Customer Reviews

The Ecstatic Journey

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I just finished Sophy Burnham's "The Ecstatic Journey," and highly recommend it. So many people are having mystical experiences now, and those of us who have been having them for a while could really have benefited from Burnham's book back when we began.

A practitioner of Vipassana Buddhism herself, Burnham synthesizes nuggets of gold from Buddhism and several other traditions into a highly readable account of how a mystic lives in the "real" world. This book also includes a useful bibliography and list of suggested reading. Perhaps most the valuable parts of this book, though, are the two appendices. One is a handy summation of how to meditate in a Christian context, a process that is not as widely known as in other traditions. The other is a word about how to tell a healthy spiritual organization from a cult, how to know if a teacher is ethical, and what to do if (all too common nowadays) you find out your teacher has feet of clay. Burnham has also included hints throughout on how not to freak out if one day you find yourself face to face with a spiritual visitation and you know you're not crazy.

If you are a closet mystic, this is a valuable point of connection. If you've never had the Divine grab you by the front of your shirt and reorder your life via an intense mystical experience but are curious what it can be like and what effects it can have, this is a good book to read. It's lucidly written, and not "weird." A definite thumbs up.

I hesitated reading this book for many months because I was afraid it might be too "new age" for my taste. I could not have been more wrong. It is an excellent introduction to mysticism without being overly simplistic or overly complicated. Ms. Burnham writes with a style that is a once knowledgable and very easy to read. I have read just about all there is on this subject from Underhill to Merton and this is as good as it gets for the beginner.

I've read this once already, and it was very insightful and
meaningful to me at that time. Spirituality, to me, is a whole
life experience, not just limited to say, studying about how to
have 'visions' or 'synchronicities' in our lives.

Upon my own spiritual awakening, having such experiences as
above mentioned happen(ing) to me-I have searched on my own
quest for confirmation and education on these 'gifts' and have
found Sophy's book to be-of all others-the one I refer to
most for the confirmation that I am not alone. And that the
mystical experience or emergance is not uncommon.

Her style of writing is easy to follow and warm; I wish she
would write another on the subject. Though she says 'God'
for her meaning of the Divine, you can easily use the name of
whatever your own personal Divine or Spirit is in its place.

As I re-read it yet again, I get new insightful perspectives
and see my own growth since my last read-thru! I recommend this
book highly for those interested in learning about the mystical
experience, and especially for those even suspecting they are
having a spiritual emergence. Can I recommend also Marsha
Sinetar's 'Ordinary People As Monks And Mystics'? Sophy's is
more personal-but Sinetar writes in a graceful style of her
own too; though more of study-I find helpful as well.

I am grateful to have found 'The Ecstatic Journey' and hope it consoles and enlightens others as much as it has for me personally.

Many blessings on your own journey!

Written almost as a diary of her spiritual questioning, Sophy Burnham outlines the various written records of faiths to describe illumination for those who have never felt it. This is an outward teaching to give context for an inner awakening. It gave her the courage to end her marriage in a loving way and find a new way of being. From a wife, a mother and a daughter, she grew to be a successful writer by relying on her spiritual insight, to become an award-winning author of 10 books including two New York Times best sellers -- The Art Crowd and A Book of Angels. This book can inspire hope for those wishing to change their lives. The illumination, the direction, will have to come from within.

Ecstatic Journey is a very good book for both those just interested in the mystical and for those who have had their own mystical experiences. The author brings her personal experiences into the account in a way that is not off-putting. Some authors talk too much about their personal lives, and you just wish they'd keep it objective. But here, the athor's recounting is a pertinent part of the book. The mystical accounts seem genuine and are fascinating. I'm not afraid to say that reading the accounts caused me to recall some mystical experiences of my own. If you are not too frightened by such matters, I recommend that You read this book. Go on a journey with Sophy Burnham-- you'll never be the same.

Reading this book gave me a sense of peace, because i recognised so many things that i kept on saying 'yes' almost on every page! So many familiar events, finally i can put aside my worries about 'weird' thoughts and feelings; it seems they're not weird at all! Just forgotten in this world where there is so little room for mystic and spiritual development. Thank you Sophy, for the 'homecoming' feeling your words gave me.

_This the third time that I have read this book now. It is an attempt to describe the mystic experience. It is an attempt to explain the unexplainable. Yet the author comes far closer than perhaps any other modern writer. She draws on her own personal mystic experiences to do this. Then she shares the accounts of other mystics throughout history that attempted to communicate the same thing. She sought out these accounts to verify her own experiences- for she knew not what was happening to her. That is the chief value of this book, as reassurance and validation of what has already happened you. I know, I also sought out most of these same sources after my own experiences. If you have had a mystical experience, a taste of samadhi, or of cosmic consciousness in its varying degrees, then you will immediately understand what she is speaking of here. However, if you are consciously trying to have such an experience this is not a "how to" book. It doesn't happen on demand- or on a time schedule.

_The author was working in Machu Picchu when her first great experience of illumination hit her. It first hit me working in the Black Hills. As she says, the essence of this is direct experience of the Divine. It is the timeless state that that Plotinus called "the One" and "the Supplier of True Life." It doesn't, it can't, last forever, but having once experienced it you cannot doubt or deny that it did once happen. And it may very well happen to you again. Even in the depths of the Dark Night of the Soul you have unshakeable certainty and trust. Nothing is ever the same again. Nor would you ever want it to be.

_If you have an affinity for this work then you might also appreciate the author's, _The Path of Prayer: Reflections on Prayer and True Stories of How it Affects our Lives_.

Was there a deeply spiritual transformation on Machu Picchu? Perhaps, but the account is clear about infidelity and the guilt of carryint it. It is also clear that the Englishman used his power to manipulate the mind of the author and destroy her life. Which is clear it has been an inferno since her divorce.

But one thing is clear reading this book is the need of religious understanding and more tolerance.

A good way to contrast this book is to read the following one:

THE STRAIGHT PATH: A Story of Healing and Transformation in Fiji by Richard Katz.

There should not be any doubt that goodness should be our only source of inspiration and this requires a complete transformation of ourselves.

Another important point is the path walked by the author to fill her sexual and spiritual needs which required her to destroy her family. And this somehow is very difficult to see it as inspired by GOODNESS.

Life is not perfect but to justify adultery using the spiritual power of goodness that not quite makes it right.