Subtle Energy : Awakening to the Unseen Forces in Our Lives [Hardcover]

William Collinge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1998

In this unique and revelatory guide, the author of "The American Holistic Health Association Complete Guide to Alternative Medicine" shows how the forces related to ancient mystical, religious, and medical traditions are responsible for such phenomena as love at first sight and encountering long-lost friends shortly after thinking about them Targeted print ads.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 302 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446520179
• ISBN-13: 978-0446520171
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,432,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awankening to many schools of thought, January 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Subtle Energy : Awakening to the Unseen Forces in Our Lives (Hardcover)

I loved this book. It really opened my eyes to the variety of ways that energy affects our lives. Drawing from the most up to date science theories to thousands of years of mystic traditions, the author shows how all things really are tied together with energy. Everyday we have opprtunities to see and alter the exchange of energy with our fellow humans, the planet and the universe. Also by keeping the articles short, the author allowed me to pick up the book and put it down everyday, always having learned something new. A must read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A jumbled mess, May 20, 2008

By 

Merry Magpie (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Subtle Energy : Awakening to the Unseen Forces in Our Lives (Hardcover)

I'm a granola-crunching, chakra-balancing New Ager, and I actually threw this book away rather than pass it on to a used bookstore and some unsuspecting customer. It's ludicrously inaccurate. The author "explains" his ideas by zooming from reiki to the chakras to feng shui concepts in the space of a few paragraphs, but he never cites any of these ancient and self-contained systems accurately or with integrity. Yes, these systems are all related at a basic level, but this book reads like a bunch of new age pamphlets that got accidentally shuffled together.

He describes this therapist who felt drained after she hugged her depressed patients. He counseled her to stop hugging them because "energy flows downhill," and bam, she no longer felt drained. Amazing! Now, if he'd shown her how to shield her energy, stop the draining effect, and maybe channel some positive energy into her clients while also giving them therapeutic hugs, there might have been some useful info in that section.

But it was when I got to the line "And here is a poem by the Native American poet Starhawk..." that I started laughing so hard I dropped the book. Folks, Starhawk is a cultural and ethnic Jew, a witch, and a co-founder of some major feminist Pagan movements, and well known for all these things. He's not only misinformed, he obviously didn't fact-check anything he wrote.

Ignore this hodgepodge. Some alternative starting texts would be: The Psychic Energy Workbook by Miller and Harper, Wheels of Life by Anodea Judith (a Western perspective on the chakra system), or Reiki: the Ultimate Guide.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not very deep, but comprehensive, July 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Subtle Energy : Awakening to the Unseen Forces in Our Lives (Hardcover)

This book gives an excellent overview of energies and forces that are currently not recognized by the mainstream of scientific research. I share the previous reviewer's scepticism at the author's detailed knowledge of the many topics he writes about, so I would not recommend this book to someone who seeks to study a particular topic in detail. However, as an introduction or survey of the vast field of esoteric energies, it is more than adequate.