Customer Reviews

Defy Gravity: Healing Beyond the Bounds of Reason

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Caroline Myss has an established track record of identifying "what works and what doesn't" when it comes to the mystery of healing. She now challenges the cherished belief that healing can be produced by the mind alone. And while the technologies of visualization and affirmation play a respectable role in healing, these mind-based methods have failed to restore health to many dedicated adherents.

In DEFY GRAVITY, Caroline envisions healing as ultimately a mystical experience ... transgressing the bounds of reason and its rudimentary techniques, venturing into the intriguing realm of the seven dark passions and the seven graces.

Indulging in the "dark passions" of pride, avarice, luxury, wrath, gluttony, envy, and sloth sabotages opportunities to heal. Profound healing, however, is advanced by engaging the transformational power of the seven graces: reverence, piety, understanding, fortitude, counsel, knowledge, and wisdom.

The truth that every thought and action is motivated by either a dark passion or a grace reveals that we're constantly making choices, either consciously or unconsciously. But real healing is powered by conscious choice, whether it's healing of the body, mind, or soul.

An illuminating interpretation of mystical laws and recommended wisdom practices for building a healthy life complete this extraordinary book from a brilliant and innovative spiritual teacher.

Folks looking to connect with their soul who need a qualified guide to lead them need look no further than DEFY GRAVITY, Caroline Myss' new book. This is the most focused tome I've ever read on personal and spiritual transformation, surpassed only by Myss' previous works-ENTERING THE CASTLE, ANATOMY OF THE SPIRIT and SACRED CONTRACTS. Myss is my all-time favorite teacher--one workshop with her gives you all the lessons you need to make radical shifts toward becoming more conscious. I've read all her books and have practically every word she's ever recorded in my private collection and I was fortuante enough to be part of her CASTLE program at CMED, so I speak from the stance of complete awareness when I say that this is Myss' most clear and succinct prose yet. Every page is an invocation to connect to the soul, every sentence she writes will land in your heart. The clarity in her words is simply astounding. I saw her present this material at Kripalu last spring and Myss is certainly on a mission to help people connnect to the Divine and she's pulled out all the stops! We are all very fortunate to have her in our midst--she is indeed a true mystic and one of the few genuine teachers who recognizes her greatness, but is also humble enough to to recognize that she is, indeed, just as human as the rest of us. DEFY GRAVITY is one of the best books of 2009 and, quite honestly, one of the best books ever!

I am reviewing the written book. Others have reviewed the audio book. This review of the book ranges from the highest praise to some specific criticisms offered through, among other things, an energetic response to the book.

The topic of this book is essential. It is exactly the right subject matter; the question of bridging the realms of personal growth, healing and wellness, and saving the planet. This is what needs to be done in the world today. I have the greatest respect and gratitude for Myss for having attempted to elaborate on this theme.

Respect for the work is initially grounded in the first paragraph of the forward, written by Andrew Harvey. "What is also remarkable and inspiring about Caroline as a writer, teacher and person, is that she is continually reinventing herself, constantly pressing forward to a more and more all-encompassing integration of mind, heart, body and soul. For her, this search for the unified force field of truth is never a purely individual one, it takes place in the context of an urgent and radical confrontation with our world crisis that is now threatening the survival of the human race and much of nature, and is is born out of a passionate desire for planetary as well as personal healing." This pithiness, though, does not carry through the book because of some religious overtones, somewhat awkward, dogmatic organizational structure, and insufficient development of the theme and urgency surrounding the context of our rapidly changing world.

Harvey goes on to say, "No one has a fiercer sense of "divine paradox" than Caroline-and she makes it clear, that she knows that our modern dark night is potentially the crucible of a birth on an unprecedented scale of healed human beings aligned consciously with cosmic grace..."

But it wasn't clear to me that 'no one has a fiercer sense of "divine paradox"', or that she really hit the mark with regard to the crucible of birth that is happening in the world - or for that matter, the true nature of cosmic grace. In other words, she went into a lot of detail about personal healing, but didn't develop the connection with the collective that is the key ingredient to the essential nature of the book.

One might add that, while the potential for the much finer world Harvey alludes to is available, the window of opportunity may be closing rapidly and there is no guarantee that we will pass through it to any degree. Of course the truth is most usually between such extremes and there is always reason to hope - the human race may not fail altogether, but to ignore the reality that it could is a mistake. To equate personal healing with the Great Turning currently unfolding is to explore the profound paradox and mystery of the duality of the situation. The brilliant opportunity before us collectively is an aspect of the potential for catastrophe, which is turn in is the seed for a new realm. There is urgency here. This interface between personal and collective healing is a rich chasm of possibility, but Myss' success to date with her special, tough yet compassionate perspective seems to constrain her from exploring this potential as much as it positions her to pull back the veils of our rationality to expose it.

