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Waking Up to the Dark: Ancient Wisdom for a Sleepless Age
In the tradition of Thomas Merton’s spiritual classic The Seven Storey Mountain or Thomas Moore’s Care of the Soul, Waking Up to the Dark is a deeply resonant and personal project—a modern gospel that is an investigation of the relationship between darkness and the soul. The darkness Clark Strand is talking about here is the darkness of the nighttime, of a world before electricity, when there was a rhythm to life that followed the sun’s rising and setting.
Strand here offers penetrating insight into the spiritual enrichment that can be found when we pull the plug on our billion-watt culture. He argues that the insomnia so many of us experience as “the Hour of the Wolf” is really “the Hour of God”—a wellspring of rest and renewal, and an ancient reservoir of ancestral wisdom and inspiration. And in a powerful yet surprising turn, he shares with us an urgent message for the world, received through a mysterious young woman, about the changes we all know are coming.
Waking Up to the Dark is a book for those of us who awaken in the night and don’t know why we can’t get back to sleep, and a book for those of us who have grown uncomfortable in real darkness—which we so rarely experience these days, since our first impulse is always to turn on the light. Most of all, it is a book for those of us who wonder about our When the lights are always on, when there is always noise around us, do our souls have the nourishment they need in which to grow?
Praise for Waking Up to the Dark
“A celebration of the life-enriching—indeed, indispensable—properties of the night . . . Strand delivers a significant amount of experiential melding to existential thoughtfulness in this book about the sublime and elemental powers of the dark. . . . An exigent, affecting summons to rediscover the night.” — Kirkus Reviews
“This book is small in size and mighty in spirit. It is at once a clarion call and a meditation. Sonorous, deep, soul-stirring, and profoundly comforting, Waking Up to the Dark is a rare book that will be pressed from one hand to the next with the urgent, whispered You must read this .” —Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion
“In a modern world flooded with artificial light, Clark Strand reminds us what we have left behind in the dark. This beautiful, haunting meditation is filled with surprises and lost knowledge. Read it by candlelight—you will never forget it.” —Mitch Horowitz, author of Occult America and One Simple Idea
“In this exhilaratingly original work, Clark Strand shows us that the key to enlightenment lies where we don’t want to look. It is hidden in plain sight, but we have to turn the lights off to find it.” —Mark Epstein, M.D., author of Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart and The Trauma of Everyday Life
“Breathtaking and revolutionary, a small masterpiece for a world that has grown uncomfortable with the darkness and a poignant plea to take back the dark as the Hour of God, as the great friend of faith, awakening, and soul nourishment.” —Gail Straub, co-founder of Empowerment Institute and author of Returning to My Mother’s House
“Wonder, solitude, quiet, intimacy, the holy—darkness holds these treasures and more. If we want to connect with God, argues Strand in this wise and compassionate book, we will ‘awaken to the dark.’ ” —Paul Bogard, author of The End of Night
Strand here offers penetrating insight into the spiritual enrichment that can be found when we pull the plug on our billion-watt culture. He argues that the insomnia so many of us experience as “the Hour of the Wolf” is really “the Hour of God”—a wellspring of rest and renewal, and an ancient reservoir of ancestral wisdom and inspiration. And in a powerful yet surprising turn, he shares with us an urgent message for the world, received through a mysterious young woman, about the changes we all know are coming.
Waking Up to the Dark is a book for those of us who awaken in the night and don’t know why we can’t get back to sleep, and a book for those of us who have grown uncomfortable in real darkness—which we so rarely experience these days, since our first impulse is always to turn on the light. Most of all, it is a book for those of us who wonder about our When the lights are always on, when there is always noise around us, do our souls have the nourishment they need in which to grow?
Praise for Waking Up to the Dark
“A celebration of the life-enriching—indeed, indispensable—properties of the night . . . Strand delivers a significant amount of experiential melding to existential thoughtfulness in this book about the sublime and elemental powers of the dark. . . . An exigent, affecting summons to rediscover the night.” — Kirkus Reviews
“This book is small in size and mighty in spirit. It is at once a clarion call and a meditation. Sonorous, deep, soul-stirring, and profoundly comforting, Waking Up to the Dark is a rare book that will be pressed from one hand to the next with the urgent, whispered You must read this .” —Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion
“In a modern world flooded with artificial light, Clark Strand reminds us what we have left behind in the dark. This beautiful, haunting meditation is filled with surprises and lost knowledge. Read it by candlelight—you will never forget it.” —Mitch Horowitz, author of Occult America and One Simple Idea
“In this exhilaratingly original work, Clark Strand shows us that the key to enlightenment lies where we don’t want to look. It is hidden in plain sight, but we have to turn the lights off to find it.” —Mark Epstein, M.D., author of Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart and The Trauma of Everyday Life
“Breathtaking and revolutionary, a small masterpiece for a world that has grown uncomfortable with the darkness and a poignant plea to take back the dark as the Hour of God, as the great friend of faith, awakening, and soul nourishment.” —Gail Straub, co-founder of Empowerment Institute and author of Returning to My Mother’s House
“Wonder, solitude, quiet, intimacy, the holy—darkness holds these treasures and more. If we want to connect with God, argues Strand in this wise and compassionate book, we will ‘awaken to the dark.’ ” —Paul Bogard, author of The End of Night
160 pages, Hardcover
First published April 21, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 87 reviews
April 25, 2016
3.5 stars
What a weirdly interesting little book! I heard the author interviewed on CBC radio and was intrigued. He starts the book by recounting a story: that when home electricity was first introduced, people were horrified by the result. Suddenly, it was easily seen how tatty and dirty their homes were. You could tell how worn down the furniture was or that you hadn’t scrubbed the walls for a while. It was the beginning of ushering in our era of consumerism and the desire for a show-case type home.
That was the hook. That and the fact that I’m aware of the issue of light pollution and that I’m longing to find some time to spend out in the countryside, gazing at the night sky. So imagine my surprise when I got a book of mysticism—the author has spent time in a Buddhist monastery and has studied Paleolithic art, the Black Madonna, the role of Mary in Christianity, among other esoteric subjects.
He recounts his own history, starting with middle-of-the-night walks as a boy to seeking darkened environments as an adult and the spiritual experiences that he has had as a result of this. His main thesis seems to be that we have let electricity (lights, televisions, computers, smartphones, etc.) take over our lives and lead us into imbalance with the natural world and with our spiritual selves. Living in the middle of a city of over a million people, I have sympathy for this outlook. I just this morning had to explain to a well-meaning coworker that I don’t have a television nor do I pay for home internet, so I had not seen a particular TV show. I spend 7-8 hours a day working at a computer and my shoulders & arms hurt from it. I do whatever I can to reduce my time at staring at screens outside work hours.
