The Seat of the Soul

Rating:
Summary: SO MUCH HELP HERE --- FOR RECEPTIVE SOULS
Review: After reading some of the other reviews, I can not understand how anyone could read this book in its entirety and NOT get help. There is so much wisdom offered here, so much help for everyday living. Chapters on such things as Relationships, Addiction, Power, Illusion, Choice, - all of the issues that we all so regularly have trouble dealing with.

I have read the author's other books and have seen him speak many times. Believe me, he is not in this for the money. As a matter of fact, he is the most loving, unpretentious man I have ever met. He wrote this book because he has a strong heart-felt desire TO HELP PEOPLE UNDERSTAND, and he has devoted his life to this purpose. He was a suffering human being,in great emotional pain, until he was blessed with the experiences and divine guidance that changed his life.

All that he wishes to accomplish in this book, is to share with others what he now knows to be his own personal spiritual truth. It transformed his life, and if your heart and spirit are open, it can do the same for you.

Please judge this book on its own merit. He has written it in a way that it is clearly understandable, offering his love and wisdom to those of all faiths. You are free to accept only whatever you find that rings true in your own heart and soul, but there is so much insight here.

To say that it transformed my life is putting it mildly. I have given away numerous copies of this book to friends and relatives and most have come to view it as a treasure. Hope you will find that it will mean as much to you.

Rating:
Summary: Choose how your life will be!
Review: In my first review, I focused more on Gary Zukav's interviews on Oprah and how his words caused me to react. Now I would like to dive into his book and explain what he believes and give a summary so you can decide if this is a book you want to read for yourself. There are places in this book where you will completely understand the value of truth and will comprehend Gary Zukav's words. There are other times when you feel you mind spiraling out to a place you have never been, because these are the areas you may be unfamiliar with or they may go against your own religious beliefs. There are two view points. We are either created by God and he gives us a soul and then allows us to make our own decisions, or as Gary seems to believe, we came from an evolutionary process somewhere in the universe. Whatever your belief system, you will agree that we have five senses: touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight. He explains how these senses make us a "five-sensory" individual. Those who have learned there is more to life than physical sensations have become a "multisensory" human. These Multisensory individuals are those who have realized that our souls are on an eternal journey and speak to our own souls by awakening within us a recognition of the truth. He believes it is time for us to answer the question: "Is there a God or a Divine Intelligence?" His book is about "authentic empowerment" and he explains this as a person who is strong enough not to even want to use force against another person. Could this be another way of saying "peace in the world?" He discusses Karma, evolution, reincarnation, evil, joy, intuition, thought, choice, addiction, relationships, psychology, illusion, power and trust. I agree that an angry person will respond to his life with anger and cause more problems than a reverent person who deals with his problems by showing love and understanding. To learn lessons in life and move from one stage of existence to the other seems to me to be his message. This is a deep, thought-provoking book, and like a scientific formula, it is hard to understand at first. My basic disagreements would be that I don't believe we evolved, but were created...I don't believe we come back to life as souls to live again in human form and I don't believe that we can at all times fight evil with only our minds because there are others who will not or cannot control their own evil impulses. He uses the word evolving throughout the book. This to me is "learning." I do believe we create our own situations to a point. His deep concepts are explained with enjoyable stories one can relate to. To me this is a book that shows us where we are as a human race and gives a sense of hope by saying: "We can all make the world a better place by making a conscious choice to make it that way, so let's try." If we could all learn to love and as he says: "choose the most positive behavior for each moment," we may just be able to gain the authentic power he talks about. To me, we can obtain this power through God because God is love.

Rating:
Summary: A deeply helpful book
Review: providing clear guidance along the path of authentic learning.

Rating:
Summary: Creative, but Terribly Dissappointing
Review: This is going to be an unpopular review...I know many have found Mr. Zukov's book a very rewarding read. I, on the other hand, could not have been more disappointed. I finished the book for the express purpose of writing this review.

As a student of religion and culture, I was extremely disappointed with the manner in which Zukov approached his subject matter. He speaks of such issues as the nature of the soul, reincarnation, the souls of animals vs. those of people, higher order guides and teachers, and numerous other mystical concepts with ABSOLUTELY NO REFERENCE to where his thoughts and ideas come from. He states them as though we all agree that his model of the way the universe works is a given, and then proceeds to flesh out some of the details related to that model. His model, of course, is a curious mish-mash of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Aristotlean thought, psychic experience and science, all blended in a creative, but highly unsubstantiated paradigm. As a scientist, I think he leans WAY to heavily on the inkling of quantum physics he gained while writing "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" and has made an abomination of some of those concepts. For instance, he speaks of the human soul as literally being composed of light. Not metaphorically, but literally. But not light as SCIENCE knows. Oh no. That would run him up against some problems when physics attempted to measure the wavelength of the soul. No, his light is a DIFFERENT kind of light, but light nonetheless. Are there relationships to quantum physics that could be drawn upon to understand the human condition and psyche? Absolutely. Did he address any of the legitimate ones? Not one.

