An eye-opening perspective that New Age fans and open-minded readers should value.
A writer mixes metaphysics and hardcore science to map out a life plan.
In a scientifically grounded look at the concept of alternate realities, debut author Scott shows readers how to leave unsatisfying elements of their lives behind and shift into an existence where they are the people they want to be. It’s not the old TV series Quantum Leap, in which the main character is zapped backward in time and literally jumps into someone else’s body. Readers retain their own identities but leap into improved versions of themselves—who, for example, have better credit ratings or are free from addiction. The book distinguishes itself from genre tomes that take a purely metaphysical view of parallel universes because it accords equal, if not more, weight to the role of physics: quantum entanglement, wormholes and black holes, folding space, and warp drive. These ideas come from Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and Richard Feynman, who developed equations about varying concepts of reality. The volume is organized in four parts, starting with the backstory that triggered Scott’s awareness of the ability to shift into alternate realities. He breaks his theory down to simple principles and starts by explaining them in a straightforward, easily understandable manner. In Part 2, he delivers practical methods to take control of one’s present reality: changing one’s name (as he did), moving to another home or city, or learning a new language. Then come the fun parts: learning his techniques to “hack reality” and move forward into a self-designed consciousness. At 400 pages, the book covers a lot of territory, with instructional chapters on how to maintain love, health, and prosperity. The author puts his own stamp on the theory of transurfing, which was developed by Russian physicist Vadim Zeland. While Zeland eschews focusing on the present moment and advocates looking ahead to compose the direction of one’s reality, Scott weaves in the tenets of mindfulness, meditation, yoga, and Zen. Rigorously researched, the book is lucid and instills confidence through the author’s calm, authoritative voice. The work should intrigue readers who don’t dismiss metaphysics out of hand or who at least refuse to paint an indelible line between New Age thought and science.
An eye-opening perspective that New Age fans and open-minded readers should value.Pub Date: March 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5445-0620-3
Page Count: 402
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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