Crenshaw's Books & Decks

I've had an odd experience with this book. I first bought it when I was informed of my near lay-off after years working for the same company; I got irritated with the theoretical business academic approach to the subject and the fact that most examples were of high-profile business or finance people. So I stopped reading it. I retook the book a couple of weeks ago, a few months after I first started reading it and after going through the process of  transition on my own. All of the sudden, bingo!, Ibarra's words clicked with me, because I've found that many of the things that Ibarra mentions are really also part of my process of transition as I am experiencing it.

Working Identity is structured in two parts. The first discusses the process of questioning and testing our work identities, and the second describes the actions that increase the likelihood of making a successful change. Chapter 8 is a summary of the whole book and really the part where I recommend you to start because it goes through the main points discusses throughout the book minus the fillers. The appendix is quite academic, but not too dry, and it was necessary to understand Ibarra's methodology and theoretical approach to the research that produced this book.

Ibarra states that her objective was to generate rather than to test theory; also that her objective wasn't to predict who will or won't change careers, but rather to identify the basic tasks of reinvention. I think she succeeds at doing both things. Ibarra has a great insight into the process of change itself, which she describes with accuracy, and she's able to distil lessons from the many study cases and real life people mentioned throughout the book. Looking at my own experience in  transitioning, I find that many of the things Ibarra says are really true for me, too, even though I am not, by any means, a high profile finance guy.

Working Identity debunks the fallacy that our professional identity is one, and that our personal identity fits just one job identity. Regardless of whether the transition is voluntary or forced, and assuming that you want to change careers (otherwise you are wasting your time on this book), the core of the book is that our professional identity is as much a psychological construction as it is a social construction, and that transition takes us to roads that might be an extension, development or jump off the cliff from those things we are familiar with. The process of career transition is a long road of personal trial and error until we find something that it's just right and fits us perfectly. One thing is imagining ourselves  doing whatever, and another thing doing it; one thing is learning how to do something new and then enjoying it; one thing is imagining our life-long hobby for X being our profession and another seeing that this won't give us the life, money or fulfilment that we crave. However, if  we don't try those paths, we'll never know. Trying means learning on the spot, experiencing the challenges and chaos, and how we feel about the reality of the new 'thing' emerging, whether it suits us or not and whether we want to stay or move on. The process is intertwined with passion, drive, and our natural talents, but it needs of patience and perseverance.  Sometimes the career transition will take us to places that we never considered ours, or thought we would be good at, or thought possible, and yet, if we have the determination, persistence and drive we might end just doing something totally 'unlike us', which is very much us.
Ibarra's reasearch unearths 9 unconventional strategies for reinventing our careers:
1/ Act your way into a new way of thinking and being. You cannot discover yourself by introspection.
2/ Stop trying to find your one true self. Focus on which of your many possible selves you want to test and learn more about.
3/ Allow yourself a transition period in which it's OK to oscillate between holding on and letting go. Better to live the contradictions than to come to a premature resolution.
4/ Resist the temptation to start by making a big decision that will change everything in one fell swoop. Use a strategy of small wins, in which incremental gains lead you to more profound changes.
5/ Identify projects that can help you get a feel for a new line of work or style of working and do these as extracurricular activities.
6/ Find people who are what you want to be and who can provide support for the transition. They won't be in your same old social circles.
7/ Use everyday occurrences to find meaning in the changes you are going through. Practice telling and retelling your story. Over time, it will clarify.
8/ Step back for a little while.
9/ Change happens in bursts and starts.

If you have read a bit about change and transition possibly you won't be wowed by the list overall, and you have already heard/read some of the things in the list in other books. However Ibarra's focus on doing before thinking and her exploration of personal and professional identities, the many selves that we carry inside us, and how those selves morph during the period of chaos that goes from starting a career transition to really transitioning, as well as the importance of our personal 'myth' or story are excellent, enlightening and something that not everybody speaking about career transition will spend much time discussing, even though they are important, or so I feel. This was, as a matter of fact, what resonated with me the most.

THE DOWNSIDES
The first downside of the book to me is that the case studies, diary records and summarising of personal stories go forever, for pages. Those would have been necessary if this was a thesis presented in academic circles. As this is a book directed to the general public the need to be so exhaustive is not an issue. I understand the need to provide examples and real cases, but those occupy a good part of the written book. Was that necessary to convey Ibarra's point? I don't think so. She could have provide details of cases, without the need to go to the extent she does.

Ibarra says "It is better to start by trying out a possible new role on a small scale—in our spare time, on a time-limited sabbatical, or as a weekend project. And as we will see in the next chapter, an added—and necessary—advantage of experimenting is that while we are trying out new roles, we meet people who will help change our lives." (p. 113).  Most of the study cases are of financially stable people, quite well-off, who had the luxury of expending the time necessary to switch careers, juggle two things at the same time or take a sabbatical to work on their career reinvention. However, most people coming to this book, won't have that luxury. Ibarra itself explains that people who lose their jobs are at a great risk of short-circuiting the process as they can't stagger their time out because basically, for the transition to flourish, it needs of a basic level of security, personal, economical and psychological. However, she provides little evidence of this because his group of study basically has no person who is transitioning in that way, or is in their mid 50s, or unmarried for example. This being the case, many of the people who will get this book looking for help and inspiration will find that there is little for them in those examples.