I was somewhat surprised that the author seemed so unaware of the concept of Gaia, the female personification of the Earth and all of the goddess traditions. He was startled when the darkness in female form spoke to him. But as he admits, even the Buddhist tradition is very male-centred, tracing back through male teachers to Buddha.
I also found him rather fatalistic—implying that humanity will have to be wiped out by Our Lady of Climate Change before balance can be restored. Even someone like me, who would enjoy more darkness for various reasons, can’t imagine giving up electric cooking and lighting or completely giving up the internet (especially my book sites like Goodreads).
Interesting, thought provoking, well-meaning. But like Mark Boyle’s book The Moneyless Man, I wonder how practical it is in the long run.
What a weirdly interesting little book! I heard the author interviewed on CBC radio and was intrigued. He starts the book by recounting a story: that when home electricity was first introduced, people were horrified by the result. Suddenly, it was easily seen how tatty and dirty their homes were. You could tell how worn down the furniture was or that you hadn’t scrubbed the walls for a while. It was the beginning of ushering in our era of consumerism and the desire for a show-case type home.
That was the hook. That and the fact that I’m aware of the issue of light pollution and that I’m longing to find some time to spend out in the countryside, gazing at the night sky. So imagine my surprise when I got a book of mysticism—the author has spent time in a Buddhist monastery and has studied Paleolithic art, the Black Madonna, the role of Mary in Christianity, among other esoteric subjects.
He recounts his own history, starting with middle-of-the-night walks as a boy to seeking darkened environments as an adult and the spiritual experiences that he has had as a result of this. His main thesis seems to be that we have let electricity (lights, televisions, computers, smartphones, etc.) take over our lives and lead us into imbalance with the natural world and with our spiritual selves. Living in the middle of a city of over a million people, I have sympathy for this outlook. I just this morning had to explain to a well-meaning coworker that I don’t have a television nor do I pay for home internet, so I had not seen a particular TV show. I spend 7-8 hours a day working at a computer and my shoulders & arms hurt from it. I do whatever I can to reduce my time at staring at screens outside work hours.
I was somewhat surprised that the author seemed so unaware of the concept of Gaia, the female personification of the Earth and all of the goddess traditions. He was startled when the darkness in female form spoke to him. But as he admits, even the Buddhist tradition is very male-centred, tracing back through male teachers to Buddha.
I also found him rather fatalistic—implying that humanity will have to be wiped out by Our Lady of Climate Change before balance can be restored. Even someone like me, who would enjoy more darkness for various reasons, can’t imagine giving up electric cooking and lighting or completely giving up the internet (especially my book sites like Goodreads).
Interesting, thought provoking, well-meaning. But like Mark Boyle’s book The Moneyless Man, I wonder how practical it is in the long run.
September 5, 2016
I don't think Strand is trying to start a movement, or solicit followers of any kind. It appears he just wishes to share his unique insights into mankind's long journey with those willing to stop and listen. The author has spent his entire life contemplating our tiny inclusion into deep time. - something well beyond many people's comprehension. This tiny book, when compared to the endless library of tomes on life and wisdom that have come before and after it, is akin to man's minuscule existence when juxtaposed with the vast and timeless universe. It gave me pause many times. Still does. It comes at a time when many of us, whether we admit it or not, are questioning our path, our sustainability, our final act. Though the book takes a hard left turn at one point, for me anyway, it's still something most folks should read - then talk about. But tonight, I think I'll just take a walk beneath the stars.
August 17, 2015
The first part of this thin book was a revelation for me, so I am giving this four stars despite a second half that I would give more like two stars.
First for the good stuff: Strand comes up with a compelling argument that we would all be a lot better off if we just turned off our lights and followed the natural rhythms of the planet, like our ancestors did. He argues that we would then all wake up around 1AM and wander in the dark for a couple of hours like he does, filling our minds with half-conscious revelations that would augment our rational, goal-driven, daylight selves. As an inveterate night owl, I appreciate this argument, and I have been looking for a way to unplug from the manic impulses of our media-driven culture.
Then Strand digresses into his personal late-night encounters with the "Black Madonna," a feminine spirit of the night. I was O.K. with these musings driven by his own night walks. I even willingly suffered his paranoid fantasies about the imminent end of mankind. But seven billion people are going to die out because of global warming? Get serious, man.
Sure, it seems every generation has had its paranoid fantasy about how mankind is about to destroy itself. When I was young, it was nuclear war. But that's a legitimate fear, as we could kill off most of the planet pretty easily that way. Or what about a global pandemic that is resistant to antibiotics or other medicine? Or even how human creativity is being increasingly marginalized by a sophisticated series of computer algorithms? But a gradual warming of the planet because we've belched a bunch of carbon into the atmosphere? Sorry, that's pretty weak broth for an Armageddon.
That being said, thanks to Strand, I plan on turning my lights off early tonight to get a full night's sleep, and maybe even wake up during "the hour of the wolf." Wish me luck.
First for the good stuff: Strand comes up with a compelling argument that we would all be a lot better off if we just turned off our lights and followed the natural rhythms of the planet, like our ancestors did. He argues that we would then all wake up around 1AM and wander in the dark for a couple of hours like he does, filling our minds with half-conscious revelations that would augment our rational, goal-driven, daylight selves. As an inveterate night owl, I appreciate this argument, and I have been looking for a way to unplug from the manic impulses of our media-driven culture.
Then Strand digresses into his personal late-night encounters with the "Black Madonna," a feminine spirit of the night. I was O.K. with these musings driven by his own night walks. I even willingly suffered his paranoid fantasies about the imminent end of mankind. But seven billion people are going to die out because of global warming? Get serious, man.
Sure, it seems every generation has had its paranoid fantasy about how mankind is about to destroy itself. When I was young, it was nuclear war. But that's a legitimate fear, as we could kill off most of the planet pretty easily that way. Or what about a global pandemic that is resistant to antibiotics or other medicine? Or even how human creativity is being increasingly marginalized by a sophisticated series of computer algorithms? But a gradual warming of the planet because we've belched a bunch of carbon into the atmosphere? Sorry, that's pretty weak broth for an Armageddon.
That being said, thanks to Strand, I plan on turning my lights off early tonight to get a full night's sleep, and maybe even wake up during "the hour of the wolf." Wish me luck.
April 15, 2022
This book is one of the strangest and most fascinating books I’ve read in awhile. It has so many different angles to it, that trying to summarize it has been a challenge. I’ve read it several times, and there are less than fifty books in the world that have made that short list, considering that the amount of books I’ve read in my lifetime is somewhere in the four-digit range.
‘Waking Up To The Dark’ is a relatively short book, clocking in at less than one hundred fifty pages. This made it easy to read and re-read, and to have its message sink its hook into the reader, namely me. It’s not really a meditation book in the traditional sense. It’s not quite a memoir either, at least not exactly. This is no Ten Steps To Learning To Love Your Inner Dark Side kind of self-help book. To me, it had more in common with a prophetic polemic such as Bill McKibben’s ‘The End Of Nature’ than anything by Thomas Merton. But yet it reads much like the works I’ve read by the famous contemplative monk.
