My wife got me this book as a present and kind of a surprise on my audible account. When I first started looking at this audiobook I thought it would be something funny written by some kind of comedian.
I’m currently halfway through the book as I write this introduction because I kind of wanted to get my gut feeling down in words about it. This book is kind of incredible. It does start off in a place that’s a little hard to relate to. The author starts the book off by talking about how successful he has been in business and how wealthy he is.
As I have never been incredibly wealthy I didn’t really feel a big connection with him at this time. But as he goes on he discusses how these riches didn’t bring him happiness. This is a thing we’ve all heard before, no money won’t make you happy but he’s a living example of it which is kind of rare to see.
He then discusses what a mess his life was before he took what he calls plant medicine. Well he doesn’t name directly in the book the plant medicine he’s talking about is Ayahuasca.
While under the influence of this plant medicine he is able to ask the moon some pressing questions that have been troubling him in his life. The answers to these questions are shocking and moving. This is the part of the book where I really started to feel something spiritual.
I did not expect that at all when I started reading this book. While he does bring up God and Adam and eve in paradise and being expelled from paradise and the Apple and that whole story I think the main idea he’s trying to get across is that you don’t know what paradise is until you’re forced to leave it and have to try to return.
I think this is a great analogy for people who are living in a state of unhappiness. If I understood the author correctly he states that the way out of unhappiness is to reconnect with your soul, understand the oneness of everything. That is destroying the illusion of separation and then living a life through love.
And I know we’ve all had moments where we lived our life for love and we know what that feels like. But I also know that we don’t always live our life through love and I think focusing on that and doing it intentionally can make a huge change in your life.
The author also discusses forgiving family members that have passed away and done wrong to him in the past. I think this is excellent way to let go of unhappiness. To forgive those who have wronged you in the past and not hold onto that gudge anymore. Grudges are like tar on your heart and the only one that can clean it off off is you.
After his plant medicine experience the author decided to dedicate his attention and wealth to helping as many other people as possible go through a similar experience.
The author speaks about how this plant medicine experience allowed him to come to some deeper understandings. One of those is that he should take full responsibility for all his actions in the past and apologize for what he wishes he had not done.
When you are able to take full responsibility for your actions you don’t feel bad when you apologize. This allows you to let go and grow as a person. He does mention when he tried to do this his friends and love ones would often make excuses for his behavior because they felt that he was apologizing because he was in pain. But he didn’t need their excuses anymore because he wasn’t in pain. He took full responsibility for his actions and was coming from a place of love and authenticity.
He talks about how people distract themselves from the oneness and love that we should all feel with drugs and alcohol and sex. Now this I’ve heard before but what he talks about after it was kind of a shock to me. He mentions how after this revelation of excepting that you should live from a place of love and authenticity and reject those distractions and places that it was never the distractions and vices that he was addicted to. It was the drama of them that was really exciting and worked as a great distraction.
Once that drama is removed these distractions don’t have the same affect. Soon after this he had a sudden fear. He becomes overwhelmed because the change is so abrupt and at first he thinks he’s afraid that this change is permanent.
Later he discovers that he was afraid of relapsing and that the change wasn’t actually permanent and he would lose all the ground he gained. He later find out that this change is permanent and that he has nothing to be afraid of. He had traded excitement for peace.
The author speaks about how coming to an understanding that you have everything you’ll ever need and you can’t lose it will bring an internal peace. Most worry and stress comes from the fear of losing what you’ve gained and if you can except that you’ll never lose what you really need that stress disappear.
I’m really surprised by how much actionable and spiritual advice is packed into this little book. He has advice leading up to your spiritual change as well as for going through your spiritual change and how to cope with your life after your spiritual change. I think he wrote this book because he really wanted to help as many people as he could. And I think that’s just awesome.
The spiritual change he talks about is reconnecting with your soul and allowing it to make all the important decisions for you. This means consulting with your soul on your life decisions.
Once you’ve made this change old habits will have new and unexpected results. Habits are easy to start and hard to break he says. But if the reason for doing the bad habit no longer exists the old desired result will also stop occurring. This numbness or emptiness you will feel when you revert back to old habits that no longer suit your new mindset will help direct you towards proper actions.
He talks about the importance of living with the beginners mind for living through child’s eyes. In a deeper meaning this is letting go of your ego and living for truth and love.
I think one of the most deep and moving things he says in this book is that you can’t hurt someone else without hurting yourself. And on the other side of the coin you can’t help someone else without helping yourself. I think if more people would understand this simple concept the world would be a happier place.
The Author and his wife have created a health center in Costa Rica called Rhythmia. Here people can undergo the same spiritual experience they both had.
This may sound weird but he said the moon told him that there are many paths that you can take to reconnect with your soul. One involves taking plant medicine. Another involves rhythmic breathing. Both of these are used at his spiritual retreat.
In part 2 the Author walks you through a rhythmic breathing exercise. This exercise is pretty cool and left me feeling calm and rested.
He ends the books with a question and answer session he had with the moon. I don’t want to give anything away so you’ll just have to read this part for yourself. I will tell you there are some golden nuggets of knowledge.
All in all this book was quite surprising and enjoyable and I recommend it to anyone. If you like to check out this book you can do so through my Amazon Affiliate link below. This link pays me commissions at no extra cost to you.
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