Waking Up: Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential

Rating:
Summary: Learn to stop being a robot!
Review: He explains how most people are caught in what he calls "consensus trance", or ruled by mechanical patterns of thought and behavior that amount to a great injustice to ourselves. Among other things, he goes over the different types of defense mechanisms we like to use, described in a way that makes them familiar. I've done just about all of them, and quite often.

Unlike other authors, he's interested not only in pointing out the problem but also in what can be practically done about it, which the second half of this book is about. This is now one of my few favorite books.

Rating:
Summary: intro to mindfulness, his next book on it is much better
Review: I was initially attracted to this book by its promising title, but it is really very slow getting off the ground. One could easily skip way ahead to the useful chapters on self-observation and self-remembering, and the ties to the Gurdjieff work. He actually covers alot of the same ground but much much better in Living the Mindful Life---a book I highly recommend for those interested in mindfulness and Gurdjieffian self-development.

Rating:
Summary: Waking Up : Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential
Review: If you were only to have one personal growth book, this would be the one. Charles T. Tart can articulate deep issues very clearly and he does not force anything on you. He presents the ideas and you run with the knowledge. After reading "Waking Up" I've purchased every book published by this author.

This book is more like a text book than a casual read; but don't be put off. Every page has knowledge and ideas distilled from Gurdjieff's teachings. But the book is pure Charles Tart. I recommend starting right at the beginning and enjoy. Get your highlighter and pencil to write your own comments in the margin and highlight passages of pure wisdom.

There is a logical method for each chapter and if you follow it through, it will really open your eyes. This was a break-through book for me. The book talks about how we are put in a conscious trance since birth and own true essence is suppressed in order to fit and cope in our culture. And how this creates a false personality in ourselves that we have to feed and thus takes energy away from our true selves. Tart talks about how we have created a simulation of the world as we se it and not how it is. There are chapters on Emotions and Defense Mechanisms we employ to protect our conditioned self. Then Tart moves into chapters on how we can self-observe ourself and start to wake from our sleep. There is just too much here to talk about in a few paragraphs.

It is one of the few books I can truly say that I reference in my life on a frequent basis. It was originally published in the late 1980's then went out of print. I am so glad to see it available again. The people of the world need this book. Buy it and you won't regret it.