Rating: 
Summary: Great book!
Review: Wonderful, Inspiring and thought provoking! Great work
Rating: 
Summary: Theoretical gobbledy-gook. Boring too.
Review: I watch Oprah, read self-help books, love animals and people and have done a lot of soul searching. But this book can put me to sleep better than any college text book I ever read. I can't get myself to pick it back up to finish it.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone seeking understanding of their life
Review: I'm so glad this book has been reissued in hardback as it will one day be well-worn in my library. Thoughtful, provocative reading -- it is a careful explanation for the necessity of each of our own lives, as well as, the path of humanity.
Rating: 
Summary: I checked it out at the library and returned it after 1 chap
Review: Before I was willing to actually pay for the book, I checked it out at the library. I had heard Oprah raving about the author and book and thought it might have something to say. I could barely read it! The writing was so confusing and circular that it was hard to extract the actual idea. You'd think as a physicist (teaching, I believe), he would be able to explain his theories in a more coherent way.
Rating:
Summary: An illuminating approach to the mystery of existence
Review: Zukov is New Age? I see that in a lot of reviews. It is not so. Zukov follows a line of long standing thought common to all religions. That is, the self as ego leads to separation from the true self. He follows it in a most enlightening manner and I think, in a way attuned to the culture of this time. Central to Zukov's worldview is the thermodynamic idea of Karma: "for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction". So if I try to achieve control over my situation, I create Karmic negativity which acts to remove the control I think I have attained. The Karmic idea seems basic to understanding the Zukov world. What a relief, all this bad Karmic stuff I keep running into here and there is not my problem. I do not have to do anything about it. This reminds me of Alan Watts' approach to Zen Bhudism in The Wisdom of Insecurity where trying to achieve security leads to separation which leads to insecurity. Stop trying to be secure and you become secure. But to give up the belief in trying is an enormous problem. Zukov's world confronts this problem. I do not have to loose my motivation for being. Compassion is the basis of decision-making, not evaluation. When I read books taking this viewpoint, I am always reminded of the simple quote form Shakespeare, "Nothing is good or bad, only thinking makes it so." I have often wondered how to make a decision without good and bad as a basis. In Zukov's world, decision making proceeds in the absence of evaluation and judgement. A remarkable achievement to show how this can be. A wonderful, entertaining, and illuminating approach to the mystery of existence.
Rating:
Summary: NON-CHRISTIAN TO THE CORE! A DANGEROUS BOOK!
Review: Gary Zukav's The Seat of the Soul is spiritual garbage. He looks good and sounds good on Opra, but he is New Age to the core, which means he is anti-Christian. His ilk believe that all proponents of New Age will themselves become gods. Therefore, there is no need for Jehovah God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, nor any need for a Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm sure AMAZON.COM has all of Texe Marrs' books. Read just one and you will have an awesome fear of Gary Zukav and the New Age instilled in your heart and soul. Gary Zukav is just another polished guru working for Satan. If you really want your eyes opened, read Texe Marrs book "RAVAGED BY THE NEW AGE: Satan's Plan to Destroy Our Kids." Gary Zukav needs a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!
Rating:
Summary: This book changed my life
Review: Gary Zukav has found the answers to our existence. As a human race, we are preoccupied with such things as money and power. This book shares the understanding of why we are here. Life is not about money, power, sex, deceit, etc. Our existance on earth is about love and about a journey towards our soul. Gary Zukav shows an understanding about life that has never been mentioned or understood, until now. This book will change your life.