In many ways, ‘Waking Up To The Dark’ is more of a manifesto than a book full of wise words. Strand is willing to be incredibly politically incorrect and inflammatory, such as his implied suggestion that if the world ends, well, so be it. There is the testimony he gives, stating that he has met the Black Madonna during the course of his peripatetic spiritual journeys in the night. Yet none of what he says constitutes low-brow insults to anyone. Similar in tone to the heavyweight prophets such as Isaiah and Ezekiel, ‘Waking Up To The Dark’ is incendiary with a strong dose of elegance and poetry.
Simply put, Strand believes that we are doomed unless we get free of our addiction to electric light. He has spent the better part of his life waking up in the dark to meet his deepest soul through long walks in the blackness of night. He suggests that the insomnia that many people suffer from has more to do with a last tether to the old spirit and old ways that are the last hope for everyone, and less to do with a pathological disorder that must be medicated away at all costs, so people can be busy-bees during the electric light of a sixteen hour day. In short, we need to turn out the lights to wake up to our true self and save the world.
The strength of this book is Strand’s voice itself. Compiled from dozens of notebooks that record his nighttime spiritual walks and sojourns, Strand writes of visions, encounters with holy men and women, and what he believes we have lost because the lights went on. As said before, there is much of the book that seems outlandish. Personally, I was willing to be open to the idea that what Strand has written was the truth as he experienced it, no matter how exaggerated it sounded. What he stated about what he has seen and experienced is no more unbelievable than any other account of such supernatural events, so I was able to take much of what he said at face value given its context.
That being said, Strand found in me a somewhat friendly audience, due to his generalized message of slowing the human race down a tad. The book is bound to antagonize those who are not so convinced that the days before electricity were the good old days, as well as other social factors too numerous to get into. It didn’t bother me all that much, but I have heard this kind of message before. I can understand Strand’s premise that if we keep running around burning the electric candle at all ends, at a minimum will forget who we are in the rush of all of it just running to the next thing, and at worst drive ourselves off a proverbial cliff but be too busy to know we are doing it until we are falling. The waxing poetic for the days when people roamed the earth in small bands before the invention of fire is beyond a hot button issue, the implication that we could do well to shave off seven billion people give or take several tens of millions, and the world and by default the human population will be happier because of it. And how do we get down to that happy place of one-tenth the human populace? Well, keep the lights on and you’ll see.
In short, the likelihood of people turning out the lights to save their souls and that of the world is probably not going to be the most popular of messages. Especially if one was expecting a quiet, peaceful book speaking of the beauty and silence of the soul in the darkness of night. If this book is anything, quiet and silent is not it. Strand is like a passionate lawyer advocating for the rights of darkness to exist, and he doesn’t seem to care if you like what he has to say about it or not. His voice conveys a sentiment that his message is so urgent, that if you become his enemy because of what he says he really doesn’t care. The darkness needs somebody to fight for its existence, and from his writings he believes he has been one of the chosen for this mission. He doesn’t care what you think, because if you don’t, there will be consequences and hey, he warned you.
But maybe that’s the point. It seems that doesn’t bother Strand at all, and this is his strength. His writing style is engaging, forceful, unapologetic, charismatic. It’s the kind of sentiment that can survive as a cult of personality. That’s what ‘Waking Up To The Dark’ seems to be, a book with a cult of personality of its own. It’s why I have read it more than once, one of only a few dozen that would fall into this category. It’s why, despite its inflammatory and obviously polemical point of view, I gave it five stars. In short, if a book can tick you off and stay stuck in your brain, and compel you to go back for more, then that certainly says something significant about the power contained in that particular volume of words. If you don’t mind being offended or provoked in your spiritual seeking, ‘Waking Up To The Dark’ is a perfect book for you.
‘Waking Up To The Dark’ is a relatively short book, clocking in at less than one hundred fifty pages. This made it easy to read and re-read, and to have its message sink its hook into the reader, namely me. It’s not really a meditation book in the traditional sense. It’s not quite a memoir either, at least not exactly. This is no Ten Steps To Learning To Love Your Inner Dark Side kind of self-help book. To me, it had more in common with a prophetic polemic such as Bill McKibben’s ‘The End Of Nature’ than anything by Thomas Merton. But yet it reads much like the works I’ve read by the famous contemplative monk.
In many ways, ‘Waking Up To The Dark’ is more of a manifesto than a book full of wise words. Strand is willing to be incredibly politically incorrect and inflammatory, such as his implied suggestion that if the world ends, well, so be it. There is the testimony he gives, stating that he has met the Black Madonna during the course of his peripatetic spiritual journeys in the night. Yet none of what he says constitutes low-brow insults to anyone. Similar in tone to the heavyweight prophets such as Isaiah and Ezekiel, ‘Waking Up To The Dark’ is incendiary with a strong dose of elegance and poetry.
Simply put, Strand believes that we are doomed unless we get free of our addiction to electric light. He has spent the better part of his life waking up in the dark to meet his deepest soul through long walks in the blackness of night. He suggests that the insomnia that many people suffer from has more to do with a last tether to the old spirit and old ways that are the last hope for everyone, and less to do with a pathological disorder that must be medicated away at all costs, so people can be busy-bees during the electric light of a sixteen hour day. In short, we need to turn out the lights to wake up to our true self and save the world.
The strength of this book is Strand’s voice itself. Compiled from dozens of notebooks that record his nighttime spiritual walks and sojourns, Strand writes of visions, encounters with holy men and women, and what he believes we have lost because the lights went on. As said before, there is much of the book that seems outlandish. Personally, I was willing to be open to the idea that what Strand has written was the truth as he experienced it, no matter how exaggerated it sounded. What he stated about what he has seen and experienced is no more unbelievable than any other account of such supernatural events, so I was able to take much of what he said at face value given its context.
That being said, Strand found in me a somewhat friendly audience, due to his generalized message of slowing the human race down a tad. The book is bound to antagonize those who are not so convinced that the days before electricity were the good old days, as well as other social factors too numerous to get into. It didn’t bother me all that much, but I have heard this kind of message before. I can understand Strand’s premise that if we keep running around burning the electric candle at all ends, at a minimum will forget who we are in the rush of all of it just running to the next thing, and at worst drive ourselves off a proverbial cliff but be too busy to know we are doing it until we are falling. The waxing poetic for the days when people roamed the earth in small bands before the invention of fire is beyond a hot button issue, the implication that we could do well to shave off seven billion people give or take several tens of millions, and the world and by default the human population will be happier because of it. And how do we get down to that happy place of one-tenth the human populace? Well, keep the lights on and you’ll see.
