The Ascent of Humanity

Civilization and the Human Sense of Self

By: Charles Eisenstein

Narrated by: Steve Wojtas

Length: 27 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Charles Eisenstein explores the history and potential future of civilization, tracing the converging crises of our age to the illusion of the separate self. He argues that our disconnection from one another and the natural world has mislaid the foundations of science, religion, money, technology, economics, medicine, and education as we know them. It has fired our near-pathological pursuit of technological Utopias even as we push ourselves and our planet to the brink of collapse.

Fortunately, an Age of Reunion is emerging out of the birth pangs of an earth in crisis. Our journey of separation hasn't been a terrible mistake but an evolutionary process and an adventure in self-discovery. Even in our darkest hour, Eisenstein sees the possibility of a more beautiful world - not through the extension of millennia-old methods of management and control but by fundamentally reimagining ourselves and our systems. We must shift away from our Babelian efforts to build ever-higher towers to heaven and, instead, turn our attention to creating a new kind of civilization - one designed for beauty rather than height. Breathtaking in its scope and intelligence, The Ascent of Humanity is a landmark book showing what it truly means to be human.

©2017 Charles Eisenstein (P)2017 North Atlantic Books

Critic reviews

"Yale graduate, professor, speaker, and author, remove the letters 'se' from his surname and you have an idea just how brilliant a thinker Eisenstein is considered to be." ( Montreal Gazette)

"This is an extraordinary book. Eisenstein has put his finger on the core problem facing humanity - namely: separation. All the crises that humanity now faces are grounded in the belief that we are separate - separate from each other, separate from the biosphere that sustains us, separate from the universe that has brought us forth. This is a tour-de-force filled with astounding insight, wit, wisdom and heart." (Christopher Uhl, author of Developing Ecological Consciousness: Paths to a Sustainable Future)

I love this author!

If you read one you will want to read them all. This author is an important voice of our time.

Life Changing

The perspective Eisenstein elucidates puts into words feelings I have known for a long time. To hear them put them into a clear coherent and intellectual conception was liberating.

A necessary book for our time

This book will give you hope for the future as our civilization slides towards collapse and a new beginning. Start the Age of Reunion now in your heart. My thanks to Audible for making this title available.

Amazing must read!

Charles book gives me much hope for the Future and the human’s role in birthing a more beautiful world! This is the best book I have read, ever!

life-changing

this is one of those 2-3 books you read in your life that have the deepest, most formative impact on your mind and perspective on the world

Debatably the most transformational book for me

Coming to Charle’s work has been something of a mythical and synchronistic journey, wrought with unusual chance encounters and it hasn’t stopped yet.

I have listened to this book twice and read it once. The story of possibility that it paints to what it means to be human and what possibility lies ahead is the most hopeful and intelligent view I have yet heard.

He has expanded on the work of any thinkers both erudite and shamanistic. He has gone into his own soul and the words seem to pour out on to the page from that place.

I really wish he would have narrated it himself. Aside from that this work is a masterpiece. I often read a book or more per week on the subjects of philosophy, psychology, mysticism, esotericism, ecology, communication, dream work, history and economics and I must say that this book weaves through all these areas in a beautiful and refreshing way.

To finalize this review I can only say, “Charles, I hope you’re right.”

Everyone

This should be required reading/listening for freshmen in college and seniors in college.
Required reading/listening for fellow humans everywhere.

Interesting ideas but lots of negativity

This book was a tough one to get through. For starters, it's essentially a thesis, an opinion piece, and a very long one. That means you get a lot of the same opinions stated over and over using slight variations in theme. This becomes tedious. The first 20+ hours of the book is a long laundry list of all of the failures of modern society, including technology, agriculture, medicine, science and economy. Many of the points are valid, but the sheer volume of negativity that comes through becomes numbing after a while. I think the author would say the negativity comes from these aspects of society, but his choice to exclusively highlight negatives says something about his own perspective. He lauds pre-symbolic hunter-gatherer cultures, but his repeated referencing of "noble savage" myths again shows he has a very rose colored glasses view of the past.

His logic also becomes a little circular and self-contradictory. He condemns "separation" of man from nature, and many of the failures of modern society that drive this separation. At other points, though, he talks about how nature is all encompassing and man IS nature, something I agree with. But then, doesn't that mean there is no such thing as artificial? That technology is nature too? He lambasts the violence man commits on nature, but then predicts and embraces the "armageddon" that we are bringing on ourselves as a violence that we must endure, and this is a good violence to great ends. But doesn't that mean that our own violence bringing on these great ends is also part of this greater plan?

In the end I think I disagree most with his concept of "ascent" or "descent" towards some great goal. He criticizes science and technology for their ideas of "progress" or improvement, but then he espouses his own idea of improvement (it's in the title of the book). Both of these things imply some motivating hand guiding this progression that he alone can see (maybe you can too if you read his book). This all seems a little arrogant. I think prophets back to the beginning of time have predicted humanity's imminent downfall. No doubt someday one of them will be right. I don't think Charles Eisenstein will be that one right prophet.

I get the feeling he went through a mellowing with the progression of writing this book (which I think he says took 10 years). It starts out very fire-and-brimstone condemning the evils of the modern. By the end he lightens up quite a bit. He even goes so far as to hope for a technology that will let people link their brains via computer, after he complements the promise of Facebook in bringing people together (sheesh, THAT prediction was off the mark!).

I greatly enjoyed his observations of us being one with the universe, and seeing the joy in life. I hope he comes to a place where he is more focused on the joy and oneness of the here and now rather than the evils of separation that others are committing on humanity, plus the impending cleansing armageddon that will bring a very few of the privileged of us to an enlightened future.

Deeper Reality

Helps me understand why I'm so discontented with this world on a deeper level. Amazing insights and lots of new ideas to ponder.

must read

I'm continually impressed by Charles' overarching knowledge of his subject matter. Many times I was enlightened by hos viewpoint and also many times my heart was touched with hope for the future of our planet.

Everyone should read this book

This is a reference for the many and not the few.
wether you are on the path of self discovery or just curious, this is what we need in our time of transition and confusion.
Charles, transmits a powerful message. This deeply nourishing book covers some of the most unexplored areas of humanity's biggest questions and articulates a stream of wisdom, that will touch your heart and leave you feeling hopeful.

drawn out and disappointing

the narrator makes this unnecessarily drawn out book difficult to get through. I gave up on this book years ago. having tried again, I have to give up again. so much potential, though, so am disappointed.