Pain, Sex and Time: A New Outlook on Evolution and the Future of Man: A Provenance Edition of the 1939 Classic

by Gerald Heard

Pain, Sex and Time explores evolution and postulates the possibility and means of a future evolution of the mind. First published in 1939, its philosophy converted a generation of leading thinkers from the scientific worldview to the perspective of the mystics.

Gerald Heard (1889-1971) was a well-known British polymath and science commentator for the BBC. He later toured and lectured prolifically in the United States. Heard wrote thirty-eight...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0974935913
• ISBN13: 9780974935911
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: Monkfish Book Publishing
• Length: 263 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

PAIN, SEX AND TIME

"History may be interpreted as the symptoms of a mental evolution," writes Gerald Heard in PAIN, SEX AND TIME. "Man's civilization is the shadow cast by his evolving consciousness." The evolution of his psyche is the sequel to the evolution of his physique. This mutation in his psyche, in consciousness, is a spiral of ascent, of continuing evolution. He must leap forward or sink. "In man is a store of evolutionary energy and that energy can give rise to his further, purely psychical evolution. Pain and pleasure, agony and lust, are the two fundamental polar sensations which lie at an equally rudimentary level. Only when this dazing sensationalism is transcended, can consciousness experience sustained intensity of being. This process indicates a possible ending of pain, a possible solving of the problem of sex, and also the possibility of a completely new step in evolution." By means of "a specific training" this evolutionary change can occur. Then humankind's purpose will be revealed: "The only possible meaning of life is that here, under Time, human consciousness discovers itself. The Universe exists for the emergence and development of free creative consciousness." By this advance in consciousness we, "are able to reinterpret correctly the experience which we call Time and, doing so, we see Reality no longer distorted, but as it is. Then we shall have fulfilled the purpose of our Being, the meaning of evolution," concludes Gerald Heard in PAIN, SEX AND TIME.