Into the Soul of the World: My Journey to Healing

by Brad Wetzler

This powerful memoir shares an adventure journalist’s story of a decade-long, round-the-world quest to overcome his drug addiction and to understand and heal from past traumas. Suffering from PTSD and severe depression from past trauma, battling an addiction to overprescribed psychiatric medication, and at the rock bottom of his career, journalist Brad Wetzler had nowhere to go. So he set out on a journey to wander and hopefully find himself—and the world—again.  
 
Into the Soul of the World is Wetzler’s thrilling, impactful, and heartrending memoir of healing—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. An adventure journalist at heart, Wetzler mixes travelogue with empowering insights about his inner journey to better care for his own mental health. Journey with him as he travels across Israel and the West Bank, before moving on to India, a candle-lit cave on a mountaintop in the Himalayan foothills, and a life-changing encounter with a 100-year-old yogi. 
 
Wetzler's writing is full of the poignant, amusing, and occasionally heart‑breaking situations that unfold when we finally decide to confront depression (or any mental health struggle) and declare ourselves ready to How do we heal our past and thrive again? What does it mean to live a good life? How can we transform our suffering and serve others?  His live to tell the story and find the humility and courage to be the best human you can be.

Genres: Travel, Memoir, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

Published March 21, 2023

About the author

Brad Wetzler began his writing and publishing career serving as an editor at Outside magazine, where he worked with some of America’s finest nonfiction writers. He later turned in his editor’s pen for a writer’s and traveled the world writing about adventure and exploration, business, politics, the environment, sports, and wellness. In midlife, after recovering from a long, debilitating depression, he became a certified yoga teacher and began exploring and writing about our inner landscape: psychology, spirituality, meditation, and yoga.

Reviews

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone who has, is currently or will look inward to heal, learn more about themselves and reconcile their childhood..


For those who grew up in homes with family secrets that must be kept at all costs, this book is for you.


Brad's openness and vulnerability is touching and inspiring. There are many paths to healing and recovery. his is one of the most interesting stories I have ever heard.

[beauty_andbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a truly inspiring read! Brad goes on an adventure of self discovery and trauma healing. I loved the aspects of the story where he journeyed through Israel and Palestine, following Jesus’ journey. You don’t have to be a Christian to enjoy this book though! Brad talks about all religions and how they can all help a person suffering to find healing. I learned so many new things about religion, history and psychology.

Thank you to Hachette for sending me an ARC to read and review!

[Div Manickam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read to get the gist of your journey. Thank you Brad for your honesty n facing life with courage ❤️ 🙏


This book Into the soul of the world is a walk through life in a perfect storm. Take care

Highlights from the book 📖


But they weren't my soul family. As Susan reminds me when I lose track, I am a child of God now. A child of the universe. I think about a quote from Mother Teresa: "The problem with the world is that we draw the circle of our family too small."

And then I remembered the Buddha's teachings. The brokenness of it all. The way the universe is like a new teacup, and we are to think of everything- family, dreams, ourselves-as already broken. The Japanese have made an art form of this concept: kintsugi, which is to mend broken teacups and other items with gold. The once-shattered cup is now repaired, with lines of bright gold illuminating the once-broken spots.


I have empathy for myself and all of us on this journey. Because chasing and running is what we humans do, especially here in the West. We chase achievement, we chase money, we chase comfort, we chase ad- venture, we chase, chase, chase. We run away, run away, run away. And, yes, I still do it, too. Of course I do. To live a life of no chasing would mean I was a Buddha, which I'm clearly not.

I tell them, "Nothing left to do. Nothing left to think." And I recite a quote that has become my mantra, my aspiration. The quote is from Neem Karoli Baba, and it goes like this:

"Why try to figure it all out when you can love."

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t put it down. A journey out of toxic masculinity and INTO THE SOUL OF THE WORLD.
“I can’t even arrange these years in a way that makes narrative sense.” (Hard relate.)
Bravo, Brad —-and the Coleridge epigram is 👌🏼

Holy of Holies. GET THIS BOOK.

[Lauren Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Into the soul of the world By Brad Wetzler, is a biography about Brad’s journey to healing. In the late 1970’s Brad aspired to become an adventure writer and his dream came true! Brad was successful and even sent someone to Mt.Everest but then realizes that he needs to work on himself first. As you get further along in the book, he starts to talk about his upbringing and the events that made him. When Brad was little, he was emotionally abused and had struggled with an eating disorder and mental illnesses which might have been caused by times when he was scared for his life, like when he almost drowned and nobody came to help. Brad then shares the majority of his life as he has been trying to figure out why he feels the way he feels , and why he has to take so much medication when he is not certain that it’s helping. Brad travels to India which leads him to think this will solve all of his problems, when he arrives back in the U.S, he goes right back to where he started, and becomes obsessed with India and spiritual things. He then realized that what he’s doing isn't working so he decides to have a fresh start and moves to Boulder, Colorado in hopes for a new life…..
I rate this book a ⅗ star rating. Overall there were very many good features about this Biography. This book had many situations that a reader could connect to and learn. Throughout this book, Brad shares words of encouragement and shares that it's ok to get help and it's ok to take care of yourself. Brad’s story is really motivational because he tries no matter what and has lots of faith despite what has happened to him. I think this is a good book if someone wants to read about a person or needs inspiration for their journey to healing through faith, God, and opportunity.
I gave this book only 3 out of 5 stars because it was repetitive and slow. Overall the book was decent but it was very repetitive in the sense that the majority of the book was about him going to India several times to try and “find himself” when eventually I think he realized that it wasn't changing him, just the way he looked at things. It was Mainly about spirituality which I know some people like, but it wasn't for me. I wish it had a little bit more pizazz. There were certainly times in the book where it was interesting and fast paced but it is overall a slow book.
My favorite quote is “Courage is a big thing”- Maharaj-jj. This quote is on page 249 of this Biography. This was told to Brad as he was attending a spiritual event in India. I really like this quote because I think it could mean something different to everyone. Personally I think that this quote means that you should never downplay your emotions and that showing courage is big and it’s amazing. I also think that it could mean that you need courage to do lots of things. Sometimes things are harder for others which is why we all need some courage in our life, and should encourage others too!
Overall I would recommend this book. I know I said that it was slow and a little boring but I definitely think it's worth reading. I think people could benefit from reading this biography and could possibly get some ideas for their own recovery/healing journey.

