Peter Kingsley Interview

Groundbreaking scholar of pre-Socratic philosophy Peter Kingsley emphasizes the sacred role of Western civilization in global oneness. Drawing from his personal experiences with Parmenides and Empedocles: foundational figures of Western civilization whose mystical dimensions have been forgotten or ignored, Peter maintains that to approach oneness authentically, Western civilization must rediscover its own sacred origins and purpose, and asks, how can Western culture participate in the harmony of oneness if it has forgotten its own note?
For Peter Kingsley’s work: www.peterkingsley.org
For the full version of this interview: peterkingsley.org/product/the...

[@matthewkopp2391]

The first time I made this connection was when I met a Syrian Refugee in Germany. He was from a Druze family but considered himself not religious. And I asked what do the Druze believe? And he said mostly people talk of Ancient Greek philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Empedocles, and Parmenides and believe they were prophets. He said he didn't know much about practices because he himself was not religious. But then I looked up the information and I was astonished and started making all sorts of connections. The connections to Christianity was the first thing. And then the fact that Empedocles wrote his work as a song and was considered a magician and had a following. What was amazing for me was the new picture that formed in my mind of an ancient man who was a shaman who gave live poetry readings probably with music and sung his philosophy and healed people. As a writer and performer I felt very affirmed by this idea.

[@BeataPriore]

I totally feel you, get familiar with holographic universe, NOW spins as YOU like it.

[@maretomaski6324]

If you are interested in more reading on the topic of how Greek Philosophy ended up birthing Christianity check out The Immortality Key by Brian Muskeresku. There we learn how the crooks, and evil ones took over a pagan tradition and went about a systemic annihilation of it and Jesus himself. The church is altogether evil. We have all been lied to by them, over and over and over again. Break free from their lies and get the truth!

[@tzmythos]

Such a pleasure to listen and to watch this man, wise, knowledgable yet also humble, soft-spoken and so obviously authentic. Listening to him, I realise how many golden opportunities I let slide. Thank you for uploading this.

[@anitalgray]

Rarely do I hear someone who understands the power of being in one's body - in complete awareness of the sensory experiences and describes the void between them. Thank you!

[@paddylinehan8559]

Very similar to Eckhard Tolle in Power of Now.

[@DKMKartha108]

In addition to using the senses in a conscious way, one can also look and listen to language and music and feel a profound, sacred sense of unity. (I am not talking about political or commercial talking but sincere human communication, poetry, and the like.) The way pre-verbal language --thought -- moves the numerous inner muscles and emerges as audible sound -- patterned, sequential sounds -- which creates the magical phenomenon of MEANING is simply one of the most sacred experiences. Let me hasten to add that equally sacred is the feeling that one can derive by using the senses as Peter Kingsley describes.

[@MrStanwo]

This guy is getting out much needed truth to other similar inclined individuals.Kudos to Peter the Great.

[@ancientyogi]

Peter King's books are great!!!!

[@manuelweihrauch9790]

What a good piece of interview! Wisdom in action!

[@vanishlite]

Here in Mexico it's hard to get your books, there are very few pieces but I already bought them, and I'm happy about that. I am very interested in ancient cultures, and I am excited to have these books in my hands now. Best Regards

[@waymiller]

Beautiful! So much forgotten, from the Druid lines, the Native American tribes, the Greek/ Nordic lineages…we are remembering though!❤️‍🔥

[@im.1]

A beautiful speaker!

[@elizabethecarlisle1045]

Great spiritual beings... As Peter will be viewed to future generations, undoubtedly.

[@lnbartstudio2713]

Beautiful - not what we are looking at, but instead, where we are looking from.

[@joanarcher9860]

Thank you, much appreciated.

[@synapsiddigital6251]

Wonderful. Reminds me very much of what Sufi mystic Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee speaks of.

[@iemon7722]

With the advent of internet, we're causally heading towards a new global religion and the old religions throughout the world is fighting their own little games to gain temporal dominance. It is an exercise in futility. A person can now do Yoga on a Ayahuasca trip, in makeshift church with Islamic or Buddhist prayers playing on the damn bluetooth speaker.We're heading towards a stage where all can chose their own religions based on it's merit or choose multiple if they so choose. That is what Jung probably called the peak of logic based western civilization. Therein lies a mass spiritual bankruptcy and the rise of new world order. Kingsley is a true visionary and I find it an absolute privilege to listen to a great mind of our times like him.

