Eley Llama's Reviews > The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

To be completely honest, this book just wasn't as great as it could have been. For me, at least.

For starters, the author went off on a very "meta" tangent that provided the reader with little to no proof or explanation for anything. His methods were simply vague and transient. "Try it and feel it", basically. Normally, I'd have no issue with this type of learning. This is understandable for the type of 'New Age' wisdom he's trying to emit, but he made the process extremely convoluted. Unfortunately, instead of giving readers room for trial and error, he really spent a great deal of time talking down to his readers and assuming that we'd question every word he says with absolutely no intelligence or understanding. Yes, you're teaching us. No, you don't have to consistently remind us that you think we're incapable of comprehension. That kind of negative attitude persisted throughout the entirety of the book and left an EXTREMELY bad impression on me. For example, he states (as the reader) "I must admit that this is way beyond my comprehension, and yet on some deeper level I seem to understand what you are talking about." Is that really necessary? Not only is it condescending but it's also not very concrete. That sort of language comes up in his 'Question and Answer' format very frequently. Perhaps there are readers out there that enjoy it when the author attempts to predict exactly what they're thinking- I am not one of them.

Secondly, the entirety of his book is hitting the nail on the head a thousand times. It's simply repetition. I think halfway through the book readers would have gotten the point. And if they'd REALLY gotten the point, they'd have put the book down and attempted what it is he's trying to get readers to achieve. I don't think I can emphasize just how many times he's told us we should "feel" and "experience".

In theory, it's a nice message. He's delved deeper into a concept that many of us should spent time on. However, he's done it in a very unpleasant manner. He's placed so much emphasis on this 'way of life' and 'energy' that he deemed anything that WASN'T following his direction completely 'dysfunctional'. As much as I believe change is necessary, I don't think it comes in the form of someone telling me my life is a wreck without it.

It's also quite offensive that many people assume that those who dislike the book aren't "ready" for the message or simply "haven't gotten the point". It seems to me that those people who're quick to negatively judge the others are, in actuality, the ones who haven't gotten the message. We are allowed to think for ourselves, we are allowed to think in general, and we are allowed to dislike a certain authors style or approach. In no way does this hinder our comprehension of the material or make us any less intelligent.