Customer Reviews

The Spiritual Tourist: A Personal Odyssey Through the Outer Reaches of Belief

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are two perspectives from which spiritual questing might be approached, from the side of the seeker and from the side of the provider. In other words, there are two stories to be told, and Mick Brown's book does a good job at both. He is very forthright about his own relentless seeking after spiritual truth, meaning, and faith, and he is equally so when it comes to describing the myriad individuals and enterprises that are out to fulfill that demand. A lot of interesting adventures occur where those two things intersect, to say the very least.

I did not know that Ram Das began as Richard Alpert, a psych prof and LSD compatriot of Timothy Leary at Harvard. I didn't know that books by Rajneesh, the disgraced Bhagwan, are still being sold with the author's name changed to Osho. I didn't know that Krishnamurti began by being picked off a beach as a lice-infested kid, by a prominent Theosophist with a penchant for young boys. And lots more. Brown's travels through this world are a source of enlightenment, if not always of the sort one is hoping to find.

But this is not a hatchet job -- if anything, Brown is overly generous in giving many of these rather questionable spiritual practitioners and their operations the benefit of the doubt. He is serious in his quest, remains almost always hopeful regardless of disappointment and disillusionment, and his thoughts about what he is looking for, and why, are sophisticated and moving. The position he finally arrives at seems to be something like this: It is possible that none of these religions and systems are true in any scientific, empirical sense, but they do all seem to end up with a pretty similar understanding of what human happiness requires. If you can find one that you are able to commmit to and practice, you will live a better and more fulfilling life, and no justification beyond that is necessary.

This could be a valuable book for anyone embarking on such a search, because it contains a lot of information about the dead ends to avoid. At the end of the book, the author seems finally to have found his spiritual home in a Tibetan Buddhist enclave in Scotland. That was about ten years ago; it would be most interesting to know where he is today.

In this book, Mick Brown leads the reader on a series of journeys from London to India to Germany and the US in examination of different spiritual teachers and paths. Brown presents all of this in a way that is both entertaining, amusing, and at times touching. He also crams in a huge amount of information which makes some sections a little dense, and some parts of the book tend to jump around in rather unsatisfying transitions back and forth. I have to say that I learned a great deal from this book about a lot of different and interesting beliefs. This left me wanting more and I plan to use the bibliography (alas rather small) to follow up on parts of interest.
What distinguished Brown's book from many other spiritual journey books is his blend of a journalist's skepticism with a real desire for an experience of faith. This mix is one that I personally have experienced often. Is this *the* path? Is this *the* guru or teacher? It is this feeling, coupled with the occasional glimpse of peace and understanding which makes me feel a kinship with Mick Brown when I read this book. I give it five stars for content but minus one star for the awkward style in some places

There is a lot to like about this book, as discussed below. The author is a journalist who decides to seek spiritual awareness by becoming a "spiritual tourist." He travels to a number of countries and tries to get at the truth of many different teachings and teachers, by directly encountering their homebases and their teachings, and even the teachers themselves, when possible. One of the best aspects of the book are not only the descriptions of the outer experiences of the author, who is clearly a fine writer of travelogues, but perhaps more importantly, his inner experiences, which are depicted with great candor and clarity. Finally, in each chapter the reader is given more than adequate background for each spiritual teaching and/or teacher, which often compliment the author's experiences.

The book starts with the author's encounters with Benjamin Creme, who for more than 20 years has been telling the world that the Matreiya's appearance is imminent. The author seems to like Creme, but rightfully so comes away very skeptical about the latter's teachings, since clearly the World Teacher has not "appeared" yet.

The author's travels in India comprise the vast majority of the book. He visits many ashrams, such as Sri Aurobindo's and Sai Baba's. The narrative of what the author experiences at the latter's ashram are the best in the book, in my opinion. The author very candidly describes the rigidity of the atmosphere inside the ashram, while contrasting that with the circus-like atmosphere of the world outside of the compound, where many vendors hawk goods and lure customers by repeating Sai Baba's name, like a mantra. Mr. Brown comes away from the Sai Baba experience disappointed, not only by its weirdness, but because the Master ignores him when he gets close enough to offer Sai Baba a imploring letter asking for "salvation," whatever it is that the Master can offer!

