What if the world we call “physical” is not physical at all?

Enlightening the Physical World explores a common anti-materialist view of the world shared by the eighteenth-century philosopher George Berkeley and the twentieth-century Direct Path inspired by Sri Atmananda Krishna Menon. Both approaches point to the same insight: Our familiar belief in an independently existing material world cannot withstand careful scrutiny.

This book examines Berkeley’s most engaging work, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous (1713), emphasizing useful insights for Direct Path inquiry into so-called physical objects. Through this shared perspective, readers are invited to reconsider what the “physical world” really means.

In this book, George Berkeley and Greg Goode present evidence in a clear and friendly way that transforms our effort to grasp the nonexistence of matter. — SANDRA PIPPA in Treia, Italy

This book is essential reading for any serious nondual practitioner seeking to understand not only how perception arises, but the source from which all perception flows. — KAVITHA CHINNAIYAN, MD, award-winning author of Shakti Rising and Fractals of Reality

Greg Goode has been studying idealist philosophy since the late 1970s, both through contemplative inquiry and in academic settings. He is the author of Standing as Awareness, The Direct Path, After Awareness, and Real-World Nonduality, which present the teachings inspired by Sri Atmananda Krishna Menon in clear and experiential language. In Enlightening the Physical World, he turns to George Berkeley’s critique of materialism, showing how Berkeley’s immaterialism can serve contemporary Direct Path students.