I am the book club's hostess for January as well as the author of the month. We will be reading my novel, Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money. I'm going to set out some introductory material and outline some of the questions/issues I'd like to see us discuss in the coming weeks.
Before I talk about my book, I'd like to tell you my goals for the month. First, I'd like to develop a feeling of community and warmth that will flow into the Book Club's coming months. I'd like us to get to know each other and have a good time together. I'd like us to learn from each other. I'd like to get a different understanding of my book from you.
My primary intention is that we should have fun reading Numenon. If you don't want to follow the schedule I set out below, forget it. Same with the questions. Don't answer them unless you want to. If you think of other issues or questions, bring them up. This is a time to hang out and examine a very unusual story.
I want to hear from you, too. Would you please tell us a bit about yourself as we begin? What's your background? What attracted you to the book club? Add anything that you care to share.
WHERE DO YOU BUY NUMENON? A number of places. I've got a surprise in point one below: How to get Numenon free.
⁃ I've arranged for you to get an eBook of Numenon free through Smashwords. Go to the book's Smashwords page. Use the coupon code LV94U when you check out and the book will be free. The coupon is good through January 19th, and I can extended the date if people want me to. I believe Smashwords makes books available in almost every eBook format.
⁃ If you'd like a print version, you can buy Numenon here: http://numenon.com This is the gorgeous hardback book that won all the awards. It was originally $24.95. We're selling it for $9.50 plus shipping. I will inscribe the book any way you like, just note what you'd like me to say in the message at checkout.
⁃ Numenon is also available as an Amazon Kindle for 99 cents. And it's available as a hardback on Amazon at a bit more than we charge. (We make almost nothing on the hardback when its purchased through Amazon, by the way.)
Also––I am not a Jungian analyst or professor; I won't be leading this discussion as an academic or psychotherapist. I am an an author. I've got a fairly deep understanding of myself and the writing craft. Both halves of my brain have been educated: I hold Master's degrees in economics and counseling.
ABOUT ME:
If you've got a few minutes, the interview that Bonnie Bright and I did and which is linked here is the best introduction to me and my work. If you don't have time to listen to it, I'll give you a (relatively) short run-through here:
I was born in San Francisco. at the end of WWII. My father, a first generation immigrant, founded and owned what was the 10th largest residential construction company in the USA in its heyday. I grew up on San Francisco's Peninsula, in the heart of what came to be known as Silicon Valley.
Those were intoxicating years. Not only was I surrounded by the cutting edge of corporate culture, I had my father sitting in the family room. That was like having Secretariat parked on the front lawn. I learned about extremely successful people from my father and his friends. They moved at light speed and were more directed and effective than any people I've met since. Mine was a heady and thrilling existence, quite addictive. When I write about the upper end of Silicon Valley society, I do it partially from my own experience.
When I was eighteen, a drunk driver killed my father and my charmed life vanished overnight. I set about defining myself. How I could define myself was limited. Business was the only life-path my father approved. Even though he had passed on, his influence on my psyche was enormous. I majored in economics. I earned two degrees in the subject and worked as an economist for years. I was a doctoral student at Stanford's Graduate School of Business.
I left that program, but ended up working for the professor who taught Negotiation and Intervention at the Graduate School of Business. I coached negotiation and active listening with his students a few days a year for twenty years. That was a blast. As a result, I have an abiding love for MBA (Master's in Business Administration) students and MBAs. And negotiation. This shows in Numenon.
I left Stanford and started moving in a direction that better fed my soul. While working as an economist, I earned an MA in MFCC from Santa Clara University. There I learned about Jungian psychology and the transpersonal psychologies. Roberto Assagioli's Psychosynthesis fit my personal experience better than any other theory. Assagioli's egg diagram was almost a snapshot of my inner life. I've had unitive and other spiritual experiences since I was a young child. My first transcendent experiences occurred when I was a young teenager riding my horse through the redwoods of the Coast Range. I began a meditation practice in 1975 which accelerated and strengthened my spiritual development.
Years passed; jobs and professions along with them. In 1993, had a personal crisis which shattered what I thought about myself and my world. I was devastated. I spent from 1993 to 1995 putting myself back together.
Two major events happened in 1995. I went to a meditation retreat. After that retreat, I had a mystical experience which lead to Numenon and my other work. This is described in the Author's Note in Numenon and in my interview with Bonnie Bright. I also I started writing with a writing group led by a local poet. Those events changed my life.