My only real criticism of this fine book is that the author, while to his credit attempting to cram a lot of material about many different spiritual paths and teachers into a limited number of chapters, sometimes puts too much info in one chapter, and in some chapters there is simply too much for the reader. The chapter about the history of the Theosophical Society, which he overdetails in a discussion mainly about Krishnamurti, himself once proclaimed "World Teacher," has way too much information. Even though I am very familiar with this history, I feel that he is trying to cover too much in one chapter.

I recommend this book for its honesty, objectivity, and marvelous descriptions of places and experiences. The bibliography is also an excellent reference list for the spiritually curious. Yet I wonder if the author really "got it" as he seems to claim at the end of the book - that it doesn't really matter where you travel on the outside, it's the inner that you need to stay grounded in.

When a "spiritual tourist" wanders along your path and you are open to spiritual discovery, you wander along with him for a while. Mick Brown takes what is human in all of us, question, and uses it a as tool to understanding. Too many books on the subject of spiritual discovery are 'preachy' and tend to distance the novice spiritualist. Mick's book is descriptive, informative, and laced with sceptical humor. This book is truely a journey, and I doubt that a man with so much background knowledge into so many spiritual leaders, is just a tourist. This book is written by an insightful, spirtual human being.

I happened upon The Spiritual Tourist at a used bookstore. I was impressed by the writing and the content. I have never met Mick Brown but I like him and I appreciate his objectivity and at the same time his receptivity to the possibility that there is more to life than what we may see or think. I was especially pleased with the chapter on Krishnamurti and the theosophical society. Having read several of Krishnamurti's works, I still find him the "wisest" for lack of a better word spiritual teacher I have ever encountered.

As a person who takes spirituality seriously, I found The Spiritual Tourist a fascinating romp through the occult playgrounds of the world, east and west. Some ... praise Brown for taking a proper "middle path" between faith and reason. I found, on the contrary, that he was often frivolously gullible where clarity of thought was demanded, and obtusely boneheaded where reason really might encourage faith, were he willing to dig a little deeper. (Well, a lot deeper.) Nevertheless, most of the book is a very enlightening and entertaining journey. (Those who would like to see a more thorough expose of Sai Baba, might also enjoy the somewhat sensationalist but fascinating Avatar of Night.)

As one reads through Brown's accounts of eastern gurus, and also books like Philip Johnson's Intellectuals, which tell the stories of Western Humanist gurus (whom Johnson compares unfavorably to witchdoctors) like Sartre, Rousseau, Tolstoy, and Marx, it is easy to get the impression that religion is a racket. You find a few good people in it -- Confucius, the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Francis -- but even they are driven to some pretty strange conclusions by their beliefs (an enlightened master would be someone who would drink alcohol or urine with equal equanimity?). . . and they are least likely to do miracles or make extreme claims. Except one, that is, who is the most sagely of all (the best sages call him their sage), yet makes the most remarkable claims and revealed the greatest power. Brown conflates this guru with Baba, but I cannot think of two people who are more different. Nor do his miracles at all resemble Baba's silly and sub-natural conjuring tricks.

I am a very skeptical person by nature. I have been a follower of that guru for 25 years, and have been studying comparative religion for 14. I find Buddha attractive, the Bhagavad Gita, Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi clever, I see Marx' point, and admire Tolstoy, and have like Brown interviewed a few modern gurus as well. But it never entered my head that these gurus were any more than mortal; and nothing Brown said suggested that to me, either. The more I see of most of this crowd, the more startling and absolute the contrast with this other guru seems to become. There is one moment in Spiritual Pilgrims when Brown meets an old Indian scholar who is a follower of Sai Baba. He admits himself "baffled" by the records of that other guru. "If he did not exist, then it is a miracle that someone could have made up a story like this," he says. The people of his own time said the same: "No one ever spoke as this man," "No one ever did the things he did."

Brown does not follow this lead, but taking a naive and simplistic approach to faith and reason, still inclined to wander, comes to a fusion conclusion somewhere between Buddha and Voltaire. Each of us must save ourselves. All right. But can we really do that? Do we love God with all our heart, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves? Is life without God a party? How does death fit into the grand tour? Can we waterski the River Styx? Hang glide from the Pearly Gates? Even Indian tradition, that teaches the gods themselves cannot change karma, encouraged bathing in the Ganges, worship of gurus, and sacrifice, because people felt inside themselves they could not cover their own karma, but needed help. Brown's problem seems to be he is a tourist, and has not yet become serious about looking for truth.

