La cábala y el poder de soñar: Despertar a una vida visionaria

by Catherine Shainberg

Una dinámica exposición de la antigua y arraigada tradición sefardí de soñar que nos legó el renombrado cabalista del siglo XIII Isaac el Ciego

• Incluye ejercicios y prácticas para acceder por propia voluntad al estado onírico con la finalidad de relacionarse con la vida en un estado de conciencia potenciada

• Escrito por la asidua discípula de la estimada cabalista Colette Aboulker-Muscat

En La cábala y el poder de soñar, Catherine Shainberg expone prácticas esotéricas que nos permiten desbloquear los poderes transformativos e intuitivos de la mente cuando soñamos. Se trata de prácticas utilizadas por profetas, videntes y sabios de la antigüedad para controlar los sueños y las visiones. Shainberg se basa en la antigua tradición sefardí de la cábala, así como en relatos y mitos ilustrativos de toda la región mediterránea, para enseñar a los lectores a beneficiarse del poder intuitivo de sus sueños. Shainberg nos muestra que soñar no es un fenómeno que simplemente sucede mientras dormimos, sino que soñamos en todo momento. Al enseñar a la mente consciente a estar despierta durante el sueño, y a la mente ensoñadora a manifestarse en la conciencia diurna, seremos capaces de revolucionar nuestra conciencia. Los ejercicios de visión interior propuestos por la autora estimulan imágenes creativas y transformativas que van definiendo el sendero a la autorrealización.

Genres: Spirituality

246 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 16, 2005

Reviews

[Bogi Takács]

I had extremely mixed feelings about this book.

It is based on the teachings of Colette Aboulker-Muscat, who was a Sephardic Jewish woman from North Africa and who taught visualization exercises for healing in a Sephardic tradition; written by one of her students.

Unfortunately, the book tries to present this approach while extremely heavily catering to a Western, non-Jewish readership, and while minimizing the Jewish aspects. I almost put the book down when I was supposed to work through a set of visualization exercises related to... Beauty and the Beast. Sorry, my only frame of reference for this story is the Disney cartoon, and that... didn't seem to be what had been intended. (Fortunately, the book has an alternate set too.) And that's before we get to the Greek and Egyptian deities.

I did most of the exercises. Some of them one is supposed to be doing for a very long time, so I can't comment on that, but it did take me a few months to get through the book (it can probably be done faster). And some exercises I'm already doing in a slightly different form, etc. so I skipped those.

Often there was a kind of rhetorical move in the text where you were supposed to do an exercise, and then the author went on to assume you experienced something specific and the discussion followed from that - and I sometimes experienced something else, or the direct opposite. Maybe a neuroatypicality thing, maybe not, but it left me rather frustrated.

All that was aggravating - I took notes for the exercises and a lot of them were along the lines of how this wasn't working for me - but I actually had a major realization while working through the book that nothing else gave me. So that was awesome and I'm grateful for that.

A note if you are looking for something about lucid dreaming in a Jewish context: there's only a little bit of that near the end, though it is a logical progression from the rest (at least IMO).
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Source of the book: Bought with my own money

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me a full month to finish the book and I was kind of skipping paragraphs by the end of it. The book would perhaps merit 2.5 stars as per my reading of it, but maybe others gelled with it. Not my case as the author did not follow a line of thinking and argumentation so it felt a bit disorganised. I also expected she’d provide more examples of experiences other people had. It all felt a bit washy washy and did not incentivize me to try the exercises. One can say this book did not reach me at the right time... maybe.

[Klemen Lipovšek · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting guide through personal growth using imagery. Powerful stuff. Most useful if practitioner can guide you through some of it.

[Marci · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book to be experienced. Take your time. Practice the exercises. The best self help book on the market.

[Mariana A.b · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me tomó casi dos años terminar este libro, pero valió la pena: te cambia la vida.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those "not for everyone" books. But if you're open to the idea of working with dreams in a different way than our mainstream society allows for, I can generally recommend it (I would *highly* recommend it if I knew you and knew this would be a good fit for you). Catherine Shainberg has a very clear and direct style, and this book is pretty lean. If you want a taste to try to decide, the author does an interview here about another book, but it touches on this one: http://bit.ly/1ofI26h

[Lourdes Cambridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

CATHERINE AND I MADE A CONNECTION AT SANTA MARIA DE LA SALUTE' IN VENICE, ITALY. SHE WAS INTERESTED IN SEEING INTO WORDS. SHE TOLD ME THAT HER RABBI HAD SAID THAT SHE KNEW KABBALAH. I DID NOT THINK THAT WAS A VERY GOOD CHOICE FOR PRAYER. KNOWING WITH PERMISSION...IF YOU ARE GOING TO KNOW AT ALL...NOT I.T. ALL...IS BEST. HER PARTNER HAD JUST PASSED AWAY...AND SHE WAS LOOKING FOR A BETTER PUBLISHING HOUSE THAN WEISER.

[L'Artiste · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't follow Kabbalah, but that's the point of reading, to learn a bit about everything! The dreaming part of this book interested me the most. Sometimes I felt the author was just 'filling pages', but between some of the 'filler' there were plenty of shiny nuggets of contemplation to keep me occupied. Overall worth it!

[Pascale · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great, not one to just read through and put back on the shelves . There is at least a year in training, discovery and exercises in there. I think it is worth the time.

I did only part of the exercises proposed but even a small part brought its share of discoveries. I'll have to go back and do them all.

We'll explained, easy to understand. I recommend it.

[J.T.K. Gibbs]

This is not a book to read through once. There are exercises I will be doing and practicing for the foreseeable future, so it will be a reference book, as well as an excellent read.