The Nature and Origins of Murder Worship

The Ultimate Disease

by Edward N. Haas


Formats

Softcover
£16.50
Softcover
£16.50

Book Details

Language : English
Publication Date : 03/04/2001

Format : Softcover
Dimensions : 8.25x11
Page Count : 468
ISBN : 9780759610804

About the Book

One of the oldest and most familiar pieces of advice ever given to the human race is the one which says: "Know yourself." But, precisely how should one go about pursuing knowledge of one’s self? Up until perhaps the last four or five hundred years, the answer generally given was introspection, which is to say turning your power of attention inward in search of the innermost depths of your own mind. As the common opinion went, that meant a rather significant amount of seclusion, asceticism, and meditation as one tried to blot out every bit of external stimulation and distraction.

In this book, a man who spent 13 years in pronounced seclusion, asceticism, and meditation (followed by 25 years of moderate efforts in those directions) seeks to tell the world what his heroically intense, inward glance has revealed to him regarding the inner, hidden factors behind the tendency of human beings to approve of abortion, euthanasia, and war upon non-combatants. What’s presented here is thus "depth psychology" of a narrow but unusually penetrating kind. Indeed, it goes so deeply into one of the subliminal areas of human motivation, some readers should perhaps be warned that what is said may cause them serious mental stress. If nothing else, some will find themselves driven to rage against the author in a most ferocious manner--perhaps even in a homicidal manner. For, what is said here about fundamental, hidden human motivation even in the depths of "saints" is--unless seen from eternity’s point of view--markedly degrading to say the very least.

On the other hand, all those truly interested in self-knowledge should greatly desire to know whatever a 64-year-old master of introspection has uncovered in his self. So greatly should they desire to know it, that, no matter how insulting the findings he presents, they can remain content to say: "On a venture as important as life is, I desperately need the assistance of one able to paint what is truly the ‘worst case scenario.’ Since this is manifestly the most appalling ‘worst case scenario’ I have ever encountered, what can I do but thank its author for presenting it to me?"

Come, then, dear reader and see if you, too, agree: This is, indeed, the most appalling assessment of hidden human motivation ever presented to the world. At least, so it is unless, like God, you can observe the glorious future motivation which--from the viewpoint of One beyond time--somehow already underlies the repulsive current motivation.


About the Author

Born April 13, 1936, in New Orleans, Louisiana, the author graduated from Jesuit high school, in New Orleans, in 1953. A single fruitless semester studying music at Loyola University of the South in New Orleans was followed by almost two years of floundering in a sea of confusion, and the author then joined the U. S. Air Force on Dec. 7, 1955. Honorably discharged in April of 1960, the author underwent another two and a half years of floundering so severe, he came extremely close to a mental breakdown. In desperation, he gave away everything he owned and, for thirteen years, took to the life of a wandering hermit. In search of as much time and energy as possible for inner reflection upon self, God, and the nature and purpose of reality, he criss-crossed the United States on foot four times. At first, he lived off of whatever food and clothing he could beg; but, after learning how to live on a dollar a day or less, he turned to working at various monasteries in the winter time in exchange for the two to three hundred dollars required to feed and to clothe himself during the next spring, summer, and fall of walking. The monasteries also provided access to libraries in which he could read, and extract notes from, the great writings of the Catholic Church. In the course of that thirteen-year odyssey, there was a four year period during which he refused to speak to anyone (except on very rare occasions) and communicated only by means of written notes.

In August of 1975, the author’s father lost his mind, and the author’s siblings insisted he was the only one in the family with the time and ability to tend to their father in his hour of need. Thus, after thirteen years, the author’s preferred lifestyle came to an end. Dire poverty then gave way to economic independence, and total seclusion gave way to what little privacy can be enjoyed by bachelors who prefer to avoid partying and to stay home and--as much as possible--to bury themselves in as much reading and writing as the world around them will allow.

After his father’s death in 1981, the author took care of his mother until her death in 1996. In this book, the self-educated author of dozens of mostly unpublished books and pamphlets seeks to share with others the avenues of thought down which his mind was lead by thirteen years of heroically intense inner concentration followed by twenty-two years of moderately intense inner concentration.