When I wrote Numenon, I was dealing with PTSD and trauma-related issues. The book has a darkness that reflects my interior state. I was also trying to get my arms around what had happened to me and explain the nature of evil. Be aware of this as you read.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
You can learn pretty much everything about Numenon through this link to my web site. The linked page offers a synopsis, information about the book's awards, reviews, an excerpt, a physical description of the book and more.
The book's "personal history" may be of interest to you. Numenon was released in 2008; it's been around for a while. Being the book's author has been thrilling. Numenon is my first novel; my second book. We entered it in a couple of book contests as an ARC (advance reading copy). It won the visionary fiction and religious fiction categories in those contests. I entered it in more contests after it was released. It ended up winning four more national awards.
I'm particularly pleased with the Silver Nautilus Award for Indigenous/Multicultural Fiction. The Nautilus Award was established to recognize books that promote spiritual growth, positive social change, and conscious living. Previous Nautilus winners include Thich Nnat Hanh and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Winning the Silver Medal in the IPPYs (Independent Press) Awards was also exciting. The IPPYs are the oldest and largest contest for independent presses. About 4,000 books were entered that year.
As a Kindle book on Amazon, Numenon jumped to the front of books about mysticism, ranking #1 in three categories of mysticism and hovering about the 1,000th level in Kindle sales ranking (out of, say, 900,000 books). It's an Amazon Bestselling book. Numenon also garnered five star reviews for years.
I'm not telling you this to brag: it's a cautionary tale. I didn't realize how extraordinary Numenon's performance was. It kept it's #1 position in mysticism for about a year with absolutely no promotion on my part. I became complacent, expecting the wave to continue forever. This was a mistake. I wish I'd taken a screen shot of its Amazon page when it was at it's peak.
Numenon has dropped in the rankings, but it's the same book with the same heart that was ranked #1.
TIMING:
The book has 448 pages. If we divide the reading evenly over the month, that would mean reading 112 pages per week. If we do that, we should be on page 112 on January 7th, 224 on the 14th, 336 by the 21st and finish by the 28th.
Don't feel bound by this, if you want to read ahead, please do. But, if you read ahead, please don't ask questions in the reading group that reveal content that other group members haven't reached. You can message me privately if you want to talk about something.
QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION POINTS:
Don't wreck your experience of reading the book by trying to answer these questions while you read. Let the answers and your viewpoints rise to the surface as you absorb the text. Numenon is a piece of art and a gestalt, not material for a quiz.
SOME QUESTIONS:
Compare & contrast Will Duane and Grandfather's psychological development. These are two very successful men in radically different fields. How did they end up so different?
Will Duane's psychic structure. What Jungian concepts do you see manifesting themselves in the book's first chapter? Subsequent chapters?
How would you diagnose Will?
Grandfather has had horribly traumatic things happen to him. How did he come out so well?
How would you diagnose him?
Two shamans exist in Numenon: Grandfather and Great-grandfather. How do they strike you?
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS:
Numenon brings up a wealth of issues highly relevant to our contemporary society. The following add greatly to our understanding of the book and what's going on around us.
Recommended reading/viewing:
"Inside Job", the Academy Award Winning documentary film produced, written and directed by Charles Ferguson. I believe that this film, which documents the causes of the 2008 financial crises, generated the "Occupy Wallstreet (and everywhere else)" movement.
The film clearly illustrates how our financial markets caused their own collapse because of greed and lack of discipline and morality. It makes complicated economic concepts easy to understand by use of graphics. It also illustrates the culture of the upper financial echelon, which is of interest to us as we study Numenon corporation.
My character Will Duane isn't based on a real person. He's a composite, partially my dad, partially people in the news. And partially my neighbors. I lived in the Town of Woodside, bedroom to Silicon Valley's finest, for fourteen years. People like Will Duane were all around me.
When I wrote Will and his lifestyle, I thought I was absolutely over-the-top in describing his behavior in every direction. "Inside Job" shows that I under-wrote the character. In all likelihood, Will would have been more flamboyant, ruthless, and immoral than I show him.
The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America by John D. Gartner PhD. This illuminating book explains a lot about Silicon Valley and its "movers and shakers". I'll bring it up in subsequent weeks.
Well, that should be enough to get us going. Let me know what you think/feel about the book and what I've written above.
