Dana Sawyer unpacks the philosophy-spirituality of Huxley, Watts, and Ram Dass (as well as our contemporaries, including Mirabai Starr and Richard Rohr) in ways readers will find intriguing, creating an original view of human nature, revealing why this mystical understanding of our world is called “perennial.”

During the 1960s and 70s, “Perennial Philosophy” was the most popular theory regarding what the world’s mystical traditions held in common, and it was touted as the best platform for understanding the nature of human consciousness…The Perennial Philosophy Reloaded corrects several common errors in understanding the perennial philosophy while providing a short, up-to-date overview of the general perspective…This book will appeal for the millions today who are involved with mindfulness meditation, hatha yoga, Transcendental Meditation, Tibetan Buddhism, Kabbalah, Zen, Sufism, Shamanic drumming, Christian Centering Prayer, or their own DIY approaches to spiritual awakening.

Dana Sawyer is professor emeritus of philosophy and world religions at the Maine College of Art  & Design and author of biographies of both Aldous Huxley (2002) and Huston Smith (2014). His primary expertise is in Hinduism and Buddhism but for more than twenty years, his work has focused on comparative mysticism, theories of the “perennial philosophy,” and the value of psychedelic experience in the study of mysticism. His most recent books are an analysis of The Transcendental Meditation Movement for Cambridge University Press (2023), and The Perennial Philosophy Reloaded for Monkfish (2024).

Professor Dana Sawyer