Customer Reviews

The Camino : A Journey of the Spirit

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

"The Camino", Shirley Maclaine's new book, covers a 500 mile walking trip she completed along the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. Blisters and body pain, loneliness followed by relentless press who heard she was making the pilgrimage, vivid dream/recollections and synchronicity are shared in this journal. 40 pages into this book, I announced to my family that I will be making this same trek. Ms. MacLaine is an excellent writer; clean, intelligent, free of the need to prove anything to anyone. She's just saying what she experienced. We come away with a glimpse at the history of the trail from the days of Charlemange. We see her experience of the possible origin of three dimensional human life, Atlantis, Lemuria, ancestral connections to ET's and genetic engineerring that very possibly got us where we are right now. Skeptics will scoff. Students of Spirit will nod. (Remember, in spring 2000, scientists JUST found out that dinosaurs had four chamber hearts that show they were WARM blooded, not cold blooded like the "fact" they have "known" for years.) Whatever your level of listening, believing or remembering, "The Camino" is a wonderful journey that leaves us feeling renewed. Ultreya, Ms. MacLaine!

One of my friends at work gave me Shirley's new book, and I was thrilled. In the traditional Christian world, Shirley MacLaine is one of those people who would be on the "LIST"---forbidden to any God-fearing, Bible believing Christian. I used to carry Shirley's books around in brown paper bags and pull them halfway out and read them when nobody was looking. Our preacher would be talking about how "Shirley MacLaine has lost her mind," and I'd be reading her books under the pews and thinking, "She makes more sense than the preacher." In Christian college, I got called on the carpet when somebody decided to investigate one of my brown bags to see if I was sneaking alcohol. GOD FORBID, he found something WORSE--one of Shirley MacLaine's novels, which would surely send me to hell faster than booze. Needless to say, my days in the traditional Christian experience were short-lived.

I think Shirley MacLaine is amazing! I think she's one of the bravest women alive. She has never been afraid to share her spiritual journeys for the benefit of those who can "receive" them and at the cost of personal ridicule from those who cannot.

People are criticizing this book and saying it was not about the Camino but about her own inner journey. I would have been disappointed had it not been. I don't care if Shirley walks the Camino, the Appalachian Trail, or walks to the corner drugstore. I want to know what happened to her spiritually along the way.

This is a wonderful book for all fellow "Pilgrims" and "Sojourners in a Strange Land."

"There are many ways to experience one's spiritual education." This quote from Shirley MacLaine sums up this incredible book perfectly. This is Shirley's journey of one finding themselves, or re-discovering themselves on the centuries old Camino - a 500 mile spiritual trek across Spain.

I found this book to be wonderfully enlightening, illuminating, and I applaud Shirley for the courage to complete this journey of the Spirit. Shirley says, "The Camino itself helps facilitate the resolution of emotional issues."

The reader is treated to flashbacks of Shirley's past lives as she once lived along the Camino, including an amazing past life in Lemuria and Atlantis. I found Shirley's honesty and candor refreshing, and many of her insights hit directly home with me. I do believe that the reader will also gain as many insights as I did and stop and let it all sink in. We are treated to her lessons and fears that she has to conquer as well.

I really resonated with her thoughts on fear: "Never ask yourself what it is you fear - instead ask yourself what it is that concerns you. A fear thought, put out, will return, because all energy returns to the sender. Any energy always makes a loop until it regains the source. A concern thought will return also. A that moment discern why you're concerned."

I began my spiritual questing with Shirley's first book and have devoured everything she has written. She is not afraid to speak her truth and she is not afraid to seek to deepen her spirituality and then share the rest of that with humanity. I am sure that I am not the only one who she has deeply and positively affected. We are spiritual beings having a human experience and once again we are reminded of our mission - to reconnect to the Divine source - to love - to God.

Another wonderful quote, "I had walked the Camino in order to understand what we were capable of as human beings - such spiritual magnificence and such destructive fragmentation of our own souls. Were we all repeating such dramas even today because we hadn't remembered what we came from?"

I urge everyone to read this fascinating book. You too, will want to trek the Camino after finishing the book.

Dear future reader of The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit, I envy you. Something magnificently beautiful is waiting for you in this book. Open your mind, forget all prejudices and boundaries and just enjoy one of the most fascinating books published recently. Do not try to define it in any way - it is not like anything you ever read. Elements of documental fiction, New Age spirituality, science fiction are all here mixed together into something uncommon, something fresh and new. You will be tempted many times during your reading of this book to actually accomplish Camino yourself and to have your own "visions" of global truth. But that is exactly what makes this book ingenious - you do not need to. Together with many other readers you will be accomplishing your "virtual" pilgrimage just by reading this book. By imagining the journey and by sharing the powerful emotional thoughts of Shirley MacLaine you will be participating in the global process of mass meditation with the concentration on this wonderful reading and on the actual pilgrimage itself. By means of modern media Shirley MacLaine accomplished unthinkable - she led us through Camino and allowed to understand something very important on this "virtual" journey. She made Camino the center of information attention of all her readers and her fans and in this way allowed thousands of people to reach through time and space and unconsciously receive some very important information, for which people for centuries actually accomplished this strange journey.

