Mean?
  • 16. New Science and Old Wisdom
  • 17. Musings From My Dissertation
  • 18. Some Final Thoughts
  • References
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

A former New York City nightclub owner and drug abuser, Kardaras is a psychology professor who turned his life around through immersion in ancient Greek philosophy. He introduces readers to some key ideas of the "rational mystics" Pythagoras and Plato, to show how to achieve a more holistic sense of well-being. Many readers will be familiar with Plato's theory of ideal forms, but Kardaras does readers a service by delving into the thought of Pythagoras: a "healthy mind, body, and spirit" through exercise, strict diet, and contemplating "math, music, cosmology, and philosophy." In this vein Kardaras offers meditative exercises leading to expanded consciousness. But some are a stretch ("try and conceptualize the time of the Big Bang"). Clear and friendly, if at times meandering, the book explores such concepts as Aquinas's five proofs for God's existence, and how modern society has killed the notion of a "soul." Kardaras's attempt toward the book's end to articulate a belief in cosmic monism-"we are part of the universal consciousness"-will be welcome to those spiritually and mystically inclined, though it may be too rarefied for others. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

After a near-death experience, licensed psychotherapist and former nightclub owner Kardaras transformed his life through the practices of Greek philosophy, and he wants to share his insights. To be in harmony with the universe, our consciousness and bodies have to be tuned with a healthy lifestyle and consciousness-expanding meditations. He provides exercises and readings to do just that, plus a substantial amount of researched information on philosophy in general, Greek philosophy in particular, and the concept of the transcendent realm. For college-educated readers with an affinity for philosophical and holistic approaches to life, this book is exceptional. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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