[@omarchowdhury3794]

Only fools are heading down the path you described

[@kundalinipsych]

2:28 Compendium! How brilliant! That is just where I discovered a lot of great stuff too including my own first real teacher/guide, Glenn Morris. I had no idea what I was getting into. The shop is long gone now of course but it was a great place for serendipity. :)

[@henridobson]

We fulfil the longing by becoming the longing itself. We become it by feeling it fully through the body. Embodying the longing, incarnating the longing. Thats how we fulfil it.

[@RaisingVibrations]

This was profound

[@pierrebernard5922]

Love your books 🎉

[@agapeiron]

In any case, Kingsley is not exaggerating the spiritual nature of the Presocratics, they are there if you read them. If you want detailed proofs, read his books. Otherwise, how silly you look demanding he gives logical proofs for every statement he makes *in a video interview*, whereas you use rhetoric and unproven statements in your comments.

[@bluestar.8938]

Thank you : )

[@BlazoOfficial]

beautiful!

[@kerrydennehy]

This was indeed a wonderful interview but I wanted to say something else: in terms of your LOGO, sticking the two words "global" and "oneness" together like that it can read "glob ALONENESS."

[@ParallelNewsNetwork]

His book reality is probably one of the most important books for modern western man to digest as we move into a new age and re evaluation of our current meta physics

[@CathyCourtney]

wow wow wow wow love it

[@bendonlon3844]

How do I find the texts which Peter is referring to? If anyone has a link to a pdf or a place where I can order please share!!!

[@eugenaionesca]

Amazon. Reality is not to be missed. Read it 3 times. Not as academic as his other publications. :-)

[@spookman123456]

But how do i start to dig for this essence? please i long for an answer!

[@JanBroux]

“When someone seeks," said Siddhartha, "then it easily happens that his eyes see only the thing that he seeks, and he is able to find nothing, to take in nothing because he always thinks only about the thing he is seeking, because he has one goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.” ― Herman Hesse, Siddhartha

[@nicolasbascunan4013]

Thanks

[@DomSRamos-lr4zn]

If the Void, between appearances you can be aware of, the flow of breath, the sound of that car, the twittering of that bird, is the seed of things that become, then it is not a 'void' but a something, a seed.

[@bijouchatte]

do note that decide and reckon are words associated with cutting and navigation, respectively. The metaphors are Homeric, you need to read the Odyssey and you will get it.

[@lynnroots7556]

Just inspired and delicious 💕💕💕

[@aeliae13]

🙏🏻

[@watashiwanachodes]

i know hes not very connventional and shit (for a philosopher) but without him i would have probably killed myself a couple years ago, he gave me the sense of being real again instead of an over analized randomly joined forces... forever in debt to him for that

[@tracyredman6684]

When I speak to people as a LMHC their words are their algorithms and we identify the wrong ideas that becomes the malware to their algorithms. That is what Jung meant by speaking to your own dead… Jung recognized people did not drink from their own cups they relied on him to tell what his cup’s flavors were… a rosé tastes like it smells- go try Persia rose pudding…

[@watashiwanachodes]

exactly what i thoughtafterreading reality... i dont need any other books.... i read a little still but i dont feel like i NEED to read them. wheneveri think im loosing tracks i give it a quick

[@sergiosatelite467]

Exactly. Just read the one book. Smart.

[@olivier8326]

And what is the purpose of western civilization?

[@oliviergoethals4137]

🌹

[@mgggggggggggggggg]

Genius

[@templeofeternallight]

❤️

[@gcmgcm4238]

the Western mystics understand but they have been avidly persecuted for eons--hence why they are very reluctant to share and what is left has split into small unknown pockets

[@Astro-Monterey]

замечательный исследователь , располагает своей тихой мудростью. Я сделала заметки кратко о чем он рассказал в интервью, может быть кому-то русскоговорящему пригодится: Западную цивилизацию целенаправленно развивали и взращивали, по семечкам. Парменид отец прародитель логики, перенял принципы от Богини.

