The Soul's Upward Yearning: Clues to Our Transcendent Nature from Experience and Reason (Happiness, Suffering, and Transcendence) (Volume 2)

Book Review on The Soul's Upward Yearning: Clues to Our Transcendent Nature from Experience and Reason by Robert Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D. by Samuel A. Nigro, MD, copyright c 2016 This is a mandatory book for any one interested, pro or con, in the "God" phenomenon. Human suggestibility, especially when prurient, promotes the abandonment of religiosity, as first openly articulated by the Nazis. Today's press and media, being in the advertising "suggestibility" business, flood the world with selfish prurience and violence to manipulate the people into mindless imitation of the editors' beliefs from junk food to junk ideas, including "there is no God, so follow orders of the powers to be." The Soul's Upward Yearning offsets today's continuation of original sin. Youths especially have been vulnerable to replacing ancient secrets with contemporary selfishness and superficial quick-fixes for everything. The loss of the transcendentals parallels the loss of the Ten Commandments. The "common good" is now arbitrary Journalism metastasizing as Political Power. The corruption is buried by sensationalism, celebritism, and truly, "Satan has turned into an angel of light...(1)" from glowing pocket phones to huge sport stadium screens. Youth does not stand a chance of escaping from Nazi-like obedience following the crowds as manipulated by powers in charge. "Achtung! What dirty-minded, brain-washing, violent sensational celebrity should we imitate today? He jumped off the building and lived--we can too! And killing is not really killing! He said so. Hurry up. What next? What next?" An understanding that "There is more than this craziness" is needed and Spitzer's book does a wonderful job of historical review and contemporary elaboration of the ancient secrets on the basis for God, brought up to date. He begins with "the numinous experience"--that mysterious interior presence of seeking joy which propels the self. The "awareness of something" leads to personhood which is "conscious of consciousness (or C2)" best elevated by concepts of the transcendentals especially, truth, love (sic), good, and beauty. In spite of a few incompletions (from my perspective infra), Spitzer's elaborations are intellectual ecstasy from start to finish! "God Is an "Unrestricted Act of Thinking" (page 113) blends well with my own defining of Eternity, by basic physics, as the pre-BigBang Statimuum --which, to use Spitzer's words is "an unrestricted act" of Everything-Loving in the timeless spaceless Triune Immediacy from which we came and into which we shall recompress at death but limited by the unforgiven conscious entropy we chose when in the space/time continuum (2). The "hard problem of consciousness" (page 208) is remarkably expanded to the "Transphysical Ground of Consciousness (page 266) called "Self-Consciousness" and "Self-Apprehension" coinciding with my own elaborations on consciousness-squared or C2. This is "personhood"--the unique awareness of one's own consciousness such that one is partially free from space/time biology and that one is part of the Statimuum able to fleeting touch any and all of the Statimuum by Love at that moment-less moment. This was brought home to me when attending Mass in prison: Each word (spoken, written, sung, read) was a spark to flame "elsewhere" in Eternity (Of course, there is no "elsewhere" in the Statimuum) with an escape from evil, craziness, all entropy. At the Mass (and in all Sacramental living), one can live the Immediacy of everything, anything, all things everywhere for all time at the mind's (C2's) call. I savored "the Unrestrained Act of Thinking" Tri-Personified God including all Transcendence which is Love and excluding all entropy except as sanctified by the right words angelically bringing truth, oneness, good and beauty (Besides cutting bread with Jesus, I must have read Spitzer's book during that non-time moment at Masses?). In addition, such experiences reveal the angelic nature of words! Words are messengers from God identical to the angelic elaborations of St. Thomas Aquinas (3)--a formulation supporting all in The Soul's Upward Yearning. This brings to my objection to Spitzer's limiting "love" as a specific transcendental rather than a generic embracing of all the transcendentals (page 93). He defines "love" as "unity" which is what he should maintain, but the transcendental should be "unum" or "unity" or "oneness"--all meaning "the confluence of a being with itself and all desirability related to it: its integrated, whole entirety" (4). "Love" is more. It saddens me that all the Transcendentals are not coherently defined by Spitzer who must have erroneously thought that they are common knowledge--For the record, the Transcendentals are seven: being, matter, identity, truth, oneness, good and beauty (I add Grace)--Know them and you enter the Statimuum. The Conclusion chapter, page 269, which should be read first and last, is an amazing compilation coinciding with my own "Ensoulment of the Anthropic Principle (5). Spitzer's Numinous Experience, Religious Intuition, Conscience, The Desire for Perfect Truth, The Desire for Perfect Love(sic-should be Unity), The Desire for Perfect Good, and The Desire for Perfect Beauty respectively coincide with my own Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness, Verum, Unum, Bonum, and Bella. Very reassuring and pleasing. Unless distorted or censored by the First Amendment frauds of the press & media, The Soul's Upward Yearning should help all, especially those prone to be suggestible to the celebrity fakery of our prurient and violent culture. There is more to life than all this craziness. Who are you? What are you? Where are you going? Read this book and find out.References:1. Samuel A. Nigro, MD: "And Satan Turned Into An Angel of Light", pamphlet of Social Justice Review, St. Louis, MO. 1994--available from me at [email protected]. Samuel A. Nigro, MD: "The Theogeocalculus of Life: Natural Law Thinking has the Answer to Everything," The Linacre Quarterly, August 2006.3. A chapter in my three books expand on the fact that "Angels are words"--Happy Ending, Everybody For Everybody, Soul of the Earth.4. Samuel A. Nigro, MD: "Male/Female Differences in Natural Law", pamphlet of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists, presented at Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio, March 26-27 1993--a ground-breaking defining of the transcendentals available from me at [email protected] : 1. Ens--what has existence...the being. 2. Res--which is the corporeal body, i.e., the confluence of the being with matter completing it. 3. Aliquid--which is the identity or form of the being, i.e., the confluence of the being with its essence. 4. Verum--which is the truth of the being, i.e., the confluence of the being with reality. 5. Unum--which is the oneness of the being, i.e., the confluence of the being with itself and all desirability related to it: its integrated whole entirety. 6. Bonum--which is the good of the being, i.e., the confluence of the being with proper function in nature, or for mental beings, with proper choice in Natural Law (or Rational Environmentalism). 7. Bella--(Italian...) which is the beauty of the being, i.e., its confluence with ascendancy of the "bringing out the best of itself and all around it." 8. Grace (not in original article but added later)--which is the Transcendental force part of ens...the Transcendental strings between beings.5. Samuel A. Nigro, MD: Soul of the Earth, page 13.

