Jean Gebser

Jean Gebser (August 20, 1905 – May 14, 1973) was a prodigy, a student of the transformations of human consciousness, a linguist, and a poet.

Biography

Born in East Prussia, he left Germany in 1929 to avoid the fascists, lived for a time in Italy and in France. He then moved to Spain, mastered the Spanish language in a few months and entered the Spanish Civil Service where he rose to become a senior official in the Spanish Ministry of Education. He was also a published poet. He participated in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the left, barely escaping Spain in 1936. He lived in Paris for a while but saw the unavoidability of German invasion. He fled to Switzerland in 1939, escaping only hours before the frontier was closed. He spent the rest of his life near Bern, where he did most of his writing.

Related Topics:
East Prussia - Germany - 1929 - Fascists - Spain - Spanish language - Spanish Civil War - 1936 - Paris - Switzerland - 1939 - Bern

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Late in life, Gebser travelled widely in India, the Far East, and the Americas, and wrote half a dozen more books. Gebser was as much a man of science and the arts as he was a mystic. In fact it would be a serious mistake to believe that he favored mystifing dogma over transparent explanations. He was no proponent of fascist or other ideologies using various cultic symbols and myths for self-justification. He died on May 14, 1973 "with a soft and knowing smile". (Georg Feuerstein, Structures of consciousness: The Genius of Jean Gebser, p 32.) Gebser had written in Die Schlafenden Jahre, "When we are born we cry and weep, when we die we should smile." Algis Mickunas, emmeritus professor of philosophy at Ohio University was given a tape of Gebser's last death-bed utterances by his widow and this tape has been digitally enhanced by the media laboratory at the University of Oklahoma (for his weakened state and his asthma made him difficult to understand). This and other personal letters and publications are held at the Gebser Archives at the University of Oklahoma History of Science Collections, Norman, Oklahoma, Bizzel Libraries.

Related Topics:
India - Far East - America - Mystic - Georg Feuerstein

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