IN SHORT
If you read the book after your career reinvention, it will make great sense. If you do so at the beginning you might get irritated at the lack of how-to (because her how-to items of advice are too generic to be of any use), and, as Ibarra herself states the how-to varies from person to person and their circumstances. So, that's what I call a how-not-to-do a 'how to do". Overall, a very well-researched book, with great insight of what professional identity is.

TYPOS
At least on Kindle for PC and in my android, there are repeated cases of lack of hyphen in cases where a word seems it was. Perhaps a space is what's is missing. I don't know. See for example:
> twoyear period (p. 100)
> a highprofile legal dispute (p. 106)
> thirtytwo (p. 178)

I had read many books on dreamwork before I came to read this book, enticed by a talk given by Bosnak himself.

This is a little wonder of a book,  little as in introductory, not as in simple or irrelevant. The book has the right balance of depth and practicality, and it is a terrific initial guide for people wanting to become dream practitioners or for those who want to work with their own dreams on their own or in groups.

Bosnak gives simple but very effective exercises to favour dream recall in general, to recall specific dream objects and spaces, to create a memory storage room, explore the awakening space, and write/record your dreams. The case studies chosen to show his system or working with dreams are really wow -- interesting, intriguing and enlightening, so exemplary of what dreamwork is all about, the magic that brings to the awaken life, the  psychological emotional and spiritual depths it takes you, and the juice you can get from even the most 'normal' dream. Some of the things Bosnak says about the nature and essence of dreams are really  mind blowing, and one closes the book wanting to listen to him more, read him more, and wishing that the book had been less little and more more big.

Bosnak is a Jungian analyst so you can't get  the Jungian out of him (nor would want to), as this is, precisely, what makes his approach to dreams so profound. Also, Bosnak is the father of Embodied Imagination, so he speaks of it as this was the daily bread on a tradie's table. He makes a terrific effort to put things in every-day language with minimum jargon and makes  difficult concepts accessible to the general public.

On the down side, lay readers, those with no knowledge of Jungian stuff, or not familiar with his system, might find some things difficult to understand because some concepts are just sketched out and would need of more space to be properly explained. I found that this was the case with the chapter on psychological alchemy in dreams, which is very good, but too  short for the average reader to understand the specific way that some of the associations related to the three main alchemical elements link; that was my case, at least.

I found the chapter on image amplification the weakest in the book, not well developed or round enough to be successfully used by a person with no previous experience in image amplification. Exercise 10 on exploring the world of imagery using the main three alchemical elements isn't clear enough to me, either.

Active imagination is something easy to grasp for people who are mostly visual, like me. However, many people aren't visual at all, are more audible or kinetic, so I wonder how do those people approach active imagination.

The book was written in the late 1980s, so unless you really nuts about audio-recorders, you can easily use your smartphone voice recorder easily or use one of the many applications that allow you to record, write and explore your dreams.

Overall a wonderful read, with a great insight, tools and tips to start dreamworking the wow way. 

A book for both men and women, Flirtology is a mix of flirting for dummies, an SOS guide to human connection  and interaction (not just romantic), and a clear-head common-sense advice on healthy dating, enveloped in Jane Smith's warmth, no-games, no-tricks, no-fake approach to dating.

Written in a very chatty and witty tone, the book is very well structured and clear, with any question you might ask already presented and answered for you. It reads easily and is not only helpful, but also very entertaining. As you could expect, there are many real-life examples, but the stories are short and sweet, to the point, never too many, never too long, never too self-centred.

This book will especially impact people who are very rational and have little tolerance for babble or BS, people who value common sense, honesty, genuine people and relationships, and appreciate warmth. Many of the things that Smith says aren't really that new or wow, and they were said before any anthropological project came into fruition, but Smith wraps things very nicely and links connecting with strangers, connecting for flirting, flirting and dating in a very organic way. Besides, the fact that she has lived and studied human connection in different countries and cultures gives her statements a depth and believability that other books don't have.

Smith's Flirtology System is what she calls the HOT APE system; the acronym stands for the main points of flirting: Humour, open language, touch, attention, proximity and eye contact.

I LOVED
Smith promises, "the book will: debunk the myths that surround flirting; give you sure-fire ways to avoid those awkward tongue-tied moments; make sure you never fear rejection again; make you believe that you too are a fabulous flirt; help you pinpoint what it is you are looking for; unlock the secrets of my H.O.T. A.P.E. system to bring out your inner flirt encourage you to practise, practise and practise (and have fun while doing it); give you the confidence to speak to anyone, anywhere get results, without ever compromising who you are."  (pp. 13-14). I think she delivers.

Smith debunks online dating and online relationships in a very matter of fact, scientific, rational way. If you want to connect you need to go out there, that is the place where most people interact and where most people, still today, find their partners.

