Abstract
This essay honors the life and legacy of consciousness scholar Allan Leslie Combs by exploring elder wisdom as an epistemic, ethical, and spiritual stance grounded in openness to the great mystery of consciousness. Drawing on Combs’s writings, Charlene Spretnak’s articulation of the Real, and Malidoma Somé’s teachings on elderhood, the essay contrasts elder understanding with contemporary psychiatric approaches that impose epistemic certainty upon the vastness and lived complexity of human consciousness. Portions of this essay are adapted from the author’s 2023 doctoral dissertation, Separation from the Real: The Power of Story at the Heart of the Civil Commitment Process, which examined how dominant institutional narratives can sever individuals from meaning, agency, truth, and the Real itself. Through story, reflection, and tribute, the essay invites a return to elder ways of knowing that honor the creative cosmos, the knowing body, and the irreducible and mysterious universe of human life.
Keywords: Allan Leslie Combs, consciousness, elder wisdom, the Real
Recommended Citation
Mathon-Nerad, P. V. (2025). A Return to the Real: Elder Wisdom, Story, and the Great Mystery of Consciousness. Journal of Conscious Evolution, 22(2). https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/cejournal/vol22/iss2/4
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Cognition and Perception Commons, Cognitive Psychology Commons, Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons, Transpersonal Psychology Commons
