Customer Reviews

Spiritual Partnership: The Journey to Authentic Power

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Gary Zukav's new book introduces the concept that relationships are mostly about you and your fears. He divides the relationship world into two types of people. The first is what he calls, Five Sensory people. They look for the causes of suffering outside of themselves, "in their failed relationships, illnesses, betrayals and bad luck." The second type which he says we all have to become at some point is the Multi-sensory. They are pursuing what he calls authentic power which is defined as power over themselves and their many moods and emotions. They are looking to find the roots of their needs and emotions rather than blaming their partner, life or circumstance for not meeting them. They also look at their defenses, which can take the form of feelings of superiority, righteousness and even inferiority. They consciously decide how to respond in any give situation.

According to Zukav, when spiritual partners meet in the Multi-sensory context, they value honesty, self analysis and mutual exploration even when this sharing might cause conflict or even separation. He says that most people try to find stasis in a relationship and accept limitations and compromises in order to preserve security. They project needs onto others and then give them the power to make them feel better instead of fully understanding or growing beyond the need itself.

Zukav's multi-sensory person is someone who assumes personal responsibility for meeting most of their own needs, thus making a partnership less binding. The partner is no longer seen as the all important source of our happiness and security. Here the loving environment is sustained to support personal growth. A sick relationship is a one in which the people involved are not completely honest with each other, even though it may outlive one in which both partners honesty results in separation.

People looking to "solve" relationship issues leading to some form of "happy ever after" will not find solutions here. However, Zukav makes the point that our ever increasing intuition makes this new type of relationship not only necessary but inevitable, because we can no longer hide our desires and discontent from each other as we once did and our power to manifest intentions seems to be growing as well. This makes it even more important that we understand our intentions within a relationship. The book goes on to give tips about how to monitor our intentions which he points out are often very unclear in relationships. It includes discussions that you have heard before if you have any books on manifesting.

I agree with his basic ideas, so why only three stars? Reading this book was painful because of the endless analogies, overstatements, personal anecdotes and constant repetition. I literally had to force myself to wade through it underlining the things I wanted to remember in red so I wouldn't lose them completely amidst the filler. Zukav could have covered this material in a book half this size and really gotten his point across. Instead he hammers simple ideas, often creating chapter long analogies to illustrate concepts best covered in a paragraph. He then goes back and dedicates another chapter to summarizing what he just covered. He also writes extensively about his own relationship, using it in numerous examples. This can be a pitfall for any writer because we can never be sure that the audience is as interested in a topic of personal concern as we are.

The book also fails to take an adequate look at the downside of our emerging intuitive powers, assuming instead that two people on the path will find each other and begin this work with positive intentions. What if your partner's intentions are selfish and mean spirited and you just don't realize it? Sharing a relationship with someone that is deeply intuitive means the other person always knows what you are thinking. It does not mean that your spiritual understanding and expression are equal. True equality of any kind in a relationship is very hard to come by. It is tempting to think that enhancing someones intuitive ability to understand another person increases their goodness. Intuition can be used for good or ill. Perhaps that is why these intuitive powers have not been given to the masses until this point in our human history.

The copy I've been given to review is an uncorrected proof. I hope he gives some consideration to downsizing this book before it hits the press. He has some great ideas.

Update: The finished book is listed at 304 pages. The version I had included a 27 page prologue and introduction and 259 pages of content. So this version is even longer than one I found to be over-run with filler.

Zukav, the author acclaimed for books such as The Dancing Wu Li Masters and The Seat of The Soul, brings us a paradigm-shifting book about relationships. This book is not just about intimate partner relationships, but about principles that apply to all relationships. It examines how humanity appears to be facing a shift from 5-sensory perception to multi-sensory perception (perception beyond the physical senses). According to Zukav, this shift provides an opportunity for us to base our relationships on developing spiritually - supporting one another's spiritual growth and building internal power rather than seeking external power.