Writing about unimaginable realms that bespeak an experience beyond our conscious minds using the tools of rationality represented by words, is no small feat. So you can not fault someone for trying. But it is hopefully serving to shine light on the areas that seem ripe for exploration next. This book is about spiritual things beyond reason - described with words that are themselves tools of the mind. To articulate with words that which is ineffable is oxymoron-ic, but it is nearly all we have at this stage of the game.

The task of writing a book involves creating an organizing framework, for the book must ultimately begin, proceed and end. Myss organizes the book variously with five 'truths' that represent chapter headings, and seven 'passions' and seven 'graces' inside of two of these chapters. This organization feels dogmatic. In fact, another reviewer commented that she felt as if she had gone full circle from traditional Christianity to new age beliefs and back to Christianity. That's an assessment with which I concur.

So these issues of which I am critical are distracting. But the book is not devoid of illustrating with significant value mankind's higher, collective potential. The need to transcend our overly emphasized reason in order to reconnect with the web of life and the cosmos is well presented in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, Myss tackles forgiveness and our need to know the reasons why things happen. This concept is very powerful with regard to letting go of our need to know in order to step into healing, both individually and collectively. In this chapter there is a section titled 'On The Global Scale', but unfortunately it only addresses our personal response to global atrocities and doesn't yet describe the potential for our collective response. One presumes this will follow in subsequent chapters, but it doesn't and is, thus, the basis for the corresponding criticism.

Chapter 3 deals with the very important concept of meaning and purpose and their relationship with an authentic, healing life. Suggested as a kind of quest, moving into meaning and purpose becomes a vehicle for increased power. This discussion about power is pertinent and foreshadows parts of Chapter 6 discussing the idea of congruence. Yet, I personally wish there was a word other than 'power' to describe the magnitude of our access to life energy in any moment. Power connotes much of what is wrong in our dominance-oriented world and is thus a tricky word and subject. While Myss' intention, as is the book's, is superb - uplifting and serving, this chapter leaves unexplored the possibility of meaning and purpose being both more than just an intensely individual experience, and something much closer and accessible to us than the idea of a quest suggests. As physical beings connected to each other and the earth through myriad sensual 'web-strings', we are always equipped to step into meaning and purpose. Must we search energetically for it, or can we simply open to it? Moreover, is this really just a personal issue for which I have sole discretion to direct any success at accessing greater amounts of life energy? Or is there a connection between the life energy available to me and my level of congruence with the context, the living cosmos? It is this powerful connection that seems to represent, again, the lost opportunity of the book. If it were not so essential to the task at hand, it might not even justify mention. Yet if we are to ascribe to books the power to change the world, they must begin to better articulate this story.

Not to belabor the point, but it is this idea of transmuting our understanding of power - the application of energy in a dominance hierarchy where conflict and resistance continually drain away power - to an new understanding that equates coherency and collaboration almost paradoxically with the availability of power - that is the essential element of saving ourselves both individually and collectively. The book that is able to deliver this idea understandably holds great promise for changing the world.

Chapter 4 goes to process, correctly pointing out one essential element of healing, the removal of protective layers of denial. Characterized as the Seven Passions, modeled after the Seven Deadly Sins, this chapter feels the most dogmatic. Again, this is tricky stuff. To open to our deepest desires as they manifest as so-called passions is to reveal our authentic energies. It is a fine line between recognizing these energies and interpreting them as things that need to be repressed. The words used in this chapter like pride, avarice, luxury, wrath, gluttony, envy and sloth resonate with a repressive mindset that conflicts with the books more enlightened mission. In Chapter 5, Myss outlines what are called the Seven Graces. As with the Seven Passions, she aligns her model with the seven chakra system. While I personally love the chakra model for understanding our potential levels of consciousness, in the context of all the other Truths and Laws in this book, this technique feels forced. Moreover, the Seven Graces, as inspirational as they are, Reverence, Piety, Understanding, Fortitude, Counsel, Knowledge and Wisdom all lack a reference to an essential aspect of being a living, breathing human being: coherent action. So for all the effort, we remain stuck in our head and the essential mission of the book to connect our personal healing with earthly sustainability is not realized.

