Rating: 
Summary: Big picture?
Review: Anyone with the IQ of a carrot could figure out what Redfield's "big picture" is. The problem is with the way he presents it. It comes across as too easy and, more importantly, hypocritical. And then he totally blows it when he forces his own make-believe ideals on us as if he's God, then asks us for money. If you think I would or should take tips on child-rearing from Redfield, you should have your head examined. And he apparantly has no genuine interest in conserving natural resources either, as his millions of books are made with the most glossy, tree-ravaging, non-recycled material there is. If he really cared, he would use a paperless way of conveying his message, such as publishing on the internet. Gee, I wonder why he hasn't? Could it be that people would then be able to access his books for free?
Rating:
Summary: Warning - Drop Acid before Reading
Review: I would recommend this as a vocab builder for first graders, except they might take the dangerously cultish content seriously. It would be safer in the hands of third graders, who could easily see through it. The only problem is, it would hardly qualify as a vocab builder at that level.That all the books on the "People who bought this book also purchased the following titles" list are sequels to or follow ups of this book, and are all written by the same author, pretty much tells you what you need to know.
Rating: 
Summary: It's about the BIG PICTURE.
Review: This book may be hard to swallow if read literally, but I don't think that was the author's intent. What I got out of the book is that the Earth is one living organism, and each of us must give and take to make the system work. This includes everything from how we raise our children to how we use natural resources. Humanity has made so many advances in the past 1000 years--we have explored most of our planet, developed new technologies, and are extending our reaches into the universe. But has our humanity kept up with our intellect? We still fight over territories, poverty and illness are still major concerns, and our resources are running out. Has our behavior, as a race, changed over the past 1000 years to keep pace with our technology? This is the issue at the heart of the book. I hope this book makes you think about your values and priorities in life. We all have the same finite amount of energy and time each day. How we spend it CAN make a difference.
Rating:
Summary: Readers who need this book don't write literary critiques!
Review: As a psychotherapist for the past 27 years, I have come to believe that, at root, our problems are spiritual. But the spiritual worldview is based upon an understanding of a whole new system of physics. It completely overturns our concepts of "the way things work." Think about explaining to the man-in-the-street at the time of Galileo that the world is not flat!--and you will understand what Mr. Redfield attempted and miraculously accomplished. I can hand this book to redneck truckdrivers and they get it. Redfield is about serving our cultural need to shift perspective, not about impressing people who majored in English. This book achieved its purpose. I am more grateful than I can possibly say that it exists.
Rating:
Summary: It's so bad.
Review: The idea of writing a novel that illustrates your personal religion is promising, and I picked it up thinking that I might come away from it with some sort of insight into the meaning of life. But this book is so bad that it's painful to read. Redfield writes at a 3rd grade reading level and the dialogue and characters are horribly contrived. Do not buy this book, if you value your money or your intelligence.
Rating:
Summary: uplifting eyeopener
Review: ok, everyone who seems to be trashing this book is focusing on minor details, you are obviously not getting the deeper meaning of what the book is about. maybe you can't! the fact that you are not seeing the whole picture is exactly what this book tries to overcome.
Rating:
Summary: Get that star out of this review
Review: I may never read again. The FDA should get involved in this thing. Some kind of Surgeon General's warning on the cover, like: Warning! This volume may reduce your vocabulary to four despicable adjectives and will most likely prevent you from hearing the term 'insight' ever again without feeling ill. The horror...
Rating: 
Summary: A book to put under the belt.
Review: I thought that this book should be read by my friends, so that we might discuss it more. I thought about the concepts and actually grew spiritually because Redfield encouraged me to combine psycology and its counterparts with spirituality. However, I agree with the critiques made in the reviews of the other customers. Redfield does strike me as a potential cult leader. Borrow it from a friend or your library before buying.
Rating:
Summary: Would have been much better in different hands
Review: I borrowed this from the library, hoping it would be good enough to buy later. I'm glad I test drove it first -- I found the writing to be so contrived I couldn't get beyond it. The idea of the insights was brilliant -- it's a shame that the writing was so elementary and flat. In another writer's hands, this might have been truly brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Talk about a MESSIAH COMPLEX!
Review: Is James Redfield an aspiring cult leader? Or just a master at marketing? He regurgitates common knowledge as if he's Moses with the Ten Commandments. Then he actually asks people to give MONEY to whoever inspires them with his "insights"--setting himself up for a pretty nice payoff, no? Also seems like a pretty good incentive for people to spread the word about him. Perhaps that's the reason he's received such extensive word-of-mouth publicity. I can't think of any other reason why so many people would recommend his hypocritical, pathetic crap. This has got to be the greatest MLM scheme of all time! He's probably laughing all the way to the bank at all the lost souls he's suckered in. I would be! Anyone who's moronic enough to support him and give him money deserves to be a sucker.
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