In this conceptualization, Zukav discusses how fear-based aspects of ourselves constantly seek external power to pursue an illusion of security. The love-fear dichotomy is seen at the heart of this challenge. Zukav points out how all the institutions of our existing society are geared toward pursuit of external power (that includes traditional ideas of marriage) - something which will theoretically fall away as humanity evolves in the next couple of generations.

This book presents clear ideas and guidelines for building spiritual partnerships - which involves facing fears, building self-awareness, letting go of judgments, having integrity, and having compassion for oneself and others. The book is excellent in offering an outline of the hows and whys of spiritual partnerships. Zukav has a smooth, engaging style of writing that will draw in readers to embrace what he is teaching. These teachings will definitely help foster healthier relationships and spiritual development.

My own reservation about some portions of this book (the reason I'm not giving it a full five stars) centers around Zukav's vision of humanity's transformation in the coming decades. Humanity has always had multi-sensory ability - in ancient eras (and even now in some indegenous cultures) people were actually more tuned in to their non-physical sensory awareness. Zukav implies that there's occuring now a rapid shift into a reality on Earth where everyone will be regularly tuned into ESP on a constant basis. Frankly, that seems highly questionable - and most people don't appear close to being spiritually mature enough to handle that expansion of sensory awareness. This book is well suited to those aligning with their soul/higher self and pursuing spiritual development - but it doesn't seem that humanity as a whole is making this shift that Zukav describes - a segment of the population who are likely to be interested in this type of book are embracing such a shift, yet the masses are to a great extent asleep to their spiritual selves. The future that Zukav predicts is a potential reality, but not one that appears immanent. I applaud him for showing us what's possible, though I think credibility is diminished when a future is foretold as if it's certain.

This book is about a new kind or relationship, it goes beyond the old roles in marriage of a provider and homemaker, it is more than friendship, it is even more valuable than traditional family relationships. A Spiritual partnership is between equals to accomplish spiritual growth. It serves a different purpose of all the traditional forms of relationships. The partners are together in order to help one another grow spiritually instead of enhance their physical comfort and safety. Spiritual partnerships are relationships that more spiritually receptive people use to create authentic power with in themselves. Their goal is to share spiritual growth with each other. They allow each other to see the emotional armor they wear because of irritability, righteosuness, superiority, and inferiority that is caused because of inner fear, and remove it. They allow each other to lay down their weapons of anger, jealousy, and vengeance because of love. Spiritual partners are on a quest for authentic power that comes from with in as love over takes fear as the underlying motivation in their mutual lives. These relationships do not seek external power, they seek to change themselves. They trust one another enough to explore their fear and love together. They are brave enough to probe the depths of intimacy. Their path is one where they do not try to solve one anothers problems, encourage bad bahavior, or enable destructive behavior. They are their to ask the right questions, search for the underlying fear in their partner, listen with their heart, and love unconditionally. Spiritual partners realize that their problems are internal not external. Another marriage, more money, alcohol, drugs, sex, or a better job is not the solution to their problems. People that are driven by solely their five senses leave circumstances only to discover that the demons that plague their mind were waiting for them in their new circumstances. Multisensory people are evolving that are in touch with their soul, heart, and intuition. This book provides a map to join in this journey. This review does not begin to do justice to the deep spiritual insights that are found in this book. This book gives you the guidelines on how to create such a beautiful spiritual relationship. If you are ready for this message it could literally begin to change your life and relationships permanently.

"The more you explore your intentions the more you will see that no matter how many options you appear to have, you actually have only two-love and fear. Loving intentions create authentic power."

Perfect love casts out all fear.

A really insightful, inspiring book. It explains how spiritual partnerships are relationships between equals who are intent on learning about themselves, growing, and cultivating authentic power. You can acquire this power, Zukav says, by paying attention to your inner states, by refusing to retreat into unconscious behaviors when an uncomfortable feeling arises from within you. Other guidelines to follow include: take responsibility for your experiences (don't blame people or circumstances for the way you feel); in any given situation, say or do that thing that is fitting and appropriate AND that also happens to be the thing that is most difficult for you to do or say; consult your intuition; and, invite more intimacy into your life by releasing any distance that you feel between yourself and others (even, or especially, at the level of thoughts). As you cultivate this power, you will attract more spiritual partners.

