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THE BIOLOGY OF
TRANSCENDENCE: A Blueprintof the Human Spirit
BY JOSEPH CHILTON PEARCE
Park Street Press, 2002, 288 pp.,
$22, ISBN: 0892819901.

Reviewed by Sharon G. Mijares

Why do so many educated and spiritually minded persons continue to have relational and psychological difficulties? How can we transform the many defense mechanisms contributing to, and often causing, these problems? These are not new questions, and certainly libraries and bookstores are abundant with many recommended theories and techniques for human transformation. The Biology of Transcendence differs from other books in that Joseph Chilton Pearce is able to present a clearly delineated study of the evolutionary development of the threefold brain— reptilian, old mammalian, and new mammalian—in relationship to the human capacity for transcendence. This book explains why so many well-informed, educated, and spiritually minded persons fail to meet their relational goals. It demonstrates how an unloving, unsupportive, and/or abusive caretaking environment fosters defensive behaviors in young children and entraps them in these older biological systems. Pearce reaffirms Jesus’ teaching that “to cause one of these little ones to stumble” was a possibly irreversible crime.

In the section on the triune heart, Pearce discusses more recent developments in electromagnetic, neural, and hormonal research. Recent research in the relationship between the heart’s electromagnetic field and the universe itself illuminates new pathways for healing. This research also indicates that “we live in fields within fields of a holographic electromagnetic display where all information is somehow present within every minute part of any particular frequency” (p. 60).

Pearce shares dramatic openings in his own life that occurred when he acted on a moment in time that opened him to unusual feats and nonordinary experiences. He also demonstrates that despite the damage done to our threefold brain by poor parenting, negative socialization, and/or damaging religious indoctrination— healing is possible through building a relationship with the heart. The openness to the univer-sal field—the quest for new knowledge and attainment —allows for new neuropathways of develop-ment. Pearce beautifully articulates the relationship of the heart to the more recent evolutionary development of our prefrontal lobes and explains how this relationship can transform previous defensive responses initiated by the hindbrain. Some of the research and work being done at the HeartMath Institute in Boulder Creek, California, are described. The HeartMath centering exercises are similar to ancient Sufi practices whereupon the practitioner is trained to center his or her breath in the heart and receive inner guidance and know divine unity. Pearce shows how the possibility of transcending previously defensive and instinctual behaviors presents itself, as new pathways between the heart and prefrontal lobe are created. For example, the student is guided to “freezeframe,” a negative, defensive reaction so the response can be shifted from the hindbrain to the heart’s attention. She or he then recalls a positive experience without shifting from the heart’s awareness. Next, the practitioner is told to “open to your intuition and common sense and, with utmost sincerity, ask your heart what would be the best response you could make to the situation at hand . . .” After listening for and feeling the “heart’s response,” action is taken.

In the chapter titled “The Resurrection of Eve,” Pearce affirms the need for women to take more charge of their lives, their bodies, as he believes the birthing and raising of children for the future of the world is in the hands of women. He reasons that “Laying the foundations of a new mind and a new world has been her task from the beginning, and substitutes just haven’t worked.” The relationship of the heart brain (intelligence) with the intellectual brain in the head will allow the natural process of transcendent evolution.

This small review cannot do justice to the amount of meaningful and applicable information disclosed in this book. It is a wellorganized and well-written book about human development. This reviewer highly recommends The Biology of Transcendence to all those interested in the mind-body relationship and also in the improvement of human behavior. The book addresses the deep need for loving care of all life. It brings together many differing traditions in a manner that offers much hope for our humanity.

SHARON G. MIJARES, Ph.D., is a Self Relations Psychotherapist and founder of the Life Development Coaching Center, ww.lifedevelopmentcoach.com. She is editor/co-author of Modern Psychology and Ancient Wisdom: Psychological Healing Practices from the World’s Religious Practices.