Customer Reviews

The Sun at Midnight: A Memoir of the Dark Night

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As another reviewer said, the introduction, on the stages the soul must go through on the way to union with God, is excellent, one of the clearest expositions on the Dark Night of the Soul I've ever read. The Dark Night is not just depression, and it is not something that can be avoided or an unfortunate turn of events. It is the proximate cause of fuller awakening, the process through which the already-spiritualized ego now comes apart, to allow something better to take its place.

But the story that follows does not qualify as a true Dark Night, though it was certainly painful and humiliating. The evidence that it is not the death of Harvey's ego is the self-absorbed story of his love for Eryk Hanut. Yes, it is amazing to fall in love. And yes, sex with someone you love deeply is awesome. But graphic descriptions of homosexual love are not to everyone's taste (nor would equally graphic descriptions of heeterosexual love seem called for). And the idea that your love and marriage is a Tantric revelation that is part of God's plan to save the planet is, well, it is ego-inflation, not ego-death.

The level of detail here is amazing--every twitch, every conversation, every up and down of the roller-coaster ride of a new love affair, every anxiety attack, every act of vomiting, every kiss--it seems like both spiritual and sexual exhibitionism.

If it's true that those who say don't know and those who know don't say, then this book says far too much.

I like Harvey, and I am reading his other books, and there is a certain fascination in this close observation of himself. But I don't think it is a sign of healthy transcendance of the ego-self. (Leaving Mother Meera, though, probably was a wise step. And his warnings about the danger of gurus and the possibility that spiritual powers possessed by humans may be driven by evil is also worth thinking about.)

What an honest and startling account of the journey known as the dark night of the soul! In Sun at Midnight, Andrew Harvey once again takes us into unchartered territory with an unflinching look at the soul-shattering experience of learning the terrible truth about his guru, the woman he thought was an embodiment of the divine feminine and who had become famous through his writings about her.
Harvey tells of his descent into the dark night as he is stripped of all that had been his life for decades; the agony of realization; and the slow and painful ascent back into light. The personal detail he relates makes this book a page-turner, as he and his future husband forge a greater love amidst death threats and harassment from the cult surrounding his former guru.
Through his journey, Harvey is brought closer to and develops a direct relationship with the Divine, in contrast to the intercessionary model of the guru system. From this experience arose his book, The Direct Path. In Sun at Midnight, we learn the details of how he came to be walking that path, and it is a compelling story, with all the elements of a good novel: drama, a gripping plot, well-written scenes, and great dialogue. And it even has a happy ending!

Andrew Harvey is an expert teacher, communicator and storyteller and in his new book "Sun At Midnight" he fuses all of these talents and infuses his grand spirit to take us on an intimate journey through his experience into, and ultimate release from, the occult reigns of the Guru mirage.

In "Sun At Midnight", Pandora's box is opened and what is released from that box of secrets can never be shut back in again. As a spiritual pioneer Andrew Harvey exposes the false God (or Goddess in this case) behind the Guru system and also reveals the false face of the "not so" New Age movement. As a man Andrew bares his heart and shows the world, through his passionate and beautiful relationship with his husband Eryk, that true love really does conquer all.

On my longtime tour as a Seeker I have often been intrigued with the Guru idea and I found that this book opened my eyes and saved me from the potential of wasted years projecting my ideal of God onto a mere mortal rather than experiencing the reality of Divine Love in my heart. Although filled with spiritual lessons, "Sun At Midnight" is not only a teaching book but also an intensely interesting (and often frightening) true story rich with human courage, suffering, divine guidance, miracles and true love.

This book is a MUST-READ for anyone ready to know the reality behind our modern spiritual circus and will serve as a guidebook for all those seekers ready to migrate through the dark night, and into the light, of Divine Truth. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Sun at Midnight is Andrew Harvey's articulate attempt to share the horrendous nightmare of the "dark night" of his soul. In truth, there are no words for this spiritual experience. The necessary break with his spiritual teacher left Andrew's heart torn wide open, and as love for his teacher leaked out it was replaced by Love from the Divine Feminine who claims him for Her own and who gifts Andrew with compassionate spiritual leadership.
I found this to be a deeply inspiring book; one that will be easy to identify with for those who had or who are currently struggling with their own "dark nights". Andrew Harvey will provide the light of understanding for what you are experiencing, the courage to continue, and the firm belief that LOVE conquers all.

There is nothing about "Sun at Midnight" that is not utterly revolutionary. This is not merely a story or a memoir, but a living energy vortex with a distinct heart and soul. In a roller coaster of gripping, poetic language that Harvey has become famous for, he recounts his disengagement from his homophobic guru, Mother Meera, after she tells him that he is not to be with the love of his life, Eryk Hanut. This assertion from Meera triggers in Harvey a careening avalanche of self-doubt in his spiritual path, which he bares with a psychological clarity and flayed courage that is undeniably rare. We are completely captivated as we watch every gruesome detail of this passionate Phoenix crash and burn, ultimately to be reborn again as a true revolutionary of our time.
The soul of this book is nothing less than a wake-up call to all seekers to embrace a new spiritual paradigm based on love, on groups of friends helping each other, on mentors which offer guidance but never disempower, and, most of all, on Tantric love relationships, gay or straight. The heart of this book is the personal story of two men's experience of discovering true love. Anyone who reads this book will be permanently moved to his/her core, and anyone who denies the impact this tale makes on the spiritual world and in the realm of intimate relationships isn't paying attention.