In short, the likelihood of people turning out the lights to save their souls and that of the world is probably not going to be the most popular of messages. Especially if one was expecting a quiet, peaceful book speaking of the beauty and silence of the soul in the darkness of night. If this book is anything, quiet and silent is not it. Strand is like a passionate lawyer advocating for the rights of darkness to exist, and he doesn’t seem to care if you like what he has to say about it or not. His voice conveys a sentiment that his message is so urgent, that if you become his enemy because of what he says he really doesn’t care. The darkness needs somebody to fight for its existence, and from his writings he believes he has been one of the chosen for this mission. He doesn’t care what you think, because if you don’t, there will be consequences and hey, he warned you.
But maybe that’s the point. It seems that doesn’t bother Strand at all, and this is his strength. His writing style is engaging, forceful, unapologetic, charismatic. It’s the kind of sentiment that can survive as a cult of personality. That’s what ‘Waking Up To The Dark’ seems to be, a book with a cult of personality of its own. It’s why I have read it more than once, one of only a few dozen that would fall into this category. It’s why, despite its inflammatory and obviously polemical point of view, I gave it five stars. In short, if a book can tick you off and stay stuck in your brain, and compel you to go back for more, then that certainly says something significant about the power contained in that particular volume of words. If you don’t mind being offended or provoked in your spiritual seeking, ‘Waking Up To The Dark’ is a perfect book for you.
July 21, 2019
Because I've never really been interested in spirituality, this isn't the kind of book I would've seen myself reading at all a while ago. But because I heard the author interviewed on Vanessa Lowe's excellent podcast "Nocturne" and seemed relatively interesting, the book was available on my library's e-book lending service, and it was only about 130 pages, I decided to give it a go. Overall I think I got a decent amount of good out of it, although I did ultimately find it somewhat dissatisfying. The basic thesis of the book is that humanity has strayed too far away from its natural roots, and that a big culprit in this transformation is our excessive use of artificial light. Okay so far. As a night owl and a person chronically suspicious of technology and the economic systems of the 21st century (even as I continue to be extensively complicit in both), I'm inclined to buy that.
Strand also presents an interesting study by psychiatrist Thomas Wehr that demonstrated that when humans were taken away from exposure to artificial light for extended periods of time, sleep cycles generally fell into a pattern of four hours of sleep, followed by two hours of wakefulness, and another four hours of sleep. This middle two hours of waking, activated by a return to "pre-industrial" environmental conditions Strand calls "The Hour of God", and argues that we all need to experience this time of night more frequently in order to recover a more arational, imaginative, and spiritually in-tune form of consciousness. Strand cites episodes from the scriptural traditions of Christianity, Buddhism, and Judaism seeming to comport with these findings to suggest that major world religions were aware of this phenomenon and that it formed a central piece of their adherents' religious experiences. This is also all perfectly intriguing stuff, and as someone with both an aversion to daylight and a not-insignificant amount of mental unrest I'm inclined to try this sleep experiment myself one day.
Where Strand loses me is the section describing his vision of a girl who supposedly is a physical manifestation of the Hour of God. The apparition itself is bad enough as a foray into the more hoo-ha aspects of a spiritual worldview, but Strand describes her specifically as a seventeen year old girl and purports to have lain in her "embrace" and tasted her "milk", which he seems to want to take great care to present as non-sexual events. But the inclusion of these details is profoundly creepy no matter which way you slice and dice them. If I was a middle-aged man having "spiritual visions" of this type, I would try to seek some help rather than publish them in a book.
Beyond this, Strand's spirituality seems intimately linked to a view that we are heading inevitably towards an anthropogenic climate apocalypse. I object to this first on the grounds of the meager evidence he presents in the book. Strand shows us a graph charting the exponential growth in human population over the last century or so, and claims this is clear evidence that humanity is occupying the planet at an unsustainable pace. But birthrates fall dramatically once countries attain a certain level of development, which is what's already happening in Europe, the United States, and Japan, among others. Some demographers estimate that the global population will actually have fallen by 2100. Population paranoia has a pretty long history among social scientists, philosophers, and pseudo-philosophers trying to project their Freudian death drive across the globe, and it's disappointing but not surprising that a spiritual environmentalist type like Strand would fall for this bait.
My second and more important objection to Strand's view here is that it represents a kind of political fatalism that can only be symptomatic of a particular kind of privilege. By claiming there's no way out of climate-induced extinction, Strand dismisses as worthless all types of political action aimed at securing better climate policies, and all of the business and engineering work that's going into improving green energy technology and integrating it into our economic infrastructure. Strand gives up the fight before it's even started. And what's worse about this is that he and others like him aren't the ones facing the full brunt of climate change--it's the people in underdeveloped countries, many in coastal communities, who lack the mitigation and evacuation resources of the developed world and therefore will be the ones to suffer the first and the most from flooding, famine, and disease. High and dry in the U.S., Strand gets to tell the Republican party, the oil lobby, and the rest of the ordinary people swept up in fossil fuel-powered consumerism "I told you so!" as people six thousand miles away face the real consequences.
This book was published some years ago and I think we've all come to see these problems as more serious since then, but you'd hope a self-styled visionary like Strand would have had a few ounces more prescience and compassion here (and a few gallons less creepiness).
Strand also presents an interesting study by psychiatrist Thomas Wehr that demonstrated that when humans were taken away from exposure to artificial light for extended periods of time, sleep cycles generally fell into a pattern of four hours of sleep, followed by two hours of wakefulness, and another four hours of sleep. This middle two hours of waking, activated by a return to "pre-industrial" environmental conditions Strand calls "The Hour of God", and argues that we all need to experience this time of night more frequently in order to recover a more arational, imaginative, and spiritually in-tune form of consciousness. Strand cites episodes from the scriptural traditions of Christianity, Buddhism, and Judaism seeming to comport with these findings to suggest that major world religions were aware of this phenomenon and that it formed a central piece of their adherents' religious experiences. This is also all perfectly intriguing stuff, and as someone with both an aversion to daylight and a not-insignificant amount of mental unrest I'm inclined to try this sleep experiment myself one day.
Where Strand loses me is the section describing his vision of a girl who supposedly is a physical manifestation of the Hour of God. The apparition itself is bad enough as a foray into the more hoo-ha aspects of a spiritual worldview, but Strand describes her specifically as a seventeen year old girl and purports to have lain in her "embrace" and tasted her "milk", which he seems to want to take great care to present as non-sexual events. But the inclusion of these details is profoundly creepy no matter which way you slice and dice them. If I was a middle-aged man having "spiritual visions" of this type, I would try to seek some help rather than publish them in a book.