I have been reading and studying Ms. MacLaine's works since her release of "Out on a Limb" and I must say that this is her best work since then.

Call her whacked out if you want...but (just like "Out on a Limb") you can't help but to feel that there is an unmeasurable amount of truth in every word shares with us. And if anything...even if you are not a believer in reincarnation, Lemuria, Atlantis or even God, she will make you seriously contemplate your position here on earth with the rest of us and why there is so much turmoil and pain.

Shirley - if you are reading this...I love you! Thank you for opening my eyes and expanding my mind for all these years!

The Camino. Road, path. I saw an ad for this book, noted the author, and *had* to have it, *had* to read it. And read it I did, in two days. I would have read all night, but for a prior commitment to show up--awake--for my day-to-day callings. This was no casual read: I went "on the road" with this book, I entered the road, and joined the pilgrimage. Shirley MacLaine walked the walk, and brought the story back to share. From Canterbury tales onwards, "story" is a critical element in pilgrimage. Stories not only pass the time, but pass on critical teachings to partners on the journey, people I would never have met except for the journey, sharing lessons crucial for taking the next steps on my own journey. I have read and enjoyed many of Shirley MacLaine's books. With this book, though, I went somewhere deeper, as if receiving subtle, pre-conscious suggestion that I embark on my own journey, my own pilgrimage-to-self, whether or not I leave my local world or my desk chair. The journey is inward, even if my day-to-day appears outwardly to be unchanged. I am changed by my encounter with this book.

As to the four stars. Ms. MacLaines dream/trance state encounters of Atlantis, Lemuria and the androgynic beings of previous lives were, for me, a blend of science fantasy, books on past lives, and my old Platonic philosophy days at Fordham. She shares her internal caveats and reservations about writing such experiences, and having read them, I understand why. There are few people in my local constellation to whom I can loan this book, as they will roll their eyes in their scientific ways and, most probably, will not get it. We all get what we need, and I certainly got much of the read I wanted.

What else could I have wanted? To dream more Spain through Ms. MacLaine's eyes, more scents, more road. More about hair roots, and where *did* she put her money belt while in the shower? Such an earthy book. Delicious. I was entranced by the journey. This book--the very idea of it--reverberates, and continues to trigger a vital energy shift for me. Brava.

I recently completed the Camino de Santiago and when I learned of Ms. Mac Laine's newest book I enthusiastically sought to buy a copy. After all, we are both now Peregrinos, kindred spirits who have survived the rigors of The Way and savored its many joys. What was revealed to her fertile imagination and how would it compare to my own experiences. On a less spiritual level, how did a Hollywood celebrity deal with the many daily inconveniences which are so much a part of pilgrimage. Finally, what route did she actually travel; which villages or cities did she stop in each night and what were her recollections regarding these locales.

I've finished the book and my inescapable conclusion is that it does not represent the enlightened musings of a fellow Peregrino but is, instead, simply another airing of Ms. Mac Laine's very creative perceptions of her prior existences.

This book should be bought and read only by those who are interested in the author and her unique perspectives on life and spirituality. It really has little to do with The Camino except that the latter provides a stage upon which this popular actress can continue to articulate her, arguably, entertaining metaphysical balderdash--any or all of which is no better or worse than you or I might conjure up. By her own admission, she cherishes her role as actress. As an actress she "creates reality."Which, as any good actress knows, is the name of the game. I have no problem with any of that. I simply contend that this book is not about The Camino. It is very much about Shirley MacLaine.

This work is really a celebration of celebrity. A status which bestows on its members a right to opine, for profit, on all manner of issues without the normal encumbrances of other writers, i.e. authenticity and outside validation of the facts. The hubris of this author is startling. Before 20 pages have passed, the author-- who I assume would have us believe that she is a serious and erudite writer--feels compelled to share the fact that she intends to walk The Camino braless. My oh My. Talk about significant reportage. I guess she is just trying to get us thinking about the inevitable movie which will follow.

To anyone who is seriously interested in The Camino, I would only offer the thought that Ms. MacLaine's experiences are the product of her own very talented and creative mind. To view her musings as a cause and effect model of what The Camino imparts to those who trod it is simply wrong. There is very little of value in her book to the aspiring Peregrino. If you so aspire, look elsewhere. In the final analysis, however, The Camino experience will be a unique one for each pilgrim. As the days pass and the experiences multiply, there will be an increasingly clear sense of the development of the deepest of personal truths. This intensely satisfying awareness is the essence of the solitary, unencumbered environment that is The Camino.

