High in the Himalayas of northern India, a glacier gives birth to a great river near a remote mountain village. The village is Gangotri, revered as the source of the Ganges, holiest of rivers; in yogic tradition it is considered unrivaled as a place of spiritual power. So how could it be that a hardheaded computer programmer from New Jersey is making a pilgrimage to such a place? This is the true story of Jim Starr: a man forced by a serious sports injury to reluctantly venture into the New Age-a world he has disdained. Almost against his will, he finds his spirit opening up after he experiences spectacular healing in a single session of the radical bodywork known as Rolfing. As his unlikely transformation unfolds, Jim ventures deeply into realms he once scoffed at-even becoming a devotee of an Indian guru. And almost three miles above sea level, he goes through an ordeal worthy of a hero's journey: facing death among the icy, rushing waters of Gangotri. Join Jim on his quest-it's heartfelt, gripping, and deeply inspiring.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
bsalzman,
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This review is from: Gangotri - Journey to the Source (Paperback)
What an amazing story. I've known Jim for more than 55 years and find incredible that he was able to change his life so dramatically.
Good luck Jim.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not the Usual Kind of Spiritual Journey,
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This review is from: Gangotri - Journey to the Source (Paperback)
How skeptical would you be if someone told you that tapping some "inner force" at the core of your being could make you howl like an animal, cause your body to shake -- and maybe even levitate you six inches off the ground? Baloney, right? That's what Jim Starr thought, and even after he'd made his pilgrimage to the Ganges and visited a dozen ashrams, he still knew deep-down that those very strange things would have to happen to him personally before he could believe the inspirational tales of the supposedly enlightened.
Ultimately, Starr's considerable power as a writer and storyteller comes from his ability to relive his spiritual journey not as an "evolved" person, but as a doubter with the same mundane suspicions that you or I would have. Moreover, he is not out to convert us -- at least not in the way that some proselytizers do, with exaggeration, references to mythical auras, blinding epiphanies and such. Instead, he tells his story so straighforwardly and with such self-deprecating guilelessness that we are able to believe every word of it. He also spins quite a yarn, and the physical dangers he experiences making his way up the headwaters of the Ganges recalled for me the amazing "Snow" chapter in Thomas Mann's "Magic Mountain". When I'd read the first few chapters of this book, I wanted to recommend it to my wife, a budding Taoist with painful back problems. But when I'd finished it, I wanted to recommend "Journey to the Source" to everyone I know, including my kids -- and to each for a different reason. In the "Spiritual and Religious" category, there is probably no other book like this on the shelves. Everyone should read it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable, compelling read - especially if you think you won't like it,
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This review is from: Gangotri - Journey to the Source (Paperback)
In my senior year of high school, our English literature teacher warned all of us
future engineers that we would become philosophers some day, and we would most value his class when we finally figured this out, even though we certainly disagreed at the time. Perhaps if Jim's compelling "Gangotri - Journey to the Source" were available to us back then, we might have listened more carefully to this sagely advice. Jim's deeply personal and inspiring story reveals his courage to explore and embrace spiritual possibility through his travels and adventures. Even if you're skeptical of all things new-age, spiritual, or supernatural, allow yourself the freedom to tag along on Jim's adventure.
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