In Chapter 6, Myss lays out five mystical laws. Again this sense of self-created dogma creeps in and one thinks, 'where is she getting this from?' Yet, it is in this chapter that she express a most mysterious and powerful idea that I hope continues to be deepened and articulated by spiritual writers. It is the concept of coherence or congruence. The fifth mystical law, she tells us, is 'Maintain Spiritual Congruency'. "...one way of describing your goal is to say that you want to become a congruent human being." "...in essence you are congruent when your beliefs match up with your everyday actions and your spiritual practice." For me, this is the heart of the matter and there seems to be a lot more book here than is needed to get to this point. On page 195, she says, "You maintain congruence by honoring the spiritual truths that you have consciously made a part of your interior life. Only you know what you believe to be true about your purpose in life and what qualifies as real or illusion for you. Once you make those choices, compromising them is an act of self-betrayal..."

This is a high point of the book that brings into even starker relief the missed opportunity to illuminate the great power, richness and satisfaction of getting congruent with the living earth and our sensual connection with it that would have filled in that sorely missing piece of the puzzle: the unfinished bridge between individual healing and a sustainable world. Alas, we are left to figure this out for ourselves as part of our conscious effort to live consciously. It is admirable to leave this up to the reader - sort of a libertarian approach to the subject - but, the absence of this deeper elucidation conflicts with the stated purpose of the book. One the one hand, that is disappointing. On the other, it leaves open the desperate need for someone to fill -- with a book of their own. Anyone?

This book is quite rich. While trying to reflect a multitude of personal responses to it with this review, there is great wisdom to acknowledge inside of Myss' facility with words about the subject. You could read it over and over and learn something about yourself and your own beliefs, and have insightful epiphanies each time. From the last chapter: "Live as if you were liberated from ordinary thought, beyond the boundaries of logic and reason. Be bold in your decisions and creative and imaginative in your thoughts. Think and live with the soul of a mystic, seeing the world as a field of grace in which you walk as a channel of light. Live these truths. Become these truths. This is your true highest potential." Myss reconnects with the book's mission at the very end: "Make bold, outrageous choices. Live as though you have the power to change the world-because you do."

Another outstanding work by Caroline Myss! If you are a "mystic out of a monastery" with the desire to serve God in both visible and invisible ways, then this is the book for you, added to the shelf with her other great works: Sacred Contracts, Invisible Acts of Power, and Entering the Castle. A must read for any spiritual sojourner intent on transforming our Earth with grace and divine power. Caroline, with her practical, "no nonsense" approach to spiritual service, takes typically esoteric stuff and grounds it for the ordinary person to apply to their day-to-day life.

Defy Gravity screams "buy me," but please consisder resisting. Despite the compelling title, the A-list reviews, and the track-record from a bestselling author, this book is a big miss for Myss. While Myss has some distracting writing style flaws, her most serious problem is an inability to articulate focused, actionable content in an easy-to-understand format.

More specifically, here's why this book is so very confusing. First Myss organizes the book into five truths. Then she talks about the seven shadow passions and the seven inner graces. Then she presents the four noble Buddhist truths. Then she introduces five mystical laws. Then she talks about the seven steps to defy illness. In between there's talk about chakras and Buddha and Jesus, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Teresa of Avila and other so-called mystics like Abe Lincoln.

Oh my goodness, it's all too much. Way too much. Have you ever gone into someone's house who doesn't know when to stop decorating, buying things or hoarding. It's a mess, and that's exactly what it's like to read Defy Gravity. Nothing holds your interest because there's too much going on. Too many steps. Too many different voices competing for your attention.

Myss makes a mighty try to pull it all together, but her recipe doesn't work and the book lacks cohesive sense. I give Myss credit for her passion and for drawing our attention to the fact that the potential for healing is real in us all. However, if you seriously want to learn more about developing a miracle state of mind, I direct you to The Vortex by Hicks/Abraham or Left to Tell by Illigabiza.

So far, this is the best! Defy Gravity is her most comprehensive, easily accessible work. In fact, if I only bought one book by Caroline Myss, this would be it. I have read and/or listened to all of Caroline's work (except for Entering the Castle which I now feel ready for). While I've learned from each, some of her material is easier to absorb than others - and the format makes a difference, even within the same work. For example, I found Anatomy of The Spirit more accessible by CD than in the book.

Caroline Myss is logical, methodical, honest, and cares deeply about helping us all realize our highest potential. She is definitely a "you can pick yourself up by your own bootstraps" kind of gal. She does calls it likes she sees it, freely admitting her own humanity and her occassionally snarky side because she wants you to know YOU ALREADY HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO THRIVE. She gives you a detailed map and asks if are willing to accept some personal responsibility, then pray to the divine (in the planet, god of your choice, or your best self - Caroline Myss is a big picture person not limited by a religious tradition, though she was raised Catholic), and lastly act on what you know in your heart to be true. Does she dare suggest prayer? Yes. However, this book in no way says "just pray".

