E. L. Grant Watson, an English field naturalist, zoologist, and one of England's best-loved nature writers, spent a lifetime trying to bring nature and consciousness into a unified, holistic vision that would establish meaning in the world without losing wonder.

The questions raised by facts of nature inexplicable in terms of conventional theories, together with insights gained from a reading of Jung--as well as by a study of early Christian gnostic literature and the anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner--brought him to an imaginative perception of living things based on the conviction of the presence in all things of a spiritual reality.

"Love is of man, but wisdom is of nature, and there are times when it almost seems that the author's secret--as perhaps it will one day be the secret of a reformed scientific method--is to stand aside and let the wisdom of nature herself speak through him."
—Owen Barfield

Contents
Preface by Owen Barfield
Foreword by Ralph Twentyman

1. The mystery of instinct
2. Imaginative fantasy
3. Some patterns of adaptation
4. The creative world
5. Active participation
6. Some aspects of clairvoyant perception
7. Self-expanding systems
8. The enigma of physical death

Epilogue
Appendix
Index