Customer Reviews

At One With All Life: A Personal Journey in Gaian Communities

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this was my introduction to Judith Boice and to be frank, I wasn't impressed. While her look at Gaian communities show how hard they work - in terms of growing and preparing food, maintaining the community etc, I also think it shows how self indulgent such communities can become, without questioning how they impact on the cultures where they are sited, by buying up land that might house poorer local families etc. Boice joined a number of these in order to gain better understanding, but her outlook is pretty shortsighted - she works hard and has hard decisions to make, including whether or not to have a termination. I fully support a woman's right to choose, so won't reveal any 'spoilers'. However, the book often goes from being environmentally sound to being crassly self indulgent as she skips from commune to commune and lover to lover, something like a New Age Erica Jong but with less gory detail and more hugs! In this, Boice is a microcosm of the New Age movement, which does try to do it's best for an undeniably ailing planet but also doesn't mind making a fast buck even if it has to bleed ancient cultures like the Celts and Native Americans of it's secrets.