Smith's advice promotes healthy relationships based on presenting a real version of ourselves to attract people who resonate with our real selves, making ourselves responsible for our own happiness, minimising physical attraction as main element of attraction and focusing, instead, in those things that we want to be there in, say, five years. Her deal-breakers section is really helpful and, again, debunks many myths. Are our deal-breakers really so?  She does not tell us which ones to chose, just to be serious and sincere with ourselves, so those main five we chose really matter to us long term and help us cut short relationships that aren't good for us.

Her advice on how to beat fear of failure and rejection is amazingly clear, simple, and convincing. Extremely helpful.

THE MAIN TASKS
> Get into the practice of talking to people asking at least one question to five different strangers, and try to build rapport with at least one stranger.
> As a question, anything, see how the other person responds, if they do positively continue building rapport.
> Ask open questions and be present while talking to the person, so that we take everything of what is happening in, the looks, attitude, body language, reactions and vibe of the other person.
> Walk up to strangers; smile at commuters on public transport; ask people questions which are more than a simple query about the time.
> Give genuine compliments to strangers.

DOWNSIDES
> The "what sort of flirt are you?' quiz was nice and sweet, but also too simplistic to help decide on a real profile.
> This is not a book for introverts as much as extroverts and shy people. Although many of the items of advice are applicable to anybody, introvert or extrovert, there are too many parties, pubs, and bars mentioned in the book to be something that an introvert would be going, wanting to go or enjoy going to. The pub and drinking culture are very strong in the UK; however, where I live, you don't find quality men in a bar, you find flings.
> Many times (I have experience that myself) flirting is interpreted as 'I am looking for a rout' instead of real flirty sassy get-a-date sort of thing. I wonder whether there is a reason for that, if it is cultural, and whether flirting has some lines that should not be crossed not to get into trouble. Nothing of the sort was mentioned or discussed in the book.
> Some of the advice she gives contradicts that given by other dating gurus. So, whom do we believe?

Sidewalk oracles are simple and fun ways of gathering intuitive information to help you navigate life by posing a question to the Universe to get guidance on any matter or let the Universe get you some items of information about matters that concern you.

Moss is a storyteller, a wonderful speaker, and has the virtue of mixing entertainment with academic and practical knowledge through his personal journey as historian, journalist and shamanistic dream-work master. His style is unique, and mixes chit-chatty sort of writing when he narrates episodes of synchronicity, with an erudite knowledge of folk culture and mythology and more serious writing when deals with those.  Personally, I like the way Moss uses antiquity Greek-derived words to describe intuition and divination; it's something unique to him, and his chosen semantic field gives an elegant varnish of luxury antique to his writing.

Synchronicity is something difficult to explain if you haven't had a direct experience of it. In this book, Moss is able to define and describe synchronicity in a way that is easy to understand by lay readers, so they get to know how synchronicity manifests and how it feels. Moss calls synchronicity kairomancy,  making magic by seizing special synchronistic moments, and includes any form of divination you might want to use.

Moss provides readers with a historically sound and beautiful contextualisation of synchronicity, not as something 'invented' by Jung, but as a concept that is intrinsically linked to very ancient cultural beliefs from around the world. Thus, "A wall around Jung Tower" is a voyage to the China of the Tao and the Book of Changes (I-Ching), to Australia and the Aborigines' dream culture, to the Native Americans cultures, and to the Nordic realms of the Wyrd.

Section three contains the twelve 'rules' of kairomancy: 1/ You attract what you believe, feel or think. 2/ Oracles speak best when you have a query or worry in your mind but aren't looking for anything specifically or focusing on it intensely. 3/  The law of spiritual gravitation or attraction. 4/ We live in a conscious universe where everything is alive, connected and spirit. 5/ Pay attention to recurrent themes, symbols, images and events that keep popping up in your life. 6/ Coincidence multiplies when we are travelling. 7/ For every setback there is an opportunity, sometimes the breakdown comes before the breakthrough. 8/ Called or not, the 'gods' are always present. 9/ Our paths constantly interweave with those of numberless possible parallel selves and the spirits of the land. 10/ Marry your field, i.e. your creative force, whatever that might be. 11/ Dance with the trickster, that power that open doors in life when we need to change and recover our sense of humour to counterbalance any over-controlling ego-driven agenda. 12/ The way will show the way. There is also one oath for the kairomancer: being open to new experiences; available to set aside and step out of boxes; being thankful for secret-hand shakes and surprises; and being ready to honour our special moments by taking appropriate action 

