Opening to Inner Light: The Transformation of Human Nature and Consciousness

This highly useful book describes "the processes of human evolutionary transformation as they are actually experienced by individuals" (p. ix). It attempts to provide persons who are at the start of a transformational phase in their lives or who are in the midst of one to recognize signposts along that stretch of the path to transformation upon which they find themselves. Metzner writes that "whereas there are literally hundreds of specific methods of bringing about psychospiritual transformation . . . . there appear to be only a dozen or so key metaphors describing the process itself." The book attempts to show how "the essential human process of evolutionary growth is described in similar terms in all major cultures and sacred traditions of the world" (p. ix).

First he deals with the general symbols and metaphors of transformation typified by the change from caterpillar to butterfly. The following 10 chapters are devoted to "Awakening from the Dream of `Reality,'" "Uncovering the Veils of Illusion," "From Captivity to Liberation," "Purification by Inner Fire," "From Darkness to Light," "From Fragmentation to Wholeness," "Journey to the Place of Vision and Power," "Returning to the Source," "On Dying and Being Reborn," and "Unfolding the Tree of Our Life."