Customer Reviews

Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing

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In the last part of ANATOMY OF THE SPIRIT, Caroline Myss unites her discussion of three belief systems (Roman Catholic Sacraments, Kabbalah Tree of Life, and Hindu Chakras) within the concept of living in the present moment. Many who have trod the spiritual path Myss describes and faced the Three Big Crises - absence of meaning and purpose; strange new fears; and devotion to something greater than one's self - will appreciate her final words. Suffering produces spiritual rewards.

Not everyone will appreciate Myss' book. I would like to send the audio version to my 87-year old aunt who is devoutly Roman Catholic, but I don't think she would like it. My Southern Baptist aunt would probably disown me. My daughter would appreciate it - but she's a fan of Bishop Pike. For a change, Myss has written a book older folks will appreciate more than younger ones.

I know something about the sacraments having been raised with them. I've also acquired a great deal of knowledge about the Chakras in the past 40 years (via reading and Hindu friends). I have studied the Kabbalah (it is far more complex than Myss' book indicates). Like Joseph Campbell whom she apparently see as a model, Myss sees a larger truth underlying religious structures and/or tribal systems of belief.

Myss is billed as an expert on energy medicine. In the early 1980s, I had the pleasure and privilege of being in Louis Hay's home. I can testify that "whatever your mind can conceive and believe it will achieve." Whenever I have an ailment, I whip out Hays' healing books (Myss cites one of them). Healing takes many forms. Doctors mostly facilitate the process or mess it up. The power of positive thinking, prayer, the laying on of hands, and laughter all work to heal the body-mind-spirit. What Myss shares is not new, but if you haven't heard about it elsewhere you can learn more here.

This is a good book. I've heard, read, and/or experienced most of what Myss describes so I can testify to the truthfulness of it. If you are ready to move beyond tribal boundaries and become whole this may be the book for you.

Caroline Myss, Ph.D. is a medical intuitive and a specialist in energy medicine. Whenever she visits Boulder, she draws a big crowd, and her sold-out lecture last week promoting her current bestseller, SACRED CONTRACTS, was no exception. "According to energy medicine, we are all living history books," she writes in ANATOMY OF THE SPIRIT. "Our bodies contain our histories--every chapter, line, and verse of every event and relationship in our lives" (p. 40). She maintains, in other words, that as our lives unfold, our biography becomes our biology (p. 40).

In ANATOMY OF THE SPIRIT, Myss attempts to connect the dots between body and spirit by integrating the wisdom of several spiritual traditions, the Hindu chakras, the Christian sacraments, and the Kabbalah's Tree of Life. She draws from the ancient wisdom of these teachings to radically redefine spiritual and biological health, and to help us understand "what keeps us healthy, what makes us ill, and what helps us heal" (p. 67). The central premise of her book is that our past and present, personal and professional relationships, traumatic experiences and memories, beliefs and attitudes all become "encoded" in our biological anatomies, and then contribute to the formation of cell tissue, which generates energy reflecting our emotional strengths, weaknesses, hopes and fears (p. 34). Dr. Myss teaches us how to move through our wounds, rather than living in them (p. 60). While in her book she says that disease is the result of our negative emotions (p. 43), during her more recent Boulder lecture, Myss acknowledged she no longer believes this, and that this incorrect assertion has caused many to needlessly suffer, while trying in vain to identify the nonexistent negativity in their lives.

In her truly fascinating book, Myss reveals how we are simultaneously matter and spirit, and she encourages us to think about how matter and spirit interact, "what draws the spirit and life force out of our bodies, and how we can retrieve our spirits from the false gods of fear, anger, and attachments of the past" (p. 77). To those readers like me, who may be a bit skeptical of the anatomy lessons Myss offers here, she encourages us take from her book only what feels right to our heart and spirit, leaving the rest behind (p. 94).

G. Merritt

This book allows you to have faith without walls. The book Encounter with A Prophet removes the walls. I recommend both books.

This was my first Caroline Myss book and I have since read--and heard--most of her others. I have put off writing a review until now, frankly because I wasn't sure if I could convey the tremendous impact her words and teachings have had in my life. (Actually, I think I just did!)

You may not agree with every single point she brings up and out, but that is part of it's strength: She makes you think, probe, ponder, contemplate and eventually assimilate her truths, along with so many others that speak the same, into your own life.