Beyond this, Strand's spirituality seems intimately linked to a view that we are heading inevitably towards an anthropogenic climate apocalypse. I object to this first on the grounds of the meager evidence he presents in the book. Strand shows us a graph charting the exponential growth in human population over the last century or so, and claims this is clear evidence that humanity is occupying the planet at an unsustainable pace. But birthrates fall dramatically once countries attain a certain level of development, which is what's already happening in Europe, the United States, and Japan, among others. Some demographers estimate that the global population will actually have fallen by 2100. Population paranoia has a pretty long history among social scientists, philosophers, and pseudo-philosophers trying to project their Freudian death drive across the globe, and it's disappointing but not surprising that a spiritual environmentalist type like Strand would fall for this bait.
My second and more important objection to Strand's view here is that it represents a kind of political fatalism that can only be symptomatic of a particular kind of privilege. By claiming there's no way out of climate-induced extinction, Strand dismisses as worthless all types of political action aimed at securing better climate policies, and all of the business and engineering work that's going into improving green energy technology and integrating it into our economic infrastructure. Strand gives up the fight before it's even started. And what's worse about this is that he and others like him aren't the ones facing the full brunt of climate change--it's the people in underdeveloped countries, many in coastal communities, who lack the mitigation and evacuation resources of the developed world and therefore will be the ones to suffer the first and the most from flooding, famine, and disease. High and dry in the U.S., Strand gets to tell the Republican party, the oil lobby, and the rest of the ordinary people swept up in fossil fuel-powered consumerism "I told you so!" as people six thousand miles away face the real consequences.
This book was published some years ago and I think we've all come to see these problems as more serious since then, but you'd hope a self-styled visionary like Strand would have had a few ounces more prescience and compassion here (and a few gallons less creepiness).
October 12, 2022
I was hoping for a more grounded exploration of the physiological and psychological aspects of sleep, with a look at some relevant spiritual practices and beliefs from around the world and throughout history. While there is some of that, and the book is beautifully written, Strand unfortunately gets bogged down in magical woo-woo and a lot of deeply subjective experiences confidently asserted as objective reality (like Dark Goddess Girl, which he clearly hallucinated and embellished). He also cherrypicks aspects of various religions to support the mystical side of his theories (any statistician will tell you that the more variables you have, the more likely you are to find patterns - see those "look at these freaky parallels between the JFK and Lincoln assassinations" write-ups) and presents a circular fatalism wherein ecological apocalypse is imminent because humans sleep wrong and are spiritually fucked, so therefore there's nothing we can do about it. At only 160 pages, this is really more of a manifesto than anything else.
September 30, 2015
I would honestly rate this book as 2.5 stars for the simple fact that religious personal beliefs are thrown into ever other if not ever paragraph. I wouldn't have mind it as much but when I see things like, we can't sleep-sex is meant for the night time (only, really am I bad or sleepless just because I don't save sex just for the night time.) And then there is the don't fear dark, turn lights off. I can't say that this book help with insomnia but rather tells me little things I already know. Put the tablet and phone away when you're in bed. (I know this but I'm addicted to them. My own fault that's why I'm sleepy at work.) But the fact that personal religious views are thrown in like they are sound facts is what turns me off the most about this book. I love God, I love Jesus but don't try to force your own personal beliefs on me.
March 30, 2016
~I devoured this book swiftly and connected deeply. It's a symbiotic blend of the sacred ritual and earth worship that can occur in darkness. This book reads as somewhat of a poetic memoir to me. The path Clark has travelled is accessible to any spiritual being who believes in the friendships we can have with ourselves and with the teachers of all times and religions. If you have any interest in Buddhism, The Bible, the environment, incarnations of Our Lady or any nourishment via the soul- you'll find comfort in this book and may even find yourself craving the sacredness of the dark.
June 7, 2017
(1.75 stars). I have a tough time with spiritual woo woo books that unhinge themselves into a hasty collage of pet theories and overconfident assertions presented as fact. I do think there are some pearls of insight here (for instance, the idea that we're more afraid of aloneness than of the dark itself), but this slim book doesn't amount to much. I'd look elsewhere for a better illumination--ha!--of the physical, emotional, cultural, and poetic values of darkness and night.
April 5, 2021
This is so much weirder than you'd ever imagine
December 2, 2015
This a difficult book to summarise. It's part scientific study of sleep, part spiritual journey, promoting no specific religion and a warning and plea to save the planet.
I agreed with a great deal of the author's position that we should turn off the lights, a simple solution to our huge energy drain on the earth. That the cities glow can be seen from space is a silly waste. Turning off commercial signage, cosmetic lighting and empty office lights is what was done during the 1970s energy crisis, but we've forgotten the lesson
All this constant light from even the little things around home interiors makes us all sleep deprived, interrupts the natural light cycles of nature and; as postulated by the author, prevents a deeper spiritual peace that only comes from resting our minds in the dark
There is a part of the book devoted to the Dark Goddess elements forgotten by organized religion. The Black Madonna and Kali are but a few covered. They symbolize the dark which should be embraced not burned away by 24/7 light.
I do take issue with the idea of 2am meditative walks. Unlike the author who is privileged to live in a rural environment, mine is a cookie cutter suburb. No way can I see the stars or find a peaceful walk at the "Hour of God" the author practices
Still I took a great deal of food-for-thought from this book. It did point a way toward a positive use for that "middle of the night wakefulness" we often experience. I've also put electrical tape over that annoying led light on the cable box.
I agreed with a great deal of the author's position that we should turn off the lights, a simple solution to our huge energy drain on the earth. That the cities glow can be seen from space is a silly waste. Turning off commercial signage, cosmetic lighting and empty office lights is what was done during the 1970s energy crisis, but we've forgotten the lesson
All this constant light from even the little things around home interiors makes us all sleep deprived, interrupts the natural light cycles of nature and; as postulated by the author, prevents a deeper spiritual peace that only comes from resting our minds in the dark
There is a part of the book devoted to the Dark Goddess elements forgotten by organized religion. The Black Madonna and Kali are but a few covered. They symbolize the dark which should be embraced not burned away by 24/7 light.
I do take issue with the idea of 2am meditative walks. Unlike the author who is privileged to live in a rural environment, mine is a cookie cutter suburb. No way can I see the stars or find a peaceful walk at the "Hour of God" the author practices
Still I took a great deal of food-for-thought from this book. It did point a way toward a positive use for that "middle of the night wakefulness" we often experience. I've also put electrical tape over that annoying led light on the cable box.
June 14, 2015
I agree with the other reviewer that the ideas of this book are much more potent and urgently needed than the actual writing and presentation: do not use artificial lighting, go to bed after sunset if not to sleep than to rest, reflect, connect with loved ones and the unseen. I have followed the steps prescribed and so far my life feels rich and magical beyond belief, even though it came at the cost of socialising since it gets dark at 6pm over here. Still the pull of the dark, the nourishing resting state and velvety feel of the night are so profound to me now at they are worth giving up the noise and social interactions of the world. I do wonder if this will be a permanent change or if like with many other practices I will fall of the wagon eventually. But just like my diet change of 2.5 years ago stuck with me because it feels so good, so I hope my soul night nourishment routine will also become part of life.
