THE NEARNESS OF GRACE A PERSONAL SCIENCE OF SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION Arnold J. Mandell Table of Contents Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………… 3 Chapter 1: In Search of the Miraculous .…………………………………. 4 Chapter 2: Doesn’t Everybody ……………………………………………. 22 Chapter 3: Transmogrifications Of Energies ……………………………. 42 Chapter 4: Sensual In-Between Entropies ………………………………. 64 Chapter 5: Some Entheogenic Entropies …………..……………………. 87 Chapter 6: Pentecostal Phase Transitions ………………………………. 122 Chapter 7: Amphetamine Roll-Up And Splitting .………….……………. 144 Chapter 8: Faith And Rationality …………………………………………. 168 Appendix: An Intuitive Guide to the Ideas and Methods of Dynamical Systems for the Life Sciences …………… 186 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Appreciation is expressed to the Fetzer Institute for their support of this work. Particular thanks are due their imaginative Vice President, Dr. Paul Gailey, who shared my vision and hope that these somewhat disparate themes could be blended into a meaningful whole. Time and the reading by others will tell whether this idea was realized. The Fetzer Foundation and Dr. Gailey have facilitated exploration into blends of science and spirituality, particularly in the context of personal meaning. They also have a history of supporting serious work in this era’s most powerful and rigorous exercise in holism as represented by the mathematical and applied mathematical fields of modern dynamical systems theory. Fetzer’s very special environment and years of dedication have encouraged the variety of personal meanings within science to emerge and be recognized as legitimate and important parts of the research enterprise. It would be difficult to imagine a more propitious context for this effort. The book is dedicated to my daughter Buna, and to my intellectual and creative companion, Dr. Karen Selz, whose deep and lovely mind wrote much more of this book than is formally acknowledged. 3 CHAPTER 1: IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS More than a half-century of naïve p