[@user-qp7iv2cl6o]

Полностью с вами согласен.

[@watashiwanachodes]

i wonder what P K might think about stuff like theta waves and the threshold of the dream state and the awake states.. maybe thats our way of grasping hesychia. Maybe the very fabric of lucid dreams is made by the intertwining of both the objective aspects of reality and the inner ones, serving like a privileged spot at kynesthesia.. maybe in that state where the rational embraces naturally the irrational and viceversa a we can channel to the divine

[@watashiwanachodes]

like kierkegaard's Eight Roads' Nook =J

[@dr.nivedidageorge998]

Natural global tide of wisdom

[@Eudaemoniac]

This dude is cool

[@ilkinrhimov4938]

Does Peter Kingsley have children? What are their names? Can you tell me please?

[@clarepover4978]

So good. Try....

[@danielduarte2139]

15:50

[@mikedickman9623]

@TheLastModernist... sorry - the above comment was destined for you, not disposablejunk.

[@BrotherDominick1]

@huluftw Thats because you havent glimpsed that reality, that space between awareness and the senses sensing. Examine that space and then you will see a higher true One reality. Until then its all speculation from a limited perspective. There is an absolute truth!!!

[@Prettyfamdancy]

16:50-15:00. camera trick or mind trick? :p

[@tonygraham8675]

I also wonder. I think it is technically impossible

[@flyingmojo5]

@huluftw I understand your thinking, but it is completely different. What you are taught about Jesus and God is based on belief. What he is talking about is an inner experience, an inner awakening. When he uses the words "other dimension", it's not in the sci-fi sense, not in a sense of it as some other place or reality that is different from where and what we are, but is the core, the heart of our own awareness. When u have an inner experience of that, u know (not believe) the truth.

[@allwaysseeking]

later in the the talk he is pre so posing that watchers are of the same culture as himself.

[@BeataPriore]

Dear Mr. Peter Kingsley I’ve now read 5 books of your, and I’ve came to the conclusion, on two accounts, that you are indeed a reincarnation of your character. and in this holographic Universe we are more capable, there is no time, then give credit to your writings cause no past or future exist! NOW after NOW Yes u done a tremendous remembering it’s just that your not owning IT is quite noticeable. NOW. Mr. KINGSLEY before you go mad and your brain dries up stop the research. Spend a day sitting in your chair with out thinking and watch what happened. I AM HERE ON A MISSION, then I’ll go underground until the next mission calls me, yes there are a family of intergalactic travelers continue the balance and some.. there is cities of the planet in other dimensions and planets not in Earth atmosphere. U want to see more I thing your ready, look for me in comments of your books. Ta from the Kingdom. Upon you want to research Ganesha Temple in NY good start.

[@frankfeldman6657]

However, as the classicist M. David Litwa wrote in the most detailed, insightful and blunt public criticism of Peter’s work (in a post on cultural historian Wouter Hanegraaff’s blog Western Culture and Counter Culture of 6 April 2017), Peter is “the self-appointed prophet of the obvious.” His interpretations “are almost always strained, eccentric and dogmatic.” This makes them unintentionally “humorous” because they are offered by a scold who asserts he has received, in an almost epiphanic divine flash of insight, the “immediate,” “obvious,” and “simple” Truth that is lost on all scholars (and all scholars are pedants, according to Peter). Litwa confesses with honesty: “Regarding Kingsley’s popular work, it is hard to get into. I have no problem with Kingsley constructing his authorial persona as a mystagogue, but he is a very curmudgeonly mystagogue. That amount of anti-intellectualist rhetoric in his book Reality (on Parmenides) exceeds analysis and exegesis of Parmenides poem itself!” As Litwa explained, his criticisms are not designed to “depreciate” Kingsley. In Hanegraaff’s blog post, entitled “Peter Kingsley,” his deep respect and appreciation of Peter’s wonderous gifts as a classicist and philologist (all true) are tempered by the observation about the book Reality that, “on many pages, Kingsley’s utter contempt for almost all his colleagues and their failure to see the Truth makes the reading embarrassing and painful.”

[@sergiosatelite467]

Glad not everybody drinks the cool aid.

