There has been a lot of fascinating research recently about the biology of transcendence. But you won't find it in this book. What you will get is a personal reconciliation of his Christianity. Not that that's bad--but it is not how the book is represented. A fundamental problem with this book is one that bedevils (so to speak) many works by authors who write on subjects outside of their field of expertise. Pearce is a theologian (apparently). He is not a physician, physiologist, biologist, or anthropologist--and this really shows when he writes about those subjects. The theology is OK. The physiology is ho-hum--the same any intro course would give--except that he strays into details that are unfounded or absurd. As for the anthropology--whew! where does he get this stuff? Ancient cities from 20,000 years ago?! Early Americans that were 7 ft tall?!! This the stuff of fantasy and unfortunately really discredits his attempt to study the phenomenon of transcendence.

I read the book, in its entirety, twice. It is difficult reading. I think that the information is generally worthwhile. The author provides a fair number of personal vendettas and numerous references to his earlier work which i think detract from the book. The writing style could be improved. Most notably, the flow of thinking, reasoning, and development is not smooth. Finally, the author talks about the development of a large brain frontal lobe in certain humans, going to the extent of showing a picture of a child with a prominent forehead. It is ironic that the picture of the author on the book jacket depicts him as having a discernibly small forehead.