Call me a skeptic, or maybe I'm just too old to be part of Gabby's target audience. In her 5th book, Bernstein is back at it calling on her "Spirit Junkies" to say "yes" to the love of the Universe, stop living a life of fear, and open themselves to love, miracles, and abundance.

Some of Bernstein's advice is sound. She advocates meditation (which science is even proving to have health benefits), cultivating an attitude of compassion, and aiming to have a positive attitude. I start to raise my eyebrows when the book implies that good things don't happen to a person (or bad things do happen to a person) because their vibe is "blocking positive energy" or some other silly nonsense like that. I don't know why bad things happen to good people, but I'm darn sure than in most cases it isn't their fault.

I've read a few of Gabby's books before, and there's not much here that's new. Her tribe will love it, but I've recognized that while I was once on the periphery of that tribe, it's time for us to wish each other well and part ways. Namaste.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hay House for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Gabby’s book here is about accepting the love of the universe and dissolving one’s nagging fear that the world is an unsafe, unfriendly place. I’ve read this book before, but the first time I was a little stilted and although I didn’t judge it strongly, I slightly depreciated her vulnerability, as I had rigid ideas about what a spiritual teacher should be like. —A spiritual teacher’s not supposed to have had panic attacks, right. It’s all supposed to be done and resolved, starting on the day, starting on the day, well I don’t rightly know when it would start; but, forever, right. Just like…. Boom! Spiritual! 🤯—

It’s also vulnerable in another way, in that being a spiritual teacher, a ACIM teacher, isn’t licensed and regulated and bureaucratic as motor oil like a specialist/scientist like a biological psychologist, right. (Or even an Episcopal priest, like as not.) Gabby’s a simple girl, and free, but that very simplicity—spiritual, not scientific, and like a lot of ACIM teachers she doesn’t even have a bibliography about the history of religion in the back of the book—is a sort of vulnerability. Which isn’t to say that there isn’t a place for specialists—room for squares, as John Mayer put it once—but I think once we “grow up” myself and others tend to obey and esteem specialists too much. Of course, in a sense you can never /esteem/ someone too much, but you can esteem them for the wrong things, you know…. There’s often too much esteem, not too little, for debating and ‘proving’ things. Useful skills at times, but if it’s a substitute for ideas like “you are loved” and “the Universe is a safe, friendly place”, you won’t be happy, you know. You’ll just be invulnerable—sometimes.

And you know, the other aspect is that this is kinda a pretty non-lightweight book, a deep book. Writing a paper saying that there should be a federal mandate for preschool for 4-year-olds (or whatever) would probably be a difficult thing, and you might ‘prove’ things…. But you’d pretty much bang it out and be done with it. It wouldn’t fill you with wonder, or happiness. Saying, “I’ve learned not to be afraid to be happy”, is kinda a vulnerable thing to say, and could get you laughed at by people, you’d call you a granny idiot and not hard-headed and cynical enough—even if they were watching a sitcom, or something, much less learning in a biology textbook that they’re smarter than you are.

But, there you go. A guru said it once on YouTube: if you’re happy, really put a grimace on your face, so nobody knows. And he did this exaggerated grimace.

And then he laughed, right.

…. I have problems with vulnerability; for example, although I like having written reviews, I somewhat dislike the actual process of writing them, which is very different from the controlled process of reading, you know. With the creativity comes a slight loosening of control that’s subconsciously a little frightening. But, then, this is something I do. It’s important.

This is basically an excellent book; I just had difficulty in getting through it, and had to give it up.

The author, Gabby, tells her story and then presents us with a series of “universal lessons”. One such lesson is: “When we surrender our will to the power of the universe, we receive miracles.” We are also given a few prayers in connection with some of the lessons.

Another universal lesson is “Limitless guidance is available to you when you surrender to receive it.”

She refers constantly to “A Course in Miracles” and, among other things, tells us about the “Holy Instant”. This is “the moment that you surrender your fear to the care of the universe and accept the perspective of love”.

We can practice the Holy Instant all the time. The more we practice it, the faster we return to love.

We’re taught that the world is our classroom and people our assignments; we must allow ourselves to feel our feelings and breathe into the pain.

Gabby gives us short, useful meditations that can also be downloaded from her website.
Some of her key words/concepts are “surrender”, “faith” and “miracles”.

The book is well-written, inspiring and mostly very readable except for the fact that its lessons are extremely concentrated, and thus not easily assimilated. Perhaps this was the reason I had difficulty in getting through the book. ( )