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man

I really enjoyed this book and most probably will enjoy reading sections of this book again. Many of the famous gurus in this book are people I have heard of and have even taken darshan from one, so it was nice to hear the perspective of this observer whose spritual development aims to be in alignment with his own sense of rational inquiry. He is open enough to recognize the beauty that many of these teachers have to offer, yet grounded enough to point out many of the inconsistencies that some devotees do not care to notice.

This book is in no way condemning of the gurus and churches it investigates, it is merely a first person account of how our culture receives the many miracles, mantras, and magick tricks it is inundated with. Whether you are a believer, a non-believer or simply wondering what there is to believe in, this book is sure to have some stories that will interest you.

I was particularly grateful for the author's summary of Krishnamurti's life and am now more open to this anti-guru's wise teachings. Mick Brown is a very polished and thorough writer who sometimes does include so much detail the reader is left gasping for breath. But, his sometimes dense paragraphs are a welcome accompaniment to the lofty topics he dares to put to paper ; East meets west, blind faith dances with healthy skepticism and the answer may, or may not be 42.

There is a lot to like about this book, as discussed below. The author is a journalist who decides to seek spiritual awareness by becoming a "spiritual tourist." He travels to a number of countries and tries to get at the truth of many different teachings and teachers, by directly encountering their homebases and their teachings, and even the teachers themselves, when possible. One of the best aspects of the book are not only the descriptions of the outer experiences of the author, who is clearly a fine writer of travelogues, but perhaps more importantly, his inner experiences, which are depicted with great candor and clarity. Finally, in each chapter the reader is given more than adequate background for each spiritual teaching and/or teacher, which often compliment the author's experiences.

The book starts with the author's encounters with Benjamin Creme, who for more than 20 years has been telling the world that the Matreiya's appearance is imminent. The author seems to like Creme, but rightfully so comes away very skeptical about the latter's teachings, since clearly the World Teacher has not "appeared" yet.

The author's travels in India comprise the vast majority of the book. He visits many ashrams, such as Sri Aurobindo's and Sai Baba's. The narrative of what the author experiences at the latter's ashram are the best in the book, in my opinion. The author very candidly describes the rigidity of the atmosphere inside the ashram, while contrasting that with the circus-like atmosphere of the world outside of the compound, where many vendors hawk goods and lure customers by repeating Sai Baba's name, like a mantra. Mr. Brown comes away from the Sai Baba experience disappointed, not only by its weirdness, but because the Master ignores him when he gets close enough to offer Sai Baba a imploring letter asking for "salvation," whatever it is that the Master can offer!

My only real criticism of this fine book is that the author, while to his credit attempting to cram a lot of material about many different spiritual paths and teachers into a limited number of chapters, sometimes puts too much info in one chapter, and in some chapters there is simply too much for the reader. The chapter about the history of the Theosophical Society, which he overdetails in a discussion mainly about Krishnamurti, himself once proclaimed "World Teacher," has way too much information. Even though I am very familiar with this history, I feel that he is trying to cover too much in one chapter.

I recommend this book for its honesty, objectivity, and marvelous descriptions of places and experiences. The bibliography is also an excellent reference list for the spiritually curious. Yet I wonder if the author really "got it" as he seems to claim at the end of the book - that it doesn't really matter where you travel on the outside, it's the inner that you need to stay grounded in.

THE SPIRITUAL TOURIST: A PERSONAL ODYSSEY THROUGH THE OUTER REACHES OF BELIEF, is a personal chronicle of the author Mick Brown's spiritual peregrinations around the globe searching for...well, just plain searching. The author's search for far-flung spiritual gurus takes him from the peaks of the Himalayas to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and all points in between. Though Brown approaches his journey with the skeptical eye of a journalist and is forthright in his opinions, he never writes with condescension towards his subjects and allows the reader to make their own judgment about the spiritual validity of the various gurus encountered in his journey. As the title of the book indicates, Brown journeyed as an observer; I don't think he expected to find THE spiritual truth and I suppose in doing that, he indeed discovered a spiritual truth: truth will find you.

This is high work, that is also a great read. Mick Brown takes us from suburban London to arcane areas of India, with side-trips to the USA, Germany and Scotland as he attempts to come to terms with his own shifting, gradually growing, spiritual perspectives. What is especially refreshing is Brown's air of uncertainty in a world populated by wide-eyed, gullible cosmic spivs who you would cross the Ganges to avoid. As well as being rather profound, The Spiritual Tourist is a very funny book.