Roadmap to Reality
Consciousness, Worldviews, and the Blossoming of Human Spirit
by Thomas J. Elpel
Illustrated by Bonnie Andrich

      What if our entire experience of reality were based on an assumption that could be proven false? In Roadmap to Reality, Thomas J. Elpel tests the assumption that we are a sentient (self-aware) species, and finds evidence suggesting otherwise. Like automatons, we copy beliefs and behaviors from generation to generation without consciously evaluating why we do what we do. We absorb a definition of reality and act on it, without ever questioning the source of that definition. In short, we don't act; we react.

      Roadmap to Reality is the quest to unravel the illusions to discover what reality really is. The journey follows the link between technology and thought, showing how hunter-gatherer, agricultural, industrial, and informational societies define reality in predictable ways. In essence, production technology dictates how we perceive cause and effect, how we solve problems, and how we approach parenting and governing. Roadmap to Reality sequentially follows simple ideas and commonsense logic to reveal how consciousness and worldviews evolve in layers over time.

      Roadmap to Reality enables the reader to step outside of ordinary reality to obtain a fresh perspective on culture, government, prosperity, sustainability, and meaning. The quest takes the reader to the ends of the universe with a casual writing style, peeling back the layers of consciousness to discover the reality beyond. Roadmap to Reality will change your perspective of history and world events, and it will change you, enabling you to let go of preconceived notions about the nature of reality to discover a more holistic, more satisfying life experience. ISBN: 978-1-892784-29-2. May 2008. 260 Pages. Lavishly illustrated by Bonnie Andrich. Printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Cost: $30.

About the Author:
      Thomas J. Elpel's interest in wilderness survival skills and nature evolved into a quest for planetary survival and sustainability. Initial research in ecology and architecture led to questions about economics and decision-making.

      Elpel discovered that it is easy to achieve sustainable prosperity, but we are incapable of seeing the answers. This realization led to questions about psychology, worldviews, and the insight that our actions are driven by perceptions of reality. Elpel wrote Roadmap to Reality to help readers percieve reality from resourceful new perspectives. Elpel has also authored books on wilderness survival, botany, house-building, and economics.

Read Chapter One on-line:
- Quest for the Real Reality -

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Testing Assumptions
1. Quest for the Real Reality
2. Are We a Sentient Species?
3. The Illusion of Free Will
4. Language and Metaphor
5. Growing Up
6. Cultural Evolution

Part II: Layers of Consciousness
7. Preconscious Processing
8. Magical Processing
10. Sequential Processing
11. Systems Processing
12. Holistic Processing

Part III: The Road to Sentience
13. Transcendence
14. Mystical Processing
15. Observer Processing
16. Nonlinear Processing
17. Universal Processing
18. The Awakening

Acknowledgments
End Notes

Read Chapter One on-line:
- Quest for the Real Reality -

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