Rating: 
Summary: Amazing! Highly Recommended
Review: First I can't say enough good things about this book. I have to disagree with the poor reviews that it has been given. First to the rator that said this book was Preachy, I never felt that the author was trying shove her beliefs onto me or that she was "lets be light all the time". This book has one defining quality and that is that it gives you definite advise on how to "ground" yourself and your life so that your living for you and your living in a place that that promotes healthy boundries and then she goes to depth on how people fall into unhealthy practices that are unhealthy ways that people go about their lives. That to me isn't "light all the time". Unless you mean that she actually stresses the importance on creating healthy boundries... then she gives healthy practices from her experience that creates a positive atmosphere and yet defines boundries.
That is all only half of the book though... I have have looked through many books on Auras and this book is the only one that I have found that doesn't try to Sell itself and it walks away from the cookie cutter commercailized book! I found that the Chackras and my Aura become real rather then an uninfluential intellectual exercise of trying to gather a metaphysical power.
I was surprised that one rater said this book said that this author does not mention the Goddess and that this is just a continuation of the male society... This book does not focus on God or Goddess (or any diety) and the referances of a "God-connection" or "God" refers mostly to the "higher self" or the seventh chackra which I think the auther did an amazing job... and the rater who was offended by the use of "God" has mentioned is clearly very sensitive about any mention of the other God based religions as that raters reviews clearly point out.
I would give a detailed discription of the insides of this books except amazon has the "look inside" for this book and the contents are one of the pages.
Overall I can't suggest this book enough... I just bought four other books from this author just because I was so impressed with this book.
Blessed be
Rating:
Summary: Your Aura & Your Chakras: The Owner's Manual
Review: I can't express how excited I was to find this book! Several years ago, after struggling to learn to meditate on my own, I enrolled in the late Lewis Bostwick's Berkley Psychic Institute's "pyschic kindergarten,"-- a class which teaches a clear and concise method of meditation. After completing the course, I was elated to find I could meditate easily. Not only that, but I was reaping the benefits of grounding, centering, and gold sun healings, among other things. How I struggled to explain to friends and family how this meditation worked! There were loved ones across the country whom I know could've benefitted from these teachings, but were unable to take the class. Now, with some slight alterations, I see Ms. McLaren's book explains the very method I used! Hurrah!
Karla's instructions are clear, and for those who don't like being told that "this is the way you must do it," well, in my own experience, the closer you come to following the instruction to the letter, the better your results will be. It all works together. Really. You just have to give it a chance.
Anyway, this is a remarkable book and I recommend it highly.
Rating:
Summary: Balanced
Review: I found Karla's book by divine guidance, didn't know what to expect other than learning more about the subject of auras and chakras. She has written a do-it-yourself healing guide that has become invaluable in my day to day life. Refreshing, common-sence, down-to-earth language. Not to mention wonderful meditations that have helped immensely. She gives the tools to trust in our intuition, take responsiblity for our emotions, heal ourselves, and above all bring balance into everyday life.
Rating:
Summary: Balanced
Review: I found Karla's book by divine guidance, didn't know what to expect other than learning more about the subject of auras and chakras. She has written a do-it-yourself healing guide that has become invaluable in my day to day life. Refreshing, common-sence, down-to-earth language. Not to mention wonderful meditations that have helped immensely. She gives the tools to trust in our intuition, take responsiblity for our emotions, heal ourselves, and above all bring balance into everyday life.
Rating:
Summary: A kick-butt book about chakras and spiritual healing.
Review: I never thought "spiritual healing" and "kick butt" could be used in the same sentence, but that's exactly what this owner's manual does. Or should I say -- kicks first chakra! Ms. McLaren states that she has learned all she knows about chakras directly from the chakras themselves, and has never read a book about the chakra system. Well, I must have read them all, and even the best ones left me with a sneaking suspicion that everyone owns an aura and chakras except me! "The Owner's Manual" demonstrated to my great relief that this is not the case. Ms. McLaren provides even the most spiritually stupefied like myself with accessible tools with which to tune into our subtle energies, heal ourselves, take control of our lives, and have fun in the process. I endorse her book with gratitude.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of valuable info but EXTREMELY PREACHY TONE!
