This book is full of ridiculous new age, pseudoscience, psychobabble. It almost sounds like a new age parody. It was so silly that I had to keep reminding myself that the author actually believes this stuff, that a lot of people do. It was the book that convinced Oprah Winfrey to transform her business from tabloid talk shows into a clearinghouse for spirituality and woo-woo philosophy.
Much of this book is a meaningless stream of new age, and occasionally scientific-sounding, language. It takes credulity to a new level. Zukav seems to believe in every mystical speculation throughout the cultures and ages--gods, angels, demons, Jesus, garden of Eden, souls, reincarnation, karma, pantheism, law of attraction, aliens, chakras, astrology, ghosts. There is no silly idea he won't take seriously, treating them as not only compatible with each other and with science, but treats science as if it provides evidence for it all.
I'll try to set my feelings aside and explain, with a straight face, what I think is the premise of this book: up until now, our evolution has been oriented around the five sensory experience. We tried to gain power by hurting others, but that was not authentic power. Now, with modern physics, we are entering into the multi-sensory experience of non-physical reality. We are becoming aware of the Lightness of our souls. We are choosing our experience, through our intentions. When we become multi-sensory beings, we can bring more Light to our souls, and become One with the Universe.
Or something like that. That's the best impression I can do. But I can't do it justice. It's better to provide a snippet out of the book:
"We are evolving into a species of whole individuals, individuals who are aware of their nature as beings of Light, and who shape their Light consciously, wisely, and with compassion. Therefore, the physical phenomenon of phase coherent Light, Light that does not struggle with itself so to speak, has now come into being. It is a new phenomenon to the human experience, and it reflects the new energy dynamic of the whole human. The achievements of science, in other words, do not reflect the laboratory capabilities of individuals or nations, but the spiritual capabilities of our species."
The whole book reads like that, from beginning to end. What does this stuff even mean? What is a multi-sensory experience, and why is five (which is more than one and therefore multiple) not also called multi-sensory? By "multi-sensory," do you mean "more than five?" How many more than five, exactly? Six? Nine? Thirty four? 30,292,934.20399? What instruments did you use to discover them? If this is all science, as you claim, then why didn't you submit your research to a reputable science journal rather than just sell books and workshops about it?
What could a non-physical reality possibly mean? That's like talking about a non-circular circle. To be real means to exist. To exist means to have some measurable, physical effect. Otherwise it is indistinguishable from nothing at all. And what does "spiritual" mean? The dictionary gives a circular definition: "of the spirit." What is a spirit? Is it just something you made up, or is it something that can be measured and used in actual everyday life? And if it's not useful in our lives, then what good is it?
That's what I find myself doing with a lot of "spiritual" jibberish. I have to sift through the nonsense and try to figure out what, specific effects they hope to achieve through all of this. They use a ton of words that have no meaning, like soul and reincarnation and spirit, and yet it does seem to have some physical ramifications in people's lives. People like Oprah swear by it. So, exactly what specific changes do they speak of? How are they a better person because of it? And why is all the spiritualspeak necessary for them to get there?
When you strip away all the meaningless words, you don't end up with very much. Basically, the message is "be nice to people and stuff." Whenever someone gets religion, that's ultimately what it tends to boil down to: they've found some way to be nicer to people. And that's fine, if they needed all that nonsense in order to be nicer to people. I just can't understand why they couldn't just skip all the nonsense and go straight to the point, and just be nicer to people. Why do we need to dress it up? Why isn't it enough to just be kind and compassionate?
If this was just a fancy way of inspiring people to be nicer to each other, none of this would bother me. It would just be harmless nonsense. But that's not all this is, and it is not harmless. For one thing, people are paying a lot of money for psychological snake oil. Oprah Winfrey has built her multi-billion dollar empire on it. There's also the Seat of the Soul Institute. And when all is said and done, they have nothing useful to teach people except that they should be nicer to each other. And I know they make all this money not because they teach people to be nicer, but because they dress it up in a way that presses people's god buttons.
I also know there's something very gratifying, and potentially dangerous, about painting people as "highly evolved beings," with a "multi-sensory consciousness" or whatever, and portraying their credulity as superiority. This doesn't just press our god buttons, but our righteousness buttons. That's when people will shell out the serious cash. People ingest righteousness like a drug.
What's also harmful is that this book advocates "spiritual psychology" instead of traditional psychology, in treating psychosis, i.e. treating all psychosis as a "spiritual sickness" rather than a mental one. But if there's no such thing as a "soul" or "spirit," and this is all just some shit people made up, then this irresponsible advice means mental illness would remain untreated. People would not get the help they need, leading to serious problems and suicide.
Compassion, full stop, is really the only path worth pursuing. Honest "spiritual" teachers will say this plainly. They won't dress it up with nonsense, and they won't have anything to sell you. That might not sound quite so grandiose or inspiring, but it's the only legitimate game in town. Everything else is fraud.