Institute
Sky Meadow Press
The Institute is committed to publishing authors whose work addresses issues of meaning, complexity, and evolution for a world poised between breakdown and breakthrough.
Gurdjieff for a Time Between Worlds
Layman Pascal
The radical 20th-century Armenian spiritual philosopher G. I. Gurdjieff is still largely unknown within leading-edge developmental, transformational, and regenerative communities. His profound teachings, unusual writing style, and sheer force of character are famously unique in the annals of human wisdom. Was this man a proto-metamodern prophet? Did he use transrational, mythopoetic, and sincerely ironic communication to help incept and prepare a planetary-scale shamanic resurgence of existential understanding for the post-pluralist Epoch of the Metacrisis? Yes and no. Obviously. In this collection of diverse and humorous micro-essays, the spiritual teacher, philosopher, and cultural activist Layman Pascal takes us on a wild intellectual rollercoaster ride with one of history’s most enduringly relevant and cryptic sages.
Gurdjieff for a Time Between Worlds is a unique literary and philosophical object that simultaneously addresses three types of readers. Participants in today’s new thought and new culture networks will find herein a deep, entertaining, and unique introduction to Gurdjieff’s life, mission, teachings, and writing styles. Students and fans of Layman Pascal will discover a rich autobiographical document with crystallized versions of many of his particular suggestions for inner developmental practice. And people already steeped in the lore or the living tradition of Gurdjieff will encounter a fresh and very personal take on many of the quintessential modules of his wisdom-teaching.
The Evolution of Meaning
A Universal Learning Process
Brendan Graham Dempsey
In this first volume of his book series The Evolution of Meaning, Dempsey introduces a theory of meaning based in thermodynamics and information processing. If the acquisition of meaningful information is what aids the viability of entities in context, we can appreciate evolution through cosmic complexification as a learning process. Tracking the trajectory of this learning process through the emergent levels of Matter, Life, Mind, and Culture, we see how meaning takes on new shades of depth and informational richness across scales. By the time we reach the domain of human culture, we can recognize notions of meaning, value, and the sacred as extensions of more fundamental processes on which they are based but to which they cannot be reduced. This framework allows us to situate human meaning-making within its broader evolutionary context and will inform the attempt in future volumes to track the complexification of such meanings across human history.
UTOK: The Unified Theory of Knowledge
Gregg Henriques
Since the emergence of modern science, we have faced a profound gap in our scientific and philosophical understanding of the world and our place in it. We have been unable to effectively place mind in relationship to matter and align the natural sciences with the human psyche and the collective wisdom traditions into a coherent system of understanding. This is the Enlightenment Gap, and in its wake, a chaotic, fragmented pluralistic landscape has emerged.
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UTOK: The Unified Theory of Knowledge is a comprehensive system that can effectively bridge and resolve the Enlightenment Gap. This book is the first complete overview of the whole UTOK philosophy. Framed by the UTOK’s central mantra, Marry the Coin to the Tree in the Garden under God, it guides readers through the core of the UTOK operating system.
The book frames the problems of science, psychology, psychotherapy, and the psyche that contribute to the gaps in our knowledge and shows how UTOK resolves them and affords a consilient picture of the world and our place in it. Readers will become familiar with UTOK’s three philosophical pillars, the Tree of Knowledge System, the iQuad Coin, and UTOK Garden, and learn how they effectively interweave the objective, subjective, and intersubjective ways of knowing. As a result, we can now effectively align our subjective experiences in the world with a clear naturalistic ontology and collectively orient toward wisdom.​
Poetic Faiths: Vol I.
Tony Wolf
Coming December 2024...
Imaginal Religion
Will Franks
Coming Spring 2025...
The Evolution of Spirituality:
A Journey through the Stages of Human Consciousness
Nish Dubashia
Coming Summer 2025...