Rating: 
Summary: Loving What Is
Review: The best recommendation I could give any one is to check this book out of the library rather than paying for it. The concept (and I mean singular) presented is so simple that you get it within the first 20 pages. Subsequent chapters offer transcript after transcript of various sessions between the author and different people with different problems to solve. It gets very tedious hearing these 4 questions (or variations on these questions or the additional bonus questions) asked over and over again. I'm not saying this book won't help some people change their attitudes about their lives, it's just not worth keeping in your private library. Some books you want to refer to over and over, this is not one of them. Read it and return it!
Rating: 
Summary: Comments from the Spiritual Reviewer
Review: Loving What Is introduces and inspires the reader to do "the work." This is a term used by the author to describe the self-discovery process required to change unexamined thoughts so that unconditional love can be experienced. Doing "the work" is important because unexamined thoughts are the source of all suffering and pain. The strength of this book is the verbatim dialogues of several people who openly and candidly answer their self-discovery questions. We can easily see ourselves in these people because we all have the same issues. Typical life problems are explored including hatefulness, money, adultery, addiction, parenting, and more. Katie's abundant awareness and wisdom is authentically revealed through her interactions with these people. Note that the introduction to Loving What Is does not provide a big picture overview of the process that Katie is presenting. Because of this, the first few chapters are somewhat hard to follow and do not fully grab your attention. Consequently you may be tempted to put the book down, but don't. You'll be rewarded for hanging in there or for cutting straight to the dialogues. This book received a score of 7.875 on a scale of 1(low) to 10(high from The Spiritual Reviewer.
Rating:
Summary: Ghastly
Review: If no stars were available, I'd choose that. This self-help book is aimed primarily at helping the author. I found it preposterous, and downright dangerous. I don't think this woman has any credentials; rather, she seems to tout her qualifying experience as the fact that she had a nervous breakdown when she was 43 years old. Katie's "help" is presented as a series of questions that branch from her initial query of "Is it [the situation, feeling, etc.] true?" Nothing intended to help people break out of lifelong conditioning works as fast as Katie would have one believe. Especially annoying parts of the book are the intro by her husband (who has no more credentials than his wife) where he belabors Katie's lecturing on the ideas in her book for free (the book certainly is not free; thank goodness I borrowed it from a library), the many times Katie showcases her approach in a cult-like way as "The Work," Katie pretending to be an objective participant when she is clearly steering people toward her sometimes-dangerous ideas, and Katie using endearments that just seem patronizing with her interview subjects in the dialogue transcripts (e.g., "Nice Work, honey"). I was muddling through the book and wondering when I'd get to something helpful when I read her exchange with a woman who was repeatedly raped as a child (around age 8 or 9) by her stepfather. Then the author, through a series of questions, ended up turning the blame for the rapes around on the victim, culminating in the idea that rape was the woman's way of receiving love. All this was done in front of an audience. Brainwashing and abuse in the guise of therapy. Ghastly.
Rating: 
Summary: Quick, but longterm help
Review: If you're nervous, depressed, worried, sad, angry or disappointed, unsatisfied with your life - then take this book. It offers you a new view on life, a method to quickly lose all issues that keep you away from happiness. But, quickly doesn't mean that this is short-term - it's a long-term solution. I reccomend this book 100%.
Rating:
Summary: I love this work
Review: I discovered the book many months back and just bought the CD's a couple of weeks ago. It is the best discretionary money I have spent this year... no kidding. What I love about it is how I can listen while I'm driving, or working around the house, and immerse myself in these ideas. My state of being has been changing. I notice that I'm usually driving around with a big grin on my face and I have this sense that there is nothing to do, nothing to be, nothing to have, that what is present is just perfect. And in that I have found peace and happiness. Thank you Katie. I love you.
Rating:
Summary: Simple and powerfully transformative
Review: I can honestly say that out of many many self-help and spiritual growth books, this has by far been the most transformative, uplifting and profound. Rather than offering ways to fix my life, it offered a way to change my thinking, so that the circumstances of my life no longer caused me pain. This requires a pretty big paradigm shift, but I can say with complete honesty, after years of seeking, that it is the only authentic way I have found (so far) to experience true - and reliable - happiness.
The book / audiobook provides instruction in and examples of a technique of self-inquiry called "The Work". It is an extremely simple technique but one which I have found extremely powerful.
Here is my testimonial...
Before I even heard of this book, I began to explore the idea that happiness comes from loving what-is, whatever it is. My first challenge came when I injured my shoulder very badly and was essentially disabled for nine months. The pain was terrible and there were times when I couldn't pick up my own baby for days at a time. During this time, however, I made a remarkable discovery. I discovered that without what Byron Katie would call a "stressful story" about pain, pain couldn't hurt me. It was possible to be experiencing extremely strong sensations of pain, and still be completely calm and happy. Fortunately, I recovered, but my "apprenticeship in pain" served me well. When I had my next baby, I went through labor at home with no pain medication and it was the most blissful day of my life.
My postnatal experience, however, was far from blissful. It was both physically excrutiating and emotionally traumatic and left me feeling eaten up with resentment towards my in-laws. In the year that followed, I desperately searched for inner peace once more, and read many self-help and spirituality books in my attempt to put my soul back together.
Browsing on www.amazon.com one day, I spotted the title "Loving What Is" and was intruigued because it was an expresion used by my teacher, Jeannine Parvati Baker. I read the reviews and was impressed, so looked up Byron Katie's website. There, under "Samples of the work" I listened to the introductory chapters of the audiobook, and two dialogues. I was blown away. The dialogue called "The work on family life" instantly cleared all the painful issues I had been struggling with with my in-laws. I felt like I had suddenly woken up.
