Wisdom of the Senses: The Untold Story of Their Inner Life

We know what the senses can do for us. They bring us colorful images of the natural order through sight, offer up the harmonies of the universe through sound, tantalize us with the smells and tastes in the world of culinary delights, and wrap us in the textures of the physical world. But what about the other side of reality? This work explores the untold story of the secret life of the senses, the inner seeing, hearing and smelling that take us beyond the physical realm into a higher order of experience. "In a world that is increasingly dominated by technology, it is important to reflect on the function of the five senses. Are the senses merely the portals of the material world, opening us into experience and desire, or are they a gateway beyond, an intimate opening into mystery and transcendence? This book awakens the heart from its material disenchantment, inviting us to venture beyond the threshold of our ordinary senses, to that spiritual world referred to in the famous lines by e. e. cummings: now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened."- M. Ali Lakhani, Editor, Sacred Web and author of The Timeless Relevance of Traditional Wisdom "This work is a sensitive, poetic, often profound exploration of the inner world of the senses. Herlihy shows us that taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing offer more than raw data about the world or fleeting moments of pleasure and pain; they can be pathways to deeper realities and higher truths, ways of approaching God. Packed with fascinating excursions into the nature of perception, cognition, memory, consciousness, and intellect, this book is a significant addition to the spiritual bookshelf." Philip Zaleski, Editor, Best Spiritual Writing series and co-author of Prayer: A History