April 15, 2018

David Nez - a new scholarly book - Mysticism and Magic!

Congratulations to my older brother, David Nez for getting his scholarly book into print about Mysticism and Magic! I can't wait to see it - having read lots of the excerpts on the blog.


It's with a UK publisher and has taken years and years of work to finally realize. So good things come to they who wait. It's got lots of original artwork which was a natural for Dave, since he's also been making art for decades, with international shows. He was in the Venice Biennial last year... where he visited as part of the exhibit.


So it's great to be the author of a scholarly tome like that I imagine. Congratulations Dave!



https://treeofvisions.wordpress.com/2018/04/14/the-tree-of-visions-visionary-traditions-of-the-western-world-has-been-published/


The book is based on the thesis that shamanism forms the deepest stratum of human culture, myths and spiritual practices worldwide. It illustrates how ancient beliefs and practices are still alive, albeit in new forms, in contemporary magic, neopaganism and neoshamanism. It concludes with scientific research into altered states of consciousness experienced by shamans: stages of trance, hypnogogic imagery, out of body experiences, near-death experiences, apparitions, etc. Multiple excerpts and references from authorities in the fields of history, archaeology, ethnology, neuropsychology, psychology, comparative mythology and other fields support this work. The book contains a number of my original illustrations and has an extensive bibliography.