[@hermanhale9258]

I haven't read his books, but from his interviews, I wonder how he got a whole book and a career out of few lines of poetry that nobody knows what it means. Sufis arose after Mohammed, so he is lying about that.

[@mikedickman9623]

@disposablejunk -well... i'll leave you with that belief, too, then, shall i? however, anent 'superstition', yes... just that... unexamined belief (or dis-) have fun!

[@bijouchatte]

@huluftw Parmenides was not a spirit from another dimension, he was a philosopher and a priest who wrote a poem that just so happens to have influenced the whole of Western philosophy. Which is why folks should what I wrote below, as it's a translation of his affirmation of the ability to make decisions, to appraise an argument, and that the senses do not let us perceive the world as it is, but as it seems to be.

[@samrowbotham8914]

We are spiritual beings having a human experience. The Philosopher and Computer Scientist Bernardo Kastrup champions the philosophy of Idealism and argues cogently that we are all Alters of the Cosmic Mind which we in the Occident call God. The problem is most people are living their lives unconsciously and they have been programmed to believe what the elites want them to be slaves to the system Neo.

[@JaefarSABNW]

Parmenides, Empedocles, or any ancient figure can be creatively employed as a character in a dream or visions without invoking them. The same goes for completely fictional characters. What Sufi order claims to go back to Empedocles?

[@patrickquinlan67]

He is referring to the teachings of Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardi.

[@mikedickman9623]

@TheLastModernist i take it you've read and actually studied everything he's written, yes? if not... ahem!... you are guilty of the very superstition you accuse him of

[@nancymohass4891]

The power of Now , book by Tolle , he describes more. ! Leaving the God out of it.

[@tbayley6]

“Peter Kingsley’s teaching is a journey back to the source - not only of Western civilization but, more importantly, to the source within you. To understand him is to be transformed” Eckhart Tolle

[@ramonbonmaticugat2486]

godddddddddddddd

[@geoffreynhill2833]

Paraphrase: The West is lop-sided. Going round in circles, we've gone to sleep.

[@geoffreynhill2833]

Wonderful.

[@geoffreynhill2833]

The great danger to the West of permanent extroversion...

[@TheLastModernist]

@GenevieveMartin Wise ?!? The uncritical acceptance of anecdotal stories over empirical knowledge should be an embarrassing admission. On glancing at Elberrys blog, I was assaulted by the new age mumbo jumbo of past lifes, mystics and magicians, and the possibility that books present themselves to you “for a reason.” Alas, a universe that is entirely indifferent to the extreme suffering that is present in humanity is unlikely to be concerned about Elberry reading a book !

[@wheresmywine]

You poor thing.

[@stephanos1949]

i agree with Mohan's comments but nothing new in what Peter Kingsley is saying - if you read classical philosophy you would know the pre-socratics and this going back to the idea of 'western civilisation' is totally off - the idea of Western civilisation came much later and we can critique it but why claim the pre-socratics are the birth of the West when in fact they were part of a civilisation that was linked to Asia - mystical thinking is very interesting but I don't buy into this way of popularising it

[@patrickquinlan67]

Reserve judgement until you have read his books.

[@tbayley6]

Stephanos Stephanides If indeed Parmenides was the father of logic, then he did set off the whole chain of western philosophy, didn't he? The whole tradition has been described as 'Footnotes to Plato', Plato/Socrates being only the next generation after Parmenides. And I think the links go further: The two main concerns of western philosophy, Being and Knowledge, strike me as incipient in Parmenides 'Way of Truth' and 'Way of seeming'. So it would be highly significant if Plato inverted the relative significance of the two in Parmenides mind, and so closed down a line of 'western' nondual wisdom. And if Kingsley is right, he usurped Parmenides reputation by reinventing him in his own image.

[@tbayley6]

Stephanos Stephanides Of course western 'civilisation' is not the same as philosophy, but it has close links. It has always seen its roots in Roman and Greek civilization. You only have to analyse the language to see the influence of classical thought. Latin and Greek were routinely taught in all 'good schools' only a few decades ago.

[@reginalynnbush]

Seed ideas planted in the soil take a while to germinate and they are unseen and unwritten about as they do so.

