Lucid Living: A Book You Can Read in an Hour That Will Turn Your World Inside Out

by Tim Freke, Jeanne Simonelli

This concise book is filled with wisdom.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Self Help, Spirituality, Psychology, New Age, Personal Development

80 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2005

About the author

Timothy Freke has an honors degree in philosophy and is the author of more than twenty books on world spirituality. He lectures and runs experiential seminars throughout the world exploring gnosis. For information, see timothyfreke.com. Both Freke and Gandy live in England and are the authors of five previous books, including The Jesus Mysteries and Jesus and the Lost Goddess.

Reviews

[Hl · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's always good to question one's own worldview and revaluate life. This book provoked me to think, but did not deliver on the promise to change me forever.

I agreed with the author in his view that life is an amazing thing which we should all be more appreciative of and that existence itself is fascinating and mysterious. I also think it's interesting that we can only experience the universe from our own perspective and with our own human senses.

However, I don't buy into the idea of an inherent awareness which is separate and above mind, body and the external world. I don't believe that we're all somehow the interconnected manifestations of a single 'life-dreamer'. We're all just a bunch of chemicals brought together by evolution and responding to outside stimuli. And I think that's beautiful.

I don't regret the short amount of time I spent reading this book, but nor did I gain very much from it. Maybe I just didn't get it.

[Flemming Funch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice little book. Indeed, you can read it in an hour. Clean, simple, enlightening writing. Did it do anything for me? Not really, except for one minor insight I hadn't had before. I could think of writing a book like that myself, which maybe makes me look more critically at it. I had expected something a little more practical in terms of how to actually live lucidly.

[Sophie Pike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok woah. Trying to sit with all this information I just learned in a 30 minute read of this book. There’s a lot going on here, and I really appreciate it bc it is philosophical and def requires some patience and willingness to hear everything out. I feel like I’ve thought abt some of this stuff before so interesting to see it in this form. Overall solid read but you gotta be committed to get something out of it. Ok coming back to edit and add some thoughts: super interesting theory and thoughts from mr. freke, but just unrealistic and not actually going to “turn my world inside out.” A fun read and fun to think abt but looking like a few months from now, I won’t be living my life any differently bc I read this book

[Matt Blair · Rating 2 out of 5]

At best, a very light introduction to some of the basic ideas of mindfulness and compassion. At worst, utter fluff that continuously pats itself on the back for being life-changing and deep.

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading this tiny book was probably the biggest waste of time in my life. What a load of garbage. There is nothing enlightening, interesting or remarkable in this book. The author just spews a weak regurgitation of the same metaphysical mumbo-jumbo that you probably pondered and discarded as puerile nonsense as a pre-teen. This load of crap was merely a smokescreen for the author to meekly implore us with the oh-so-enlightening request to "all just get along".
If I could give this book zero stars I would. The author wasted a half-hour of my life with this pretentious piece of trash and if I ever saw him on the street I would punch him in the throat for it.
The people giving this "book" 5 stars are either joking or pretending they "got" some meaningful message out of this to avoid feeling awkward for not "getting it". Give it up folks, there is nothing to "get" from this steaming pile of crap.

[Alex Behrman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gag me with a spoon.

[Noor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A friend suggested Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty by Zygmunt Bauman, and as age cast its shadow on my memory, I mistook it for Lucid Living: A Book You Can Read in an Hour That Will Turn Your World Inside Out. But I do not regret reading it.

After all, I enjoy short readings from time to time, and Lucid Living by Tim Freke turned out to be one of those books.

His ideas are not new, as I have swum in Indian philosophy and Islamic Sufi ideologies, which share similar shades of grey.

Timothy Freke asks us to live in a state of “dreaming while awake” and to shift our perspective into lucid living. He compares ordinary life to a dream. Zhuangzi’s butterfly paradox, Rumi knocking on the door, Sophie in Sophie’s World looking into the mirror all echo at the same frequency. At times, I want to surrender to the mysticism of Rumi, but my still childlike curiosity to question mysticism and my bias toward the science of observational confirmation, doesn’t let me walk into those tents, even though I acknowledge the peace and calm they bring to a life caught in the rat race.

Freke’s message is that life is not something to be solved but something to be awakened to. It takes a bit to comprehend the concept, and a giant leap to move from being a Scientific Realist to an awakened being.

