Rating: 
Summary: Living in the Light
Review: All I can say is...Damn...I met an old college buddy in New York City after 15 years. He told me about a freind of mine who has the power and needs help transforming it. I came back...she knew who I met and for what reasons. If you asked me 24 hours before "Do you believe in the other world?", I would have said no. Now after our conversations and reading this book you might say the light has gone on...Thanks for having it available!
Rating: 
Summary: It's OK...for what it was
Review: As a classic, this book effectively introduces the beginner to New Age Thought. The mirror principle, issues regarding one's "shadow", cultivating one's inner female/male, and the benefits of trusting your intuition are presented here in clear and readable detail. But I have two real problems with this book.
One: while reading, you sense the book's datedness. While all of Living/Light's ideas were revolutionary in the mid-80s, they were presented as a sentimental mishmash of popular New Age platitudes. To make the presentation worse, with no "human" examples to support these platitudes, Ms. Gawain is reduced to sermonizing them. Since the first edition of Living/Light, some of these concepts have been humanized and vitalized in other more recent New Age texts. (AND AS A SIDENOTE: The mismash problem may also be perceived in most of Carolyn Myss's books, which I find are generally superficial New Age/Christian surveys cobbled together to support a catchy but unproven hypothesis.)
Two: the author only speaks from HER perspective (i.e., white western female in the U.S.), but the universality of this book would force her to generalize for everybody, thereby producing guesswork not truth on how the human psyche works. For example, when she postulates that one's inner male is to surrender to his or her inner female (who's ALWAYS right!) to achieve spiritual wholeness, I get the impression that she's taking the position of a feminist, presenting men in a limiting old-world perspective. Also, when she tries to explain the inner motivations of gay people, and in particular, with male-male relationships, I find myself openly disagreeing with her arguments.
Still, what she offers BASED ON HER EXPERIENCES is valid enough for me to keep this book in my library. I'm glad she wrote the book at a time when New Age books were relegated to the specialty bookstore! I would hope however that in the THIRD edition, she'd hire a male, gay co-author to clean up the murkier portions currently in the second edition. My two cents.
Rating:
Summary: The book that changed my life for the better.
Review: I am buying this book for the tenth time because I end up giving it to friends. Never has a book reached so deeply and positively into my life. I highly recommend this book for everyone, but especially if you are at a point in your life where you need guidance.
Rating:
Summary: Life changing wisdom!
Review: I consider my self a serious student of life, always out of deep curiosity and many times out of a need to survive. I started thirty years ago talking to the best therepists and my wisest friends to find my way to good health and happiness. The process included writing down dreams as well as making time to think and talk about the messages my unconsious was sending me. Getting regular exersize, eating right, and maintaining friendships were the rest of the formula. Along the way I have read a number of books to guide me. "Living in the light" is, by far, the best book I've found on the subject. It is filled with insight and wisdom and is written in a clear, simple style that makes it easy to read in a couple of evenings. The author's instructions on how to tap your intuitive skills and the energy of the universe are powerful and breathtaking. Short chapters on the male and female aspects in all of us could help save a marriage. A must read for all students of life.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I especially liked that she talked about Male /Female within each of us as well as Male Female problems in relationships. This is not usually talked about enough in other spiritual books.
Rating:
Summary: Very wise, very helpful.
Review: I felt like I was "stuck" in my spiritual progress, maybe even fallen off the path altogether. Ms. Gawain not only described exactly what I was feeling, she gave me the encouragement I needed to work through this problem. I feel that she is a very wise woman, and I am indebted to her for sharing that wisdom in this book
Rating: 
Summary: Good ideas, but a wee bit strange
Review: I greatly enjoyed "Creative Visualization," so I tried this book out to. The reason I didn't like it as much is that a) it really gets into some heavy duty psychological stuff, and b) sometimes the stories are just plain difficult to figure out. She uses the example of the rescuer and the victim, where we should not be victims of others or spend our time always helping others out. So what exactly IS the answer? Kind of difficult to understand all at once, but there is a lot of good ideas that can help you change old patters of doing things.
Rating:
Summary: Good ideas, but a wee bit strange
Review: I greatly enjoyed "Creative Visualization," so I tried this book out to. The reason I didn't like it as much is that a) it really gets into some heavy duty psychological stuff, and b) sometimes the stories are just plain difficult to figure out. She uses the example of the rescuer and the victim, where we should not be victims of others or spend our time always helping others out. So what exactly IS the answer? Kind of difficult to understand all at once, but there is a lot of good ideas that can help you change old patters of doing things.
Rating:
Summary: Motivational/Inspirational/WONDERFUL book!!!
Review: I have read Shakti's "Creative Visualization" and "Living in the Light". Both were fantastic works of art that reinforced my life long thoughts that we all create our own future. Her books have helped inspire me to write my own book on self development and begin seminars to help assist others to create the beautiful heaven on earth we can all have if we only dare to follow our intuition and dreams!!!
Rating:
Summary: Good ideas, but a wee bit strange
Review: I have to agree with Yikes that this book isn't a good source of spiritual information. What you get is a lot of circular thinking, a mismash of new agey, "You create your own reality", fluff that is a sad copy of that spirituality should be. According to Shakti, the reason some folks don't have enough money is either because they are used to being poor or have a creative block somewhere in their lives that needs uncovering. Want more money? Just increase your budget and it will find you. Anyone who doesn't think it is a good idea to use your rent money to buy that parrot will be dissappointed with this book. Want to learn real spiritual principles? Study Tibetan and Shambala Buddhism (which is like astrophysics compared to this fluff) and read "A Gift from Daniel" by Karen Alexander. Want to understand the mind and learn about illusions? Read a book on cognitive behavioural therapy psychology, I recommend "Feeling Good" by David Burns.
|
