How nature’s wisdom can bring healing to the wayward Western mind

‘Life in the world is an epic, sacrificial research effort in the enterprise of natural self-discovery.’ Bernardo Kastrup

Readers of all or any of philosopher-scientist Bernardo Kastrup’s works might be surprised by the confessional tone of his new book which, as he emphasises, is based on his own life experiences as opposed to objective, detached scholarship, and belongs ‘in the realm of inner life, of soul existence’.

Addressed to us as Western minds, to our identity and fate, Bernardo’s cogent premise is that we have forgotten who we are, despite having never actually ceased being who we are, that we’ve lost touch with impersonal ‘Daimonic’ forces that would give us direction and an immanent context that could enrich our lives.

In The Daimon and the Soul of the West: Finding identity, meaning and purpose in a sacrificial life (Iff Books, August, 2025), we encounter a remarkable story about how Bernardo, amid profound personal struggles, has been driven to a philosophical tour de force spanning a dozen books published since 2011 — this wealth of vision having dramatically displaced a successful professional career as a scientist, tech entrepreneur and business executive.

In writing this inspiriting new book — a public commitment, he states — Bernardo has…