Dana Sawyer Interview

Dana Sawyer is professor emeritus of philosophy and world religions at the Maine College of Art. His primary expertise is in Hinduism and Buddhism, but for more than twenty years his work has focused on comparative mysticism, theories of the “perennial philosophy,” and the value of psychedelic experiences in the study of mysticism. He is the author of two critically acclaimed spiritual biographies, of Aldous Huxley (2002) and of Huston Smith (2014), and has written on a wide range of topics related to consciousness expansion, Tibetan Buddhism, Hindu mysticism, and alternative philosophies. His essays have been published by the University of California at Berkeley, the State University of New York, the University of Muenster, Germany, and have appeared in such popular journals as Parabola, Yoga Journal and Tricycle: the Buddhist Review. Most recently, he published an essay in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology on common errors in the ways scholars have characterized the perennial philosophy. In this conversation, Dana’s second appearance on Spirit Matters, we spoke mainly about the so-called perennial philosophy and common misconceptions about the similarities and differences among spiritual traditions. Learn more about Dana Sawyer here: http://www.dana-sawyer.com/