[@jamesyousry9339]

He hit me once when I was 5 years old back in 1985 when he was married to my mum he's moody Very moody

[@hermanhale9258]

Global Oneness. Is that the same as communism?

[@afronovaable]

(continued) ... Worse, it is obvious that Kingsley avoids (or ignores) some really serious things in his study. He speaks about the death-birth sequence in the training of an initiate, a ‘pholeuterios,’ an iatromantis, and he brings this in stark contrast to Platonic philosophy he degrades so very much one ponders whether he understands it at all. As is known, ritual ‘death’ was necessary and preceded initiate’s new ‘birth.’ Kingsley devotes not even a word on the voluminously important Platonic ‘study of death’ or on the role of anamnesis (remembrance). According to Plato, “those who truly philosophize, study [the art of] dying” while alive (οἱ ὀρθῶς φιλοσοφοῦντες ἀποθνῄσκειν μελετῶσι; Phaedo 67e, 5). By itself, this statement alone in Phaedo demolishes Kingsley’s misconceptions on Platonic philosophy (among many other things). Actually, this is where to trace the roots of the later ‘‘If you die before you die, you will not die when you die’’. The ideal was to return through Mnemosyne to the celestial, starry origin. I should not elaborate on the importance of soul’s astral immortality and on these Platonic teachings, all Orphic in origin; they are obvious. And Kingsley says he knows Orphism … These teachings alone (countless others, too) drive many of his statements and assumptions clearly off the cliff. Yet, by his one-sided approach, the reader (and Kingsley himself) loses so much of the painting and sees a rather distorted image. Kingsley heavily ignores that Plato’s time was one of transition, from the mythic image to the more concrete and historical. From mythos to logos. He ignores that what we call philosophy today was not just one stream, but several currents that run in parallel, with some of them absorbing others and/or advancing to become something else. This is the dynamics of evolution. To say that Plato and the Athenians were doing this deliberately, as a kind of ‘propaganda’ or a conspiracy, is not only absurd, but betrays a fault oft to meet with in some modern writers: they project to the past what they have come to conceive of that past today, thus attributing present day conclusions as causes of the actions of the people in antiquity. No comment needed. Though Kingsley starts his narration from Ionian cities and the well-known to all historians Ionian coast, he never ever uses these terms (Ionia, Ionian), clearly and deliberately avoiding them. One wonders, why? Is it because Athenians, too, were Ionians? If so, then what does that reveal on his scientific methodology or integrity? Is it just bias? Instead, he only speaks of Anatolia and west Asia (e.g., see pp. 93. 96. 98. 171. 189. 194. 215). Yet, Anatolia is not a term found in the ancient sources. The same goes concerning the Greek cities in the Italian peninsula. Though they were -and still are- known as ‘Great Greece’ (Μεγάλη Ελλάς - Magna Grecia; see Polybius), again he deliberately avoids this well-known to every historian name and fact and never uses these terms. Instead, and against numerous ancient sources, he only uses ‘Italy’, ‘Sicily’ and ‘south Italy’ (e.g., pp. 67. 70. 73. 76. 92, etc. 231. 233, etc.). Why? Does he not know the sources? Absurd? Or something else? Anti-Athenian, anti-Platonic, anti-Greek? He pays no attention to the fact that almost all of the Italian peninsula was full of Greek cities and colonies reaching back at least to 8th century BCE (according to Strabo, Magna Grecia goes back to the Trojan war). He pays no attention to the fact that it was Greeks from Evvoia that brought the Greek Chalcidian alphabet to Cumae (Κύμη) in Italy, later to become the Latin alphabet (with minor changes). Does the fact that it is precisely Greeks and Greek sources that elaborate, preserve, and pass down all these things have some meaning to Kingsley? He actually and deliberately plays down the Greeks in so many instances. Is it the age-old envy? Again? … (Peter, just read chapter 15 in Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy) One wonders. In my mind, this kind of silence, paired with all of the above-mentioned, points to plain bias. Yet, these elements should not characterize a scholar or a study that respects Aletheia (Truth, in English, does not convey the real meaning). Of course, Aletheia was of paramount importance to the Orphics, to Parmenides, to Plato. To Kingsley? Honestly, had he studied the myth of Er or the teachings about mythos at the concluding part of the Republic he would have avoided some errors and done a lot better. Kingsley’s grasp of Greek is also superficial and far from perfect. He seems to just borrow what he knows. A couple of examples. When speaking about the birth out of fire and of Parmenides’ father, Pyres (pp. 157 ff.), he fails to see the most obvious: the root of this name, Pyres, refers to pyr (πυρ, ‘fire’), thus also failing to see that in Pyre(to)s (‘fever’ in modern Greek), that is, in his progenitor, are insinuated the fiery and/or solar origins (and future, as an initiate) of Parmenides himself. He fails to see this solar element even when he links Parmenides to Apollo. (Then, one may ponder: did Empedocles, with his deliberate fall into Aetna, attempted a return to his fiery source of being?...). Volumes could be written on this one. And hesychia (ησυχία) first and most does not mean stillness (p. 200), but calmness, absence of sound (it is also linked to silence and the keeping of secrets, too). All the above are written in good heart and intention. Needless to say, I respect Kingsley’s views about the past and the need to know and comprehend the world and psyche of our ancestors. No tree has ever grown without deep, healthy roots. Yet, bias at such a level should not be left unanswered. In closing, it is an interesting read, but with some serious scars Kingsley should have to really heal some time.