I picked up this book hoping to learn something about enlightenment, and instead learned only about the extent of Mr. Harvey's self-aborption and narcissism. In a previous book he recounts his discovery of the path to truth through guru Mother Meera. Ah, but in this book we learn she wasn't the path to truth afterall, he was duped, but as a result he has now learned the REAL path to truth. How do we know he's found the REAL path to truth...this time? He tells us he has! The author clearly has great credentials, with his scholarly Oxford background raised at every opportunity. It does not, however, make him an expert in all things of the heart and spirit. Mr. Harvey needs to step outside of his fantasy world, take a walk in the forest, and realize he's just a mere mortal like the rest of us.

Andrew's passionate telling of his incredibly courageous and soulful story is consummately engaging. His complete honesty in describing every detail and emotion he and his loving partner, Eryk, share, as they make this journey through a personal and professional hell in the seeking of truth, makes this book a compelling read. No one can turn a phrase or express an emotion the likes of Andrew Harvey. His zest for life, for love, for absolute clarity and goodness, makes his books worth following as he grows to even greater wisdom and consciousness. Knowing the passion of this man, and the high bar he sets for himself in his standards and morality, I know I can trust every word he says in his book. That being so, this is a must-read for every follower, every student of self-proclaimed gurus or spiritual masters who hold themselves as the true pathways to God. Andrew lets us know, God is there, directly available for each of us, not through the prism of the judgments, weaknesses, motives or self-servings of those that would proclaim otherwise.

Andrew Harvey's powerful story has been life-saving for me over the past few days.

The previous reviews and description do a good job of telling what the book is about, but the most powerful piece, for me, is Harvey's radical insistence on the sacred marriage of body and spirit. He lucidly makes the point that what appears to be the emergence of the divine feminine, in the forms of many new female gurus, can actually be a mere continuation of a patriarchal rejection of the feminine, the body and sexuality, in the guise of female expression --jehovahs in drag, as one of his friends brilliantly puts it. The real Mother embraces all and holds all love as sacred, Andrew is saying. Any duality whereby the "spiritual" is held separate from the "worldly" expression of love is actually a manifestation of disdain-- the very opposite of the divine love of the Mother.

As Harvey's avatar dissolves before his eyes, he finds himself forced into direct relationship with the Mother, and he is supported in this by his husband Eryk, who is a powerful devotee in his own right, and also a powerful writer (read his book The Road to Guadalupe and check it out!).

It's so easy to "play it safe" and go along with the general mood of acknowledging all teachers--as many New Age people do, in order not to offend anyone. But sometimes, as in Harvey's (and my) experience, things come to a head, and a situation demands a stand.

I have had remarkably similar life experiences to Andrew, down to some remarkably similar details (guru/betrayal/etc.) and I found that his framing of the ordeals as a dark night of the soul unfolding into the redemptive power of healing was familiar and very helpful for me. I also feel that the power of his story has a more universal appeal, and that many will find themselves in this story, even if the details of their (your?) life and mythology are different.

Read this book now.

In his earlier work, Hidden Journey, Andrew Harvey literally wrote the book on Indian guru Mother Meera as he described how this woman he came to believe was an incarnation of the Divine Mother assisted him in coming into a more awakened state. Not much later, his view of Meera (for whom he had become the official spokesperson) began to change when she informed him that his homosexual lifestyle was spiritually wrong and insisted he renounce both homosexuality and his newfound lover.

Harvey's account of his split from Meera and the resulting dark night of the soul is intensely personal, and some readers may find the graphic depiction of tantric gay sex in one chapter a little too personal. But the story is compelling as a raw chronicle of one man's courageous struggle to reclaim his spirituality from someone who was clearly abusing it and instead forge his own direct connection to the divine.

The one problem I had with Harvey's account, however, is that while he outlines the process of projection that caused him to originally see Meera as an incarnation of the Divine Mother, I wasn't left with the impression that he understood that his new, negative perceptions of who Meera really is might also be subject to the same process of distortion.

As a Guru-abuse survivor, I totally related to Mr. Harvey's experience. While being a straight woman, I was also told by my then teacher that a life that was not entirely dedicated to HER ideas and concepts was not worth living; What followed were years of self-doubt, torture, depression, therapy- and, like in Andrew's case-harrassing calls and insulting mail.
This book is absolutely indispensable today; Not only this is a great love story, a great thriller and , as always, a wonderful mystical message; This is also a wonderful tool that everyone who is thinking of chosing a religious or spiritual path with a teacher should read ASAP.
Bravo and Thank you for your courage