To be skeptical is to take the easy route, to write it all off as nonsense. But if you embrace the possibility that the earth is alive, that it is crisscrossed by channels of energy, then MacLaine's book deserves far more than tongue-in-cheek sarcasm. The Camino is about a spiritual journey and MacLaine captures not only what that means - but what it may not mean. It reads like a novel, with the suspense and tension focused on what MacLaine ultimately learns about herself and the world beyond herself. You get past lives, you get insight, you get MacLaine at her shining best.

"Can I prove...Of course not. But if I can imagine... in such detail, then where does that come from? Of one thing I am sure- I have a soul, and it knows more than I can presently comprehend with my mind... And again, the absence of evidence does not mean the evidence of absence." (From the final chapter)

This is a beautiful book.

Shirley Maclaine is a person and personality who both embodies and transcends most of the adjectives put on her regarding her career and her spiritual quest- some humbling, some life-affirming, and some (if I were her) downright insulting when it comes to the revealing of her soul's journey. Perhaps it is in that spirit that such a book, coming from such a learned and powerful spirit of a woman attaining even greater wisdom and polish in her sixties, could not help but be a wonderful read. Maclaine talks about her pilgrimage through Northern Spain on this famous spiritual path walked by queens, mystics, warriors and prophets in such a way as to have you practically walking with her. She brings so much of the physical reality of the path to your senses through her writing style, and gives dimensions of character, emotion and life to the many people she came to know along the way.

The beauty of this book however, is not in actuality how she seems to walk the fine line between fiction and reality when talking of her mystical and metaphysical experiences. (Her biggest fans/erstwhile disciples AND her most orthodox skeptics and detractors will have a field day with Lemuria and Atlantis alone.) She does tell in great and wonderfully novelistic detail the gradual revelation of how reincarnation has seemed to assert itself in the shape and rhythm of her life, and drew her to the Camino in the first place. She does paint and superimpose grand visions of the Spain of the ancient Moors and the Crusaders on top of the modern Spain of the Camino in the mid 1990's with beautiful and vivid detail. And the unexpected connections she makes among her many experiences and people, covering many places- even many lifetimes- propel the story and your interest as a whole.

What makes this book so enjoyable, however, is Shirley MacLaine's heart. MacLaine gives you the feeling that this entire book is a chapter in her diary, where there is no need to lie or impress anyone but the spirit of truth that inspires one to write. And then she makes you feel as if you are her best friend, and trust you enough to share the secrets of her soul. If the jury is still out for you on many of the spiritual concepts she all but took for granted before starting this journey, you will without a doubt feel, at times, virtually overwhelmed by her dream state visions. You will wonder at times who she thinks she is kidding. You will feel as if you will become exhausted by the degree of disbelief she asks you to suspend in following her through a looking glass unlike any you may have ever heard, real or fictional. But you probably won't throw up your hands and put the book down, because of the purity and innocence with which she delivers what is immediately picked up as the treasured experiences of her soul. At times while reading, I felt as if I were listening to the imagination of a gifted child. At other times I felt as if I were being told a fable by a modern day Aesop, with something to learn from it all that would enrich me. At other times, I felt like I was hearing a blow by blow true story of a woman's experiences with inspirational events that went misinterpreted. I felt all kinds of things while reading, but I never stopped reading, because I never stopped feeling this sense of outpouring love, giving it a stamp of truth that needed to not be ignored. That is what drives this wonderful, enchanting, even perplexing tale, and has you getting more out of it than you would expect.

My respect and unconditional positive regard for Shirley MacLaine has, through this book, grown tremendously beyond my mind's ability to fully explain why- which is what love is all about isn't it?

You will enjoy this very much.

Even if you do not hold Shirley MacLaine's New Age beliefs and philosophy of life, her newest book, THE CAMINO, is a fascinating read. The fact that a celebrity in her 6th decade would set out on a 500 mile walk, by herself, in a foreign country is intriguing enough.

On two separate occasions, while performing in Brazil, MacLaine received unsigned notes strongly urging her to take a pilgrimage called the Santiago de Compostela Camino across northern Spain. She knew of the Camino, as it is called, but had difficulty in visualizing herself hiking her way through it.

Upon further study and the help of a Brazilian friend named Anna Strong who had made the Camino journey herself, MacLaine decided she had nothing to lose and just might gain some further insight into her life and the state of the world.

MacLaine's story is very compelling and makes for a very fast read. Of course, there are tales of MacLaine's past lives with Charlemange and Giant Moors and as a wild young gypsy woman, but there is also, at the heart of the book, a wonderful story of a woman's determination to finish a journey and to be open to what the universe had planned for her. I was particularly struck by the clever way she dealt with the ever-present hoards of press that seemed to dog her every step.

This is a book worth reading. Take from it what you will, Shirley MacLaine is one tough cookie. I'd hike the mountains with her any day!

Enjoy!