Quite hilariously, I read this book for book club, got 80 pages from the end and realised this is the sequel, not the book I was meant to be reading... However, I assume the books are fairly similar so I'm sure my thoughts will be the same!

I didn't enjoy this book at all. I almost gave up on it but felt bad as I had given up on the last book club book, so I ending up skimming the rest to at least finish it!

I didn't vote for this book for book club and went into it fairly blind, so I didn't realise it was a psychospiritual book. As an atheist, it therefore made for a jarring read when the author was talking about religion or God as this is incongruous to my own beliefs, and meant I often found myself disengaging from some of the sections.

I also found it difficult to understand the point of this book and who it is aimed at - it felt like a self-help book but it didn't really present any tangible actions to take forward into your own life, and instead felt like a bunch of learnings and ramblings from the author's own life which only really felt relevant and applicable to him. I found myself disagreeing a lot with what he was saying, but the way the book was written meant he was describing his opinions like they were a universal fact, which made me frustrated and annoyed. For example, he says 'if we are not here necessarily to be happy, fulfilled, or comfortable all the time, then what are we here for? What is the meaning of life?'. Personally, being happy and comfortable is the meaning of life for me, and so it was weird to read this person contradicting my own world view and presenting it as fact. There was similar emphasis throughout the book on the importance of learning and progressing, which is a very capitalist viewpoint and I really hate the idea that everything you do must be to better or develop yourself, like what if I am comfortable where I am right now and just want to standstill for a minute?! And then later he says the experience of suffering when dying is an opportunity to learn and grow - absolutely not, I want my death to be as painless as possible thank you!!

There were also a couple of sections where the author would present a learning from his life as revolutionary when I felt it was quite the opposite. However, I appreciate that this book was written almost 30 years ago and attitudes to things such as counselling and marriage were different, and being able to have access to an abundance of information nowadays means a lot of these topics are widely discussed in today's society when they might have been a bit more eye-opening for people back then.

To counter with some positives, there were some insightful and interesting quotes/titbits throughout this book, and I was surprised at how relevant some of the sections were for a book that's almost 30 years old. The start of the book talks about how a lot of people don't critically think and blindly go along with what they're told to believe or think, which is extremely pertinent to today's society (see: Trump supporters). There was also some interesting discussions about human behaviour and different types of thinking which I had never really thought before (e.g., neurotic/character disorders, stupid/smart selfishness etc.). And whilst I do not share the same religious beliefs as the author, I did find it interesting to hear about some of his beliefs and how it links to psychology. For example, the way he interprets the story of Adam and Eve as the evolution of human consciousness. I also liked (and partly disliked) the structure of the book - the sections were short which made them easy to digest, but I felt like the chapters could have benefited from a summary of key learnings and insights at the end of each chapter to encapsulate what the author wanted to convey to the reader. Without this, it made the book feel like one long rambling of consciousness from the author.

In conclusion, this book just wasn't written for me and so I really struggled to get through it!

This is a book of spiritual musings, though the author takes efforts not to make it so obvious; and has also succeeded to some extent.

He surely must have been guided that way; otherwise, many like me, could not have understood the head or tail of the rapid flow of his thoughts, which is only a continuation of his earlier thoughts that have already appeared as famous books.

I do not claim to have studied it and understood fully; but I can honestly say, I have been benefited by it. The concepts of thinking, consciousness, and learning now seem to be less abstruse. And, the choices to be made individually for self, and in relation to organizations, and society are clearer. all because, he speaks of - in clear terms - God and how He nurtures all of us.

To conclude with author's words: "God is too immense to be limited to any chapter or book or even bible. Yet there is one word for our human experience, whenever we happen - seemingly by accident - to tap into, to participate consciously in, that immensity. It is the experience of glory."

I liked the material in this book, which is covered by other writers who speak to me more than he does. But, I think this would be an amazing book for some people.

Skimmed 60 pages hoping for insight. It seems to be just a rehashing of previous works and not-so-subtle bad theology disguised as a plea for the hard work of thinking. Any writer who attempts to couch a formative concept by cadging from Hamlet’s most quoted phrase is engaging in a sin rightly decried by the author: laziness.

The Road Less Traveled: Something about our Personal God with each person having a different one depending on something. This book: Everything points to God.

Well, except for the above concept I do not agree with, the other things still quite similar to The Road Less Traveled in some sense, and that part is still great having read The Road Less Traveled.

Few of the concepts touched upon are interesting but they were never full explored. It doesn’t delve deeper either on anxiety or spiritualIty, it feels more like an abstract instead of a full novel. Also, reference to previous novels, written by author, after every few pages is too much of self advertising and its not really relevant to the reading, so you do skip over it (like all the other ads).

Serious note to myself - stop leaving books on the shelf for 30 years before reading them. This one is, not surprisingly, seriously out of date. But this is not my only problem. The blurb on the cover suggested that this book dealt with thinking independently and not following the crowd. Nowhere on the cover does it suggest that this book is strongly geared towards religion. We are told, firmly, that we are all religious, even if we don’t know it, or even want it. And, if we deny this calling we can only look forward to a life of failure and misery. But we should not despair too much as the religious path is also paved with hardship and misery. ‘Scotty’ is clearly in need of a psychiatrist as he believes that he knows ‘facts’ that nobody could, or should, know. I was determined to make it to the end, and did indeed manage it, but I have no idea what the intended message from this work was supposed to be. An experience to never be repeated.

m-a ajutat sa vad lumea altfel

The title led me to expect more.

I listen to the audiobook. There is so much good wisdom for parents and partners here. The last 1/4 of the book was not as relevant to me, but I really enjoyed the first part of the book

I'm interested in learning what psychiatrists, psychologists have to say about the complete man, body and mind, the here and now and the beyond. The road is a metaphor, every traveler takes a route, some have no maps though maps are not the territory. As a psychotherapist and psychologist, I was curious to know how Dr. Peck builds the alliance with the client and the type of theory and principles he starts from. Life is difficult, uncertain, an 'inherently insecure burden' involving unlearning, relearning, 'the agony of not knowing'. There is something about us we need to work on, I agree. It is a field hospital, not dissimilar to MASH, a naturally evil world contaminated by goodness. Because evil is so destructive, it is the ultimate illness, and evil is the militant ignorance of the Shadow that we would rather not own up to, that we try to hide from ourselves and others because our conscious mind tries to avoid pain. Dr Peck tells us our finest moments occur precisely when we are uncomfortable, not feeling happy or fulfilled, struggling and marching. The journey of a road beyond is not easy without renunciation, kenosis and mortification in our natural idolatry of ease and comfort which the mass media conspires to keep alive in our consciousness. There are parallels between spiritual development and psycho-sexual developments. The author's mellowed and mature perspective of the Beyond which is an essential quest gives ultimate meaning to man's soul, his spiritual nature, the whole being, one cannot treat the body alone, the medical model is just one way of looking at disorders, disregarding the spiritual would be at our cost and the healing incomplete.

This is one of my favorite books. If there was a course for life, this would be the book to bring.