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2023 Gold Nautilus Book Award winner! – top prize in the category “World Cultures’ Transformational Growth & Development”

A celebrated saga from ancient India tells of a young king who mysteriously shifts character and gambles away his kingdom. By unraveling this legend’s secret meaning, Escaping Maya’s Palace launches a sleuthing expedition into a distortion in psychological and spiritual growth that lies buried deep at the root of modern civilization. Today this undetected malady contributes to woes ranging from opioid addiction to social alienation, the rise of authoritarian populism, and environmental catastrophe.

Informed by long-lost wisdom from the Mahabharata, one of the great epics of world literature, award-winning author Richard Sclove explains how our civilization descended into this blighted condition. Integrating a missing psychological dimension into social theory and world history, this intellectually daring and engrossing work clears a path for remaking modern politics and economics, social movements, and daily life. This book’s profound insights offer renewed hope to a world in crisis.

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“Mind-blowingly insightful. . . . Sclove’s book unmasks fatal defects in economic thought together with surprising opportunities for social and environmental salvation.”

Richard B. Norgaard, Professor Emeritus of Ecological Economics, University of California, Berkeley, and author of Development Betrayed

“This is a stunning and audacious work of grand social theory. It is utterly fascinating, vigorously argued, and as evidence based as one could ever imagine. Sclove exposes modernity as a covert struggle, stretching out over four centuries, between economic growth and psychospiritual self-realization. . . . An intellectual tour de force with momentous implications.”

Penny Gill, Professor Emeritus of Politics, Mount Holyoke College, and author of What in the World is Going On

Meet Dr Richard Sclove

Richard Sclove has been the Director of Strategic Planning at the Mind and Life Institute, co-founded by the Dalai Lama, and a Project Director at the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. He founded and for thirteen years directed the Loka Institute, a nonprofit organization working nationally and internationally to make science and technology responsive to democratically decided priorities. He is also a cofounder of the ECAST (Expert and Citizens Assessment of Science and Technology) network and of the Living Knowledge network. Richard’s newest book, Escaping Maya’s Palace, won a 2023 Gold Nautlilus Book Award, which honors “better books for …

Meet the Author

Latest News & Blog Posts

Newsweek magazine publishes Richard Sclove’s essay about J. Robert Oppenheimer

Posted on 10th August, 2023

Richard Sclove’s Newsweek essay reveals a hitherto-untold story involving J. Robert Oppenheimer, a remarkable self-fulfilling prophecy, and the ethics of …

Escaping Maya’s Palace wins 2023 Gold Nautilus Book Award!

Posted on 29th April, 2023

Escaping Maya’s Palace has won the 2023 Gold Nautilus Book Award, snagging the top prize in the category “World …

The Audiobook of Escaping Maya’s Palace is out!

Posted on 29th April, 2023

The AUDIOBOOK of Escaping Maya’s Palace: Decoding an Ancient Myth to Heal the Hidden Madness of Modern Civilization is out! It’s beautifully …

“This is a stunning and audacious work of grand social theory. . . . Sclove exposes modernity as a covert struggle, stretching out over four centuries, between economic growth and psychospiritual self-realization.”

Professor Penny Gill, Mount Holyoke College, and author of What in the World is Going On

“Escaping Maya’s Palace is profound, powerfully original, and politically and spiritually sophisticated at a level that is very rare. It could be life-changing for many people and a catalyst for integrating deeper psychospiritual awareness into social-change movements!”

Sally Kempton, author of Meditation for the Love of It

Professor Richard B. Norgaard, University of California, Berkeley, and author of Development Betrayed

“Escaping Maya’s Palace is a remarkable book. . . . . If you are open to considering fundamentally different ways of thinking about the largest human challenges, Sclove’s book will give you a truly thoughtful and deeply informed point of entry.”

Professor Joshua Cohen, Stanford University, and Co-Editor, Boston Review

“An amazing and soul-nourishing book that courageously defies the taboo against integrating spiritual wisdom into modern scholarship.”

Professor Frédérique Apffel-Marglin, Smith College, and author of Subversive Spiritualities

“Richard Sclove is a Renaissance man for our times, weaving insights from a dozen disciplines into a dazzling string of revelations. His book presents a compelling new rationale for creating more self-reliant and culturally progressive local economies.”

Michael Shuman, author of The Local Economy Solution