Gerald Heard
Gerald Heard (1889-1966) was an historian, science writer, educator, and philosopher. Heard wrote many articles and authored over 35 books. Heard’s work was a forerunner of, and influence on, the consciousness-development movement that has spread in the Western world since the 1960s.
Heard was born of Irish ancestry in London. He was educated in theology at the University of Cambridge. After working in other roles, he lectured from 1926 to 1929 for Oxford University's extra-mural studies program. Heardtook a strong interest in developments in the sciences. From 1929 to 1930 he edited "The Realist," a monthly journal of scientific humanism (its sponsors included H.G. Wells, Arnold Bennett, Julian Huxley, and Aldous Huxley). In 1927 Heard began lecturing for South Place Ethical Society, and from 1932 to 1942 he was a council member of the Society for Psychical Research.
Embarking as a book author, Heard wrote The Ascent of Humanity which was published, an essay on a philosophy of history; it was awarded the British Academy’s Hertz Prize. From 1930 to 1934 he served as a science and current-affairs commentator for the BBC. In 1937 he emigrated to the United States, accompanied by Aldous Huxley, to accept the chair of historical anthropology at Duke University. In the U.S., Heard's main activities were writing, lecturing, and the occasional radio and TV appearance. His pattern was set as an informed individual who recognized no conflict among history, science, literature, and theology.
Heard left this post at Duke, settling in California. In 1941 he began founding, soon building, Trabuco College as a facility where comparative-religion studies and practices could be pursued.
Like his friend Aldous Huxley, the essence of Heard’s mature outlook was that a human being can effectively pursue intentional evolution of consciousness. He maintained a regular discipline of meditation, along the lines of yoga, for many years. In 1963, what some consider to be Heard's opus, a book titled The Five Ages of Man, was published.
Books
- Narcissus: An Anatomy of Clothes
- The Ascent of Humanity
- The Emergence of Man
- Social Substance of Religion: An Essay of the Evolution of Religion
- This Surprising World: A Journalist Looks at Science
- These Hurrying Years: An Historical Outline 1900-1933
- Science in the Making
- The Source of Civilization
- Exploring the Stratosphere
- The Third Morality
- Science Front, 1936
- Pain, Sex and Time: A New Outlook on Evolution and the Future of Man
- The Creed of Christ: An Interpretation of the Lord's Prayer
- Training for the Life of the Spirit
- The Code of Christ: An Interpretation of the Beatitudes
- A Taste for Honey (fiction published under H.F. Heard)
- Man The Master
- A Dialogue in the Desert
- Murder by Reflection (fiction published under H.F. Heard)
- Reply Paid: A Mystery (fiction published under H.F. Heard)
- The Recollection
- A Preface to Prayer
- The Great Fog and Other Weird Tales (fiction published under H.F. Heard)
- The Gospel According to Gamaliel
- The Eternal Gospel
- Doppelgangers (fiction published under H.F. Heard)
- Is God Evident? An Essay Toward a Natural Theology
- The Lost Cavern and Other Tales of the Fantastic (fiction published under H.F. Heard)
- The Notched Hairpin: A Mycroft Mystery (fiction published under H.F. Heard)
- Prayers and Meditations: A Monthly Cycle Arranged for Daily Use (edited by Gerald Heard)
- The Black Fox: A Novel of the Seventies (fiction)
- Is God in History?
- Morals Since 1900
- Is Another World Watching? The Riddle of the Flying Saucers
- Gabriel and the Creatures (U.K. edition entitled Wishing Well)
- The Human Venture
- Training For a Life of Growth
- The Five Ages of Man: The Psychology of Human History