And enjoy Numenon. One of the reviewers called it ". . . an amazing trip into two worlds."
Have a good trip! I'll be checking in often––feel welcome to come and hang out. I've got more material for the coming weeks . . .
Sandy Nathan
Replies
Well, I could easily start looking over my shoulder again after reading this. I was really scared for while. But nothing's happened. So far. ;-)
So -- I have finished the book (had to get it in before starting in on my next round of reading for school!) But will keep my comments to the first 112 pages in order to avoid "spoilers".
I had difficulty identifying with any of the characters. Both Will and Grandfather are just too "big" for me ..... as for the members of Will's entourage, well, I just would never follow a "Will". (In fact, in my early 30's I did walk away from a career in insurance that promised a 6 figure income had I continued)
Even with my shamanic experiences, I didn't identify readily with anyone surrounding Grandfather ---- for one thing, unless I missed it, there were no women around him.
I was intrigued, however, by so many things that are so central to my life through the study of both shamanism and depth psychology being discussed in the book. But at the same time, even at the outset I find myself somewhat irked by the word Numenon --- and using this name that, in my mind, plays with the word numinous which is such a profound concept in my life, as the name for the corporation. It just set off an uncomfortable feeling for me. I don't mean to be critical, just reporting my response.
I am now watching the movie "Inside Job".
Debbie
Hi Deb (and all). Deb--you are a fast reader. Thanks for sharing your impressions. I'm curious, though--even though you suggest you didn't identify with any of the characters, something must have compelled you to keep reading and finish the entire book--even ahead of other required grad school reading (Boy!--those days are fresh in my memory! :). I only ask because usually if I don't relate to the characters in a certain book, or find them flat, it gets harder and harder to pick up the book and "make" myself read and I am often unable to finish.
Just one comment on the character of Will-I have to say, probably many of us who have done at least some work on ourselves would have a hard time following a "Will" like you said, but for myself, having worked over a decade in the corporate world (before I found depth psychology), I -- and virtually everyone in each company I worked for--followed the CEO in a similar fashion. Not only was the CEO the one who ultimately signed our paychecks every week making life as we knew it possible--but most of the time I found the CEO to have quite a lot of charisma. Usually they have to have in order to charm clients, convince shareholders, and persuade boardmembers to make certain decisions. Usually spending time with the CEO was something that made me feel special - at least in my case. At any rate, as far as conveying a character in a book goes, no doubt we will each relate in a different way that is completely dependent on our experience. I like that you found value in comparing shamanism and depth psych--that is one of my favorite topics to consider--but hope you also found some value in at least some of what the characters did and thought, even if you didn't relate to them.
Oh, one other thing--I personally do actually like the name Numenon for the company. It's true that Will may have co-opted it to fulfill something in himself--Maybe from a depth psych perspective, he was unconsciously trying to justify what he was doing there (their goals, after all, are not that spiritual if you know what I mean). But the numinous works in mysterious ways...I'm not even close to finishing the book, so I don't know what's coming, but maybe the 'numinous' chose the name itself as a way to establish presence in Will's life!.. Curious...What do others think of the name Numenon for the company? offensive? creative? unethical? brilliant? Tricksterish?
Ha! As to reading fast ---- I was probably procrastinating from doing the reading I SHOULD be doing! I also have this pathological need to finish any book I start. In this case, my interest was in what the author, Sandy, was doing with the story. Where was it going to go?
Upon reflection, I am thinking that part of my response to Will is rooted in the understanding that I would be a person that he would not even notice. To someone like Will, someone like me would not even exist.
So, I am realizing that my response is less about the story, and more about what it triggers in me. Perhaps this also impacts my reaction to the name Numenon. Perhaps if the Will's of the world take claim to the numinous, then I lose access to it. Totally a gut, not intellectual, reflection!
Very perceptive response, Deb. "Perhaps if the Will's of the world take claim to the numinous, then I lose access to it." It feels that way, doesn't it?
And it's true, Will would probably not pay any attention to either of us. I found myself in the Stanford Graduate School of Business's PhD program for that reason––trying to get my father to notice me. This despite the fact that he'd been dead for 15 years. I finally realized, "My dad would love it here. And I hate it." I split.
Will would pay attention to the top person in the MBA program, no lower. Sad.