Caroline is a teacher in the finest sense: Her books, views, thoughts and musings compel one to seek their own truth, to heal one's self, not the easy way, but the BEST way--by tapping into the energy of Spirit and Love all around us. In this sense, she is a provocative Master.

One suggestion: If you have trouble getting through her books, her audio tapes are very good and truly relay the passion and commitment she feels in her life, her teachings.

Read her books, use what works for you -- and never be the same again.

There are so many obstacles to keep us from fully living our lives.

Caroline Myss helps us to evaluate exactly where we are heading, whether in a downward, negative path or a more straight forward peaceful path.

Our emotions play a big part and will let us know something has gone array. When we start feeling negative towards ourselves and others, we need to go inward and ask ourselves what's going on? Our bodies also react or respond to the ways we treat it, if we overabuse it, it will get dis ease.

Anatomy of the Spirit is a good tool to help us evaluate ourselves. By using the seven stages that she is offering, one is given a head start. We do not change ourselves overnight, it takes years and years of going into the depths of our being, this is an ongoing journey.

So it's one step at a time and sometimes two or three steps backward. Andrew Weil is another wonderful and knowledgeable author and his book Spontaneous Healing Spontaneous Healing : How to Discover and Embrace Your Body's Natural Ability to Maintain and Heal Itself is well worth the effort in changing some of our destructive tendencies.

I have to preface this review by saying that I am not a Caroline Myss fan. This is not based upon my past religious upbringing, but rather on her approach to an attempted synthesis between the Jewish, Christian and Hindu teachings on metaphysics and energy systems. In short, I think she missed the mark and tried to force fit areas together based more on her assumptions about reality than a natural meshing together of concepts.

I am educated both as a scientist and in the area of psychology, including sacred psychology across world traditions. It was very difficult for me to even listen to the logic underlying the author's arguments. However, by synthesizing these disparate traditions in a credible sounding manner, she has tapped into a very large market of people searching for meaning.

I am not saying that this book is completely without merit, but I would take much of it with a grain of salt. I also think there are better books out there that are better researched, more thorough and less contaminated with a lot of the authors own assumptions about reality. Two examples to look at while you are evaluating this book are FORGOTTEN TRUTH by Huston Smith and a BRIEF HISTORY OF EVERYTHING by Ken Wilber.

There is a saying that most people would rather be entertained that educated. I think this basically sums up my experience of this book, except I didn't find it very entertaining either. I know that many loyal readers of Ms. Myss will disagree with me, but this is my honest opinion of her work.

Carolyn Myss writes about health and illness within the individual human energy system, but dosen't take energy thinking far enough--that's why some of her arguments break down. Her basic thesis is that we bring illness on ourselves by neglecting to deal with soul or emotional issues, that is, by not leading an "authentic" life. Clearly this can be true, for instance in certain forms of cancer or heart disease.

But when thinking about any sort of system, human or otherwise, you must consider the smaller energy systems which compose it, as well as the larger systems in which it is embedded. Each system "level" has its own sort of consciousness and imperatives to follow. The "level" at which our conscious egos work is only one piece of the complex puzzle of reality which composes and enfolds us.

Thus, from a systems perspective, disease can follow dysfunction on ANY level, from the cellular to the social or environmental (and maybe even the galactic). One example would be cancers caused by pesticides--here, the human collective's disrespect for the planetary environment results in the illness of individuals. There need not be a particular biographical factor in the genesis of such a cancer, for as individuals we are all subject to consequences following our collective actions.

Similarly, disease can spring from breakdowns on the cellular level of biological systems--thus, plants and animals fall prey to illness in the wild (as they also do from human-caused habitat destruction and pollution). Would Myss say that these non-human creatures were responsible for their illnesses because they did not do their soul or emotional work?

To say that biography is the only (or principal) factor in illness is taking a one-dimensional view of disease and the systems it disrupts. Things are more complicated than that. Yes, in much of our life we do have a choice and do indeed create our realities. But there are other things that come to us unbidden: floods, tornados, accidents, and yes, disease. To imply that we create that suffering to me seems uncompassionate. It is also a form of arrogance--assuming that we can control everything that comes to us in life.

Furthermore, there is the question of people who are born with congenital illnesses. Myss, who believes that before we are born, we enter into a contract about what life challenges to take on, would probably say that such people choose the challenge of such illnesses as part of their pre-birth "contract." But I think that many people with such illnesses would find that hypothesis offensive.

