Michael A. Singer

I picked this up after seeing endless glowing reviews and bestseller claims, expecting something powerful and deeply spiritual. As someone who is very spiritual, I truly wanted to love this — but it’s honestly one of the worst books I’ve read in this genre.

From the first chapter I wanted to put it down, but I pushed myself to continue until halfway. The writing felt shallow, repetitive & circular, with the author repeating ideas without ever providing real depth or practical show more understanding. It came across more as pseudospirituality than genuine insight, presenting simplistic solutions to complex human struggles.

The examples given often felt unrealistic, and I couldn’t help but feel this book might even leave some readers feeling worse — as if they’d “failed” if the ideas didn’t work for them. For me, it lacked substance and spirit, and I walked away without having learnt anything meaningful.

If you’re truly seeking personal or spiritual growth, there are far better books out there. Sadly, this one left me disappointed and uninspired. show less

I've been skirting around this book for a little while now as it's had so much hype, but here was a bit of a borrowing queue at my library for it and when it came round to my turn I wasn't really in the mood for a personal development read / listen. However, I'm glad I persevered as it was very insightful and worthwhile.

I quite enjoy a good old personal development book, so having read a few was there anything particularly new or startling in this one? Yes and no. There was certainly a lot show more of ground that's been covered in many other books, but perhaps Singer comes at common issues from a different angle. If I was to sum up the messaging in one line, it would be that happiness lies in stopping trying to fix and control everything and learning instead to allow feelings and experiences to pass through you.

I'm one of life's worriers. When I was four and got my first school report I distinctly remember the teacher commented "Alison must learn to stop worrying". Sage advice, but unfortunately I'm still work in progress in that regard. I thought it interesting how Singer zones in on fear being at the root of so many negative emotions, not just worry but other emotions such as anger and jealousy. Much of it is about control, or lack of control - a need to create a sense of safety which results in life feeling more frightening than it needs to. Life lived in this way, according to Singer, starts to become something that to be endured and battled with rather than enjoyed, and the solution is apparently to learn to let things go right away; issues become much harder to deal with if you continually are trying to process everything first.

Singer refers a lot to the heart / the spirit within / the chakra. To some ears that probably sounds very woo woo, but it definitely resonated with me when he talks of how continually churning things over and over-analysing results in a lot of negative energy being trapped inside. You cannot find happiness until you allow difficult emotions and things which have happened to you to pass through you, rather than holding on to them. That made me think of how many victims of terrible traumas who have spoken of the need to forgive the perpetrators, otherwise holding onto the hatred and anger will destroy you. That's one extreme end of the spectrum, but I think it holds true for holding onto all sorts of small things which annoy you as well. Singer gives examples of getting annoyed with someone cutting up your car on your drive to work, and allowing your anger at the selfishness of the other driver to completely negatively shift your mood for the rest of the day, rather than just letting that pass through.

People generally either love personal development writing or they don't. If you're in the former camp, this is definitely a book I would recommend. It's well written, with the points explained well yet concisely.

4.5 stars - up there with the best of personal development titles. show less

I found Singer's The Surrender Experiment to be an incredible book, a look at what it might mean to be "enlightened" in a 21st century sense: serene, secure in community and professional success, with major projects soaring to completion without much apparent struggle. The Untethered Soul is the how-to, and is a solid gloss of Singer's syncretic American Buddhism.

The main, indeed only, barrier to your spiritual and worldly fulfillment is you. Specifically, the chattering neurotic thinking show more part of the mind, rather than the listening seat of awareness. Still the chatter, and you'll find yourself opened to the infinite energy and love of the universe.

Two things are particularly provocative, at least for me. The first is that happiness is a choice that you make. So much of life is lived in fear, in opposition to a past which won't change or a future which is inherently unknowable. It's like an injury, and one way to live is to protect the wound from anything which might aggravate it, avoiding hazardous situations and building up mechanisms of protection. Or you can heal, and live in the open. Of course, "just heal", "just let go of your thoughts and beliefs", is very much the "now draw the rest of the owl" of enlightenment.

The other provocative question is around death. What if you knew you were going to die in a week? What would you do? It probably wouldn't be the same as your actual plans for next week. Yet, we know we're going to die someday, and odds are we won't even have the kindness of knowing a date. The conflict between awareness of mortality and mundanity is at the center of a lot of the world's religions, and there's not a satisfactory answer. show less

Just let go.
Agreed. Too bad you can't throw a digital book across the room. 1.25 stars

I apologize for a negative review of what should have been a good book. But, it just wasn't.

I brought more to this book than it gave in return. Up through Chapter 10, I was all in, waiting for the big insight, while fighting my urge to outright hate his long-winded blathering and his using imprecise words, bland words like "stuff" and "energy."

He spills a whole lot of ink yet doesn't say nearly enough. It show more was "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, [then insert magic here] and voila! Just let go." Rinse and repeat for 183 pages.

It reminded me of the old Magic Eye books. Remember those? You also had to let go to see the picture and then it was this crummy 3D digital tree or something. (Magic Eye 1: A New Way of Looking at the World)

I read the whole book but started being really unhappy about half way, with its sloppy language, its thinned down Eastern philosophy, and then was astounded when in the last couple chapters he brought in a complete muddle of pointless poppycock by adding God and Christianity into the otherwise Eastern philosophy mix. Pathway to enlightenment? Or just one man's cherry-picking to arrive at a nebulous conglomerate? It might work for him and I'm glad. But the dude sorely needed an editor!

For example, unless you lead a remarkably charmed life, you will find his endless examples of "pain" so superficial as to be ridiculous. It would be laughable if it wasn't so insulting. If you read his book and it didn't help you, it's not you.

And what's all this about the "real" you being separate from your mind? It's his big premise. One that quite possibly could be unhealthy, and dubious scientifically. Surely we can have both: consciousness and thoughts. Silly bear, you can even have thoughts about your thoughts without contending there is a separate entity that does that.

I can't imagine this book's success without Oprah's endorsement. I do appreciate her attempts to widen horizons but I've been disappointed before. Her picks are dips into a grab bag of mixed quality.

If you are a seeker that's honorable. You deserve some help from good teachers.

If you need some Buddha-style assistance with suffering, with concrete steps that will blow your monkey mind without adding more "pain" of irritation to your short life, try Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life Nearing 20 years now, I still use the steps I learned in her book when I feel pain and use those steps to release and move on.

Or if you want a Western-accessible exploration of Eastern thought written in lean, to-the-point language, try Zen Art for Meditation. At just 115 pages (and many of those are reproductions of art) it covers 15 tenets. Unique tenets, I might add, not just hammering away with one identical message ad nauseum. I found I greatly enjoyed the included minimalistic artistry of sumi-e and haiku, both further illustrated and added a deeper, intuitive grasp of the concepts.

Neither of those books will disrespect your pain or intelligence. show less