Section four is the core of the book, seventeen side-walk oracles, which can be summarised as follows:
1- Play Sidewalk Tarot. Pose a question on which you need  guidance, chose a frame time, the number of cards you want to get or let the Universe decide on how many, and see what pops up. One card is enough, though. Anything that enters our field of perception any of our senses is considered a card in play. It might be a recurrent sound, smell, logo, dream, or event. 
2- Walk a dream. Take the images of any dream significant to you and see what happens in hour awaken life that comments, highlights, or brings meaning to the symbols or stories from your dream.
3-Keep a journal, totally secret, in which you note your synchronicities, odd happenings, symbols unique to you, dreams, serial events, patterned findings or events, items of personal superstition, and so on. You'll be able to use it as your personal oracle deck and as a repository of information to consult with.
4- Listen to the first sound that comes from silence or the shapeless noise in a street, and see what they tell you.
5- Bibliomancy -- open any given book, at random, and blindly put your finger on a line in the page, and see what that line or paragraph says and how it relates to your query or your life.
6- Play with shelf elves, i.e. pick up those books that appear around you, fall on you, you stumble upon, and notice those that disappear, and see whether the title or the book itself help you with your queries. 
7- Notice your chance encounters, see how your energy relates to that of those people, and if something shifts in you when you have them close.
8- Notice your slips of tongue, screw-ups, typos, and memory lapses and see what they are trying to tell you.
9- Notice which song is playing in your head or you are singing over and over, and how it makes you feel, what it says about your mood and life. Change it consciously if it is not helping you. 
10- Notice any déjâ vu moments, already dreamed moments and already lived moments, record them and see what followed each of those moments.
11- Imagine that your feelings, worries and troubles are a real person knocking at your door, open it, and establish communication wit them and decide whether you let them in, out or send it elsewhere, what they are trying to tell you, what you want to tell them, and so on. 
12- Notice a situation you have already been in life before and apply what you learned from the past to avoid making the same mistake.
13- Be aware of which superstitions or omens you believe in personally and don't disregard them. When they reoccur, note them down and see what happens after the event. 

14- Listen to your body (your gut feeling, changes in your energy), notice and record any relevant episode that follows. Develop your own code of positive and negative body signals.
15- Participate in a dreamwork circle to share your dreams and get feedback on them, so other people can help you decode those symbols or dream fragments that aren't clear to you. You can play the game with anything, like some serial events, weird happenings, a synchronicity, and so on.
16- Create a card deck with synchronicities, dream fragments, odd events, funny stories, coincidences, the song line that is in your head. Then shuffle the cards and ask the oracle for guidance. You can play it in group or individually and apply similar rules to those used in dream circles.  
17- Write a message or letter to a person close to you whom you haven't seen in a while and want to talk (it is OK if is not a close person, too) do not send it, and see if the person contacts you, come across you, and gets the message in your letter.  

THE DOWNSIDES
There is a tendency amongst New Age writers to trivialise synchronicity, so readers get that this is a sort of 'small world' coincidence, nothing remarkable to write about. I believe that many of the examples that Moss gives in this book help readers to see what synchronicity really is. However, at times the examples he uses are also so generic and trivial.

I found sections five and six enjoyable but totally unnecessary, I would rather have a short and sweet book than one with too many examples.  "On Other Planes" is a collection of personal examples of synchronicity while flying. They are really great for a live event, for a blog or newsletter, for a book that already has many examples before getting here, not so much. The same can be said of section six, with endless examples of the fox as archetype of the trickster, sometimes not clearly related to sidewalk-oracling at all, at least to me.

Just a note. Masaru Emoto experiments on water, which Moss mentions in the book, were heavily criticised by the scientific community, so ignoring what the flaws of the experiment were, it is just biased writing.  

IN SHORT
Overall, this is a short enjoyable book, well structured and very practical, with a superb introduction on synchronicity and personal stories galore, perhaps too many. 

I wasn't sure whether to buy this volume due to the many non-enthusiastic reviews I've seen around, but I'm glad I did. I found some of the events and characters in the previous two volumes a bit unpolished, not well profiled, superficial, a bit silly, but once I read this volume, they all make sense. This is a flashback in time for each of the main characters, in separate chapters, and also a multi-time flashback for each of them, so we get to see and know from where they are coming from. To me that's was the right thing to do to give the story soul and psychological depth. Even the annoying Driller the Killer makes sense once we read the chapter devoted to it in this book.  As a stand-alone volume might not be worth buying, but if you are reading  or intend to read the whole series, this is a must.

 I am always mesmerised by Nguyen masterly drawing and water-colouring. It is a total delight to see each of his vignettes, no matter what he's painting, faces, landscapes, outaspaces, details, anything.  I resented, though, some of the imagery, which was too familiar and associable with characters I've seen in the old Star Wars and Totall Recall movies.

I love the lettering used in this series. Very creative and audible, if that can be said.

The Kindle rendering of the book is excellent, with awesome quality details. Double tapping individuate vignettes and allows us to swipe between them effortlessly; however, some of them do not automatically seize to the preferable reading size when there are vignettes with small lettering, but pitching out each vignette solves the problem.
 
Overall, very enjoyable, and I loved the story between Effie and Andy.   Also, very short and a bit pricey. 

Leveraging the Universe is a quite a cool book for a LOA book. It has many of the teachings of the genre, less BS, but a lot of magic. Dooley mixes principles from the LOA (effortless manifestation) with 'old school' advise (take action) on how to get from where you are now to what you want. It is a win-win advice, a safe position for any author to stand on, and for any reader to act upon. The middle way is the wiser way. Old adages never die and never lie.

