Gift of the Soul: A Spiritual Journey

Drew Wilson at twenty one years of age begins the fulfilment of his dreams when he starts work at a health club following graduation from college. However a chance meeting with Bill, a retired car salesman leads him to reassess his goals. Bill sets Drew a series of assignments which help him to learn about himself and value his true being. Along the way he comes to feel confident about the fact that he is gay, and he also meets his perfect guy.

Gift of the Soul is as much a “guide to life” as it is a novel. An integral part of Drew’s assignments is through meditation to find his spiritual guide or god with whom he is able to converse and so gain guidance and direction. A good part of the book is taken up with the many questions Drew puts to his Guide and the lengthy detailed answers he immediately receives. The guidance he receives is all very positive, and generally but very loosely rooted in Christian scripture. How much one is prepared to accept the plausibility of Drew’s form of communication with his Guide is of course up to the reader.

There is no doubt a great deal of positive advice or guidance contained here, but it does require big leap of imagination to accept the pretext. It poses as many questions as it answers. It accepts reincarnation and supposes that everyone is trying eventually to achieve good, even choosing who they will be reincarnated as, yet does not explain how there is therefore so much that is bad in the world. However the writers, Dale Colclasure and David Jensen are clearly well intentioned and have produced an interesting enough rather cosy story.

The striking cover illustration, the painting “Sunrise, Sunset” by Steve Walker, is alone good reason to buy the book. ( )