Hi, Deb, Bonnie & all,
Got your message, Deb. Sorry the characters didn’t touch you. Many of them are pretty hard to take at this point. I’m sympathetic to them, having created them, because I know what happened to them and how they end up. And because I’ve known people like them most of my life. Will and his entourage are “befores” in Numenon. Some grow, some don’t.
But imagine this –– imagine you didn’t turn away from the job with the six-figure income. Imagine everything in your culture goaded you to take it. Imagine it wasn’t a six-figure income, it was a seven or eight figure amount, with stock options that would make you worth close to a hundred million dollars in a few years.
And imagine that Will is as charismatic as Betty describes him at the Numenon rally. Charismatic like Steve Jobs, or Werner Erhard, the human potential guru back in the 1970s. Imagine he's so charismatic that he rocks your soul. Working for him is the answer to your deepest prayers. You’d follow him anywhere. Take abuse at his hands, like those who followed Jobs or Erhard did.
That puts a different spin on things.
Even though recruits see him as one, Will isn't a monolithic god. He's crumbling from the first paragraph of the book, where he’s haunted by a terrifying, repetitive nightmare. He’s agoraphobic, compulsive, and paranoid. He’s a compulsive exerciser and insomniac. Will suffers from heart-related symptoms due to stress. (Or are they more than that?) He’s the survivor of physical and psychological abuse. And he knows he’s in trouble. He’s not able to talk to anyone about it or share his feelings, not even with Betty, who's worked for him for thirty years. Why? His entire life. All of his conditioning. His fear of admitting weakness and fear of intimacy.
He’s way, way different than the people in the film Inside Job. He still has a heart, he still has a soul. But he’s very damaged.
I find Will fascinating for many reasons: I'm from Silicon Valley. I've lived amongst them. I'm very interested in extremely successful people. My dad was one. He rose from being a penniless, first generation immigrant to the owner of a gigantic construction firm. You have to feel the energy these people have. It's very similar to what I felt around my meditation master. My dad was like someone dancing on the edge of a razor, going faster than anyone could, radiating energy and power, and being centered.
That's a pretty compelling package. Having lived with a person like that is unforgettable.
When I was in graduate school getting my MA in MFCC, the professor who taught Jungian psychology and the transpersonal psychologies said something that rocked me. He was talking about Jungian type and said, "Extroverted intuitives often make excellent businessmen. They're grounded in the external world, and they are in touch with currents that no one else can pick up."
Ahah! That meshed with my experience of my dad. He had visions and prophetic dreams. Of angels? No, of stuff that mattered to businessmen. He was more charismatic and spiritually compelling than any minister I've heard. He gave little sermons at the breakfast table, setting out his values and relationship to God. Utterly inspiring. He's the only person I've known who had Spinoza and Kant on his bedside table, and read them.
I'm sure he was an extroverted intuitive, though he was never tested.
Despite what I've noted, my dad "didn't believe" in therapy or analysis, couldn't see blatant mental illness, and probably was an SOB to his competitors. He never would have gone for anything like depth therapy or what we're doing. He probably wouldn't have liked Numenon, either. He wasn’t my model for Will Duane, but he sure gave me some ideas.
So let's back away from how we don't like Will as ask some questions about the text.
What the hell was Will doing in that gym in the book's first chapter? How did he know that guy was watching him? Are his premonitions of something stalking him real? What about Will's visions? He has a unitive vision very similar to Grandfather’s. Anybody pick that up? Who's Will Duane? Monster or soul in progress?
The only thing that I know of that can heal someone in a state as bad as Will’s is a direct experience of the divine. That might come spontaneously. Best way is through someone who lives in continual contact with the source of being: a shaman or spiritual master.
Will's heading directly at one, in his own screwed up, backward way, denying the real reason for the trip: He'll die without it.
Will and Numenon. Will tells us why he chose the name Numenon for his corporation very clearly in the text. He tells us how the study of philosophy saved his life. This is real to him, not a ruse. It's in the text, if not in the section we read, in one coming up. His mystical experiences show up in the first chapter, and keep on unfolding.
A deeper question: Who's entitled to use the word "numenon"? Do you have to look a certain way to know the sacred? Do you have to study a certain thing? What if you have known the sacred but have walked away from it? Is it still lurking somewhere? What if you're a mess and still experience the divine? Who owns the experience of the numenon?
I think I agree with you, Bonnie, the numinous chose Will.