The book is well structured, and Dooley's writing style is fresh, enthusiastic, approachable and enjoyable. Each chapter ends with a key summary of the main points discussed therein, something extremely helpful to re-read or revise the book without having to go through the bits that don't really matter. There are some exercises and journaling required, just if you want, to help you decide what you want and on your plan of action.

One of the things I like the most in this book is that Dooley himself anticipates some of the queries and apparent contradictions the readers might come up with, so what he says feels congruent and organic despite its apparent incongruities. Clever!

I especially liked how Dooley defines happiness: "True happiness is not contingent upon things happening in your life. Happiness is a state of mind. Happiness is an appreciation for life itself, for yourself, for where you are, no matter where you are." (p. 167).

MAIN CORE POINTS AND TEACHINGS
> We are all one and interconnected.
> Thoughts became things, so you better manage your thoughts and put them on the right things, because if you think in a certain way, you will act and feel in a certain way, and will have a certain energy around you, all of which has a direct impact on the way life unfolds for you personally. Your thoughts create your experience, so deliberately monitor your thoughts, weed those that don't serve you, and grow that will help you get what you want, see things the best possible way and uplift you. If you do, you will see 'miracles' happen, and things change dramatically.
> Your beliefs and feelings also create your thoughts, so the best way to change your thoughts is to work on your belief system, and change those things that don't support you.
> Monitor what you say, as words are the manifestation of your thoughts. Watch and wash your mouth!
> Nothing is wrong with you because you are not there yet. You don't have to focus or linger on what brought you here or how you will get there. Everything works in the end. Even if not realistic, it sounds truly uplifting and motivational to me.
> Take action, keep going, take tiny steps so that you don't get overwhelmed but are still moving. Do all you can, with what you have, from where you are and the magic of life will unfold. Be patient and persistent. The fact that you can't see results doesn't mean you are far from them, you could be really close, steps away.
> Focus your attention on the things you would love to do, want to do, not on those that you should, must or might. If you know what you want to do, go and do it, otherwise do anything. Give yourself a deadline and take tiny steps consistently. Do something, do your best, and remember that some negative experiences will turn to be blessings in disguise.
> Where you are is never who you are. A statement to frame!

DOWNSIDES
>> The book is unnecessarily wordy and repetitive. Really, if you put all the summary points of the book together, you have everything you need to know to understand Dooley's message.
>> Some of Dooley's trademark "Notes from the Universe" might sound great if arriving via email in a weekly newsletter, however, I found that, at least for me, they were not necessary or added anything to the book.
>> Dooley loves the world "fulcrum", which he uses a lot throughout the book. I found it pretentious.
>> Dooley says that invisible limiting beliefs, even if possessed, need not ever be discovered to navigate beyond them. I find that also uplifting. Actually, liberating. Any professional Jungian psychologists will tell you that it's extremely difficult to unearth your limiting beliefs, and even you do, it's even more difficult to change the effect they have on your life. That is, unless you go under therapy. So, what the heck, you have a license to focus on what you want and forget about the trauma of the past. I mean, I guess unless you really really had some real trauma.
>> Dooley's main point is in this book is that thoughts create your reality, but Prentice Mulford said that in his book Thoughts are Things in 1908!

IN SHORT
An enjoyable read overall. It has wise advise, albeit not original, but it is more of my liking than many other LOA books.

I usually love Dillard's approach to intuition, psyching abilities and the magic in our real life. I have read three of her books and found them not only a great read, but very good to explain themes that aren't straightforward in a very knowledgeable, sensitive and understandable way. Unfortunately, this book has been  a disappointment as I find it rushed, unnecessary long, and messy at times.

The first part is an introduction to symbolism, the importance and significance of symbols in different cultures, and the sort of symbols you can find and 'who' sends them. It is a very basic good introduction for people who know nothing about symbols and want a bit of contextualisation. This section is also a bit simplistic, so if you are really interested in symbols and symbolism start by reading anything by Joseph Campbell and Jung's Man and His Symbols.

The second part is the core and the best of the book. It is devoted to what Dillard calls "The Living Oracle", an intuitive system to gather information so that you can reply to personal queries which help you navigate life, especially when you are at a crossroads in life. The Oracle relies on the interconnectivity of the whole Universe, of which we are all part, and that nothing is separated from us, the ripple effect works at all levels; the Universe as a whole is all connected and living in a time-space continuum in which present and future are all accessible and, in a way, coexisting. This interconnection makes possible to tap into it to get answers to your queries.

Dillard presents us with different techniques to gather information, turn it into symbols and interpret them in different 'spreads'. All what she says about gathering intuitive symbols, how to make queries, the sort of queries you make, are valid, and I have experienced them to be right on point myself. One of the most important items of advice she gives is that

" To become aware of the guidance that you are seeking , it is necessary to let go of the way that you want the answer to come to you and be open and receptive to the many ways spirit communicates". (loc. 102)

The Living Oracle, is like a tarot card spread made out of symbols you gather outside in real life, your neighbourhood, for example. You make a query, say, should I take this job? Go out for a stroll, and see what things, odd, unexpected, repeatedly, are you drawn to or pop up from nowhere. Then you put them together as if they were puzzle pieces, and interpret them as a cluster. Your answer will be there, it will resonate with you clearly, and you might get an aha! moment. Even if you don't trust the results, you will be able, later further down in time, to see if the answer was spot on or not. 

