Book Review: Enchanted Love

One side effect of recovery from materialism that I've noticed is that life seems to take on a quality that can only be described as magical. The Course in Miracles says that is by design. Miracles are supposed to happen; we just need to get out of our own way.

But how does this relate to love? What most people think of as romantic love is better described as a combination of need and fear. The neediness and fear drive jealously and possessiveness. But when you get rid of that, what's left? The problem with unconditional love is it's inherently universal, and if everybody's somebody, then nobody's anybody.

Marianne Williamson, one of the most prominent authors who write about The Course, has the answer in her book Enchanted Love: The Mystical Power of Intimate Relationships. She says that romantic love is vital because "heaven is entered two by two." Any of us who have been in a serious relationship will know that it can show you the very worst aspects of your partner and your self. This is a good thing. According to the course (and most psychologists), the traits we dislike the most in other people are really parts of ourselves that we disown and project onto them. By bringing these traits to the surface, an intimate relationship gives us the opportunity to accept them, which is of course a prerequisite for real change.

I could go on and on about the book, so I'll close by saying that Ms. Williamson has obviously learned a lot about love, presumably the hard way. Her book can same you some time in creating the real thing for yourself. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Book Review: Love is Letting Go of Fear

Are you looking for a simple introduction to the concepts given in A Course in Miracles? If you are, or even just looking for a fun feel-good book, Love is Letting Go of Fear by Gerald Jampolsky is the right book for you. It's very easy to read, but gives you all of the fundamental concept of the Course: beliefs affect perception.

A warning for those who take themselves too seriously: the book is illustration-heavy, and the illustrations will seem overly optimistic. "I can just push fear and guilt aside? Wow! Who knew?" Maybe it is oversimplified. Most of have spent all of our lives with guilt and fear. It's hard to believe that we don't need to carry around this baggage with us any more. And because we don't believe, we don't try.

If you're reading the Course, you don't need this book, but pick it up anyway. It'll be fun.

Book Review: A Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles is a textbook for those on the mystic path to recovery. It contains 4 parts: the textbook, a set of exercises, a teacher's manual, and a glossary. This book is channeled; like all channeled books, the important question is: "have they got anything useful to say?" In this case, the answer is an unqualified "Yes!" In addition to a viable roadmap to the mystic path, there are some interesting interpretations of the Bible, one of which I'll talk about below.

As I mentioned before, the mystic path aims at direct experience of unity with God (or the Universe, if you prefer). Before this can happen, the "baggage" must be dealt with. The Course has a unique way of dealing with it: forgiveness. You deal with your baggage by forgiving what you see of it in others. However, the Course has an unconventional definition of forgiveness. It doesn't mean "you've done something terrible to me, but I forgive you"; it means "you've seemingly done something terrible to me, but what I really am cannot be hurt, so there is nothing to forgive." The extreme case is given by the Crucifixion, where Jesus said: "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do."

So how does this relate to baggage? It is a principle of psychology that what we hate most in others is the traits of ourselves that we push below the surface. Therefore, by forgiving them in others, we also forgive them in ourselves. As an example, have you ever been driving and had another car tailgating you and swerving back and forth to get your attention? If so, you probably have also been behind another car that was driving much to slowly and got a little impatient about it. The two situations are really two sides of the same coin. So if you can forgive the tailgater, you can also forgive yourself for secretly wanting to apply high explosives to the slow car in front of you.

Now for the workbook exercises: these are designed to be done no more than one per day. If it takes you more than one day to do an exercise, or you skip a day, don't worry about it. Each exercise consists of an idea that is to be applied in short sessions, and throughout the day. There are 365 of them, but, like I said, don't worry if it takes you more than a year to do them all. (Just between us, I only got through about 40.) The first half of the exercises is designed to erase your current way of perceiving the world, in order to make room for the perception given by the second half.

You can read the teacher's manual now if you really want to. The Course Police won't break down your door and arrest you. You'll probably get more out of it if you read the text first and do all of the exercises.

The bottom line? I've chosen the hermetic path, but I'm still reading the book. You should too.

Book Review: The Final Elimination of the Source of Fear

If you have chosen the mystic path and are having a bit of trouble with A Course in Miracles, The Final Elimination of the Source of Fear by Saratoga and Telstar can help. Judging by the authors' names, the book is either channeled or written by two people who take themselves much too seriously. On the other hand, I consider the content of a message to be at least as important as its source.

This book describes what it refers to as the source of fear, and details how it is responsible for everything that is wrong with our lives and with society in general. It claims that in the course of reading the book, the reader will be enabled to remove the source of fear from themselves if so desired. A method for doing so is even laid out at the end. Try it.

