Hidden Journey: A Spiritual Awakening [Paperback]

Andrew Harvey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1992

At 25, Andrew Harvey abandoned a brilliant career at Oxford to return to his native India. A rationalist atheist, he raised every possible argument against the existence of another reality and watched each dissolve in the face of extraordinary mystical experiences. Here is the story of his spiritual transformation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An Anglo-Indian novelist and poet describes his visions, spiritual experiences and allegiance to a woman he perceives to be the Divine Mother in a precise, passionately told story for skeptics and seekers alike.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Harvey's astonishing journey will make readers envious. Born in India and abandoned by his mother at six, Harvey was sent to boarding schools in India and England. His experience as an Anglo-Indian living in Great Britain reinforced his need for spiritual growth. On one of his frequent trips back to India he met a mysterious 17-year-old girl, Mother Meera ("Ma"). Harvey chronicles his growing dissatisfaction with Western philosophy after that event and describes his alternating states of bliss, terror, confusion, and understanding as he slowly moves toward enlightenment. Eventually he sees Ma's true identity: that of an avatar, or goddess incarnate, whose purpose is to encourage human and planetary healing. Readers will connect to his experience and realize the immense amount of sacrifice necessary for enlightenment. Exquisitely written, deeply moving, and highly recommended.
- Kevin M. Roddy, Oakland P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); First Edition edition (April 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140194487
• ISBN-13: 978-0140194487
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,595,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Moving Story, July 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hidden Journey: A Spiritual Awakening (Paperback)

Having read some of Andrew Harvey's later works, I was interested in this autobiographical account of an earlier period in his spiritual development. Harvey was born in the only place that could have matched his romantic spirit and spiritual imagination: India. At the age of nine, he was sent to be educated in the very different environment of England. Feeling abandoned by his parents and struggling with his own homosexuality, Harvey grew up to be a depressed college professor who one day decided to chuck it all and return to the land of his birth, in search of... he wasn't sure what. As a Christian with little background knowledge of Hinduism, I found Harvey's relationship with Mother Meera a bit problematic--but recognizing my cultural bias, I decided to read the book with an open mind. I found myself deeply moved by the story, recognizing in it my own struggles with spiritual surrender. Harvey's experiences may seem unusually intense to some readers, but those familiar with Harvey's work will expect nothing less from what they know to be an intense and passionate personality. This poetic book reveals the root of much of Harvey's thought that will deepen and mature in his later Christian writings.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hidden journey: A spiritual awakening, January 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Hidden Journey: A Spiritual Awakening (Paperback)

The first half of the book is a real adventure as the author seeks spiritual fulfillment. The second half tends to drag-on as he takes the reader through many of his effulgent experiences.

The story is about the authors experiences with Mother Meera, however She steals the show. I had never heard of her before but for me her authentic power shines through everything that is written in this book. If read with a genuine search for the truth it can change lives for ever.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Captivating, In the worst possible sense., May 30, 2004

By 

Evelyn Uyemura (Torrance, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hidden Journey: A Spiritual Awakening (Paperback)

After you read this book, you must read The Sun at Midnight, in which Harvey completely renounces what he has so passionately advocated here. I have the sense that both books are a form of spiritual exhibitionism. In his later book, he comes to realize how much he was projecting onto Mother Meera. But even reading this book, the careful reader can see that most of what Ma (as he calls her) says is actually not even said by her. A typical conversation with her goes something like this:

Ma sits and looks at her hands. Her eyes are aflame. Her head glows.
Andrew says, You want to tell me that I must love you even more.
Ma: Yes.
Andrew: You want me to know that you have been sent to change the world.
Ma: Yes.

Well, gee, whose ideas are these anyhow? The projection is there for anyone to see.

And so is the narcissim of the author, and if anything, it actually seems to get worse when he renounces Meera. He seems to think that his suffering because of her demand that he leave his lover is on a par with the crucifixion of Christ.

I have tried to winnow the wheat from the chaff in reading Harvey, because he is a skilled writer and also has studied and experienced a great deal of mysticism. What I garner from this book is an imaginative understanding of what it would be like to worship God-made-flesh. The attempt to think that this obviously human person here before me is at one and the same time Divine, an incarnation of God, makes me consider what the 12 apostles might have felt. Or did they?

At the time of his denounciation of Meera, Harvey believed that she had actually been practicing black magic and witchcraft upon him and all her followers. You won't find any hint of that here, but knowing it as you read will give a different color to everything in the story.