Soul Stories

The Next Step for Humanity:
Soul Stories is a medley of reflections, stories, anecdotes, confessions, and poetic vision. It is deep and touching. The author, Gary Zukav, appears vulnerable and willing to share the fears and emotions he experienced and moved through to become the person that he is today. He also makes it clear that spiritual growth and self-awareness are a way of life, not an ideal place to attain once and for all. He is of the opinion that the longing for growth, awareness and self-realization is now happening in many different places around the earth and will result in a transformation of consciousness for humanity. A shift is taking place where people are operating through their heart, reaching for their intuition to guide them, seeking harmony, cooperation and partnership in their relationships and exhibiting reverence for life. His message is that this shift of consciousness is within our reach and may be the next step for humanity. In that sense, Soul Stories, reminds me of the work of authors Ariel and Shya Kane who are also pioneers of the Transformation of Consciousness and have developed the concept of Instantaneous Transformation, a radical shift in consciousness which happens in an instant and brings about transformation in all areas of your life. Two of their books relate particularly to Gary's book: How To Create a Magical Relationship, which explores the basis of true partnership; and Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment which explores the art of being present and discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary. If self-realization is on your list of aspirations, I urge you to check the work of the Kanes also.

A touching book that makes one think!:
As an avid reader of Brian Weiss, I had thought that I would have another dose of past life stories because of the title "Soul Stories". I was surprised, instead, to find several short stories that brought home the fact that many concepts including those of intuition, harmony, forgiveness etc. express themselves in our day-to-day ordinary lives, each and every day. We simply need to look within ourselves in order to find our own stories. A touching book that makes one think!

Starts off well, then turns to pee-cee mush:
I read one of this author's earlier books and found his karmic theories both creative and interesting but not entirely convincing. I recently acquired his THE DANCING WU-LI MASTERS and will read it next. Now as for SOUL STORIES, the first part was done very well I thought. It borrows very heavily from Buddhist cosmology which is a major interest of mine and there is nothing original by Zukav there, but it was good to read nonetheless because he synthesizes it in a very clear and readable manner. Then the rest of the book becomes the usual trendy, politically correct, pop culture nonsense. Artificially reversing gender roles, categorizing all humans as individually 'special' but as 'the same' in value, rejecting 'earth suits' as having no inherent value whatever, etc. Each of us being so special and unique but of the same worth, it is similar to the trendy thing where everyone celebrates their birthday on the same day in order to force-feed equality and make everyone feel good - and thus eliminiate the REAL special-ness of the individual and REAL birthdays and their celebration. With this kind of touchy-feely formula, everyone who is 'special' and 'unique' winds up in a vast, gray, boring mass. I personally much prefer the more noble Vedantic philosophy of a Nature inherently without any equality but in which individual humans are each given the opportunity to set themselves on a path towards the godhead/truth, their individual value and uniqueness predicated on how far they have moved themselves towards enlightenment and service to God. Most people are too materialist and selfish to get on the path at all and thus their value/uniqueness is low, others begin ascending but don't get very far. Yet a tiny few progress well and nobly and courageously upwards - THEY have great value and genuine uniqueness. THEY have risen above that boring gray mass of non-value. I doubt if Zukav would really understand any of that. He is just too pee-cee, period. AND is isn't the sort of thing people like to read as it doesn't make them feel good. This author has an interesting background but how he wound up immersed in all this New Age silliness is beyond me. Perhaps he is just cynically cashing in, as it is the sort of popular stuff people want to buy nowadays. Authors like this are a dime a dozen. As in, stick with the herd, feed the herd, and fatten on their stupidity.

Wonderful place to begin . . .:
I acquired this set of CDs to listen to while on a long-distance drive. They are very interesting and enjoyable. Zukov teaches moral principles with a series of parables--a long established tool for teaching. The principles he teaches this way are pretty basic, but foundational for us all. For those who feel they're more "advanced", remember that we ALL benefit from review and reminder on the basics. When he got to the subject of men and women that, at times, he came from a more narrow, "traditional" position, which saddened me. This seems to be the one area where he hasn't put away at least some of old fashioned but not necessarily good or helpful attitudes. Otherwise, I must say, this is worth your time. Parents, it will certainly give you additional resources for helping your children understand as well.

Understanding Soul:
Great read when your feeling down, The best explainations of love and life and easy to understand and read... Thank you Gary .. Nicole Author Rainy day poems and more 1 and 2