This book isn't supposed to "interesting," it's not an intellectual thing. Either you engage with it on a personal level or you will find it very boring. But if it's even caught your attention you are probably doing a lot of work on yourself already.

I like Zukav's books and I generally like what he has to say. However ,I think this one missed the boat for me. It hammers away on a point most readers get and for the most part, already agree upon. Unfortunately, those in power who could benefit from such a book are unlikely to read it-its a preaching to the converted sort of book and if I were a little younger, I might have been more enthusiastic. I think it would've made a fine contribution to Yoga Journal or Utne as an article, but as a book I found it repetitive and ungainly. I found myself becoming impatient and skimming ahead. Maybe it needed further editing-at any rate this reviewer could not get through it and that is extremely rare.

Whether in his bestsellers "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" or "The Seat of the Soul," Gary Zukav's books are always interesting reading. In "Spiritual Partnership" he is brutally honest about his early life (he portrays himself as a bit of a cad...someone one would definitely want to avoid) and of his evolvement, alongside his wife Linda, where they peeled away the layers of fear, the many masks that tried to hide the fear, and the games they were playing with each other's emotions, to finally face the truth. The candor of the chapters dealing with all this is not only a learning experience for the reader, but commendable on the part of the author.

Divided into 4 segments, Why, What, How, and Who, "Spiritual Partnership" is valuable reading, especially for couples (or close family members) who might find themselves arguing over unimportant things (usually a clear sign that the argument is about something else!) and anyone fearful about fully expressing themselves. The chapter titled "Choosing Roles" is fascinating. You will recognize many people (maybe even yourself) in the facades that are described here, often written with a biting wit when speaking of himself.

The early chapters dwell on becoming a multisensory human, rather than relying solely on the 5 senses. "Multisensory perception redirects our attention one hundred and eighty degrees from the focus of five-sensory perception--from outside of ourselves to inside of ourselves. What is behind our eyes becomes more important to us than what is in front of them." It also talks about intention, and reaping what you sow. There is a lot in "Spiritual Partnership" to keep one's interest, making it well worth reading.

Full Disclosure - I am heading a team that is producing the online engagement platform for this author and I personally designed the cover of the book. So you can assume my review is biased but in fact, it is heartfully accurate. My evaluation is with integrity and gratitude for the quality of these ideas and practices.

I read Gary Zukav's Dancing Wu Li Masters just when I got to college in 1979 and it changed my life to learn, for the first time, about quantum physics and its profound relationship to consciousness that Zukav revealed to the non-physicist masses in 1979. This knowledge set me on a course to explore the implications of human computer interface modeled after the way consciousness structures our reality, which we are now applying to elearning. After reading Spiritual Partnership, I have experienced another quantum shift, this time of the heart not the head.

Readers who have ingested a lot of self-help books might initially be hit with the feeling that the principles in Spiritual Partnership are too simple to work: making spiritual growth your highest priority, cultivating emotional awareness, saying or doing what is most difficult, taking responsibility for your feelings, experiences and actions without blaming; examining your deeper intentions, choosing responsibly, releasing distance you feel from anyone, etc.

While I had heard some of these ideas before, I have never felt them penetrate so deeply as after I read this book. Zukav has a brilliant way of using metaphor to make simple but profound principles stick in the head and heart. For example, he uses the example of his father's antique diamond scale as a symbol of the balance of superiority or inferiority you feel towards others. As long as the scale is tipped - either you feel inferior to a particular person, or you feel superior - in either case you are not practicing or experiencing authentic power, and your spiritual growth suffers.

After having read this book, I still have the same reactions - say of righteous indignation when I feel I am right in an argument - but now I am beginning to develop the ability to independently witness these reactions before I act unconsciously and make matters worse. I am catching myself in unconscious patterns more often, and I feel my spiritual growth is being dramatically accelerated by the principles in this book. If you have ever been repeatedly exasperated by interactions with certain people in your life, this book will help you transform those events into opportunities to learn more about yourself, grow spiritually, and be less dependent on external circumstances or people changing in order for you to be happy.