Review: I'm a Wiccan and so am used to the metaphysical books I read giving me credit for being a grown-up! In other words, they SUGGEST, rather than COMMAND!I also feel that it would have been more inclusive if she hadn't repeatedly used the word "God" to refer to Deity and the personal pronouns "he" and "him" instead of the unoffensive and non-sexist s/he and him or her, which are, again, what I'm used to in the metaphysical books I read, unless the books are aimed specifically at one sex! Also, her attidude is very, "Oh, let's just all be light all the time!" An example of this is her instruction to use a flower as a means of psychic self-defense! In my opinion, that's not very practical. I generally use mirrors! But if you can get past all of that stuff the book has a lot of valuable information on how to maintain your aura and chakras. It also has a lot of good stuff on releasing issues, people, past events, etc. Since her attitude is very annoying, I doubt I'll buy another book by this writer! So if you're a Christian or a member of a religion who uses the word "God" as the only word to refer to The Divine and doesn't mind The Divine Female being completely excluded, you might enjoy this book! If you're a Wiccan, or indeed a member of ANY Pagan religion, you might find this book annoying!
Rating:
Summary: More information on her current views
Review: Karla is trying to bridge the gap between what she sees as two cultures. It's true that she's no longer a believer in many aspects of new age thinking, but it's not like she's suddenly switched religions and now rejects everything she used to believe. She argues that critical thinking and scientific method are valuable, and need to be brought into the New Age world-view. (..) I only used the rating system because I had to, I have NO experience with the book in question.
Rating:
Summary: More information on her current views
Review: Karla is trying to bridge the gap between what she sees as two cultures. It's true that she's no longer a believer in many aspects of new age thinking, but it's not like she's suddenly switched religions and now rejects everything she used to believe. She argues that critical thinking and scientific method are valuable, and need to be brought into the New Age world-view. (..) I only used the rating system because I had to, I have NO experience with the book in question.
Rating: 
Summary: No longer believes...
Review: Karla McLaren now realises that she was mistaken and misdirected in her belief in "New Age", "Spiritual" and other "mystical ideas." She has realised that the scientific method is the correct way and that the books she has written are pure bunk and has disowned them. She's now trying to figure out how to make new-age thinkers give up thier beliefs and embrace skepticism and science. Karla McLaren feels that she has badly mislead and hurt, more than helped, the people who have read her books. As she has written: "I'm not really sure how to introduce myself, except perhaps with this paraphrase: "I have seen the enemy, and she is me." and "I've now studied enough skeptical and scientific information about paranormal abilities and events to question many of the precepts upon which my work was based. More important, I've seen enough to understand firsthand the real costs of the New Age." I hope new age believers will listen to what she has to say now - it will be the most important thing you ever do.
Rating:
Summary: Glad I bought it, but pissed off at the author
Review: The first two visualization exercises are worth the purchase price of the book. I have stopped reading at Chapter Two, because Ms. McLaren has claimed - flippantly, no less - that she has the ability to heal schizophrenics. Dude - back it up with sound statistics, or leave it out. I'd believe she can heal hypochondria, but schizophrenia? To claim such a thing without backing it up is to give false hope to anyone who is or loves a schizophrenic, thereby doing them a huge disservice. It also does a huge disservice to Ms. McLaren because it makes her sound A) untrustworthy and B) unintelligent. This single statement turned me off to the entire book because it made me feel Ms. McLaren's own issues are getting in the way, even if her only issue is an aversion to running a proper research study (maybe I am overly nerdy but I don't think that's too hard to do). I am grateful for Ms. McLaren's wonderful visualization exercises, but I am only going to skim the rest of the book for these and ignore the parts where she talks about her own experiences.
Side note: check out http://www.kanetalk.com/articles.htm for some good (and free) writing on chakras.
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