[@santiagowechsler]

Sounds like he believes in an interpretation of the Presocratics that's colored by the eyes of Sufi spirituality. I don't think he's right, they were not spiritual or mystical, the Pre-Socratics were proto-humanists.

[@matthewkopp2391]

Consider the simple fact that Pythagoras started a religion and all of them considered themselves influenced by Pythagoras.

[@TheLastModernist]

@snbeings What is this Absolute truth you speak off ? It sounds very grand - not like hippy bullshit at all. No siree !

[@agapeiron]

Your comment is full of unproven statements as well. For example: "This man is an embarrassment to humanity"-- How can you prove that? Rhetorical exaggeration with your dreamy wish fulfillment to discard what he says behind it.

[@ifiwherearichman]

He's over dramatizing his "discovery" of a western mysticism - the fact is - there are thousands of western individuals that have internalized and translated eastern teachings from the Sufi, Buddhist and Hindu traditions -their in possession of their own authentic realization - there is a culture and language of awakening that's already emerged as a living synthesis of the world culture we now live in - the insights of Parmenides will not rock this world - he's already missed the bus

[@DomSRamos-lr4zn]

Sufis themselves absorbed the idea of 'fana' from Hinduism, just as they absorbed other ideas from Plotinus. There are borrowings by all who seek truth or 'reality' in all ages. The presentation of distinct epochs of knowledge with no cross-currents is itself faulty. Truth doesn't have a bus timetable, and to think so is to dangerously assume that a truth once apprehended cannot be veiled once more by others. Civilisation isn't a one-way street for that notional 'bus'...

[@omarchowdhury3794]

@@DomSRamos-lr4zn I think the evidence from hagiography points more to the reality that if anything is borrowed, it's terminology and means of conceptualization, IE. Practitioners of Islamic spirituality did not begin to experience 'fana' only after having heard it from Hindus. Though, we're still operating on the assumption that there being likeness means there must have been borrowing, while my second argument would be that there being likeness is due to all traditions in question independently penetrating the one truth.

[@TheLastModernist]

What a ridiculous hodge-podge of unproven statements ! This man is an embarrassment to humanity - an intellectual minnow who has allowed his critical faculties to become a prisoner of his desires. I beseech anyone that sees this to not accept it at face value. Look for proof in his statements and you will find only dreamy wish fulfillment. Shame on you Peter Kingsley.

[@patrickquinlan67]

I pity you for your ignorance. Perhaps you should devote some time to studying Kingsley's work before making such dismissive statements.

[@jeffgoggin1394]

I really dont get this guy. I guess maybe the general public is more insecure or lost than I thought? This is just another person who thrives on attetnion and wouldn't actaully exist if you never looked in his direction. Why does he just name Greeks hardly anyone knows? How mystikal is that? Name a Heembrika that no one knows. Tjay would actually be mystical. Shame on us.