It's amazing. He pulls together a breathtaking range of disciplines to show that we have a soul and how that soul points to God. Examples from Godel's law concerning the limitations of math (not sure I worded that right), to evidence from near death experiences, to the soul's yearning for myths (like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Star Wars), to Lonergan, to Kant, to Polyani, and a lot more. He not only goes deep, but he is organized and explains himself well. For example, he's given me the best definitions I've had of what a scientific law is and what life is (as well as a couple other foundational issues).Some of have mentioned that it's hard to read. I didn't find that to be the case, but that may partially be because I've been trying to read a lot of books in this category. Some sources that might help you get a good grounding for this book are: 1) Videos by SpItzer. My family and I watched "New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy." Parts of it were dry, but I don't think there was any easier way to tackle those deep concepts. Also, Spitzer makes it as interesting as possible. I believe he came to tears over quantum mechanics and the glory of God. You can also check MagisCenter for more. 2) David Bentley Hart's "The Experience of God" (which, admittedly, is also rather heady if you haven't read in this field yet).In conclusion, if the book is hard, it's because of the challenging nature of the topic and not because of the author. Spitzer is well organized and thorough. He breaks the issues down into logical segments, with helpful headings. He also repeatedly reviews/summarizes what he has taught and shows how it connects with the rest of the material. He is as clear as it is possible to be with this subject. He avoids unnecessary jargon that makes so many other philosophical works even more confusing than they have to be.

The author appears to have poured a lot of effort into this book, as it contains a wealth of information and an extensive compilation of philosophical ideas from many philosophers over the centuries. However, it is a difficult read and presents itself much like a college textbook. Also, the breadth of thoughts introduced is a bit overwhelming. I believe the author would have better served his audience by touching on fewer ideas. On the other hand, I'm not sure who his intended audience is.Some of the key points I learned were about the four pillars of perfection, the nature of God (meaning he is embodiment of those pillars, not simply a being who chooses to "live out" those pillars), and some interesting perspectives and research on identifying the human soul/consciousness. I found myself captivated when Spitzer used examples to illustrate the complex philosophy, but lost and weary when complex ideas were presented while referencing other philosophical ideas as a foundational premise. This is definitely a book that needs to be read multiple times to fully grasp and one where Wikipedia and other Google references can help you fully understand the ideas. If you have a passion for philosophy and want to learn from a master, then this book is for you. If you want ideas presented in a more "user friendly" fashion, then Trent Horn is probably a better choice.One thing I just had to mention, ... the out of body example about the woman identifying a shoe on a ledge which was inaccessible and on a different floor was somehow spooky for me.

This is a modern masterpiece.Fr Spitzer begins by analysing the transcultural and trans-societal manifestations of the numinous experience and religious intuitions in human beings. Grounded in sound logic, metaphysics, theology, he then proposes to show how our tendency to search for a complete, unlimited and unrestricted truth (manifested in the question “why is it so”), is the result of a transcendental intuition which can only, necessarily and ultimately come from God.The human tendency for searching perfect truth, love, justice or goodness and beauty, are also philosophically analysed and proved, indicating thereby that their source must come from the a unique, unlimited and unrestricted act of thinking -namely, God.He then embarks upon analysing near death experiences, and cites numerous scientific studies which show a constant, relatively uniform pattern of experience in the persons studied.After debunking (I’d say crushing) the arguments for disproving the NDE studies in sound reason and logic, he investigates the theories which try to explain human consciousness, from a physicalist and quantum perspective to a transcendental and trans-material point of view.Fr Spitzer’s writing style is, furthermore, organised, structured, friendly and didactic, and rigorous and well-cited at the same time.This is a true modern masterpiece. It should be read by anyone who is struggling to grasp our soul’s transcendence and the existence of God himself.Thank you, Fr Spitzer!

Anyone with a rational openness to this type of information will be given much to think about. Not just for Christians, perhaps especially helpful to those who may be wondering about the validity or possibility of a transcendental nature.