AN ESSAY
In I Am Not I (public library), philosopher Jacob Needleman picks up where Tolstoy and Plath left off, and enlists more of humanity’s most wakeful minds — from Nietzsche and Kierkegaard to William James to D.T. Suzuki — in finding embrocation for, if not an answer to, these most restless-making questions of existence. Out of the inquiry itself arises an immensely hope-giving offering — a sort of secular sacrament illuminating what lies at the heart of the most profound experiences we’re capable of having: joy, love, hope, wonder, astonishment, transcendence.
By bringing age-old questions into modern conversation, Needleman aims to be a catalyst for the consciousness he believes all human beings yearn to awaken at some point in their lives. For many, the hunger for greater knowledge begins as young as 14 and peaks during college. This insatiable curiosity in young people initially drew Needleman to teach at SF State in 1962. Needleman finds that the longing for deeper contemplation, and the innate struggle between the logical and metaphysical, has not waned in his students since then.
NOW AVAILABLE
Sorcerers: A Novel
Published by Monkfish Books
An enthralling blend of sorcery, religion and philosophy, from which Jacob Needleman creates a brilliant moral fable for our times.
Sorcerers is the story of a teenage boy growing up in 1950s Philadelphia who is swept into a world of mysterious powers and extraordinary human possibilities. On the threshold of maturity and yearning for something he cannot name, adolescent Eliot Appleman is welcomed into the Sorcerer's Apprentices, a club of young stage magicians, and is soon drawn into a perilous clash between two conflicting forces—the compulsion to manipulate others and the need to discover the deeper truths about his own nature.
AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. NEEDLEMAN from Oracle 20/20 Magazine
PRAISE
“An extraordinarily absorbing tale”—John Cleese
“A sensitive, humorously rendered novel about growing up, a romance, a metaphysical thriller, a mystery, even a primer on magic.”—Columbus Magazine
“A fascinating story that merges the pains of growing up with the intrigue of magic...constantly engrossing.”—San Francisco Chronicle
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An Unknown World: Notes on the Meaning of the Earth
Published by Tarcher/Penguin
Questions of the Heart, as Reflected in The American Soul
Questions of the Heart, as Reflected in I Am Not I
Questions of the Heart, Reflected in Sorcerers, Part III
Questions of the Heart, Reflected in Sorcerers, Part II
Questions of the Heart, Reflected in Sorcerers: Part I
Jacob Needleman in a fourth conversation with Michael Lerner. Gail Needleman performs selections of the Gurdjieff music.