In books like Embyogenesis and Embryos, Galaxies, and Sentient Beings, author Richard Grossinger brought together the subjects of biological embryology and the esoteric process of human consciousness becoming embodied ("The embryo is the universe writing itself on its own body"). In Dark Pool of Light, his three-volume series of books discussing the nature of reality and consciousness, Grossinger weaves neuroscience-based behaviorism and the phenomenology of "being" and reality together with psychological and psychospiritual views of "that single thing which is most difficult to understand or vindicate: our own existence."

In Volume 1, Grossinger begins with the scientific and philosophical, analytical views of reality; the subtitle of that volume is The Neuroscience, Evolution, and Ontology of Consciousness. In Volume 2, Consciousness in Psychospiritual and Psychic Ranges, he examines psychic sensitivity and planes of existence from diverse experiential perspectives, including theosophy and Buddhism. In 2008, Grossinger began studying with noted psychic teacher John Friedlander, who helped him refine his vision of cerebral and somatic awareness to still-subtler levels. "Dark Pool of Light began unnamed in the journals of my psychic work with John Friedlander," says Grossinger, "not so much a record of actual practices as insights from them and extensions out of them." An expansive inquiry into the nature of consciousness, this volume includes these "field notes" and observations from Grossinger's studies in the imaginal psychic realm, as well as exercises to invite the reader to experience these dimensions for themselves.