The writing of the book itself I found a little too meandering and the poetic prose had a distracting rather than involving effect on me. Religion references felt a little rambling and final gospel completely unreadable. I would prefer to read this is a more non fiction work but I am happy for it to have emerged either way and happy to have come across these ideas and truths to now live my life accordingly.
The writing of the book itself I found a little too meandering and the poetic prose had a distracting rather than involving effect on me. Religion references felt a little rambling and final gospel completely unreadable. I would prefer to read this is a more non fiction work but I am happy for it to have emerged either way and happy to have come across these ideas and truths to now live my life accordingly.
June 30, 2017
-Disclaimer: I won this book for free through goodreads giveaways in exchange for an honest review.-
The first fifty pages were very interesting. To me the author makes sense 50% of the time. He uses a lot of long words making it hard to understand what he was saying. I would read a paragraph and have to sit there for five minutes trying to decide what he was trying to say. It is like trying to put together a thousand piece puzzle knowing half the pieces are missing. It isn't going to work well.
The author rambles a lot quickly making it boring. The gist of the book is he thinks people would be wiser without lights. Bunch of rubbish. All I have to say to tie up my review is the book makes you think outside of the box. But some things are better left in the past. I did not like it due to my own beliefs. Not recommended.
The first fifty pages were very interesting. To me the author makes sense 50% of the time. He uses a lot of long words making it hard to understand what he was saying. I would read a paragraph and have to sit there for five minutes trying to decide what he was trying to say. It is like trying to put together a thousand piece puzzle knowing half the pieces are missing. It isn't going to work well.
The author rambles a lot quickly making it boring. The gist of the book is he thinks people would be wiser without lights. Bunch of rubbish. All I have to say to tie up my review is the book makes you think outside of the box. But some things are better left in the past. I did not like it due to my own beliefs. Not recommended.
December 28, 2021
I am always looking for new ways to approach night and sleep. The first part of this book was very positive about the dark and night. The author views being awake at night as time to meditate and become closer to the world, or that was my interpretation of what he said. Then it all went a bit off the rails for me.
January 3, 2018
I enjoyed this read with its information on sleep science and the natural human circadian rhythms that have been permanently disrupted by artificial light, the author's lifelong nocturnal walkabouts and meditations, and the embodiment of the dark that presented itself to him in numinous female form. I did wonder, as he described his extended period of religious ecstasy, where his wife and daughter were in his life at that time, whether he talked to them about his experience, and if he extended his celebration of the feminine force to his everyday and household interactions with the human females in his life.
May 20, 2021
Clark Strand's intimacy with darkness is stunning. A life-long night walker, Strand stumbled on an ancient rhythm of sleep, a natural mystical practice, an enviable familiarity with the natural world, and a radical solution for the crises of our times. His willingness to attribute the gifts of the night to the Black Madonna and to share his encounters with Her I find immensely courageous. No wonder this book went out of print so quickly. As far a spiritual practices go, turning out the lights is among the hardest. I don't doubt that it's also among the most effective.
"We can’t find our souls in the daylight, since we lost them in the night."
--Clark Strand, Waking Up to the Dark, 54
"We can’t find our souls in the daylight, since we lost them in the night."
--Clark Strand, Waking Up to the Dark, 54
October 22, 2024
Not what I was expecting at all but very enjoyable. Social commentary, new views to consider, critical thinking about society and how we got there, the larger concept of time on an unspeakable scale, and spirituality through the ages - checked a lot of boxes for me. One of the few things that has made me contemplate death and my own personal existence and ending, without making me have a mild panic attack. Actually very calming? Idk I think this will stick with me for a while.
December 30, 2019
Still trying to sort out my feelings on this one. Parts of it really spoke to me, other parts, not so much. I think I definitely will read again and think about it when I wake up in the middle of the night.
June 12, 2023
The point of life has little to do with the getting and spending that occupies the greater portions of our days.If we want to know the value of life- the real value, not the monetary or social value- we have to wake up in the middle of the night and see what is happening in the dark. p16
Driven by the illusions of prosperity and progress, we walk the same sad circle from one day to the next. p26
What is to become of us? That is the question waiting for us in the dark. p33
Driven by the illusions of prosperity and progress, we walk the same sad circle from one day to the next. p26
What is to become of us? That is the question waiting for us in the dark. p33
December 2, 2019
Important.
September 9, 2015
Let me save you a read: light bulbs=bad and Strand is a nut. This should get less than one star, but I'm being especially kind this year, and no stars means no opinion. I have no idea how this got on my "Want to Read" list. I checked NPR, thinking that's where I heard of this, but I couldn't find it. I thought this might have something to do with modern screens and not enough sleep. Yeah...no. Instead, Strand references a Thomas Wehr study from the 90s that showed that humans revert to "primitive" natures when deprived of artificial light and sleep in two periods during a night (note: neither Wehr, nor Strand discussed whether apes had the same sleeping patterns). But Strand goes off into mystical nonsense and blows it through the roof through this thankfully short book.
I'm not sure as to Wehr's credibility, but Strand diminishes it with
Strand's wife speaks to her ancestors at night, and he speaks to Buddhist icons. But it gets better...
He doesn't realize the comically narrow mindedness of
Done? Amazing...that evolution is done...having resulted in humans. Back to Wehr, and this stunning revelation
And just when you think it can't get any crazier...Strand reveals voices woke him and talked to him. More than once. And ...spoiler alert...that darkness is a woman!!
Waste of neurons. Don't bother. I was going to give it a generous two stars but after going back over my notes, I couldn't. It's bad.
I'm not sure as to Wehr's credibility, but Strand diminishes it with
Because he was a scientist and not a shaman, such language was probably as close as Wehr could get to saying outright that we have lost our access to the realm of the ancestors—that we can no longer commune with the dead.
Strand's wife speaks to her ancestors at night, and he speaks to Buddhist icons. But it gets better...
Estrogen and testosterone production bumped upward when early humans brought firelight inside of their caves, convincing their bodies that the days were actually growing longer and that it was time to mate. Human females (who were then most fertile in late summer, when food was plentiful) gradually became capable of reproducing at any time of year.
He doesn't realize the comically narrow mindedness of
Before fire, human beings were one species among many - a persistent thread in the evolutionary tapestry that spread here and there through the big picture - but the weren't the point of that picture. There was no sense that Homo sapiens were the endpoint of evolution. There was no sense that, having created them, the world (or God) was effectively done with its creative work.
