#NextonDeck

What’s On My Plate

Currently on my plate is a little thing called Beyond Past Lives by Mira Kelly. Let me be honest I am not very excited about this book, this latest offense by Hay House is a bit out of my grasp at the moment. I was first drawn into past life regression for by Brian Weiss. I thought this book would be followable. Well it’s not.  I am really close to DNFing (this is a term introduced to my girlfriend who blogs over at Best Books Ever…basically means you just pitch the book because it’s become impossible)  this title.  I am a good portion thru this and am more excited about the other things on my plate.

However…I am totally stoked about The Map of Heaven, by Eben Alexander, the same doctor who had a near death experience who penned Proof of Heaven. This book is published by Simon and Schuster and is slated to be released later this fall. Upon just flipping through the first few chapters I am really excited about it. I know it seems like I only review books that i like, or am excited about. But I think I do. I also think it’s possible to write a book without running leading your reader in 50 directions at once. The biggest stumbling block for me with this Mira Kelly title is that she throws this huge concept of ‘oversouls’ and parallel lives out there without really ever preparing the reader. She relays her initial reaction to the phenomena but outside of that there isn’t much else for me to go on, that concept alone sparked a trajectory toward rejection on my part with this title from the moment Kelly introduced it. I am pushing through this title. but I don’t have to like it. But in order to give an informed review and criticism i must push through. To be clear this isn’t just a Kelly issue, it’s a Hay House issue. I am not sure why they pander to these kinds of audiences, but it doesn’t seem to gel together well to me. I might be wrong, but so far this book isn’t panning out too well. And in all honesty with all this over soul and parallel universe business they could have made this about 3 books. I could be slow but I feel like they are stretching the minds of their audience too fast too much. the plasticity of the mind is like delicate bread dough to be slowly pulled and stretched. this takes patience guys patience.

In other news….Meditation Relapse (my Bad Universe). I have had a few setbacks lately that have made finding a zen space rather difficult lately. Sensei Simmons would not be proud of me, but I don’t think he’d judge me either I am back on the wagon again, on that long road to infinity. The pendulum has begun to swing back in my direction. And with any hope I will be back in the swing of things (no pun intended). But I will be in Washington D.C, in a weeks time to see Oprah and Friends on her Life You Want Tour. I am a bit excited about that.

Book Review: The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer

The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

Author: Michael Singer

Published: October 7, 2007

Publisher: New Harbinger Publications

Source: Purchased 

It only took me about three months to read but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Imagine if Gary Zukav’s Seat of the Soul and Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth had a baby. That is what would happen here. It didn’t shift my worldview as much as Tolle did but I loved it. Singer was very concise, and didn’t use any whimsical language to make any of his points. There is one chapter entitled ‘Taking Down the Walls.’ where he walks the reader through an entire beautiful field, and building a majestic mansion in that field. The mansion in this allegory is the mind, and the field is consciousness, or a finite bounds of the universe. It is, and can be a beautiful thing. I read this book as I began to cultivate meditative habits that I picked up from Russell Simmons in his new book Success Through Stillness.

I would highly recommend The Untethered Soul: the Journey Beyond Yourself, to anyone who is a seeker like myself. I cannot promise you answers, I can’t even promise you that you will understand anything Singer is saying. Like I said at the outset, it took me a minute to get through this one. It should be drank like fine Chardonnay. Without giving you too much to swallow this book is a great supplement to the larger journey we are all on,