Oprah called Gary's book "The Seat of the Soul" the most profound book she ever read. But this book, "Spiritual Partnership" has already changed my life dramatically for the better, and I recommend it to anyone who is willing to make spiritual growth their highest priority. You will be rewarded by growing more fearless and more love-powered.

Gary Zukav has a great way of explaining consciousness. What we have experienced in the past is now changing....many of us our waking up and with that waking up, we are choosing consciously to create new relationships...."Spiritual Partnerships"...and that may be in an intimate relationship or with our close friends or with our children or family members. We see through different eyes that the old way of thinking and being is no longer fulfilling. We want a deeper level of connection to our authentic power and Gary explains exactly how we can get there. I love his stories and the truths he shares. I highly recommend this book.

Gary Zukav's new book is finding a home with a lot of individuals (including people who have not read any of his other books) perhaps in a way his other books (as powerful as they all are) have not. I know that sounds like a left-handed compliment but that is not what I mean to convey.

As a Spiritual Mentor I am using Spiritual Partnership as a "must read" for all those I am working with. (Most of whom, by the way, are not even aware of the New Thought teachings.) My observation is his timing is perfect with his new book because I can see and feel the shift happening in every client I am mentoring--and I am not naive enough to believe it is all due to my personal brilliance. I have never seen such a "cross the board" resonance with a book. People are ready for a deepening of purpose and meaning beyond their day-to-day existence and, speaking as someone who has been in the "New Thought trenches" for 30 years, I know that his concept of spiritual partnership is the bridge to "what's next" for our planet. In my experience, he is spot on when he says the shift is already underway.

His clarity as a teacher and the humility with which he is extending his message have never been more obvious.

Peace,

Dennis Merritt Jones

Author, The Art of Being ~ 101 Ways To Practice Purpose In Your Life

[...]The Art of Being: 101 Ways to Practice Purpose in Your LifeHow to Speak Religious Science

There's a lot of wisdom and helpful information in Gary Zukav's "Spiritual Partnership: The Journey to Authentic Power." Unfortunately, it's like finding diamonds in the desert, you have to wade through a lot of repetition to find them.

Zurkov says there is a great transformation in consciousness reshaping all human experience. Within a few generations all people will not only use their five senses but will also be multisensory. Multisensory perception is the ability to experience the domain of space, time, matter and duality as well the nonphysical domains of personality and soul. Zurkov does not say how he knows this.

Spiritual partnership, a partnership between equals for the purpose of spiritual growth, is an important part of the new evolutionary process. Instead of enhancing physical comfort and safety the goal of spiritual partners is to help one another grow spiritually. Spiritual partners make intuition not intellect the principle decision-making faculty and assist in bringing forth the intentions of the soul - harmony, cooperation, sharing and reverence for Life. Wise use of spiritual partnership satisfies the needs of the loving not fearful parts of the personality. It creates heaven on Earth.

Zukav says there are two kinds of power. One is external and manipulative the other internal and authentic. External power is the desire to manipulate and control circumstances and people in order to feel secure and valuable. Internal authentic power is the courage to experience all parts of your personality, challenge the frightened parts and cultivate the loving parts. Authentic power is learning to distinguish fear from love and to choose love. It means you change in yourself what you want to change in the world. It involves paying attention to your emotions, thoughts and intentions.

Zukav used examples from his own life to illustrate how roles determine how we interact. His honesty about his playing the role of a manly, sexual, rebellious, disdainful adventurer was particularly helpful. Also his candor about the fear, joy, love and gratitude he felt when he finally spoke to his daughter who was adopted at birth.

When you have authentic power humbleness, clarity and forgiveness replace fear. The world becomes a friendly place. You do your part and trust nonphysical guides and teachers to do theirs. You take responsibility for your choices and strive to contribute compassionately and wisely to Life. You consult intuition, choose intentions consciously, move forward with an empowered heart and act without attachment to outcome. Each moment is full and complete.

Although "Spiritual Partnership"is not as clear and succinct as "The Seat of the Soul" it's still a good read.