There's another direction this discussion could take. I'm going to toss a book title in. We'll get to it later: The Hypomanic Edge by John D. Gartner, PhD. This book can explain Will, too.
OK, everyone. It’s Saturday. Time to have fun.
Ah --- yes, the Extroverted Intuitive --- I can totally understand that! I myself am an Introverted Intuitive and score highly in both areas ---- this world is not kind to the likes of me!!!
I have some experience in the world of finance --- I have a natural ability in mathematics --- but when I ventured into that world, I was really out of my element. I found that my values and the values of those around me were incompatible. I finally left that world to be a teacher. I now have a brother who won't talk to me as teachers are just so far beneath him.
So it strikes me now, how much we as readers bring to what we read, as well as what the author brings. And yes, as I travail through this dark night of my own soul, I am one of those who are a mess while experiencing the divine.
Finally!!! Wonderful!!
I'm going down your questions -
I believe Will grew up with a father who could not let his son advance into his proper place with his gifts and that has never been addressed, still an unconscious dynamic. Grandfather eventually faced the shadow of his life and became more congruent to the point of opening himself to the generations within his cultural unconscious. Will has gotten to the top and now feels the need to go wide (dominate in a wider circle). Grandfather has gone deeper and has widened his receptivity, his vulnerability.
Will's diagnosis - inflation much!!!! with subsequent paranoia. Flying high brings out the fear of falling.
Grandfather's diagnosis - he should be diagnosing us!!! He is a person "in his fullness."
I love the battle that is building and the way the Ancestors are playing it. Will's approach, at this point, is predictable. I found it somewhat mystifying that his inner circle was blind-sided by Will's reason for going to the Meeting. Although, this does set up some great expositions on how people respond to a fallen god.
As to Great Grandfather and Grandfather - Pure joy in the reading of the relationship.
I REALLY appreciate Grandfather getting angry. I've read a few too many stories with shamans where the shaman appeared so far removed from daily activities that they came across as too otherworldly and impenetrable. Grandfather is someone I feel I could have a relationship with rather than the others I've encountered in literature.
Now, on to the next pages - had to force myself to put the book down at the proper page to send this email.
Thanks,
Ed
Ed--I so appreciate your assessment of both Will and Grandfather's relationship to their individual gifts--It's sort of like they are opposite ends of the same spectrum. Both are open (perhaps too open in Will's case) to the influence of "ancestors". Again, in Will's case, his father's influence which has clearly created a complex for him (and yet I feel great empathy for the profound loss of his innocence and sense of safety as a small child)--and, of course, Grandfather is living out the influence of his own ancestors (both personal and spirit) as well.
What I saw contrasting Will and Grandfather was a partially difference between extroverted intuitive and introverted intuitive.
Will also has a huge impediment in that he's not bonded positively with anyone. On one of the early drafts of Numenon (which got dumped, methinks), I had Will describe his mother. She's withdrawn, a hypochondriac, and superstitious. (I think some of that came through.) He can't bond with her and receive love or support. His father abuses him with demands of achievement that no one can live up to. And––his father's cronies do the same thing at his boarding school. He never bonds with the kids in his school either. He's withdrawn from people and become like a launched rocket, trying to fulfill his father's expectations. Somewhere in the text, he realizes all this, but can't do anything about it.
The question is: Could someone achieve what Will has with so little psychological support and structure? Or so little that's positive? I'm thinking of third world dictators. They probably as little parenting or modeling as Will. And they have achieved, just nothing good. As a character, the fact that Will's survived with any positive potential is amazing.
Grandfather, on the other hand, bonded with both his parents and received their love before he lost them. (I love the scene with his mother on the buffalo robe.) He also loved and identified with his father. He lost this identification until he found out what happened with his father and people, and then he gained enormously when he met Great-grandfather. And––he had the membership in the larger tribe of his People. And he has his relationship with the ancestors, Jesus, and his own deities.
Grandfather is well supported and bonded, even though he had very traumatic things happen to him. He has the advantage of the society of G-GF and his People, steering him in a direction he wants to go.
Poor Will is in a society where he can't talk about his spiritual experiences. I spent a lot of time at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and met many wonderful people. Only one, a meditator, would have a clue as to what Will experiences.The others would have thought he was crazy. He is right not to confide in them. Will's world doesn't have space to let him be what he really is.
But––we have Numenon, and Mogollon, and a family of books after that about Will. All I have to do is mush on and get them out.
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