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Beyond Hope: Letting Go of a World in Collapse
We have reached the point no return on planet Earth, where the collective intent for biosphere collapse is manifesting at dizzying speed. From widespread social unrest to aggressive threats of nuclear war, to pollution soiling every inch of the planet (and beyond), to mass animal and plant extinction, global overpopulation, and runaway biosphere decay. Many powerful forces are converging to create unprecedented chaos and breakdown.
In her outspoken way, Deb Ozarko exposes the madness of the cultural conditioning that has separated humanity from the web of life that sustains existence. In raw, yet eloquent detail, she makes it impossible for the reader to dismiss this truth for themselves. The question we are now faced with is, “How do we choose to live in a dying world?”
Many people consider “hope” to be the fuel of possibility. If one doesn’t have hope, possibility dies. Beyond Hope debunks this long-standing myth and liberates the reader to choose a more powerful way.
Beyond Hope is a profound act of love. Beyond a simple litany of all that is in collapse, Deb’s perspective compels us to awaken to something beyond our abilities to tell stories about what is happening “out there” and begin to turn the formidable power of our attention to what is happening “in here” … inside, where we live. Inside, where we are already whole, unique and essential to our world. This is where our deepest power lies.
Beyond Hope is not a book of science, philosophy or reason to appease the oppressive intellect. It’s a book about letting go. Letting go of the fear of uncertainty. Letting go of false hopes for an illusory future. Letting go of the dream for a collective awakening. Letting go of the stories of what may or may not be. Letting go of what once defined meaning. Letting go of the fear of mortality. Letting go of what we’ve been conditioned to believe ourselves to be. Letting go of our broken, dysfunctional world.
We no longer have the luxury of time to lie to ourselves or each other anymore. We can no longer defer or delay taking a long, hard look at what we have allowed ourselves to become. We can no longer rationalize the irrational, or deny the undeniable. The greatest gift that runaway biosphere decay offers lies in the density and intensity of its press for us to notice how personal it all is. It can be a profound propellant to move us into our own evolution in a non-incremental, non-linear way.
Beyond Hope is written from the Soul, for the Soul. As such, it is profoundly intimate—both in its writing and in its reading. Those who dare to read it, engage it, and act on it, will be transformed.
In her outspoken way, Deb Ozarko exposes the madness of the cultural conditioning that has separated humanity from the web of life that sustains existence. In raw, yet eloquent detail, she makes it impossible for the reader to dismiss this truth for themselves. The question we are now faced with is, “How do we choose to live in a dying world?”
Many people consider “hope” to be the fuel of possibility. If one doesn’t have hope, possibility dies. Beyond Hope debunks this long-standing myth and liberates the reader to choose a more powerful way.
Beyond Hope is a profound act of love. Beyond a simple litany of all that is in collapse, Deb’s perspective compels us to awaken to something beyond our abilities to tell stories about what is happening “out there” and begin to turn the formidable power of our attention to what is happening “in here” … inside, where we live. Inside, where we are already whole, unique and essential to our world. This is where our deepest power lies.
Beyond Hope is not a book of science, philosophy or reason to appease the oppressive intellect. It’s a book about letting go. Letting go of the fear of uncertainty. Letting go of false hopes for an illusory future. Letting go of the dream for a collective awakening. Letting go of the stories of what may or may not be. Letting go of what once defined meaning. Letting go of the fear of mortality. Letting go of what we’ve been conditioned to believe ourselves to be. Letting go of our broken, dysfunctional world.
We no longer have the luxury of time to lie to ourselves or each other anymore. We can no longer defer or delay taking a long, hard look at what we have allowed ourselves to become. We can no longer rationalize the irrational, or deny the undeniable. The greatest gift that runaway biosphere decay offers lies in the density and intensity of its press for us to notice how personal it all is. It can be a profound propellant to move us into our own evolution in a non-incremental, non-linear way.
Beyond Hope is written from the Soul, for the Soul. As such, it is profoundly intimate—both in its writing and in its reading. Those who dare to read it, engage it, and act on it, will be transformed.