[Muzammil · Rating 4 out of 5]

End of Week 56: Book 📘56 Completed🙂: Lucid Living – Tim Freke #myread4change #read2lead #read4life #books #Meditation #Timfreke

"We are so wrapped up in our opinions about life that we mistake our own make-believe world for reality—just like when we’re dreaming."

Tim claims we all are dreaming, while we feel we are living reality, and he suggests by changing our perspective, and change the way we think, we can transform our experience of living.

Tim leads readers through seven powerful insights that will work together to wake you up from the sleeping sickness that keeps you unconscious in the life-dream in less than 50 pages book.

Few 🔑 Points –

• Now Is All You Know - Your experience of this moment is not a belief that can be questioned. It is a self-evident certainty. Your experience of this moment is all you can be absolutely sure of.

• Being One is Loving All – When we assume, we are just separate individuals, we act in our limited self-interest, regardless of the suffering we may cause others. The illusion of separateness leads to selfishness and suffering.

• When we realize that separateness is an illusion, we understand that conflict is never between us and them, but always us against us.

Few 📌Quotes-

1) You can doubt all beliefs that are based on your memories of the past, because memory is fallible.

2) Your experience of this moment is not a belief that can be questioned. It is a self-evident certainty.

3) When we assume, we are just separate individuals, we act in our limited self-interest, regardless of the suffering we may cause others.

For Book Summary Visit My Blog –

https://myreadforchange.com/lucid-liv...

For Book E-copy DM me.

[Kelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting focal points that I would generally agree with, but it is so repetitive. Similar to the Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz, the Toltec Wisdom book.

I get that repetition is a way of committing things to memory and to your subconscious, which is beneficial and the point of this book, but literally every page was a continuation of the last page, and it’s like “yeah, so you’ve said” lol
And it wasn’t in a like a hymn or prayer or mantra sort of way.
And it was very … self indulgent. After it would present a concept, it would explain with an example, and then be like “don’t you get it?” “Weird right?”
It posits questions that it then congratulates itself for having the answer to, which contradicts it’s initial statement of things not being what they seem and to question reality.

So are we questioning reality and coming to terms with the fact that we may be wrong and should therefore have an open mind; or is your suggestion of a solution THE solution and the reader is meant to have light bulbs go off like “wow that’s crazy, I never considered any of what you’re saying, you’re/this is amazing”

Just very baseline.
Thought provoking, if you take out all the extra fluff, but basic.
Could’ve been shorter, is all I’m saying lol

[Daniël Veld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucid Living is an interesting book that can be easily read in one sitting. It is all about the idea that we are living in a dream world. By becoming conscious of the fact that we are always dreaming, we can trigger an ultra-wake state called ‘Lucid Living’. This awareness makes it easier to manifest things in life. You are the dreamer after all.

It is a great book to read if you have an open mind about it. The concept is explained pretty well and makes you think about the possibility long after reading. Lucid Living made me aware (again) of the fact that YOU manifest everything in life. You are the one that chooses your path and how to deal with everything around you. Therefore I would recommend this book. To simply remind you of this fact while having a philosophical conversation with the writer.

[Kurtis Vanderpool · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent material, but the author didn’t seem to do much work at all making it readable to people who don’t have their heads in the philosophical clouds. I love this kind of stuff and can keep up pretty well, and he had me confused AF because of the words he chose and his writing style.

It’s a good take on being aware of the world as it really is, not as our limited minds most often perceive it, but man is it insane trying to read.

[P]

Apparently not an hour. When I first heard experiments stuff I thought this would be something like e squared but no, it's just preach and I'm not good at doing what others tell me to, so.. something which should have been over in less than half an hour for me took this long and I still didn't get past a few chapters and I never will. No, thank you. DNF.

[Jan Wijngaarden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very clever and easy to read way of explainjng pretty complex stuff. I must admit that the idea behind wasn’t new for me but even then this book is very interesting to read and can help to bring the message to other “dreamers”

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very quick read.

That said I don't think I've read anything this short before that is as though provoking or potentially transformational.

I've already considered this particular concept before so it is interesting to read someone else's view of how the universe may be made up.

[Ruth Bergsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik heb dit in de trein gelezen, dat voelde als de perfecte plek. Ik moet het me allemaal even laten bezinken. Maar ik moet bekennen dat toen ik het boek dicht klapte dat ik een grijns op mijn gezicht had. #evenlekkeroverhetlevennadenken

[Zora · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has some really good information just oversimplified. You can definitely read this in 30 minutes, and it may indeed make you think about things more intricately. I was interested enough to look up the author. For a short book, it's good enough.

