DREAM A BETTER DREAM

Debut author Haber’s spiritual discourse suggests positive thinking as a remedy for the world’s degradation.

In this book, the author aims to address why there’s so much evil in the world and what can be done about it. Many of her ideas, she says, are taken from a collection of spiritual books that contain “messages brought forth by a Spirit named Joseph through a medium.” According to Joseph, she says, the human race existed as angels, deeply connected to God, but eventually, the offspring of these angelic beings manipulated energy fields and vibrations, changing the Earth’s molecular structure and “plunging this world into darkness.” The solution to our predicament, the author repeatedly states, is positive thinking: “Believe in a peaceful, harmonious world….Our thoughts can and will manipulate vibrations….Let’s alter the current energy...by infusing it with positive light.” The book also covers other topics, such as why “the world is aching,” due to pesticides, pollution, and other factors; why “spirituality,” as Haber defines it, is superior to religiosity; and how physical ailments can be cured by spiritual means, including spiritual “surgery” that the author claims can expel tumors. Haber discourages materialism, fear, hatred, and doubt while advocating meditation, unity, forgiveness, compassion, and gratitude. Throughout the book, the author holds fast to her unorthodox views, and her unapologetic tone may pique the interest of readers. However, her book appears to be aimed squarely at the like-minded, ignoring those readers who may have different perspectives. Often, the writing traffics in hollow clichés (“Change starts with you, and me”), overlong paragraphs, and abstract, convoluted phrases that are difficult to comprehend (“Creation is being described as a process of individuation through division and multiplication within itself”). The book’s stance on positive thinking, meanwhile, is superficial and vague, and it doesn’t give readers enough solid advice to put it to effective use.

An overlong, incoherent self-help work.