Myss also oversimplifies in her comparison of the Christian sacraments, the Hindu chakra system, and the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. These ways of seeing the human spirit-path are similar only on the surface--it would take years of study and personal practice of each of these traditions to understand each one, much less to undertake a "compare and contrast" exercise. Yes, there is a "perennial philosophy" that underlies the world religions, but there are also many fundamental differences as well.

Focussing on the chakras and the human energy system is indeed a start for understanding the energetics of human disease. But for an even more in-depth understanding of energy healing I would recommend reading some of the books out on systems thinking, especially as it pertains to biology. Also, any books which explore sub-systems within the human psyche (depth psychology) pertain to this field, as any ego-self wishing to heal will have to do business with the "others" which exist within and which have their own energies and axes to grind.

Have you ever walked into a house and gotten a funny feeling that something was wrong? Some kind of "bad energy" left over from an argument or perhaps someone had died? Ever get a "wierd vibe" from someone? Caroline Myss's continuing exploration into the human energy fields is a wonderful validation of what many have already experienced but were never able to clearly conceptualize. It's a relief when someone can do that for us (Hey, I'm not crazy!). Once over this stalling point, we can move forward and explore these areas of human experience more constructively.

Caroline's main thrust in this book is the energy flow through the body and how it relates to physical health, and a detailed description of the quality of the energy at each chakra level. She uses the Jewish Tree Of Life and the Christian sacraments as symbolic representations of the qualities at these vibrational levels. Caroline describes in general how the energy flow at the various chakra levels can be disrupted and the subsequent consequences to health in that part of the body.

Anyone who is interested in the healing arts, especially the fields of energy medicine, will find this book invaluable.

I am very impressed with this book and the vast topics the author had covered using human beings' physical body to explain the beauty of human beings' spirits. If you are looking for one book to fix all your life problems or thinking this will cure your illness for sure, this book can only be a starting point for you. Don't expect any book, anyone can fix your problems and/or illness. Ultimately, it is up to you at the end of the day (your desire) whether you want to heal your physical and emotional body. However, this book is a gateway and overview about what you can do to lift your spirits, if you choose to open your heart to read, listen without judgment.

Nobody says everything Caroline Myss says must be the Divine truth. But what harm does it do to you when you just open up and see what she has to say first? Then, you can choose what sort of a belief system you want to carry.

I will say this though, if you are looking for intuition and guidance of spirituality, it is a great overview book to help you explore. But if you are looking for books with healing messages behind, this book might be overwhelming. As human beings, I think we need to find our own way to heal the wounds the understanding of Forgiveness. I find "Heart of Forgiveness: A Practical Path to Healing by Madeline Ko-I Bastis" to be extremely helpful to heal emotional wounds.

Don't get frustrated with Caroline Myss because she is trying to cover a massive amount of topics to help the readers to be awaken. Wounds (physical and emotional) itself aren't bad but they are just signs for the awakening process. And I understand some readers get frustrated when she mentioned about woundology. My interpretation of her words is that wounds itself is not a problem (not good nor bad). At any point of time, we need to process the wounds with therapists and/or with groups as well as supportive friends and family. What she was trying to point out is that sometimes wounds can be unconsiously used as ways to control others and some people unconsiously/consiously use wounds to manipulate others just to get what they want. It is then wounds itself becomes harmful to self and others. It is then the group therapy, therapies in general becomes harmful for everyone's spirit. Nobody says healing is easy (yet it is simple because it is a spiritual decision we are trying to make). It requires us to examine even the manipulative/controlling side of self to ask the most important question ... Whether we are afraid to break away from wounds because we will be exposed to the healing world. We are just human beings who have fears. I think this book is wonderful to expose our fear-based thinking/feeling in light for use to examine.

I am very glad I read this book. Wounderful way to self-explore and to learn deep about life.

This book is a wonderful sumnation of the spiritual teachings of both the caballistic and chakra spiritual systems by a person who has seen and experienced them first hand. As I had presented in Tucson Arizona, these principles are totally consistent with what we know about brain physiology and quantum physics. Though my book covers the less spiritual more mundane aspects of optimizing brain function, it emphasises that there is proof that regular spiritual practice within a system like that put forth by Carolyn Myss (one that emphasises insight and forgiveness of self and others) will produce measurable changes in your brain state and your life...I have seen it first hand!!...all the best to Carolyn Myss for having written a true and tough new age classic in a field filled with lots of "soft and mushy" trash...Kenneth Giuffre MD, author, "The Care and Feeding of Your Brain"