Thaddeus Golas: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia
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{{Short description|American writer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Use American English|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name image = Thaddeus Golas
| imagecaption = Thaddeus =Golas Portrait by Sylvain Despretz
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1924|6|15|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Paterson, New Jersey|Paterson]], [[New Jersey]], [[United States|U.S.]]
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'''Thaddeus Stanley Golas''' (June 15, 1924 – April 16, 1997) was an American writer active in the self-help, New Age, and psychedelic genres.<ref>{{cite news|title=Obituaries: Thaddeus S. Golas|work=[[Sarasota Herald Tribune]]|date=19 April 1997|page= 6B|via=[[NewsBank]]}}</ref> His most well-known work is ''The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment,'' which he self-published in 1972 and which was later picked up by [[Bantam Books]].<ref>{{cite news|title=The easy road to enlightenment|first=Robert|last= Hefner| work= [[The Canberra Times]]|date=11 December 2005|via=[[NewsBank]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=D.C.|last=Denison|title=Where there's no will|work=[[The Boston Phoenix]]|date=January 11, 1983|volume=12|issue=2|page=|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_boston-phoenix_1983-01-11_12_2/page/n35/mode/2up}}</ref>
'''Thaddeus Stanley Golas''' (1924 - 1997) was an American writer and the author of ''The Lazy Mans Guide to Enlightenment'', a blending of [[ontology]], traditional physics and spirituality based on his central idea “we are equal beings and the universe is our relations with each other”. <ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment|last=Golas|first=Thaddeus|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=}}</ref> He begins with the idea that the universe is not one big mind, but a vast number of equal and identical minds/beings. <ref name=":2" /> It has been in continuous publication since 1971 and has been translated and published in French, Spanish and Japanese.
From the book: “enlightenment doesn’t care how you get there”.
Golas refined and clarified his ideas in his last book ''Love and Pain'' where he backs up his ideas with an integrated map of reality.
Golas posits there is no such thing as [[Vacuum|empty space]]. What is called space is actually a vital ''substance'' generated by living beings who are highly intelligent, identical and equal. They are quite tangible yet they are invisible to our senses and our instruments except in their effect on energy/matter. Golas suggests these beings generate a strong expansive force which pressurizes space thereby creating gravity since the pressure of space pushes us toward the Earth. Therefore, space is far denser and more forceful than the thinly spread arrays of atomic particles and photons we perceive as materials and energies; space is substantial and energy/matter is ghostly. This model offers a solution to the problem of “The [[Dark matter|Missing Matter]]”.
Golas believed that energy/matter is these same beings in an alternate behavior of physically vibrating; alternating between expanding and contracting.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Love and Pain|last=Golas|first=Thaddeus|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=}}</ref>
Golas emphasizes that energy/matter and any structures of energy/matter have consciousness and feelings but no [[teleology]] other than to seek immediate comfort by adjusting rates of vibrations to harmonize with any others in proximity. This is [[panpsychism]] with a crucial provision: vibrating beings appearing as energy or mass have a significantly attenuated intelligence such that their behavior appears to us to be automatic rather than intelligent.<ref name=":1" />
Golas believed that beings who are not vibrating have no cognizance of energy/matter or it's formations. <ref name=":1" />
== Early life ==
Golas was the youngest of five children. His parents were born in Poland and met in the United States. His first ten years he lived in [[Paterson, New Jersey]]. His father died when he was four, and his mother remarried when he was ten. At this point the family moved to a farm in Pennsylvania with no electricity or indoor plumbing. The stepfather died four years later. Soon the family returned to Paterson, where Mr. Golas attended and graduated from Central High School. An avid reader from a young age, he elected for journalism classes and by 1939 he was working in editing and publishing for the school paper "''The Tatler"'', for the "''Colt Press"'' and "''The Paterson Evening News"''. During his childhood and adolescence he had very little advice, assistance or emotional support from family or community and was forced to be self motivated.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Lazy Man's Life|last=Golas|first=Thaddeus|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=}}</ref>
== Education and career ==
Golas volunteered for military service in late 1942 and was made Corporal of the 604th Engineer Camouflage Battalion billeted at [[Camp Campbell]] in Kentucky. He shipped off to [[Cardiff]], Wales, was stationed in England until August 1944 and then in France and Belgium where he served until December 1944. He briefly saw hostilities in the days preceding the [[Battle of the Bulge]]. He returned to the United States after being discharged honorably because of health concerns. He attended New York's [[Columbia University]] where he studied under [[Jacques Barzun]] and earned a B.A. Degree in 1948. He first worked as a proofreader for [[Betty Ballantine]] and then became an editor for ''[[Redbook]]'' Magazine. Later he worked at [[Harper & Row]] as a book representative. He held several publishing related jobs in the Midwest. He relocated to San Francisco where he also had publishing related jobs while writing "''The Lazy Man's Guide"''.<ref name=":0" />
== Publications ==
Seed Center Books, Even Lazier Publishing, an independent publishing company in Encino, California, publishes Golas' work.
* ''Love and Pain'', a 176 page paperback
* ''The Lazy Man’sMan's Life'', a 523 page paperback autobiography
* ''The Cosmic Airdrome'', a 140 page paperback which is a collection of articles and writings
* ''The Lazy Man’sMan's Guide to Enlightenment'', a 91 page paperback
* ''The Lazy Man’sMan's Guide to Enlightenment'', French language edition translated by Sylvain Despretz
* ''The Lazy Man’sMan's Guide to Enlightenment'', audio CD of the author reading his book
== References ==
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== External links ==
*[http://www.thaddeusgolas.com The Thaddeus Golas Café: Official home of Thaddeus Golas and his Cosmic Aerodrome]
*[http://www.seedcenterbooks.com/theseedcenter/2011/08/hello-world/ "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment", Seed Center Books Updated Edition.]
*[http://www.seedcenterbooks.com Seed Center Books: Home of Thaddeus Golas' previously unpublished works]
*[http://www.seedcenterbooks.com/theseedcenter/2011/08/hear-thaddeus-golas-tell-it-in-his-own-words/ The Audio CD of The Lazy Man' s Guide to Enlightenment, read by author Thaddeus Golas]
*[http://lccn.loc.gov/95021322 Library of Congress Online Catalog Record]
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