[Karin Sziva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tender, Honest, and Courageously Human — Into the Soul of the World and Back to Ourselves

This book took me on a journey far beyond geography. Through wonderful storytelling that carries you to extraordinary places and offers glimpses into spiritual teachings, Brad Wetzler dares to defy hardwired logic and follow the soul’s quiet, irresistible call - without needing to understand it. I deeply resonated with that. I know how strange it feels to trust what can’t be explained.

Tears welled up on page 247 for no reason and all reasons. I recognized myself in his fierce love for his dog Blue. By the end of Into the Soul of the World, I was weeping - touched by that same unconditional love animals awaken in us.

There’s repetition throughout the book - lines, sentences, themes that return again and again - which mirrors the way we move through our own inner layers. We are profound, precious, confused, and contradictory beings. These recurring reflections aren’t redundant; they echo the process of peeling back what isn’t us, and - which may be counterintuitive- by embracing it to come home to who we are.

An extraordinary memoir, inside and out, that stirs reflection, smiles, and an ache for the human condition by exposing the author’s own. Wetzler writes as a bold, sensitive man whose soul rebelled against the better-faster-status-driven Western world he was born into - and wounded by. Even when he can’t make sense of what’s happening, his willingness to stay with it reminds us of our shared humanness, and of the courage it takes to return - again and again - to the embodied moment.

And to love.

[Bob Payne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beginning in the late 1970’s, if you aspired to be an adventure travel writer, one of your goals was almost certainly to see yourself published in Outside magazine. And it remains so today, which is why the first part, especially, of Brad Wetzler’s memoir will appeal to those of us who have lived or dreamed of living an adventure travel life. Wetzler was an aspiring young editor when he went to work for Outside in 1990 and soon enough worked his way up to membership in the cadre of adventure travel writers and editors who were not only living the life but making a pretty good penny at it. But Into the Soul of the World is not really about that life. It’s about the life of a man who, hamstrung by a traumatic childhood, decades of medical misdiagnosis, and a family that cast him out, slowly spirals down from his high life into one of drug addiction, depression, and despair, a world in which he sustains himself by such means as driving for Uber and selling trinkets at flea markets, and then begins a long road back by seeking spiritual enlightenment at holy places around the world. Does he find the answers about relationships, intimacy, and all the rest that will see him through? Readers may conclude that neither they nor Wetzler knows for sure. Or they may conclude, as it seems he has, quoting one of the Indian mystics he sought understanding from, “Why try to figure it all out when you can love?”

[Adam Rosenthal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Into the Soul of the World is a beautifully written book that absolutely lives up to the grandeur of its name. Digging into his talents as a travel writer before his fall from grace, Brad effectively blends memoir, history lessons, adventure novel, and personal redemption into an intricately woven tapestry of story. From page one you know this is going to be one hell of a ride with him being at the epicenter of the Everest disaster article in the offices of Outside Magazine, to his deep dive into addiction of anti-depressants and selling junk at flea markets to make a living, to his pilgrimage into the world to find himself again through travel, experience, and writing. Along the way, we see, feel, and taste all the Brad experiences as he drowns in a drug fog of medications while living in the american southwest, swims the River Jordan, walks the narrow ancient streets of Jerusalem at dawn, and interacts with Yogis high in the mountains of India. This was a beautiful book that shows the power of experience if we adventure into the world which will inevitably always hold a mirror up for us if we’re willing to look.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an advanced copy gifted to be by Hachette Books.

Memoirs can be difficult to get into if you don't find commonalities within the other person's psychology, or how they experience life, at least for me. I had that difficulty with this book. However, I found the book to be an honest account of a spiritual journey, insightful, and very well written (as you can expect from a former writer for Outside).

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Into the Soul of the World is one of those rare memoirs that doesn’t just tell a story. It invites the reader into the author’s inner life with unflinching honesty and grace. Brad Wetzler’s journey through addiction, trauma, and healing is intense, vulnerable, and profoundly moving. From the very beginning, his voice feels real and unguarded, making it impossible not to become emotionally invested in his struggle and eventual transformation.

[Nanako Water · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at expectations of and by American men. An unrelenting drive for material success, physical fitness, and adventures make for toxic masculinity and excess consumerism. Wetzler's journey was also very American - psychological childhood trauma, Christianity, psychiatric treatment, over-medication, travel and eventually spiritual healing through yoga.

[Janilyn Kocher]

Anyone who is looking for support or inspiration if you have suffered from depression and other struggles may find solace in reading this book.
The author documents his struggles and his search for answers and relief from his demons.
Thank to Hatchette Books for the complimentary copy.

[Family Prime · Rating 5 out of 5]

great memoir

Fear, perseverance, faith…Brad brings us deep into his journey and struggles to find faith in himself and faith in something greater.