His igorance shines through in countless examples throughout the book (mine is marked up almost beyond recognition). For instance, in the chapter on reverence, he expresses shock that mankind would do "one thing that would risk the balance of the Earth's ecosystem." If he was really a student of evolution and dynamical systems, he would know damn well that ecosystems are CONSTANTLY moved out of balance, and that is exactly why there is evolution in the first place! So the fact that there are human beings at all, and they do stuff to the ecosystem is because that's the way the system works! No one, not dolphins or squirrels or trees or people or even Mr. Zukov can prevent having an "impact on the balance of the ecosystem."

There are myriads of inconsistencies in his thought paradigm that leaves the careful reader genuinely confused as to what he's trying to say. For instance, he speaks a great deal of the impersonal Universe that acts without judgement, being essentially the medium that allows life to unfold (not unlike the "Tao" of Taoism or the "Way" of Zen). And then later he speaks of a Universe that has been Divinely planned and executed to make sure that it is the perfect opportunity for each soul to achieve karmic balance. Or he says "not one action of the Universe is without compassion." These suggestions are anything BUT the actions of in impersonal universe! So which is it? Are we evolving according to principal, or are we guided by a grand blue-print? Another example of his inconsistency is in the chapter on souls, where he states that Angels cannot be understood in human terms, and then goes on to describe the nature of Angels! The inconsistency alone grates on me, but the audacity of the man to speak matter of factly about the nature of Angels or anything else "that cannot be understood in human terms" is absurd.

Lastly, I echo the criticisms of others that point out how unbelievably redundant this book is. I don't know HOW many times he points out the relationship of the personality to the soul, and the difference between the 5-sensory and the multi-sensory person. The book is 90% filler and 10% stuff, and only a fraction of that "stuff" was convincingly insightful.

Space does not allow for a point by point criticism of this book, and you don't want to read it anyway. Suffice it to say that anyone that purports to "know" anything had better be able to back it up with direct experience, or at least produce a coherent synthesis of the accepted work of others. Zukov has done neither. He has launched himself on a creative flight of fancy and tried to pass it off as wisdom regarding the manner in which the soul exists. It is not wisdom. It is not philosphy. It is not religion. It is nothing more than Mr. Zukov's ideas, written in a creative way that demonstrates his gifts in the realm of English far more than in the realm of spirituality or mysticism. (If he would have just SAID as much, that these are just his own thoughts and ideas, then I would have let go all of my angst over this book, but he never does. He just speaks as though he knows, and assumes we will simply believe him. Well, not all of us are willing to do that.)

As an afterthought, I expect there are those who are fuming at this review, and who assume I am a narrow-minded person with no bent to the psychic or the spiritual, or that I have an over-dependence on things concrete and tangible. Nothing could be further from the truth. I consider myself extremely open to the possibilities that exist in the Universe, and pretend nothing when it comes to my own experience and knowledge. I am a student of life and living, thought and creativity, religion and philosophy and culture and science, and STILL this book left me empty and irritated. For those who love the book, my appologies. For those who have not yet read it, be cautious.

Rating:
Summary: Take what you need
Review: What Gary offers in the Seat of the Soul is a way of looking at the world that has helped him in his own life. He isn't offering a dogma or a set of beliefs that he thinks you should accept. If you don't believe in reincarnation or his theory on animal souls, that doesn't mean that you can't get something meaningful out of this book. For example, I have not read any other author that explores the messages behind emotions with the depth that he has. That beneath all compulsions and addictions are feelings of inadequacy. He compares the discovery of anger in oneself to that of uncovering the top of a pyramid, and that the further down you go the more you will find. His writing will help you understand yourself better, that is- your own energy field. You learn to recognize your own reactions and how to avoid traps. He isn't the inventor of such ideas, but he is one of the few to have shed so much light on them in recent years. So I say....if you don't agree with something he writes about.....thats ok. I don't know if I believe in reincarnation. I don't know if I accept his theory on animal souls. But I know that there are great things in his books, so don't let what you don't understand interfere with a chance to gain wisdom. You don't need to get everything to get something.

