new book reviews

Be Still and Know I AM God - by Anonymous

This is a gem of a book, in the form of a dialogue between a seeker and his higher/larger Self, AKA God, I AM, the universe, all that is ...

The dialogue format brings a universal philosophy into likeable and understandable human terms. The questioner is anyman - “man” being the operative word in the too-long middle section dealing with a penis obsession. The answerer is that man’s own Self, but he comes only gradually to be convinced of it. Because it takes a while to undo the restrictive self-boundaries that we live inside, and to redefine self as the same “I AM” beingness that characterizes the essential nature of everyone and everything in this all-encompassing universe.

Through it all, the God who dialogues with this human self is himself human in personality, by turns forgiving, challenging, humorous, truculent, and in every sense wise. The anonymous author of this work is not merely engaging in an imaginative exercise in seeking wisdom: he has opened a true channel to inner and outer truth, revealing itself to the human bridge between inner and outer.

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The Power of Premonitions: How Knowing the Future Can Shape Our Lives - by Larry Dossey, M.D.

"If I had my life to live over again, I would devote myself to psychical research rather than to psychoanalysis." - Freud (quoted in Dossey, p. 155)

Larry Dossey does a vast amount of research to bring compelling evidence to bear on that widely experienced phenomenon known as premonition. That premonitions exist is demonstrated by both a wealth of anectdotes and a broad reporting of scientific study in the area.

The presentation and discussion of results suffers somewhat in this work tailored to a general audience. For example, Dossey cites several studies done which appear to “prove” that past events can be influenced from a later point in time. But he neglects to ask if such influence rather worked the other way, with the test subjects somehow psychically receiving the already recorded information instead of sending signals to retroactively alter that past information. While such treatments are in a sense superficial, and conclusions restated repetitively, overall this book represents a fair and compelling overview of findings and thinking in the field.

Dossey covers much philosophic ground in this work, as the subject inherently challenges conventional notions of reality and logic. One strength of the approach is Dossey’s grasp of quantum physics, a field that gives us a context for making sense of what most of us have experienced but few can explain. In essence our notion of linear time just gets in the way; in the quantum view all time is coexistent, and so it is possible to become aware of information that is apparently remote in time and space.

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The common thrust of both these books? That we are not alone, or imprisoned inside our skins, or cut off from what has not yet transpired, or slaves of the past. We have access to all deep knowledge and wisdom. We are all temporary variations of our One Self - and as such, we can become ever more aware of our living connection.

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