Customer Reviews

What's Next After Now?: Post-Spirituality and the Creative Life

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

 

 

Read this book and take it to heart and you will find that the truth has implications that you may never have seen before. When we apply the insights of quantum physics and eastern thought to our lives, we discover that things are not what we think! As Steven Harrison says, "When we see that the objective world doesn't exist in separation, then we are left with a world in which what we see is what we are." We are so used to the idea that we should strive to be a better person that we have difficulty realizing that change may not come through our efforts. "Where spirituality is least likely is where it is most vital--in the actual life and circumstances of the common person." It's in the actual life where we find out "what's next after now" -- this is where change and creativity happens, rather than in the repetition of what we already know. This book can put you in touch with that edge of creativity, life, and love. It has wonderfully wise and original things to say about relationships, spirituality, morality, and society. Perhaps you will discover that in living the "full-collision life", as Harrison calls it, you can "ride the wave of possibility" and help to create what's next. This book is highly recommended for anyone willing to live outside the box.

Actually 0 stars
Expected more from this book. It feels forced, has the feel of 'publish or perish'. The put-down of the power of now (mentioning people were making great amounts of money with it) smacked of jealousy; using a word such as 'next' which suggests space and/or time and allegedly follows 'now' is tortured. Clever, of course, but not intelligent. The author appears to grasp at straws (or some newly invented concept) to engage the interest of prospective readers: what can possibly happen after now? Other than more now. I just did not want to jump down that rabbit hole! And calling non-duality dual? Perchance desperate for ideas? His other book "Being One" had some rather intelligent insights.
The writing style in this book is convoluted, the content irritating - promises much, delivers little more than annoyance.
Usually not interested in reviewing books - but felt someone had to.

WHAT'S NEXT AFTER NOW? POST-SPIRITUALITY AND THE CREATIVE LIFE addresses the question of what is 'next after the now' - when spirituality is set aside and you drop into the present. Spiritual seekers have consulted gurus and religions and discovered the power of the present within the spiritual circle -WHAT'S NEXT AFTER NOW? Addresses what comes after, and is a wonderful survey recommended for any spirituality or new age library.

Why with white wine? Because this book is dry. It's a hard read because the author never really engages the reader. This book is a set of rough essays which claim high insights regarding how to really become a human being and stop playing the game of spiritual seeker. The problem is that the author gives us a set of dry concepts which leave very little human at all. There is no real engagement with the reader, no inspiration, no sense of 'yeah, that's right'.

Although the author is bordering on some interesting points this reads like a dry draft that should not have been published. You get the sense (as another reviewer indicated) that you are being talked down to because the phrasing is detached and you never feel like this person cares you are reading their book. I would not take the authors advice and did not find anything actionable here or any new viewpoint or orientation to incorporation into my life.

In fact I disagree with a good number of the authors points. He says we should do without myth. I agree to a point. But I think the whole area of mythic vision, especially around what is a human being and what is the Earth being is a grand frontier that the Native Peoples were into that we are ignorant of. The author trims down so much of what we currently our as humans (for good or ill) that he does not give an adequate view of a human who can function in his world and still retain their humanity. In general this could be a good book for an android but not a human being.

If you want more clarity around the human experience try We Are All One: A call to spiritual uprising. If you really want to dive deep into metaphysics and the study of essence then you really should pay attention to three main streams. They are Yoga, Sufism, and Native Americans. If you have an interest in yoga or Hinduism then you should really read this The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita: An Introduction to India's Universal Science of God-realization. You should read at least a few books by the Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan. This is a good summary of his work The Heart of Sufism. Ute/Tiwa holy man Joseph Rael is the deepest living Native teacher today that I know of in print Sound: Native Teachings and Visionary Art of Joseph Rael.

If you are a Christian then you should become familiar with Joel S. Goldsmith Living the Infinite Way, Bede Griffiths Bede Griffiths: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series), Russill Paul Jesus in the Lotus: The Mystical Doorway Between Christianity and Yogic Spirituality , or anything in the theme of Christian mysticism. It is mysticism itself that is the common experience and bridge across all religions.

What a tour de disaster this book is. Each deliberately conflicting sentence, each with 8 subclauses, most of which have their own subclause, eventually end up as convoluted and utterly meaningless paragraphs devoid of purpose, just like the entirety of this book, which trades the poetic style I'm sure it was intended to have for pure confusion. (That was an attempt to ape this book's style while remaining coherent. It's tough to do, and Harrison fails miserably at it).

It almost seems as if the entire point of this text is to be so contradictory, so confused, so utterly disconnected from real, substantive content that it implies a "life is what it is and what you make of it" philosophy. Harrison's writing simultaneously manages to be insulting to the reader's intelligence and personal development while offering no indication that he understands what he's trying to convey in the slightest. I simply cannot believe that the author actually knows anything because nothing is ever actually communicated, at least not with a shred of clarity. Perhaps it was an exercise in self-importance

I read this book while on a camping trip where I literally could not get another book to replace it, and I ultimately used it as kindling for fires. "What's Next After Now" is a terrible, terrible, terrible book that I can only describe as a self-important and convoluted, meaningless romp that tries to espouse what I can only describe as humanistic-universalist-nihilistic-existentialism. Zero stars.