A good part of the Oracle is synchronicity. I have experience the magic of it in my life many times, but I found that some of the examples used in the book trivialise synchronicity. I believe that other examples would have been more revealing for those people who don't know anything about or haven't experienced the magic of it.

The third part, which covers most of the book, is the dictionary of symbols, mostly common urban symbols. Each entry is short and sweet, but I found that none of them resonated with me. I felt this was a stir-fry of Dillard's personal symbolic associations and information you find in generic dream or animal dictionaries. Nothing wrong with that, if the dictionary was for herself. There are universal and personal symbols, but even the former can be tinted by our personal attachment, or lack of, to them. For example, green might be a beautiful positive colour for some people as it reminds them of new beginnings, spring, and the heart Chakra, while it might be a negative colour to others because they associate it with toxic waste, supermarket discount adds, and their nasty father's fav jumper. Dillard, of course, knows that, and, in fact, she explicitly says:

"You may need some help to further interpret it. If this is true for you, consult the glossary for additional insight. If the glossary interpretation does not seem to make sense, interpret your concern, question, and current situation symbolically and look at how the meaning of the sign describes or connects to it." (loc. 1398)

So one wonders why, then, the need to present a book with half of it devoted to a symbol dictionary that might not resonate with many people, me for example. 

The further reading area is useful, some classics were there, but others like Campbell or Johnson were not, but good enough for the general public.

The book is beautifully edited for Kindle, with links to the contents index at the end of each chapter (so handy!), and no typo on view, all things that I truly enjoy and don't take for granted. And what a gorgeous book cover! 

 Dillard is a deeply spiritual and religious person and, therefore, her work relies on Spirit. She's not dogmatic or preachy about anything, but if you aren't into angels, ascender masters and the like and don't believe in the afterlife, and still want to develop your intuition, you might want to go other authors that have no spiritual varnish but offer similar ways of gathering intuitive information: Laura Day, Lisa K, Marcia Emery for example. If you are really spiritual and religious, this book will especially resonate with you. You might also want to check Robert Moss's work, who has been presenting similar exercises for decades, lately in his book the Sidewalk Oracle, and has a more shamanistic playful approach to it.

There are graphic books that enchant because of the quality detailed artwork, others because they have one's favourite characters in them, and others because they are like an entertaining movie that one truly enjoys and cannot put down. However, sometimes one come across books that we love despite not having any of that, books that one loves because they are fresh and refreshing, funny and full of wisdom, all at the same time.

The alien in this graphic novel is like a small child with poor literacy skills to whom the world around has never been explained except for a few generic facts, and who discovers it on its own. Its clean eye notices the idiosyncrasy and contradictions of human nature without any judgement, just puzzlement at times. Sadness, happiness, personal identity, and the fear of the unknown are some of the themes posed to the reader throughout this comic. My favourite characters are the egg that wants to be a frog (an analogy for so many existential quests) and Nothing(ness) and its God-like wisdom. The texts are naive, witty, hilarious at time, sweet and wise; the book ends with the cute alien's travel log, which contains some philosophical witty tweets to ponder about. The drawing is simple, purposely child-like. I thought that the book feeds on some premises we can find in some of the stories in Lem's The Star Diaries.

The Kindle edition was not good, at least in my tablet. Images could not be zoomed in or out, and neither was the lettering. One can use double tapping for vignette individuation, but since there aren't vignettes in this comic, what one sees is the letters augmented a tiny bit. Despite that, some of the texts are very difficult to read without a magnifying glass.

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.

This is 12-hour University Course on Gnosticism prepared and narrated by one of the scholars who knows most about Early Christianity and Gnosticism, David Brakke, a Yale PhD recipient and professor of the State of Ohio University. He has the  virtue of knowing what teaching is. It is not that he has plenty of knowledge, is that he is able to convey the  knowledge he has in ways that are understandable, engaging and entertaining without being informal or too formal.

The Recording

This is an excellent audio recording, great sound, well-structured and narrated, with musical clues that indicate the end of a chapter, and headings by a radio-voice presenter at the beginning of each chapter.

Brakke's narration is excellent. The modulation and inflection of his voice and tone are easy to follow without getting bored or sleepy, even when Brakke gives details about the myths of the different Gnostics. He is able to be rigorous about what he says but also flexible, not dogmatic, he doesn't present his opinion as Universal if it is not, he is humble but assertive. He does what true scholars do, they know a lot but know what they don't know so they don't fake what they don't or add on anything. Brakke's knowledge on the subject is exhaustive.

 The course is made of 24 lessons, each of about 30 minutes and we are taken through the main schools of Gnosticism, the main sources and philosophers, giving a detailed account of each document discusses or branch of Early Christianity examined in the course. Brakke also shows the points that those branches and texts share and those on which they differ, and digs into what the life was for Christians in the three first centuries of the Christian Era. Brakke also gives some sketched information about related beliefs that span through the Middle Ages and to this very day.