So I ordered the audiobook and soon after, bought the paperback. I also attended a workshop on "The Work" with Rosie Stave. One of the changes in my life since I started doing "The Work" is that I have become a vegetarian. Before, I had a lot of stories about eating meat that were causing me a lot of stress. On the one hand, I believed that I SHOULDN'T eat meat for environmental and compassionate reasons. On the other hand I believed that I HAD TO eat meat for health reasons (I have been iron deficient before). In the course of doing the work, I realized that I didn't really know if any of these beliefs were true. When I sat down in front of my plate, without these thoughts, I noticed that I just didn't eat the meat. Not because I thought I shouldn't, but just because I didn't. When I approached food with the belief "It's okay if I do eat meat, and it's okay if I don't" the transition to vegetarianism happened all by itself. Incedentally, I just had a blood test (because I investigated my thoughts that blood tests are traumatic, my dr would be judgemental of my new eating habits, and I dislike drs) and my iron and everything else are excellent.
The one irritating factor I have with the audiobook is that there is no table of contents to tell you which sections are on which CD. However, it is not hard to note down your own on paper or against the table of contents in the paperback. Also, the audiobook and paperback are organized differently with some dialogues in different sections. Also note that the paperback contains some dialogues not on the audiobook and vice versa. This is one of the reasons why I highly recommend getting hold of both the audiobook and the paperback. Also, I find that listening to the dialogues is much more effective than reading them. But I prefer the paperback as a refernce on how to do the work myself. Particlarly the chapter "Deepening Inquiry". Buying both might seem [costly] but, personally, I have found that "The Work" has meant that I haven't needed to buy any other self-help books since. (A considerable saving in my case).
However, I am not asking you to order both items on my word alone. ...
So if you are looking for a way to be happy no matter what - to be able to be happy even if your soulmate leaves you or you body falls apart - I cannot recommend this book and audiobook highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: Be Very Afraid!
Review: This book is a load of unqualified psycho-babble at best. Life- altering discoveries are based on word games such as restating "I have my husband" into "I hate myself". Even Freud said that, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"!! The book has dialogs with people following the four questions that are illogical at best. Katie steers her cleints down slippery slopes while pretending not to influence them. Her direction through the dialogues has more to do with "slight of hand" and "bait and switch" than actual psychology. Then what ever misdirected conclusion that is reached is "turned around 180 degrees" and that HAS to be the answer! It is an interesting "band-aid" approach to grieves you, but what happens when the band-aid falls off? What happens a week later when you look at your husband and realize that you really do hate him? The other problem that I had with Katie is that she has this life-changing shift of consciousness that she never explains. She suffers through ten years of depression and then "poof" the lights turn on without any explanation. She doesn't explain where her enlightenment came from, but it seems to be based on the work of husband number three author Stephen Mitchell while she was still married to husband number two. (Mitchell writes in the introduction: "The first time I watched the The Work. . . I recognized something very similar in process here. . .The Book of Job, the Tao Te Ching, and the Bhagavad Gita. . . Having a reserved seat. . .is one of the privileges of being married to her." Mitchell's writing credits include the last two works. Even if the psychology were sound, her story doesn't hold water.
Rating:
Summary: You have got to be kidding
Review: What was I thinking when I ordered this book. This is going to be a fast return. If I didn't have a job, and I didn't have a life, and if I had nothing better to do, I would read this book. Following the contemplative steps outlined in this book is great for the Zen crowd, but I just have to pass. If I needed this much in depth review of myself, I would seek professional help and perhaps medication. Applying these four simple questions and working them through in detail might be possible in considering the life of my cat, but for my continuing 45 years of human existence, I would rather not. Before you pay for this one, consider the work, and the depth of your life that you will be asked to examine. One thing comes to mind, "move on".
Rating:
Summary: Spring-cleaning your mind
Review: Eckart Tolle, Gangaji, Paul Ferrini, and Ramana Maharshi, all discuss the need for inquiry into our fears and beliefs before we can truly re-connect with our true Self. As beautiful as their words are, it is hard for a westerner like myself to truly question my beliefs so thoroughly that they truly dissolve. But they do. With Byron Katie's The Work, you are taught to systematically review each thought that emotionally triggers you. Without the emotional trigger or "story" behind your suffering, you can think clearly and respond appropriately to what is. If you are a typical baby-boomer, you could feel overwhelmed with the thought of taking each uninvestigated belief and exposing it to the light of inquiry. But Katie says, only one thought causes your suffering at any one moment, so just deal with that one. Without attempting to repair or fix yourself, inquiry alone opens the door to the mind's eye. Amazing changes follow. In a time of possible war, peace of mind is the best most of us can achieve in the service of peace. If a human being can stop the war in his/her own mind, we come one step closer to world peace. Katie herself is remarkable in that she truly, unselfishly shares her Work with any one who seeks her help. I am so lucky to have met her on this journey.
Rating:
Summary: Another great fan of what is
Review: I went to hear Byron Katie speak and then bought this audio book. Much more useful than the written book because you can listen to people experiencing the work for real and get the full impact of how looking at what you believe and why you "choose" to believe it can change your life. Some may find Katie a little brash, but then that gives you something more to look at right there. Even my kids listened and prospered from the wisdom of accepting that what is what is supposed to be. As Katie herself often implys, everything is an oportunity to do the work. And it does change your life.
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