The Spiritual Tourist : A Personal Odyssey Through the Outer Reaches of Belief

Rating:
Summary: Some who wander are lost.
Review: As a person who takes spirituality seriously, I found The Spiritual Tourist a fascinating romp through the occult playgrounds of the world, east and west. Some ... praise Brown for taking a proper "middle path" between faith and reason. I found, on the contrary, that he was often frivolously gullible where clarity of thought was demanded, and obtusely boneheaded where reason really might encourage faith, were he willing to dig a little deeper. (Well, a lot deeper.) Nevertheless, most of the book is a very enlightening and entertaining journey. (Those who would like to see a more thorough expose of Sai Baba, might also enjoy the somewhat sensationalist but fascinating Avatar of Night.)

As one reads through Brown's accounts of eastern gurus, and also books like Philip Johnson's Intellectuals, which tell the stories of Western Humanist gurus (whom Johnson compares unfavorably to witchdoctors) like Sartre, Rousseau, Tolstoy, and Marx, it is easy to get the impression that religion is a racket. You find a few good people in it -- Confucius, the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Francis -- but even they are driven to some pretty strange conclusions by their beliefs (an enlightened master would be someone who would drink alcohol or urine with equal equanimity?). . . and they are least likely to do miracles or make extreme claims. Except one, that is, who is the most sagely of all (the best sages call him their sage), yet makes the most remarkable claims and revealed the greatest power. Brown conflates this guru with Baba, but I cannot think of two people who are more different. Nor do his miracles at all resemble Baba's silly and sub-natural conjuring tricks.

I am a very skeptical person by nature. I have been a follower of that guru for 25 years, and have been studying comparative religion for 14. I find Buddha attractive, the Bhagavad Gita, Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi clever, I see Marx' point, and admire Tolstoy, and have like Brown interviewed a few modern gurus as well. But it never entered my head that these gurus were any more than mortal; and nothing Brown said suggested that to me, either. The more I see of most of this crowd, the more startling and absolute the contrast with this other guru seems to become. There is one moment in Spiritual Pilgrims when Brown meets an old Indian scholar who is a follower of Sai Baba. He admits himself "baffled" by the records of that other guru. "If he did not exist, then it is a miracle that someone could have made up a story like this," he says. The people of his own time said the same: "No one ever spoke as this man," "No one ever did the things he did."

Brown does not follow this lead, but taking a naive and simplistic approach to faith and reason, still inclined to wander, comes to a fusion conclusion somewhere between Buddha and Voltaire. Each of us must save ourselves. All right. But can we really do that? Do we love God with all our heart, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves? Is life without God a party? How does death fit into the grand tour? Can we waterski the River Styx? Hang glide from the Pearly Gates? Even Indian tradition, that teaches the gods themselves cannot change karma, encouraged bathing in the Ganges, worship of gurus, and sacrifice, because people felt inside themselves they could not cover their own karma, but needed help. Brown's problem seems to be he is a tourist, and has not yet become serious about looking for truth.

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man

Rating:
Summary: Everyones esential spirtual companion
Review: Ever wonderd who or what was at the centre of the universe? heard of gurus living gods and sweet mothers but never found anything compact enough or enjoyable enough to read ? Well then this is for you. A mystical, enlightening and down to earth account of one mans journey through the spiritual extasy and quagmire ,that is the east. you can almost smell the incence filled ashrams he descibes, giggle at the more excentric manifestations of the gods of the east and read in awe as the description of darhsan, with the lamas and sias he has met!

Rating:
Summary: fly on the wall
Review: I enjoyed reading this book although it wasn't what I had thought it to be. Mike Brown manages to maintain a balance of scepticm and respect for each guru he encounters throughout the book, which is good, as it keeps the book open to believers and sceptics alike.

My only criticism was that the chapter on theosophy was far too comprehensive and long. I actually stopped reading the book for some weeks half way through this chapter. I did enjoy reading many of the short quotes and phrases spoken by some of the Gurus and it would have been nice for more of these to have been included.

Overall a interesting level headed guide to eastern guru religions.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book about an outer/inner journey
Review: I happened upon The Spiritual Tourist at a used bookstore. I was impressed by the writing and the content. I have never met Mick Brown but I like him and I appreciate his objectivity and at the same time his receptivity to the possibility that there is more to life than what we may see or think. I was especially pleased with the chapter on Krishnamurti and the theosophical society. Having read several of Krishnamurti's works, I still find him the "wisest" for lack of a better word spiritual teacher I have ever encountered.

Rating:
Summary: Everyones esential spirtual companion
Review: I lucked into a copy of this book and devoured it. I really like Mr.Brown's level-headed approach to this subject and to the many individuals he encountered along the way.

Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Tour
Review: In this book, Mick Brown leads the reader on a series of journeys from London to India to Germany and the US in examination of different spiritual teachers and paths. Brown presents all of this in a way that is both entertaining, amusing, and at times touching. He also crams in a huge amount of information which makes some sections a little dense, and some parts of the book tend to jump around in rather unsatisfying transitions back and forth. I have to say that I learned a great deal from this book about a lot of different and interesting beliefs. This left me wanting more and I plan to use the bibliography (alas rather small) to follow up on parts of interest.
What distinguished Brown's book from many other spiritual journey books is his blend of a journalist's skepticism with a real desire for an experience of faith. This mix is one that I personally have experienced often. Is this *the* path? Is this *the* guru or teacher? It is this feeling, coupled with the occasional glimpse of peace and understanding which makes me feel a kinship with Mick Brown when I read this book. I give it five stars for content but minus one star for the awkward style in some places

Rating:
Summary: No Guru. No Method. No Teacher.
Review: THE SPIRITUAL TOURIST: A PERSONAL ODYSSEY THROUGH THE OUTER REACHES OF BELIEF, is a personal chronicle of the author Mick Brown's spiritual peregrinations around the globe searching for...well, just plain searching. The author's search for far-flung spiritual gurus takes him from the peaks of the Himalayas to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and all points in between. Though Brown approaches his journey with the skeptical eye of a journalist and is forthright in his opinions, he never writes with condescension towards his subjects and allows the reader to make their own judgment about the spiritual validity of the various gurus encountered in his journey. As the title of the book indicates, Brown journeyed as an observer; I don't think he expected to find THE spiritual truth and I suppose in doing that, he indeed discovered a spiritual truth: truth will find you.

Rating:
Summary: A down to earth approach for linking sceptics to mystics.
Review: When a "spiritual tourist" wanders along your path and you are open to spiritual discovery, you wander along with him for a while. Mick Brown takes what is human in all of us, question, and uses it a as tool to understanding. Too many books on the subject of spiritual discovery are 'preachy' and tend to distance the novice spiritualist. Mick's book is descriptive, informative, and laced with sceptical humor. This book is truely a journey, and I doubt that a man with so much background knowledge into so many spiritual leaders, is just a tourist. This book is written by an insightful, spirtual human being.

Rating:
Summary: A down to earth approach for linking sceptics to mystics.
Review: When a "spiritual tourist" wanders along your path and you are open to spiritual discovery, you wander along with him for a while. Mick Brown takes what is human in all of us, question, and uses it a as tool to understanding. Too many books on the subject of spiritual discovery are 'preachy' and tend to distance the novice spiritualist. Mick's book is descriptive, informative, and laced with sceptical humor. This book is truely a journey, and I doubt that a man with so much background knowledge into so many spiritual leaders, is just a tourist. This book is written by an insightful, spirtual human being.