Reading list

Begin Here

An introduction to unitive philosophy in five steps.

Beginning. 5 steps

Stage I: Orientation

Essay in Metanoia
What Is Unitive Knowledge?
The Editors. 15 minutes
What this journal means by unitive knowledge, and what it does not claim.
Text
The Varieties of Religious Experience
William James, 1902. Lectures XVI–XVII
James’s chapters on mysticism give a careful, empirical starting point.

Text
The Upanishads, Part I
tr. F. Max Müller, 1879. Chāndogya Upaniṣad, book 6
The teaching “that thou art” in its original setting, a father teaching his son.
Text
The Enneads
Plotinus, tr. Stephen MacKenna, 1917. Ennead I.6, “On Beauty”
The most accessible of Plotinus’s treatises, on the soul’s ascent through beauty.

Cite this entry

Chicago (bibliography): “Begin Here.” Reading list. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/begin-here.
Chicago (note): “Begin Here,” reading list, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/begin-here.
MLA: “Begin Here.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/begin-here.
BibTeX: @misc{reading-lists-begin-here, title = {{Begin Here}}, howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society}, note = {Reading list. Last modified November 7, 2026}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/begin-here} }