The list of lessons  is as follows:

1- Rediscovering Gnosis. 2- Who where the Gnostics? 3- God in Gnostic Myth. 4- Gnosticism on Creation, Sin and Salvation. 5- Judas as Gnostic Tragic Hero. 6- Gnostic Bible Stories. 7- Gnosticism Ritual Pathway to God. 8-  The Feminine in Gnostic Myth.9- The Gospel of Thomas’s Cryptic Sayings. 10- The Gospel of Thomas on Reunifying the Self.11- Valentinus, Great Preacher of Gnosis. 12- God and Creation in Valentinian Myth.13- “Becoming Male” through Valentinian Ritual. 14- Valentinian Views on Christian Theology. 15- Mary Magdalene as an Apostle of Gnosis. 16- Competing Revelations from Christ.17- The Invention of Heresy. 18- Making Gnosis Orthodox. 19- Gnosticism and Judaism. 20-  Gnosis without Christ.
21- The Mythology of Manichaeism. 22- Augustine on Manichaeism and Original Sin.23- Gnostic Traces in Western Religions. 24- “Gnosticism” in the Modern Imagination.

You can download the book on PDF from your library (in your member area), potion the cursor on the PDF link and let clink and select save link as, and it will

The audio-book comes with a companion book, of about 185 pages. The text is mostly what Brakke narrates, but not strictly so, no to the letter, as he adds things that aren't in the book. The book contains very helpful illustrations and figures, a list of recommended reads at the end of each chapter and some questions to ponder on it on your own. The book also includes a very up to date bibliography, and each chapter offers a list of suggested readings and makes some questions for the readier/student to ponder on.

 

Pricing

The CD is about 70+ bucks, but if you get the audible version you will paying half that price. However, if you are an Audible subscriber you will get it with one credit, and if you join just to try it. You can do, as I have done just to get this course, join Audible and have month-free trial and get two book or courses for free. Yet, even if I had paid a full price for this course, I would be happy! 

 

Warning

Brakke is very balanced on his discourse, so I think nobody will get offended by anything he says. However,I you take the Bible and the New Testament to the letter, if you are conservative or very conservative Christian, this is not a book for you. This is a historical course, by a professional scholar who has no interest on doing anything that is not teaching a subject on which he is an expert. If you decide to go on and get offended, you are the only one to blame.

A Wish

I would love Brakke to offer another course on any of the subjects he is expert on! He is just a fantastic teacher and perfect for this sort of recording.

This is a short how-to book on lucid dreaming by Stephen LaBerge PhD, a Stanford researcher and one of the fathers of the field. 

I didn't know about Lucid Dreaming Inducing Devices (LDIDs) like the NovaDreamer and the DreamLight LDID, which are mentioned in this book as they are developed by LaBerger's team in his Lucidity Institute in Hawaii. For obvious reasons, he doesn't mention others, which can be found, reviewed and linked here.

The conversion to e-book was obviously done without the least care and not proofread. There are too many items misspelled to list them here. It will suffice to say that dot is used at times instead of comma, words that should be capitalized after a period are consistently written in lower case, Dr appears as dr a few times, and the surname Dement (funny enough, the surname of a psychiatrist mentioned in the book) is written in lower case at least two times. If you pay me, I will edit the book for you, dear editor...

MY RECOMMENDATION

Seeking Wholeness explores the nature of experience, and defines what process, flow, connection and wholeness are. Secondly, the book tries to respond to the question of how we become who we are, and digs into those elements of life that help us to experience life more fully. Finally, the book discusses the basics of living a whole life, regarding, health, job, love, relationships, 'God' and so on.

Life is like a flowing river, permanent in its constant flow and change. Perception is an illusion. We experience the world in a unique and personal way, and try to make sense of it and give meaning to our life. These are the points of departure of Evan's exploration of how through awareness of our experience we can grow and become more in tune with life itself and grow to reach the elusive Higher Self. Evans sees  experience as a process, and organises it in four categories:
> Outer process is the external experience in the world, the surface of the self.
> Inner process is the sphere of subjective experience (feelings, emotions, physical sensations, values, motivations, and reflective thinking).
> Deeper process is the realm of the subliminal and the unconscious.
> Greater process is the realm of spirit, the greater self, wholeness, completeness and connection with the essence of life.

Wholeness is presented as a natural flow of connection between all our processes, the outer and the inner world.  Wholeness is marrying the conscious and subconscious. Wholeness is constant change, transformation and growth. Wholeness is a deep body-mind connection. Wholeness is being in touch with our sensual experience. Wholeness is using pain, trauma and the upsets of life to grow inside and move on. Wholeness is a feeling of being connected to our inner self, other human beings and Spirit. Wholeness is seeing ourselves as a continuum that goes from birth to death in a process of constant mutation and adaptation. Wholeness is fluidity and flow, the contrary of being stuck.

