FAQ:

Q. Does the "Experience of Hallucinations in Religious Practice" book say that most experiences of ESP, spiritual vision, talking to the deceased, and UFO encounters are merely hallucinations in the brain?

A. No, in fact it doesn't. The book serves many different purposes and is for many different audiances. The book was written in part for the academic establishment to understand that hallucinations are in reality not that uncommon and do not make a person "schizophrenic." When the book was published at the end of 2005, there was still a lot of resistence to the idea that hallucinations can happen in "sane" people. Likewise, it is believed by many that if a spiritual person had a "vision" they were really having an authentic vision of something divine. In fact, the reason why there is so much conflict in spiritual ideas is that when we "come down to our level" we often cloud the experiences we are having with our own thoughts.

The book is definitely pro-spirituality and needs to be read to be understood. The book can even perhaps open one up to spiritual experiences by its frequent descriptions of states of mind that are either hallucinations or real spiritual experience.

Q. Is Robert Pearson primarily a composer or is he really a writer? A person can't be a professional author and a professional composer, right?

A. This is a dilemma that has dogged Pearson for most of his adult life. In fact, there are many professional artists who do two arts equally as well. Pearson does not see himself as a better writer than he is a composer. In fact, many professional classical composers consider him an excellent composer and professional authors consider him an excellent non-fiction author and poet. These artists who do both arts are sometimes called polyartists (they are also called Renaissance persons). Pearson is a bit unique in that he is also a theorist apart from being just an author -- he has been actively contributing to world theory since the young age of 22 when he released the first versions of the Virtuism, ParaMind and other ideas in self-published books and journals and a arts magazine published in N.Y. Such a situation is considered by him more than a burden than a virtue -- the tendency for many people is think such a person is a bit crazy unless they are already well respected by many people. Such people are the inventors Buckminister Fuller and Nicola Tesla, the television celebrity Steve Allen, and rock stars Brian Eno and David Byrne. Even philosophers like G.I. Gudjieff and Rudolph Steiner, if they didn't have the strange metaphysical element (which cancel them out academically), would be considered polyartists and poly-theorists). In fact, today interdisciplinary studies are very popular in almost every university and many artists are similar to Pearson in some way of taking their work seriously in the theoretical level.

On this subject, Pearson has said, "It is a great burden to be the kind of person who coins new 'isms.' Many modern artists do it, some do it seriously, and many more artists do it as a type of joke. The fact that there are some people who do it seriously and have a type of grandiose delusion about the importance of what they are doing."

Q. Can I get Robert Pearson to speak at my group (college, church, institute)?

A. Yes. Robert Pearson has done professional consulting since 1994, and understands well the professional environment, having owned ParaMind Brainstorming Software since 1992. Pearson currently consults, gives talks and participates in forums on the subject of creativity in business, software related issues such as end-use, and positive cash-flow business model consulting in the software and other industries, and religion and mental health issues.

Q. The area of religious extremism is in the news today quite often, with the problem with terrorism, cults and lone individuals who go crazy in the name of religion and commit a crime. How can Pearson's book, "Hyperreligiousity: Identifying and Overcoming Religious Dysfunction" help this situation?

A. First of all it must be known that there is very little ability for any new author today to get their books noticed by the many without a huge amount of money or the luck of the draw: being one of those people who are picked up by a major publisher. Pearson sent letters to some agents and publishers in the beginning, but was turned down even as we were fighting terrorism. He decided to self-publish to get his ideas out to the public to help stop the craziness of the times we are living in.

Because of various resistences to new ideas, the idea of a book being written in language close to the average person's but using concepts of academic or "Western" psychology was a shock to many. The book was bought by people online, various local bookstores, even put in window and side aisle displays, but there were still some who rejected carrying the book. Academics have a problem addressing issues of the "common man's religion," and Pearson saw that theology should be built on issues relating to mental health. His two books on religion and mental health therefor form a type of theological guideline. It's more important for theologians to figure out how religions operate psychologically in people than how they operate purely "theologically."

Even though the books still have relative obscurity, Pearson succeeded in making "hyperreligiousity" a common word. Before the book was published, the word was completely obscure, only used by a handful of psychiatrists. It's not uncommon to see the word today used often on CSPAN, PBS, or on any number of talk radio programs.

Like the book on hallucinations in religious practice, the book actually has to be read to be understood. It is like a type of medicine for the person whose religion has caused them little more than pain and dysfunction. The book at once acknowledges the good that religion does and prevents it from doing any more harm in the person who is suspectible to the voices in the world that seek for people to become religious extremists. These voices are just as present in North America as they are in Iran or Pakistan.

Q. Robert Pearson writes about a lot of spiritual subjects, exactly what are his spiritual beliefs?

A. After many years of making himself a personal laboratory for spiritual beliefs, around 1989 at the age of 26 Pearson realized he should center his beliefs on a worldview that had a common acceptance amoung people and helped simplify a lot of abstract concepts. Pearson was raised Christian and at age 15 started reading Eastern philosophy and meditating. By age 18, he felt these ideas were not really helping him and for a while he came back to Christianity. By 23, he picked up the various Eastern and esoteric worldviews again but three years later again rededicated himself to more basic Christian ideas, that are influenced by self-discipline techniques influenced by studies of Gurdjieff, Yoga and other influences. These latter influences do not influence his basic theology, which could be called Judeo-Christian. He believes in the value of all religions as long as those religions believe in benevolence and are accepting of others. He finds it interesting that atheism, New Age and even Eastern Religions can be as intolerant in their own ways as they believe Christianity and Islam are.

Q. What happened to the old R.S. Pearson website? A. That can still be found here: Creative Virtue Press