279 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 19, 2018
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75 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 7, 2019
First of all, Ozarko is correct about it being "game over" for the biosphere as we know it and for humanity. The biosphere is in free fall collapse, and agriculture together with human population will collapse along with it. Humans, together with all large vertebrates, face extinction on the orders of decades to a few centuries. This is inevitable and there's nothing that can be done about it. Of this, the author is absolutely unmistaken.
Possessing such perspicacity, one might expect Ozarko to be a Naturalist. Unfortunately, she is not. She is a Supernaturalist, more specifically a Buddhist who embraces the superstitious doctrines of karma and reincarnation, as she makes clear: "Ultimately, my greatest desire for this book is to break the cycle of samsara once and for all so that we never incarnate among such lunacy again."
I have no problem with the term "Soul" so long as it's used in a metaphorical sense of standing for individual or collective consciousness predicated upon the electrochemical activity of the brain, with concepts and ideas shared through language. However, being a Supernaturalist and dualist, Ozarko doesn't define "Soul" in such a way. She defines "Soul" as "the energetic, non-physical whole of what we are as life-force expressing through matter..." Such vitalistic conceptualization was rendered irrelevant by science in the 19th century.
Because she isn't a Naturalist, and doesn't really understand the natural sciences, Ozarko offers quite a bit of factual and conceptual misinformation. Predictably, she alludes to "Gaea" as a sentient, purposeful entity or deity, capable of volitionally deploying seismic and volcanic activity against the ape species that annoys "Her." She offers so-called "near death" phenomena as evidence for her supernatural "Soul" conceptualization. This is the kind of nonsense "Beyond Hope" is replete with. The book is repetitive and becomes quite tedious in places.
The author, of course, will dismiss rational criticism of her supernaturalism as the knee-jerk reaction of those culturally inculcated to the "Big Lie" she rails against; of someone not as "woke" as she is. Ozarko's rampant egotism in this regard is humorous. She's always been more sensitive, aware, compassionate, etc., than her readers and isn't remiss to telling them so. And then, after scores of pages critical of materialism, capitalism and "stuff," Ozarko gives a pitch for her friend's buyable self-help audio program!
So is "Beyond Hope" nothing more than hypocritical nonsense? Not at all! The author's basic premise is correct: We are living in times of moral, social and ecological collapse, and there's no hope of the situation being ameliorated. Even if popular and political will could be mustered for seriously tackling climate and biodiversity crises, positive feedbacks have long since been set in motion that will ensure massive ecosystem collapse even if all humans immediately dropped dead. Near-term extinction of our species looms. No Question.
Likewise, I agree with Ozarko's recommendations for living wide awake in the moment; for letting go of regret for the past and neurotic concern for the future. There's no sense in fretting over things you cannot change. I admire and appreciate her compassionate Veganism. I believe that one can benefit from mindfulness and the Eight-fold Path while remaining agnostic (and skeptical) of the superstitious doctrines of karma and reincarnation. So, all told, this is a book that should be read, and taken for what, for YOU, it's worth.
Namaste
Possessing such perspicacity, one might expect Ozarko to be a Naturalist. Unfortunately, she is not. She is a Supernaturalist, more specifically a Buddhist who embraces the superstitious doctrines of karma and reincarnation, as she makes clear: "Ultimately, my greatest desire for this book is to break the cycle of samsara once and for all so that we never incarnate among such lunacy again."
I have no problem with the term "Soul" so long as it's used in a metaphorical sense of standing for individual or collective consciousness predicated upon the electrochemical activity of the brain, with concepts and ideas shared through language. However, being a Supernaturalist and dualist, Ozarko doesn't define "Soul" in such a way. She defines "Soul" as "the energetic, non-physical whole of what we are as life-force expressing through matter..." Such vitalistic conceptualization was rendered irrelevant by science in the 19th century.
Because she isn't a Naturalist, and doesn't really understand the natural sciences, Ozarko offers quite a bit of factual and conceptual misinformation. Predictably, she alludes to "Gaea" as a sentient, purposeful entity or deity, capable of volitionally deploying seismic and volcanic activity against the ape species that annoys "Her." She offers so-called "near death" phenomena as evidence for her supernatural "Soul" conceptualization. This is the kind of nonsense "Beyond Hope" is replete with. The book is repetitive and becomes quite tedious in places.