 ***

Evans writes in a very understandable but elegant English, and his writing is intimate and connective, as if he were writing for you specifically. He has a great heart and seems to walk the talk.  He shows a great compassion and clear understanding of what makes humans miserable and happy. Evans shares many examples of his personal life, his feelings, his past struggles, family life, and how he came to be a psychotherapist. Evans also gives us a good insight of what being a psychotherapist is, how he works, the way he approaches his sessions, the sort of diggings he does, the techniques he uses, and what Psychotherapy is. Although there are quite a few references to real cases, they are not too many and they  are right to the point.

***

Evans, as any Jungian psychotherapist, emphasises the importance of dreamwork, synchronicity, and visualisation, and on how complexes and the "ancestral pool" work against us becoming whole. However, he is not a straightforward Jungian as he also practises Process Psychology "a set of tools for approaching experience as a moving, ever-changing flow, a movie rather than a series of still photos" as Ruhl says in the intro.  His practice also includes hypnotherapy and EMDR,

Evans candidly confesses that he came to Psychology and Psychotherapy trough  spirituality not rationality, and some of his take on wholeness is related to Subud, an Indonesian spiritual movement of which Evans is a member. However, many of the those spiritual principles are Universal and can be found on most religions. Although the book is very heavily sided on the Greater Experience (spirituality especially) to achieve wholeness, something, Evans has a sort of relaxed view of spirituality, which can be easily shared by lay people: "To write a completed poem is a spiritual act; to look your child in the eye with love is a spiritual act; to follow an insight to its utmost conclusion is a spiritual act. More than anything, to become more complete, more coherent is our spiritual task. It is not the specifics of what we do, but the realization of a connection inward or outward that makes everything sacred." (loc. 2706-2708). Evans also stresses the fact that connection with Nature or the elevation we feel inside when hearing some pieces of music as a spiritual thing and part of the Greater experience.

***

A FEW ODD THINGS
Although I enjoyed most of the book and I have a great respect and admiration for Evans, there are  a few things that read a bit odd, probably because of the phrasing.
>>> One of the things I find most disturbing in life is finding philosophies, religions of ways of spirituality that clearly consider women sons of a lesser god or simply second-rate souls. This being the case, you can imagine my shock at reading the following paragraph uttered by an Indonesian Subud spiritual leader:

"One young man asked him if there was such a thing as a soul mate and how should he find her. Sudarto got very serious as he replied in broken English: "Yes, you have a soul mate but she is hard to find. There is a woman in every half a million who has a soul, a good match with you. Better to look for that one-in-half-a-million than to keep waiting for your true mate. You can be happy with second best." He looked round at the circle of single and earnest men as we hung on every word, and burst into laughter again." (loc. 1667-1641).

It might be just a bad  translation of the episode, but it seems to imply that all men there had a soul but just some women do. I know that is not what Evans is saying, but you know, why leave the sentencing as is when it clearly has some sort of connotation?

>>> I think the following quote about couple relationships is also dangerous. "Now, you must decide on an appropriate action to reconnect your inner and outer worlds. If it is right for you to part, then be decisive— cut the psychic ties cleanly and unquestionably. If not, you may have to say you are sorry even though you think you did nothing wrong. When we take on the suffering of a whole situation consciously, with open heart, we create more space for connection." (loc. 2642-2645).  After reading it, I thought about all victims of domestic violence, who do just that, ask for forgiveness for something wrong they did not do for the sake of peace and find themselves further punished. Most of them cannot leave their abusers for many different reasons.
>>>The more a person attunes with the Greater process, the more that person seems complete. (loc. 1349). Although Evans is not dogmatic about what the Spirit is, he is a bit preachy on this. After reading the book, it seems that a person who is not spiritual can't ever become whole.  Agnostics and atheists might find not see the point of not focusing on the here and now to be utterly connected with life and the others. I know atheists who are more in tune with life, more ethical, and more whole than many religious and spiritual people I also know. I have seen too many people quoting the Bible and having a cross around their neck, babbling about having a sensitive soul and, de facto, being miserable human beings, bad people, and not attuned with Spirit at all I have seen deeply religious people crumble when their spiritual beliefs did not help them to give meaning to their suffering. For that to happen, you have to have the attitude "life is a valley of tears" and accept any crap that life throws at you. 

***

IN SHORT
This is a great book if you are thinking about having a career as a counsellor or psychotherapist, if you are quite religious and believe in God, or just very spiritual. This book is not for  you if you are deeply agnostic, if you are an atheist and don't think that your life needs of transcendence beyond the right-here right-now to be whole. There are many pearls of wisdom in the book, and a great compassion towards our humanity, so it is a great read. Yet, this is not a self-help book, Evans himself states, "Can you recognize the patterns that keep you entangled? Do you know yourself well enough to find the shape and meaning of your whole being? These are essential questions that are impossible to answer without assistance." (loc. 208-209). 

***

RENDERING FOR KINDLE

>> The book does not have  the notes in the paperback edition.
>> The book does not have  the index in the paperback edition. 
>> The bibliography is outdated  and no book after the year 2000 is to be found.

However, the book is much cheaper than the hard copy, and is a compensation in a way. Yet, I would like authors and editors to be more mindful and produce e-books that are as good as the printed version of the book. Of course, this requires more time and effort, but produces  a final product that is whole.