Words matter. Caroline Myss knows this. She is daring and pushy - but always with heart behind it so don't worry about intent. However, if the word "pray" is a trigger that trumps all others for you in a negative way, then this is probably not the book for you. If you can expand your definition of prayer to encompass "focus your thoughts and intentions", then you might be able to hear the bigger message, and it is worthwhile. Do you feel that there should be more in your life? Are you having trouble accessing your own intuition - and following its advice? Read on. Defy Gravity ties many pieces together. As I said, I think this is her best work so far. I read it cover to cover, bought extra copies for gifts, and am now about to buy the CD so I can absorb it another way. If you are worried about the money, don't forget about the library - but read it and let Defy Gravity help your spirit do just that.

Author and medical intuitive Carolyn Myss continues to shed thought-provoking and profound light on the mystery of healing--both physical and non-physical in Defy Gravity. She states some evident truths with startling originality and a fierce passion.

The central theme of this book is a discourse on the ways that reason alone cannot deliver us from the dis-ease in our psycho-spiritual or physical being, and the myriad ways that we humans wrestle with this internally. The author addresses mysticism--the missing element from reason--in modern garb, and makes it relevant through real life narratives and personal disclosure. She penetrates numerous habits of thought that keep us locked into our less-than-ness, and illuminates pervading questions of meaning and purpose with revealing insight. She writes with depth and eloquence, and her prose carries us along a winding river of self-revelation.

And yet...I found myself taking exception to some of her philosophical "truths," on guard that there might be an overabundance of religiosity, and losing interest as she seemed to belabor the many salient points being made.

There are gems of wisdom and heart within the covers of this book and I certainly would recommend it; I suspect that my view may not be the popular response. However, for this reviewer, there was too much wading through muddy waters in order to retrieve the treasure, to sustain my single-minded attention.

In Defy Gravity: Healing Beyond the Bounds of Reason, Caroline Myss writes with clarity and groundedness about spirituality, mysticism and consciousness. Chronic and long term illness are not logical conditions, and yet for centuries men and women have attempted to find answers using intelligence alone. Myss demonstrates how illness can be resolved spiritually, by connecting with the Divine. This book touched my heart and my spirit as Myss tapped into traditional and esoteric spirituality and linked illness with destructive passions and health with relationship with God. I have seen the truth of Myss' work, eliminating the symptoms and need for medication for systemic lupus in my own life this year. Discovering God and the power of grace and reverence has transformed my life. I highly recommend Defy Gravity to spiritual seekers and all those interested in health and healing.

Upon serious reflection of Dr. Myss' contributions to global body-mind-spirit education, I recalled how Caroline opened my sixth sense many years ago with her insights into archetypes, myths, and symbols of the soul that our collective consciousness systematically employs to create our sense of self: the ego that is but the fractal, self-similar, extension of the Word Made Flesh: God.

In fact, Dr. Myss nearly singlehandedly brought respectability to the spiritual concepts of energy medicine in the academic circles two decades ago alongside such notables as Deepak Chopra, Larry Dossey, Wayne Dyer, and so on.

Thus, not surprisingly, she has done it again in this masterful book; teaching what reawakened mystics, shamans all, have known: It is through surrender of the personal sense of separation, our false ego, from the Creator that opens our heart to the great mystery of being one with the universal fractal flow of life force energy, ch'i, prana, Tao; or simply, The Holy Spirit.

Now bookmark my word: This book will Defy Gravity; to become the new gold standard for integrating quantum paradoxes into protocols triggering the sine qua non, "without which there is nothing," of the magic in the mystic: Spontaneous Remission.

Dr. John Jay Harper is a Community Health Education Specialist, CEO, American Delphi Academy, and author of international bestseller Tranceformers: Shamans of the 21st Century - Second Edition Revised and Updated for 2012.

Caroline Myss was on point with this book. The illumination of this writing is awe inspiring. The way she brings her readers in to examine themselves and understand the root cause of what is ailing them from a spiritual perspective is an attempt at the evolutionary wonder of the mind. Is this truly, according to Abraham Maslow's theory, the ultimate in self realization? I especially appreciated the way in which she draws a parallel between the seven deadly sins representing darkness and the seven chakras (in yoga the energy centers) representing the light. This should become a movement for the rest of the world to follow because we are experiencing a paradigm shift. This type guidance will help the shift move for the better.