Hacking Toward Consciousness: St Issa and the Enneagram Enigma

Is there a map for the spiritual journey to greater consciousness? If so, how do we find it? And if there is such a map, we see why Melissa Dowling, who may have inadvertently stumbled onto an experience of the map as a Peace Corp volunteer in Afghanistan, is suddenly caught up in a high stakes game where her survival hangs in the balance. But how will such a map be helpful to anyone who is not committed to the disciplined work of evolving their consciousness? Even if they are committed to disciplined practices, is greater consciousness only a matter of practice and dedication or is it also something touched by that illusive quality known as Grace? If greater consciousness is simply a well honed technique available to any interested party, what happens when it becomes an asset for those working as professional spies? None of these questions can be answered without human characters struggling to understand the nature of consciousness in their own lives. And these characters inevitably are pulled deeper into the mystery of facing more questions such as whether or not achieving greater consciousness is something more than a matter of individual pursuit? Is it possible that greater consciousness inherently involves something larger than a single person's consciousness, such as that of a monastic order or a nation? Is the earth as a meta-organism itself on a path toward greater consciousness? And is consciousness, whether manifest individually or collectively, a benign power or may it be utilized to control how people think and to promote and protect powerful moneyed interests? Gordon Slade is a private eye on a case with a cagey client. Blaine Astrid is a computer hacker and research assistant for a professor seeking the latest in biblical scholarship. William Dawson, a former CIA agent, is searching for his lost love whose valuable psychic abilities may have caused her disappearance. Father Charles "Cloudy" Hay, whose knowledge of the human soul makes him wary of the power of his own authority, struggles to lead from behind. Godfrey Adams, a gay man and an everyman, whose life has reached the place where his goals have largely been accomplished, is gloomy and depressed. He seeks spiritual direction to find himself and is not only pulled into a greater connection with life but also into increased questioning and uncertainty internally and into external events that come chaotically careening his way. The lives of these characters collide with daring conclusions, as they enter the uncharted frontiers of these questions about consciousness, all the while exploring hidden scriptures, biblical conundrums, and the Enneagram of Jesus. The vulnerability and longings of these characters in their search for truth and intimacy mirror our own yearnings and suspicions in a post-millennial age of technology. Written with sensitivity and wisdom, Hacking Toward Consciousness is a provocative perspective on the possibility of faith in our time and the possibility of following a hidden-in-plain-view map for evolving that matrix of human and divine wisdom that is called consciousness.

Don Carroll is a spiritual director and the author of ＂A Lawyer’s Guide to Healing＂ and the ＂CONNECT＂ interactive journals. To find out more about Don visit his website at www.doncarroll.com.