The Voices of Genesis

Listening to the Spirits on the Ecstatic Journey to Enlightenment in the Garden

Nicholas E. Brink

Paperback
978-1-960090-64-5
US $18.00 Amazon Barnes & Noble
eBook available
December 2023

The seven stories of Genesis, of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, were passed down orally by the storytellers of antiquity before they were recorded in the Torah and Old Testament. Their metaphorical nature gives them a much deeper meaning than if they are listened to as literal history. We have forgotten how to listen to them as the ancients listened. A group of five of us listened in the state of ecstatic trance, trance that revealed their deeper meanings. The first revelation revealed what Eve learned from eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the dichotomy of good vs. evil. The endless list of such dichotomies with which we have lived for the last several thousand years: pain vs. comfort, love vs. hate, us vs. them, Israel vs. Palestine, etc., bring conflict and anguish to our controlling, patriarchal world. As we move into the New Age, we return to the matriarchal world of compassion and love, the world of such conflict dissolves, opening the gate for the return to the Garden of Eden.

NICHOLAS BRINK, Ph.D. is a past board member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, past president of the American Association for the Study of Mental Imagery, a certified instructor of ecstatic trance, and the author of nine books: Grendel and His Mother; The Power of Ecstatic Trance, Baldr's Magic; Beowulf's Ecstatic Trance Magic, Trance Journeys of the Hunter-Gatherers, Ecstatic Soul Retrieval: Applying the Constructive Approach to Cognitive Therapy, Loki's Children, and Listening to the Spirits.

"Nicholas Brink's ground-breaking book: The Voices of Genesis: Listening to the Spirits: on the Journey to Enlightenment in the Garden arrives in the "nick of time!" Outmoded ways of thinking threaten life support systems on our fragile planet. Brink shows how we can change our thinking and choose new stories by which to live so that all life can flourish. Using the practices of Ecstatic Trance, Brink and his colleagues experience the 7 stories of Genesis, deconstructing old paradigms so new ones can be born. The group's experiences suggest that peace, harmony and the promised land are 'frames of mind' belonging to everyone. Brink's courage in examining sacrosanct religious story, his dedication to scholarship, his willingness to stretch our imaginations - including his own - and to reveal how the spirits of our ancient ancestors can enlarge our wisdom today, all these make this book an important contribution to humanity's evolution." -Deborah J Milton, PhD, author of Ode to Gaia: Calling Forth our Imaginal Selves, Behind the Mask - an Illustrated Parable for Grown-ups Who Want to Discover their True Nature; awakeningstorylines.com

"We are children of stories: we never outgrow them; we listen to them from childhood to old age. Where are they leading us? In The Voices of Genesis, Nicholas Brink takes the seven great stories in Genesis, shows them to be a hidden account of spiritual/energetic unfoldment, grounds them in physical and energy exercises, and-working with five participants in ecstatic trance-finds that destination: a return to the Garden, the Promised Land, a shining, new, omnipresent, matriarchal world, the biome of the spirit. " -Matthew Wood, MS (Herbal Medicine), author of Seven Herbs, Plants as Teachers; and Seven Guideposts on the Spiritual Path, the Shamanic Story in Genesis

"People structure their lives according to narratives, the stories we tell ourselves about how the world works and our place in it. In Voices of Genesis, Nicholas Brink asks us to pull away from the narratives of separation and dominance that define our culture and to find new meaning in the old stories - from patriarchal dominance to matriarchal love, from a promised land that separates one people from another to one that embraces all, from a punishing god to a loving goddess. The five individuals whose journeys are explored in this book seek those new meanings, and find their way toward engaging with the world in a spirit of love and acceptance." -Donna Goodman is a long-time political activist who organizes for peace and social justice

"Nicholas Brink's latest opus shows us how focused listening to the drumbeat of time combined with ritual postures of our ancestors provides us with a 'time-free' clock to examine and experience ancient views and wisdom gained in our living journeys on Earth. Voices of Genesis awakens our consciousness into direct contact with the stories of our origins and brings them through our body's co-creative felt experience into the active vibrant present. May the collective imagination expressed through Nick's expert guidance and scholarship enliven new possibilities for crafting humankind's promised peaceful future here in Mother Earth's Garden." -Marianne Carroll, Certified Instructor of Ecstatic Trance