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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 182.3
EAN num: 9781890350017
ISBN number: 189035001X
Label: The Golden Sufi Center
Manufacturer: The Golden Sufi Center
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 255
Printing Date: December 01, 1999
Publishing house: The Golden Sufi Center
Sale Popularity Level: 216467
Studio: The Golden Sufi Center
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Product Description:
A set of ancient inscriptions on marble found 40 years ago in southern Italy, recording details so bewildering that scholars have kept silent about them ... Sensational new information about a group of ancient philosophers who were so intensely practical that, two and a half thousand years ago, they shaped our existence and the world we live in ... These are just two ingredients of this extraordinary book, which uncovers an astonishing reality right at the origins of the Western world. Written by a highly-acclaimed contemporary historian and expert in the field, it provides dramatic new evidence about one of the most important of ancient philosophers, Parmenides-and revolutionizes our un-derstanding of the history of religion, of the origins of philosophy, and of Western culture as a whole.
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Rated by buyers 
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Like other reviewers, I found Kingsley's style irritating and almost condescending, as though he were an explorer of great experience and wisdom trying to convey something of the sense of wonder to people who are not very capable of understanding specifics. However, he did hit upon one thing that is VERY important -- but I see no sign that he himself understood what it meant.
Kingsley talks about the iatromantis guiding people lying in dark caves - and seems to think it has something to do with them preparing themselves for their eventual death. But I don't think it was that at all. When I read that I thought, "these people are doing what we did at the Monroe Institute - depriving the senses of input to make it easier to concentrate on inner images so that they could learn to experience and use unusual mental states at will." I expect they went through specific exercises in those dark spaces, probably accompanied with some rhythmic background sound, as shamanism uses.
Kingsley is perhaps too enmeshed in the academic mindset to realize that these people were having a real experience that we yesterday can share. Of course my guess may be wrong, but it is part of the value of Kingsley's book that it gives rise to just such speculations.
I give it a one for style and a 5 for content, so the result is a three.
Rated by buyers 
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Peter Kingsley takes the reader on his documented journey beyond the origin of human "Thought" to the place of Embodied Experience.
He builds the "Container" for the Left Out Wisdom of our Human Experience. Peter inrtoduces us to the Fact that we are Mortal and Emortal and Eternity exists in the space between our "Conscious" inhale and exhale.
The Dark Places of Wisdom documents what I have known all my Life and did not have the "Words" for. I am Eternally Grateful. His book REALITY and CD's Welcome to Eternity are also excellent.
Barbara James M.A.
Rated by buyers -
But i can't give it more than 3 stars. Why? first, as the reviewer below states, Peter Kingsley throws out an awful lot of assumptions without any backup. No guided footnotes, no back story, just a jumble at the back of the book for people to sift through. Combined with his sensationalist style a-la The Davinci Code (not sure which came first), it's awful and insulting. Perhaps because of this style, he ends up wasting our time as he thinks things through for himself in parts without just giving us the information to think through ourselves - as if we're incapable of doing so...i really wonder how he can be a university professor since he talks to us like we're in high school. He does this while also telling us how great it is that the ancient Greeks did no such thing - they wrote simply but with deep meaning, and let the reader figure it out (i guess he's not as clever as they were? or does he think we aren't?) Oh, right -- throughout the book he explains that scholars are stupid and only he and a few others really understand how to explain what's going on! Yes, that's why!
But even with all that, i was getting into this book in spite of myself, as he brought out a lot of interesting facts about the Phocaeans and Parmeneides. But when he literally pulled this one out of his a**--he said that some scholars actually believe the harmony of the spheres heard by Pythagoras was the sound of a snake hiss--i had to just laugh. Now, it's true that a large portion of people don't actually hear overtones, but there are many of us who do - and you don't mistake the sound for a hissing snake. Furthermore, to say such a thing totally dismisses all of Pythagoras's teachings about harmony and the overtone series, which wouldn't exist if all that were the case. But saying they sounded like "pipes" as Parmeneides and Pythagoras in fact did would be a better bet. I guess Peter likes to take what those dumb scholars said if they fit his own agenda. Indeed, Peter Kingsley apparently dismisses the actual word for pipes USED by the ancients, to bring hissing snakes into his theories. To twist something so simple around like that just made me lose respect for him. Sorry Peter. I wanted to like you because it's obvious you're a great student of this stuff, but you owe us a little more than that.
In the end, what we learn that is so important is actually nothing new - that the great philosophers, mathematicians, etc. in ancient Greece were mystics, and that Plato shut the door on that. Well, that has been an acknowleged fact for a long long time. The sad thing is, that this book has some interesting information about the mysticism practiced. But it's couched in paragraphs and paragraphs of an angry tone about how there's a conspiracy (yes he uses that word) to keep people from knowing it. Too bad - but i guess it's because, if you take all the unnecessary stuff out, it would've been a much thinner book.
Rated by buyers 
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Kingsley's main point, if he has one, seems to be that logical reasoning is an inadequate instrument for grasping the metaphysical ambiguities of the world.
His book applies that thesis with admirable consistency: it meanders all over the place, presents rumour and legend as fact, vastly over-states the importance of Parmenides for Platonic and later philosophy, and suggests that a conspiracy of scholars has kept all this information secret for millennia.
Not that his ideas are completely without merit: Logic and language do have their limitations in describing reality. Parmenides was a significant pre-Socratic philosopher, even if not to the extent that Kingsley claims. And despite their avowed devotion to free inquiry, scholars are often hostile or indifferent to unconventional ideas.
However, it seems to me that Kingsley has taken about two pages' worth of content and padded it out into a book. The writing is entertaining but the content is light and fluffy (which might be Kingsley's intention, if he meant to write a light popular book).
"In the Dark Places of Wisdom" is like "The Da Vinci Code" applied to pre-Socratic philosophers. All that's missing is the albino.
Rated by buyers -
In the Dark Places of Wisdom is one of the most insightful and well-written books I have ever read. It is a story of historical intrigue backed by tangible artifacts told in a fast paced, yet surprisingly soft and mystical light. I couldn't put it down.
Some of the western hypnotized reviewers here obviously don't understand the profound knowledge that enriched the great ancient cultures. Its decline led to the horrendous Dark Ages where almost all learning was lost. But few ask why. Scholar and author, Peter Kingsley, ponders this question and shows us a bigger picture. He knows his history and esotericism like few others. In the spirit of the true Greek philosophers Kingsley poetically explains where rationality went wrong and subtly encourages the reader to consider a deeper meaning of life. It is no wonder hard cold rationalists feel their ego threatened by the revelations in this book.
If you are myopic in your view of history, and believe myth and folklore are just silly stories, and that anything that came before us must be more primitive, then don't bother to read this book - you won't get it anyway. But if you are beginning to think with your heart as well as your mind, and dare to imagine a history, indeed a future, more beautiful than brain alone allows, then you will love this book. Like a sacred site, "Dark Places of Wisdom" not only conveys unspoken knowledge, it awakens a higher reality.
Kudos to Kingsley!
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