[Carlos Ramos · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is indeed a short read.

However, it did not evoke me any philosophical questions or felt it delivered on his promise.

It was a nice past time, but nothing really important or eye opening.

[Saarah Niña · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to know more
This book has inspired me to want to know more about lucid living. Tim Freke introduces what I would call 'the core beliefs' of such a perspective. His approach is welcoming, inviting and encouraging. I love his writing style, and I was touched by his words.

But I feel this he doesn't explain lucid living in as much detail as I'd have liked: for example, I was confused for a while about what he meant by the state of dreaming. I'm a day dreamer, always have been, but the way he described it was different, and difficult to make sense of. Then there was how he doesn't really differentiate between being asleep and being in a dream like state. Small details, I know, which is why I have given this book three stars.

Also, the principles Tim puts forward were similar to a Buddhist's way of thinking, really I couldn't tell the difference. Then there was how we weren't told of the bigger picture in living lucidly, or the advantages, and research, behind it.

It was obvious he knew what he was talking about, I just wish he had shared more with his eager readers- considering just how interesting the topic was.

I received this book through NetGalley.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This an extremely easy read - it took me 30 minutes, not an hour. I think it's a good introduction to the concept of lucid living, especially if you haven't got a philosophical background. I took an entire course in college on existentialism, and another one on the philosophy of mind, and so I didn't find this too enlightening, and I wasn't blown away by the concepts. But they are great concepts, and if you're interested in thinking a little differently about life, existence, and awareness, it's definitely worth an hour of your time.

[Jessica Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet.
Timothy Freke claims this book will turn your world inside out within an hour. It may take a little longer than that to attain awakening and reading a book won't help, but this book may help prod you in the right direction. If you follow his arguments and try the experiments for yourself, you may find the light flickers on briefly. It won't work if you just read it straight through. For full review visit: http://jessicadavidson.co.uk/2013/11/...

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, but, nothing very new here if you've an interest in this kind of stuff anyway. Usefulish, if you're the kind of person who needs to keep being told this over and over again. So, it's not such a bad beginner book, and on the plus side, at least you won't have to wade through hours of dense prose wondering what his message is.

[tina michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another gift from my Christmas list ... finally getting around to reading it. Stay tuned (:

Quick read. It says an hour and it means it. Interesting concept about consciousness and philosophy. I can't say I actually wrapped my brain around it. But I have been thinking about it a lot--which is a good sign that it had some impact.

[Vicky Colorado · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with several of the other reviewers; if you have read other philosophical works, this book will not be an awakening. However, as a short introductory tome it serves its purpose. I don't think the audience of this book is meant to be versed in Descartes or Sartre for that matter. It takes 30 minutes to read at most.

[Adam Dillon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does exactly what it says on the tin. It basically turns our conceptions of whether dreaming is reality or whether our waking hours are real and then Freke suggests that there is a great deal to be learned if we can allow ourselves to lake some of the fear and inhibitions that we carry ....... I will let you read the rest it ain't a hefty tome

[Toofan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audio version: Content 3.5 stars, Narration 5 stars
The narration of the Audio version is really nifty.
Listening to it took less than an hour and time really flew by. The presented philosophy is interesting though I had had encountered it before in other works. I wouldn't call this book life changing but definitely worth reading.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS WAS UNREAL!!! that's good! It was an even faster read than advertized on the cover. I went through it in, like, fifteen minutes. Its something you need to read again and again to garner anything substantial from it, but it's pretty powerful on the first run!

[Susan Janke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read quite a few books by Tim Freke, and I think I was expecting a little more than what was offered in this book. It is a nice introduction to lucid living if you don't know anything about it.

[Heidi Wiechert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a funny, little book. I enjoyed the ideas in it but I don't think that it lived up to its promise of 'turning my world inside out'. I'm definitely going to pick up more books by Freke though, he's interesting.

[Alex McEntire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick little read that is very eye opening and helps you see life from another angle. I found it to be helpful in my everyday life, but I am already inclined to believe what the author is saying in the little book. Encapulates spiritual concepts well.

[Sage · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Great book that makes you think
and poses some interesting questions