The description of the problem is similar to that given in the Course in Miracles, but maybe easier to understand for beginners. The source of fear corresponds nicely to the ego as described by the Course. There are helpful diagrams and hypothetical examples. It's also expressly stated that exposure to the ideas given will automatically start the process of the solution. The Course says basically the same thing, but recommends daily exercises. The Course has a slight Christian emphasis, while this book is more non-denominational.

If you haven't started reading the Course yet, or if you're finding it difficult to understand, read this book first.

Book Review: Everyday Grace

I mentioned in a prior post that the road to recovery is something you must devote your entire life to. It is not enough to learn some new principles or have an intellectual knowledge of unity. What we are aiming at here is changing our lives. Marianne Williamson, author of Everyday Grace is here to help.

Ms. Williamson lists five basic principles to apply to your daily life:

1. Miracles happen.


2. The angels are waiting for us.


3. Thoughts of judgement block the light.


4. The end is inherent in the means.


5. Sacred silence rights the universe.

The rest of the book illustrates how to apply these principles. In the morning, for example, why not read something inspirational (like the Course in Miracles) instead of watching the news on TV? Or try asking for a different perspective on the rude drivers on the freeway. Or try going into a meeting with the intention of doing or saying something helpful.

This book belongs on your reading list, especially if you have chosen the mystic path.

Book Review: Path of Light

The Course in Miracles is, without qualification, the best mystical path that I know of for those of us recovering materialists who come from a Christian background. If you abandoned Christianity because some of the doctrines seemed senseless and barbaric, the course will change your mind for you if you let it. It's what the New Testament should have been.

However, the course can be difficult to understand, and intimidating to approach. There are many books written to help with this, and Path of Light: Stepping into Peace with A Course in Miracles by Robert Perry is one of the best. This book will tell you what the course is about, what it can do for you, and how to proceed.

For example, the question commonly arises: in which order should the parts of the course be read? The short answer given is that it doesn't matter. The longer answer is that if you read the parts out of order, you will eventually find the need to go back and read the part you should have read first.

If you prefer the mystic path to the hermetic, you should read the course. In preparation, it will probably be helpful to read the Path of Light first.

Book Review: Disappearance of the Universe

According to A Course in Miracles, the universe as we know it is actually an illusion, or a bad dream. In the real world, we are all together with God. That may sound a little crazy to any newbie recovering materialists who may be visiting. Which brings me to this quote:

What would you do if you were sitting quietly in your living room when a mysterious couple appeared from out of nowhere -- and then told you they were "ascended masters" who had come to reveal some shocking secrets of existence and teach you the miraculous powers of advanced forgiveness. Would you call the cops? Call a psychiatrist? Call out for pizza?

Those of you who are further along the path of recovery will no doubt choose the third option. That's a good thing, because you wouldn't want to miss Disappearance of the Universe by Gary Renard, which is the best introduction I've seen to date to A Course In Miracles.

Just to give you newbies a bit of background information, there are two paths available to recovering materialists: the mystic and the hermetic. The mystic path aims directly at union with the Infinite; the hermetic path has the same goal, but the emphasis is on integrating the different parts of the personality and bringing the experience of the Infinite into this world. Recovering materialists should know about both paths in order to make an informed decision. Just for the record, I prefer the hermetic path, but your mileage may vary.

In Disappearance of the Universe, the two characters who appear to Mr. Renard give an exposition of the principles set forth in A Course in Miracles. The book is very easy to follow, with plenty of questions and answers and clarifications of the important points. The concept of forgiveness if covered at length (let's just say that it's not what you think it is). There's also a little plot twist near the end.

After reading this book, I then went on to read the Course in Miracles. You probably will too.

About Channeling

I've read a few channeled books. My first impression is that they remind me of Sturgeon's Second Law: "90 percent of everything is crap." But there are some worthwhile channeled books. A Course in Miracles and the Conversations with God series are two of my favorites.

Now, are these books really dictated by advanced beings, or are the human authors just making them up? There's a relevant scene from Monty Python's the Meaning of Life where a British Army officer has had his leg bitten off by a tiger during a war in South Africa. The search party runs into two men in a tiger suit. After a bit of interrogation by the officers, the officer whose leg was lost says: "It doesn't matter why they're dressed as a tiger. Have they got my leg?" In the case of channeling, it doesn't matter who is really speaking; have they got anything useful to say? From that perspective, it doesn't really matter if Ramtha actually was a 20,000 year old warrior prince from Atlantis, or the creation of a middle-aged woman. The important thing is, does he/she have anything useful to say? I suggest reading any channeled books from that viewpoint and not paying any attention to the author's personal history.