Rating:
Summary: Nice but not provocative or revolutionary
Review: When I first read this book a year ago I found it entertaining more than enlightening- though it does offer many enlightening ideas. That bothered me- particularly when the public's reaction seemed to be otherwise. The cause is simple: It deeply troubles me at how ignorant our modern Western/American culture still remains to its own spiritual traditions, let alone to those of the East in Buddhism and Hinduism. These are the actual 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 professional methodologies would provide, and found it when seeking beyond them. He hesitates however, and in the end really neglects, to discuss where those searches 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 to me for the same reasons, only writ large.

Realistically speaking, it takes a stereotypically American born, superpower arrogance to accept his ideas as either revolutionary, or transcending the doctrines of any psychological/spiritual paradigm in existence before them. Gore Vidal's nickname for our country is the USA- "United States of Amnesia", and Zukav's writing style, along with a lot of the public acclaim, seems to confirm that culturally identifying illness as still being true. The reality is, with our booming internet economy and Pentagon, we don't need a familiarity with ancient philosophies or even a relationship with our own foundational cultural traditions to maintain hegemony over the rest of the world. That is, for better AND worse (even with that pesky China), a fact proven every day. Therefore, history in general and what it can teach us- religious/philosophical history or otherwise- is still rendered trivia, unless it is in the form of near tabloid biography, making it marketable. 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 regarding "the NEW", and our status as First, Best and Number One- the foundation of so much of our material and psychological lives. That sublime truth, as opposed to Gary's book, demands a humility that we as Americans no longer understand, in order for us to embrace our true selves as universal, spiritual beings. I say "that, as opposed to Gary's book," because one would swear he woke up one morning and thought up all of this in a vaccuum after reading it.

If you find yourself caught up in the paradigm of hubris 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), then make no mistake, regardless of what I said above you will get a great deal out of this book. (Momentarily.) What he has to say is wonderful, and, his interpretation of ancient philosophical and religious text is also illuminating, as if it were directly translated into today's everyday language in it's best passages. But, as he simply refuses to 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. I am sure many have read this and come to the conclusion that, since he has "figured it out", they are even less dependent on their Judeo-Christian heritage and even more superior to their Hindu or Budhhist brother who continues to pray or meditate in the old fashioned way, and has yet to make the New York Times bestseller list. Thus the arrogance, and the corresponding myopia of the ego obstructing the true vision of the Soul-Self remains firmly intact, long before Oprah cuts to a commercial. That, I believe, is what actually lies at the center of so many people in spiritual pain; the very paradigm of thought and living that his marketable way of sharing the truth empowers.

Zukav "discovers" the seat of the soul in much the same way Columbus "discovered" America (or Elvis "invented" rock and roll). Whether you're an already there "Indian" who has been living in this world of spiritual humility, or a skeptic who still thinks the inner world is flat (or a publishing version of Queen Isabella who has much to gain materially from these kinds of voyages) the literary and psychological medium Gary Zukav chose to convey his ideas- one of true, well meaning benevolence, but undistinguished cultural arrogance, I believe- is really the message of the book. And just like Chinese take-out, though you'll feel good and happy and full when you finish it, it won't keep you satisfied or help you know God days, months and years afterward as well as you might expect.

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 will be of great service to people if it succeeds in whetting the appetite for all who read it, and compels 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. SEAT OF THE SOUL is another example of that one fish that can feed a man's soul for a day, where the world's ancient religious texts will help teach you how to fish, and feed yourself for a lifetime.

Rating:
Summary: A TOUCH OF SPIRITUALITY AND A LOT OF INSPIRATION
Review: While I must admit, I found "Soul Stories" to be quite repetitious of this book, I thoroughly enjoyed, "The Seat of the Soul." Based on the principle humans are immortal souls first, physical beings second, and that once we become conscious of this transformation we will stimulate personal growth, Zukav inspires and enlightens the reader. To know one's soul is to know one's true self.

Zukav speaks of how emerging values of the spirit are changing marriages into spiritual partnerships, psychology into spiritual psychology and, in the process, changing our lives for the better. Much like Eastern philosophies, the author illuminates deeper causes of physical experience. Zukav has an important message to convey to the world and a style all his own. The only reason this book did not seem deserving of a five-star rating had nothing to do with the content but the author's rather, short choppy writing style, which is truly representative of Zukav's material. It is still a book well worth reading for the wisdom it contains.