About The Author
Eugene Crowley
E. CROWNLEY BIOGRAPHY
Eugene Crowley, Jr., was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, near the end of World War II. He spent thirty-two years teaching grammar and literature in Chicago’s public schools from 1969-2001. He earned a master’s degree in general psychology from Roosevelt University in Chicago in 1989. He is a former member of the Jungian Institute in Evanston, Illinois. He has traveled throughout Europe and made a trip to South America in 2002.
Mr. Crowley published Upside Down World: The Loss of the Sacred Cosmos in 2009 with the American Book Publishers in Salt Lake City. He extended the focus of his master’s thesis, “Meaning in Life for Urban Adolescents”, to adults by encouraging them to reach a level of maturity by living more harmoniously with themselves, their fellow man, and the Universe.
The author sees a need for overhauling Western culture with the application of the moral and wise traditions that gave the ancient civilizations wholeness, order, and harmony. These cultures maintained a balance among the body, mind, and spirit. While some universities are eliminating their Classical Studies programs, Crowley sees a need for Western culture to understand the past civilizations’ spiritual, psychological, and holistic approaches to life.
Enthusiasm for wanting our culture to return to its roots with Eastern civilizations. He encourages the cultivation of man’s inner resources, which would give him his true spiritual identity and allow him to live life as the great prophets and philosophers had directed man to know himself. In his compassion to help humanity open its mind, Crowley wishes our nation and the rest of Western culture would adopt the great lessons and wisdom of the past to seek a more orderly and peaceful society.
In May 2016, Crowley participated in a James Baldwin conference at the American University in Paris. He spoke about “James Baldwin in a Post-Racial America”. This essay is included in Paris on My Mind. Baldwin echoed the wisdom of ancient scholars. Most people in our society are searching for identification and meaning in external objects. The correct place to look is within to discover the treasures of the mind that past mystics and prophets employed. They were the role models of the past. They should be role models for us today.
FEAUTURE OF THE BOOK
Paris On My Mind gives the truths of the past for its readers to become victors instead of victims over social conflicts. The first two chapters give the author’s early connection with Paris since his hometown, St. Joseph, Missouri, had a French founder, Joseph Robidoux. After participating in a conference, “A Language To Dwell In: James Baldwin, Paris, and International Visions” at the American University in Paris in May 2016, the author wrote his book. Baldwin depended on religion and the wisdom of the past in confronting social ills. Blacks, Whites, young, and old can use the wisdom of the past to conquer their adversaries.