Done? Amazing...that evolution is done...having resulted in humans. Back to Wehr, and this stunning revelation
When we [researchers T. S. Wiley and Bent Formby] asked Dr. Thomas Wehr, the head of the department studying seasonal and circadian rhythmicity at the NIH [National Institutes of Health] in Washington, whether he felt the public had a right to know that on less than 9.5 hours of sleep at night—i.e., in the dark—they will (a) never be able to stop eating sugar, smoking, and drinking alcohol and (b) most certainly develop one of the following conditions: diabetes, heart disease, cancer, infertility, mental illness, and/or premature aging, he said, “Well, yes, they do have a right to know. They should be told; but it won’t change anything. Nobody will ever turn off the lights."Loons tend to flock together it seems. For such a short book, there are far too many WTF? moments:
What is electricity but an exercise in human self-importance? It accomplishes nothing else.
{...}
Turn out the lights—and leave them off—and we will experience a consciousness our minds have never known but our bodies still remember.
And just when you think it can't get any crazier...Strand reveals voices woke him and talked to him. More than once. And ...spoiler alert...that darkness is a woman!!
Waste of neurons. Don't bother. I was going to give it a generous two stars but after going back over my notes, I couldn't. It's bad.
April 14, 2017
I have been afraid of the dark for a long time. When I was a child my uncle would have us watch horror movies, so I was very afraid of the creatures and monsters that might visit us at night. As a teenager I was terrified of corn fields at night. I would inspect the back seat of my car for psychotic killers after getting off of work late at night. And if I had to go into an attic or basement at night, I would run as quickly as possible to escape the darkness.
I hated it. I hated my heart pounding. I hated that fear of constant dread and death. I knew what I had to do. I had to spend the night in an attic in utter darkness. I had to face my fears, but the idea of doing so would have my irrational brain running away in fear.
So when I found this book on the shelf at my local bookstore I knew it was the key for me to overcome my fears. In a way it has. I have a new found appreciation for the darkness.
In ways I have grown to become much like the author on believing the world would be a better place if we allowed ourselves to be enclosed in darkness. I found myself turning off the lights. I found myself awakening in the night and feeling that all is right in the Universe. I find the fear of the dark perplexing. There is nothing to be afraid of.
In thar regard I give the book 5 stars, unfortunately the book leads to some places that I do not like. How does the author know how primordial humans lived? We can imagine, but we cannot truly know. Also, the author has a vision of the Virgin Mary, which is intriguing, but it is hardly Gospel. To believe so, would be madness. He sure has a wild imagination, and he probably had some very lucid dreams. Sometimes we dream and it feels like reality. To believe that he was the chosen one and he is some sort of male modern Joan of Arc, I am not too sure of.
Also, the book leads to the conclusion that humans are destroying the planet, so it would be better off if we stopped reproducing and just ended humanity. I know that sounds dire, but that is the idea I believe the author is getting at. What is the sanctity of human life, if human life is destroying the Earth? The author even states that he cannot wait until global warming becomes so catastrophic that we as people are forced to change. It is like the drug addict who will not change his or her life until he or she reaches rock bottom.
I don't know how I feel about Strand's philosophy. On the one hand it makes sense, but on the other hand it makes life feel so meaningless. Why even bother trying to make the world a better place if we are on a spiral to our own destruction? Why not just speed up the process? He talks about armageddon as a simple aspect of life, something to accept like the death of the dinosaurs. Humanity will be destroyed. It's a perplexing philosophy. It makes me think, why bother?
So...I am not sure what I think of this book. It is interesting, that is for sure. I am not sure if I recommend it to anyone. I do know that it has helped me overcome the fear of darkness, as long as I keep seeking it out and remembering it is the key to a healthy mind, body, and soul. But if doing so leads to the understanding that humanity is fucked, I am not so sure if I want to continue on that path.
Maybe we need to appreciate the day as much as the night.
I hated it. I hated my heart pounding. I hated that fear of constant dread and death. I knew what I had to do. I had to spend the night in an attic in utter darkness. I had to face my fears, but the idea of doing so would have my irrational brain running away in fear.
So when I found this book on the shelf at my local bookstore I knew it was the key for me to overcome my fears. In a way it has. I have a new found appreciation for the darkness.
In ways I have grown to become much like the author on believing the world would be a better place if we allowed ourselves to be enclosed in darkness. I found myself turning off the lights. I found myself awakening in the night and feeling that all is right in the Universe. I find the fear of the dark perplexing. There is nothing to be afraid of.
In thar regard I give the book 5 stars, unfortunately the book leads to some places that I do not like. How does the author know how primordial humans lived? We can imagine, but we cannot truly know. Also, the author has a vision of the Virgin Mary, which is intriguing, but it is hardly Gospel. To believe so, would be madness. He sure has a wild imagination, and he probably had some very lucid dreams. Sometimes we dream and it feels like reality. To believe that he was the chosen one and he is some sort of male modern Joan of Arc, I am not too sure of.
Also, the book leads to the conclusion that humans are destroying the planet, so it would be better off if we stopped reproducing and just ended humanity. I know that sounds dire, but that is the idea I believe the author is getting at. What is the sanctity of human life, if human life is destroying the Earth? The author even states that he cannot wait until global warming becomes so catastrophic that we as people are forced to change. It is like the drug addict who will not change his or her life until he or she reaches rock bottom.
I don't know how I feel about Strand's philosophy. On the one hand it makes sense, but on the other hand it makes life feel so meaningless. Why even bother trying to make the world a better place if we are on a spiral to our own destruction? Why not just speed up the process? He talks about armageddon as a simple aspect of life, something to accept like the death of the dinosaurs. Humanity will be destroyed. It's a perplexing philosophy. It makes me think, why bother?
So...I am not sure what I think of this book. It is interesting, that is for sure. I am not sure if I recommend it to anyone. I do know that it has helped me overcome the fear of darkness, as long as I keep seeking it out and remembering it is the key to a healthy mind, body, and soul. But if doing so leads to the understanding that humanity is fucked, I am not so sure if I want to continue on that path.
Maybe we need to appreciate the day as much as the night.
June 19, 2015
Meandering philosophical book In another case of "this is not what I thought it would be," I found this book to be extremely boring. It presumably addresses why we sometimes can't go back to sleep and whether we crave the light, the noise, the bustle of daylight hours because we are so uncomfortable with the quiet and the silence.
Instead it's a book that sort of wanders around: I knew it wasn't going to be for me when he started talking about religious practices in the beginning of the book. While they had good information, this is something that really did not interest me and I was hoping he would stick to more general ideas (not even necessarily the religious/spiritual aspect). I was hoping more for about why we are so used to the noise, and why we are so uncomfortable with it.
It was of particular interest to me because I lived with a roommate in college who flipped her schedule around after bad breakup. She'd stay awake all night, and sleep during the day, only getting up when she HAD to go to class. She wasn't a night owl and it stopped when it made her sick. But she described how she felt "safer" sleeping during the day when people were out and about and she knew myself and our other roommate at the time were going to class, being in the room, etc. And that she just couldn't (I think wouldn't) sleep at night because she could handle the quiet and the thoughts that permeated her brain then. I had a hard time understanding what compelled her to stay up all night, almost every night for nearly a semester and why she wasn't terrified being awake at night.
