Customer Reviews

From Intellect to Intuition

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Trained in psychology, I tended to take an intellectual view of the world and the people in it, and to put aside what is known as "female intuition." Of course, this is NOT what this book is all about. Here we're talking of the fruits of meditation, the work of the Soul, so to speak. In this book Alice Bailey explains the mental training we have all experienced, both in the East and in the West, due to our education and socialization. We have been using our brains the way society wants us to use them...without having access to the truths that we can discover by using the brain in meditation so that Universal Truths may be recognized as they are. A good primer for learning meditation, FROM INTELLECT TO INTUITION brings us through the stages and helps us make the necessary mental and emotional adjustments, albeit with practice and not only with reading.

Alice Bailey wrote this book under the tutelage of the Master Djwhal Khul (the Tibetan), a Master of the spiritual "Hierarchy", headed by the Christ. These books comprise genuine, albeit advanced teachings about the Ancient Wisdom (this book however was written by Alice Bailey herself, and is a good introduction/less complex).Spiritual advancement can be expedited by these teachings to those willing and able to learn and grow spiritually. Most of what we know and have been taught about spirituality, the after-life, God, angels, souls, and spiritual evolution is basically erroneous information (analagous to children realizing their is no santa claus or easter rabbit when the higher truth is revealed). This has been further distorted by misguided zealots of all faiths, who accept as dogma the distorted and biased teachings of man-made theologies, and not the one true universal Religion of the Ancient Wisdom (as revealed in the Bailey books). The spiritual truth and reality has been kept alive (besides the Ancient Wisdom) by the mystics and secret esoteric shools throughout the ages. However, even they only have portions of the whole spiritual truth. if you read the Alice Bailey books and are unable to comprehend them fully, another (intermediate) area of study is recommended- Rosicrucian/AMORC (800 88-AMORC).
Also recommend reading (besides all the Alice Bailey books)- Vera Stanley Alder; Zachary Lansdowne; Douglas Baker; Cecil A. Poole; Raymund Andrea; Henry Guy ("Saving the World"); Three Initiates ("KYBALION").

Thinking that intuition was a "gut" feeling is really instinct. After studying this book, intuition is beyond thought. Intellect is important. However, intuition is something that is very rare and is 1000 times faster than thought. Will be studying this book for a long time to come. Developing intuition is a process that requires much more than the emotional component most people think is intuition.

A.A. Bailey's books usually contain very rich, yet hard to understand information. The effort of reading it is as important as the content itself. This book is perfect to begin reading A.A. Bailey. It sets the basis to understand the concepts of intuition, intellect, and meditation. It also brings practical exercises to begin daily meditation. This is not a commercial manual, or light reading. It's for people who already know the path they want to take, and who are serious about it.

About the only good thing in this book on meditation is the accurate delineation of the stages on the path to transcendence. Otherwise it is badly dated, verbose and written in the absurd over-earnest manner that makes a great deal of esoteric literature hard to tolerate.

The prescribed method is a prayer-mantra, the effectiveness of which depends on the intensity of one's religious convictions. In short, meditation works best for the true believer. Mrs Bailey seems blissfully unaware that people without any religious faith whatsoever can attain - via an entirely secular mantra - exactly the same inner freedom.

The most serious flaw is Bailey's proselytising in the final chapters. She dishonestly uses quotes from the great mystics (that she has used appropriately in the book to this point) to suggest they agree with her own eccentric cosmological and theological views.

Buyer beware!