Rating: 
Summary: A potent book of ideas for those unfamiliar with them
Review: I found this book entertaining moreso than enlightening- though it does offer many enlightening ideas. The fact is though, it deeply troubles me at how ignorant our Western World still remains to its own spiritual traditions, let alone to those of the East in Buddhism and Hinduism- the source of the overwhelming majority of both his direct insights and his indirect interpretation of them via psychological and quantum physics analogies. In the preface of his book he mentions how great thinkers like Einstein searched for meaning in the universe beyond what the path of their methodologies would provide, and found it when seeking beyond them. But he hesitates to discuss where that search brought them. Seeing Oprah fall all over him like he was a cross between Jesus and Ricky Martin when he first was hailed by her, was equally distressing for the same reasons, only writ large. Why? Because, realistically speaking, it takes a stereotypically American, superpower arrogance to accept his ideas as either revolutionary, or transcending the doctrines of any psychological/spiritual paradigm in existence before them. Our country, with its booming economy and ubiquitous Pentagon, does not need superior, centuries-long-standing cultural traditions to maintain hegemony over the rest of the world. That is, for better AND worse, a fact. Therefore, history in general and what it can teach us, religious/philosophical history or otherwise (particularly in this Bill Gatesian era) is rendered trivia, unless it is in the form of near tabloid biography. Even then it is quickly forgotten before it is even digested. The sublime truth in the truism, "everything old is new again" when regarding New Age ideas vs. ancient metaphysical/gnostic religious text, ruthlessly chips away at our modern illusions and pretensions- the foundation of so much of our lives. They in turn demand a humility that we no longer understand, to embrace our true selves as spiritual beings. If you find yourself caught up in this paradigm of arrogance leading to ignorance leading to ego worship leading to confusion and fear, effectively shutting you off from a healthy relationship with yourself, others, and any other window to truth in this world- as we all do at some point (hell, I bought the book and read it myself for a reason), you will get a great deal out of this book. (Momentarily.) What he has to say is wonderful, and again, his interpretation of ancient philosophical/religious text is also illuminating, sometimes as if it were directly translated into today's everyday language. But, as it doesn't make clear or even casually refer to where much of it comes from, as if the knowledge gave birth to itself and has no parents, it ironically feeds on the very problem it is supposed to help you conquer in the first place. There are people, I know, who have read this book and are thinking quietly to themselves that, now that they have "figured it out", they are even less dependent on their Judeo-Christian heritage and more superior to their Hindu or Budhhist brother who has yet to make the New York Times bestseller list. (We won't even mention those un-hip, out of touch religious institutions OR their 2000 plus year old religious texts- which, again, is the basis for all of what Zukav has to say.) Thus the arrogance, and the corresponding myopia of the ego obstructing the VISION of the Self (still the hallmark of our materially based techno-culture as we move into the third millenium) remains firmly intact. That is what lies at the center of so many people in pain in this country, materially speaking the richest country in the world if not human history in total. Zukav "discovers" the seat of the soul in much the same way Columbus "discovered" America. Whether you're an already there "Indian" or spiritual skeptic who thinks the world is flat- or a publishing/media mogul Queen Eisabeth who has much to gain materially from his voyage, the secret, maintained power stance inherent in his personlizing of impersonal truth means you will lose as much as you gain in the end. Summing up, Gary Zukav reinvents the wheel very nicely in this book. It's just a pity that so many people seem not to realize that that is what he's done. This book should whet the appetite for all who read it and compel them to reread the Old and New Testaments, the Gnostic gospels /Nag Hammadi Library, the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead, the Gita and so on, with new eyes and open hearts and minds. Simply because Mr. Zukav's book is another example of that one fish that can feed a man's soul for a day, where our ancient religious texts will help teach you how to fish, and feed yourself for a lifetime.
Rating:
Summary: You can't apply the standards of corporeal proof....
Review: This is a marvelous and thought-provoking book, one which asks much of the the reader. Those who have posted negative reviews here have been unwilling or unable to give up the part of their training that demands "scientific" evidence. In my case, I was ready to receive these words with an open mind and a willingness to understand that our species is moving toward wholeness, after many years of filling up the spaces on this planet with our physical and personal selves. Those who are familiar with "A Course in Miracles" will hear the ring of truth in Zukav's book. And as for the 1-star reviewers....they'll be ready for this eventually!
Rating:
Summary: Danger to Read, New Age Garbage
Review: I found this book deeply disturbing. I was going to buy it for "intrigue's sake", but when looking at what it dared to say about Christ Jesus, I threw it back. It dared to say that Jesus was an "evolved being". Lie! It dared to say that Jesus should be seen as along side as Gandi and Buddah. Lie! Not even close. There is only One God, and there is only one way to be found in the light of God, and that is through Jesus Christ who died for our sins. Jesus was, is, and will always be, the Son of God.
|