And while I certainly couldn't expect the author to address anything remotely like this, I found his ruminations to be rather disjointed and often pretty self-centered. He tries to connect his daughter insisting on seeing an exhibit on "Lucy," an ancestor of man and how the dead are dead, but they still reside as a history within us and in the earth. Or he relates a bunch of experiences he had in the dark, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to make this reader care or connect what we were supposed to get out of it.
Other people may get more out of it, but this was most certainly a disappointment for me. Library.
Instead it's a book that sort of wanders around: I knew it wasn't going to be for me when he started talking about religious practices in the beginning of the book. While they had good information, this is something that really did not interest me and I was hoping he would stick to more general ideas (not even necessarily the religious/spiritual aspect). I was hoping more for about why we are so used to the noise, and why we are so uncomfortable with it.
It was of particular interest to me because I lived with a roommate in college who flipped her schedule around after bad breakup. She'd stay awake all night, and sleep during the day, only getting up when she HAD to go to class. She wasn't a night owl and it stopped when it made her sick. But she described how she felt "safer" sleeping during the day when people were out and about and she knew myself and our other roommate at the time were going to class, being in the room, etc. And that she just couldn't (I think wouldn't) sleep at night because she could handle the quiet and the thoughts that permeated her brain then. I had a hard time understanding what compelled her to stay up all night, almost every night for nearly a semester and why she wasn't terrified being awake at night.
And while I certainly couldn't expect the author to address anything remotely like this, I found his ruminations to be rather disjointed and often pretty self-centered. He tries to connect his daughter insisting on seeing an exhibit on "Lucy," an ancestor of man and how the dead are dead, but they still reside as a history within us and in the earth. Or he relates a bunch of experiences he had in the dark, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to make this reader care or connect what we were supposed to get out of it.
Other people may get more out of it, but this was most certainly a disappointment for me. Library.
September 15, 2021
This book got real weird, real quick. Let me preface this by saying that I read lots of religious material and borrow from many sources to cobble together my own beliefs. I am usually open-minded to other ways of thought, but this is seriously “out there.”
The author is fine as long as he’s discussing historical anecdotes about night and even his own fascination with darkness. The studies about bi-phasic sleep are interesting, and I’d love to know more about how people lived and what they did during their waking interlude.
But chances are, you’ve already read the good stuff in an article online. There’s nothing more like that to read.
Alas, it all gets derailed when the author begins ranting about climate change and recounting his cringe-worthy nighttime visits from the teenage apparition he calls “My Girl” but eventually outs as Mary. Yes, that Mary. The Mother of God. When he began literally nursing at her breast, I began rapidly skipping to the end of this hot mess.
If you want to know more about sleep, darkness, light pollution, history, biology, etc., this is not the book for you. I don’t know who would like this book. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. I feel a great need to scour my eyeballs and say the Hail Mary a few hundred times.
This is New Age trash. I’m ashamed to have this in my library.
The author is fine as long as he’s discussing historical anecdotes about night and even his own fascination with darkness. The studies about bi-phasic sleep are interesting, and I’d love to know more about how people lived and what they did during their waking interlude.
But chances are, you’ve already read the good stuff in an article online. There’s nothing more like that to read.
Alas, it all gets derailed when the author begins ranting about climate change and recounting his cringe-worthy nighttime visits from the teenage apparition he calls “My Girl” but eventually outs as Mary. Yes, that Mary. The Mother of God. When he began literally nursing at her breast, I began rapidly skipping to the end of this hot mess.
If you want to know more about sleep, darkness, light pollution, history, biology, etc., this is not the book for you. I don’t know who would like this book. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. I feel a great need to scour my eyeballs and say the Hail Mary a few hundred times.
This is New Age trash. I’m ashamed to have this in my library.
September 10, 2018
It may be partly a case of "not what I thought it was going to be," but even then, Strand makes it hard for me to like this book because of his inability to say anything concrete - and the entire last section which is all about his friendship with The Black Madonna who appears to him mostly at night and tells him the world is going to end and stuff. Don't get me wrong, I want to be on Strand's side. I bought the book because I wanted to read about turning out the lights and natural rhythms. I like ancient wisdom. But Strand doesn't offer any real suggestions about how a modern person might reclaim some of the ancient practices related to darkness in a meaningful way. Nor does he offer any expertise or authority on the subject - unless you count the Black Madonna's advice. The gist of it, I think, is that it's probably too late, we're all going to die, but you might be able to hold it off and appease the Madonna if you give up all artificial light now and forever amen.
May 19, 2015
I liked the premise of the book more than the writing itself. How the advent of the electric light has shaped our relationship to the dark and to our patterns of sleep was fascinating. I also loved his theory of how it's made us have less of a relationship with our own interiority or spiritual lives. Very original ideas. How this translates into a split within us, an inability to deal with our dark sides makes perfect sense. Other ideas of his were less compelling. It felt strange to read a book that was very God oriented but written by an ex Zen priest but his heart is focused on the divine mystery and that is always a challenge to put into words.
April 18, 2015
Waking Up To The Dark is a meditation on night, and sleep. It's a combination of essay and science, and while there's nothing new here, it's certainly topical, since it ties into the popularity of paleo/primal living, and the increasingly strident warnings about how screens - phone, tablet, TV, etc. - are disrupting our biology on so many ways. It's very well-written - quite poetic. People who are interested in pop science, or the effects of tech, or personal reflections, or even general nonfiction are likely to enjoy it.
June 3, 2015
A magnificent little book about our need for darkness and our tendency to flood ourselves with light, drugs, sleep.
Strand is a good writer--simple sentences, complex thoughts, all deeply grounded in experience.
In some ways, it is an insomniac's Bible, since he teaches us that being awake in the middle of the night is what it's all about. Who knew?
Strand is a good writer--simple sentences, complex thoughts, all deeply grounded in experience.
In some ways, it is an insomniac's Bible, since he teaches us that being awake in the middle of the night is what it's all about. Who knew?
December 3, 2016
I love reading Clark Strand. He reads like a river, flowing over, around, and through different thoughts. Sometimes a gentle flow ... and sometimes a break around rocks, or over falls. This book was no different. He takes you on a journey that you weren't sure you were going on. I would give it five stars, but the end (which I won't spoil), left me a little lost.
October 13, 2018
Shades of enlightenment
Wow. Love the shift of perception regarding light and dark. One isn't superior to the other. This book makes me comprehend "blinded by the Light" with new lens. Amazing how time and egos reconstruct history and beliefs. Be comfortable in the dark...you can hear more than you see.
Wow. Love the shift of perception regarding light and dark. One isn't superior to the other. This book makes me comprehend "blinded by the Light" with new lens. Amazing how time and egos reconstruct history and beliefs. Be comfortable in the dark...you can hear more than you see.
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