Crenshaw's Books & Decks

This is a good book about what intuition is, how it works, how it gathers information and how to use it in a methodical way to get answers from your queries, no matter how trivial or life-changing those might be. The author has a background in science, so she debunks the myth that intuition and psychic abilities are something extraordinary or some sort of gift some people have and others don't. Everybody is intuitive, everybody is a psychic, everybody can use intuition, and intuition speaks to us all the time on demand.

Lisa K. provides us with some clear examples of how intuition talks to us, how to distinguish true intuitive messages from ego-driven faux-intuitive messages, how to ask our intuition, the sort of questions to ask, the type of language that intuition speaks, some techniques to get intuitive replies to your questions, how to interpret your messages,and which activities help us to develop our intuitive abilities.

The book is great as a first approach to intuition, especially if you have never read anything about the subject. If that is your case, I would certainly recommend starting with this work, as it is well structured, easily written, and has a summary of the main points discussed at the end of each chapter, something I always find very useful. I found the chapter on meditation really great, right to the point, practical and, again, without any woo-woo halo: what is meditation? how do we do it? What happens when we meditate, and what we experience. I also loved the chapter that explains how the chakras and energy system work from a physiological scientific point of view, and why intuition can be felt in certain parts of the body.

The main downside of the book is that it is extremely repetitive and wordy; the same statements are repeated over and over, ad nauseam, within a chapter and throughout the book, something that can put some people off. I always blame the editors for not doing their job when this happens, as the book would be useful and enjoyable the same with half the pages it has now, and it would be more polished and read better. If you have read some books on intuition, this is still useful, I learned many tips and things I didn't know! However, the book might be a bit basic and lacking the depth and variety that other books have.

Personally, I found Laura Hay's Practical Intuition, Practical Intuition in Love, and Rule the World from your Couch as healthy and matter of fact, but also more challenging. If you want a book with a similar writing style and enthusiasm but with more exercises and techniques, I recommend the classic by Marcia Emery's PowerHunch. In fact Lisa K, and all of these books fit together perfectly to me, I would start with Lisa K's follow with Emery's and continue with anything by Hay.  

Overall a very practical and enjoyable reading. 

Jungian writers are usually complex beings with complex language, a high level of education, abstraction and symbolic understanding. Probably that is why the attract like-minded people, but not everybody wanting to learn a bit about Jung is prepared for the complexity and depth of Jungian everyday talk. So, if you know nothing about Jungian Psychology and want to start from the foundations without having to go through bothersome highly complex language, this is your book.

This basic introduction has everything you need to know about Jung, the man, how his life and personality shaped his contribution to Psychology and Science in general, the basic concepts and themes of Jung's approach to the human psyche, mental illness, psychoanalytical practice, his troublesome relationship with Freud and his supposed pro-Nazism. The chapter on Dreams is perhaps the weakest part, mostly because Jung's dreams chosen  seem a bit too complex and symbolic for a book that tries to be approachable and addresses the general public.

The language used is concise, approachable with the bare minimum technicalities, yet, with enough depth to make you understand the basics on which to build your knowledge about Jung and Jungian Psychology.

This is a good Kindle edition with good-quality photos, but the final index is not linked, unfortunately.