How can we deal with the rapidly increasing pace and complexity of life, fear of terrorism and the threatening state of world affairs, climate breakdown, the confusions of personal relationships--without succumbing to stress, depression and illness? Halliday provides a way to assimilate the shocks of life experiences, so that we might live a more balanced life. The way to achieve this is through reconnecting with the centre of our own being, our consciousness. Halliday sets out not only the nature of this consciousness, but also its relation to the world of phenomena, to the nature of being, and in particular, to mankind. He begins by examining the meaning of terms such as sentience, consciousness and awareness. They are to some degree interchangeable and refer to, 'That in and by which we know what we know, and that we know.' If we ask ourselves what this statement means, we can only say that, 'We know what we mean. Consciousness is its own evidence', and thus we cannot indicate what we mean by one of these consciousness-related words, 'without appealing to that in us, which corresponds with their significance, that is, to that in us which knows that it knows'. Halliday sees a complex structure such as the brain, as 'a vehicle for the expression of the complex processes of an [already existing] sentience'. He posits that the ultimate source and origin of our being resides in an absolute field of sentience, and states that the true nature of the self is 'consciousness itself'. But, as beings with physical bodies, we are tyrannised by the limitations of our sense organs; by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain, by emotional charges in the records of our experiences, so that we often behave in a reactive manner--as if we were no more than animals with no free choice. But, if we remember the nature of our true self, and our source in consciousness, we can free ourselves from this enslavement and become human, that is, capable of free choice and action.
Eugene Halliday, artist and writer, was founder of two educational charities. A prolific writer and charismatic teacher, his published works include Reflexive Self-Consciousness, The Tacit Conspiracy, and Contributions from a Potential Corpse. His psychotherapeutic work enabled the recovery of many troubled minds and souls, yet he almost never gave advice, teaching people, rather, how to advise themselves. His work was founded in Love, which he defined as 'working for the development of the highest potentialities of being'. Those who were taught by him regard him in affectionate reverence as a man of great wisdom, humour and compassion.
David Mahlowe, Actor, Manchester Library Theatre. TV presenter: ABC In the North; Tempo; Ulster TV; Halliday's Literary Executor. Founder of the Melchisedec Press and the Halliday Review, to publish the work of Eugene Halliday.
Hephzibah Yohannan grew up in the creative circle around Eugene Halliday. An artist and writer, she has a degree in Philosophy from Manchester University and a Diploma in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. She is Eugene Halliday's biographer and now publisher of his work, being editor of the Melchisedec Press and the Halliday Review.