The author, of course, will dismiss rational criticism of her supernaturalism as the knee-jerk reaction of those culturally inculcated to the "Big Lie" she rails against; of someone not as "woke" as she is. Ozarko's rampant egotism in this regard is humorous. She's always been more sensitive, aware, compassionate, etc., than her readers and isn't remiss to telling them so. And then, after scores of pages critical of materialism, capitalism and "stuff," Ozarko gives a pitch for her friend's buyable self-help audio program!
So is "Beyond Hope" nothing more than hypocritical nonsense? Not at all! The author's basic premise is correct: We are living in times of moral, social and ecological collapse, and there's no hope of the situation being ameliorated. Even if popular and political will could be mustered for seriously tackling climate and biodiversity crises, positive feedbacks have long since been set in motion that will ensure massive ecosystem collapse even if all humans immediately dropped dead. Near-term extinction of our species looms. No Question.
Likewise, I agree with Ozarko's recommendations for living wide awake in the moment; for letting go of regret for the past and neurotic concern for the future. There's no sense in fretting over things you cannot change. I admire and appreciate her compassionate Veganism. I believe that one can benefit from mindfulness and the Eight-fold Path while remaining agnostic (and skeptical) of the superstitious doctrines of karma and reincarnation. So, all told, this is a book that should be read, and taken for what, for YOU, it's worth.
Namaste
April 25, 2022
I couldn't tolerate the author's voice, even though this is subject matter I find very important. She was just too strident, lacked compassion for other people who didn't measure up to her standards of ethical behavior, and seemed to spend too much time explaining what made her special vs how her teachings and ideas could be good for everyone.
July 27, 2018
I found this book incredibly helpful. I don't want to comment on the writing. It was adequate for the task. The content of this book can be life-changing. It helped me gain a better understanding of what is going on in the world right now and helped me find a way to move forward through it. Deb Ozarko has a very good sense of how things are. She is not afraid to tell us how she sees it and she is not afraid to give us a way to find meaning in our lives, in our selves. But in doing so, she is not preaching or suggesting that if you follow her you will find true enlightenment. Rather, she is sharing what she has learned, and as you read, you may find as I did that it resonates with you and helps you to find a sense of spiritual enlightenment that you didn't have before.
I recommend reading this book right to the finish, and giving yourself time to let her words sink in.
I recommend reading this book right to the finish, and giving yourself time to let her words sink in.
February 9, 2020
One of the most important books I've ever read.
I read this on my kindle and I don't think I've ever highlighted more sections of a book than this as every chapter bursts with immediately resounding truths that no sane person can deny.
Deb Ozarko has dug deep and poured a lifetime of experience, knowledge, wisdom and meditations on the destructive behaviour humans have adopted in our short time on the planet into the pages of this book.
Though the initial concept and theme of the book may at first seem negative, or even bleak and at times leaves you feeling angry or hopeless or bitter about the ignorance and stupidity of humanity and modern society, I found this book ultimately empowering and even life affirming in its unflinching delivery of harsh truths and its exposure of the big lie.
For anyone who's ever felt compelled to question and challenge the order of things, you need this book. For anyone who doesn't question our mass behaviours and goes along with the grain of society, this book is essential.
I read this on my kindle and I don't think I've ever highlighted more sections of a book than this as every chapter bursts with immediately resounding truths that no sane person can deny.
Deb Ozarko has dug deep and poured a lifetime of experience, knowledge, wisdom and meditations on the destructive behaviour humans have adopted in our short time on the planet into the pages of this book.
Though the initial concept and theme of the book may at first seem negative, or even bleak and at times leaves you feeling angry or hopeless or bitter about the ignorance and stupidity of humanity and modern society, I found this book ultimately empowering and even life affirming in its unflinching delivery of harsh truths and its exposure of the big lie.
For anyone who's ever felt compelled to question and challenge the order of things, you need this book. For anyone who doesn't question our mass behaviours and goes along with the grain of society, this book is essential.
July 13, 2023
Doomer porn with a coating of mysticism. Fun game for 2023- google some of the folks Ozarko quotes from extensively and see where they have ended up.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews