Meher Baba, A Tower of Baba Babble

April 25, 2016
[This is my just-posted at Amazon one-star review of "God Speaks" by Meher Baba.]

The title of this book is a gross misnomer. Meher Baba wasn’t God, and he wasn't an Avatar; he was a fogged-out mystic who couldn’t articulate a clear and comprehensive spiritual Dharma. While his convoluted and Byzantine Sufi mysticism will bedazzle the esoterically challenged, the cognoscenti will dismiss his labyrinthine ramblings and schematic scaffolding as a “Tower of Baba Babble.”

This book is so bad, I could literally compose a 1,000-page tome deconstructing it sentence by sentence. And if a Baba believer or basher wants to offer me, say, a 100 grand, I’ll gladly drop my multiple other projects and focus my literary efforts on elaborating the problems with “God” Meher Baba’s spiritual Dharma. But since I’ve yet to receive even a sniff of such an offer, and this is necessarily a delimited review, I’ll just pick out some of Baba’s babble, and point out the errors.

Meher Baba writes, “Most souls have gross impressions; some souls have subtle impressions; a few souls have mental impressions; and a few souls have no impressions at all.”… Read the full article

The Sad State of Spiritual Literature, Part 2 (Franz Bardon, Dion Fortune, Paul Foster Case, Sammy Aun Weor, Et Al.)

March 31, 2016
In Part 1 of this series, posted here February 2016, I lamented the sad (meaning disappointing) current (or modern) state of spiritual literature – and, by implication, I included dead authors (meaning those deceased in the 20th or 21st century) in my “indictment.”

In this article, I will focus on 20th to 21st century Hermetic Western Mystery Tradition writings, exemplified by the works of occult luminaries such as Franz Bardon, Dion Fortune, Paul Foster Case, Samael Aun Weor, Paul Foster Case, Aleister Crowley, and Manly P. Hall. I’ve written Amazon reviews of books by each of these authors, except for Crowley, whom I’ve read but wasn’t motivated to review.

The bottom line is that none of these authors (nor any of their Western Mystery Tradition contemporaries I’ve encountered) “cracked the cosmic code.” Their writings may impress the non-cognoscenti, but not the cognoscenti. Some of these authors are teeming with occult knowledge, but most of it is historical and cosmological – and their cosmology, for the most part, is flawed. When it comes to real spiritual insight and hermeneutics, they all are lacking.… Read the full article

The Sad State of Spiritual Literature, Part 1

February 20, 2016
I doubt that there is a better-read mystic than yours truly. Moreover, I doubt that there is a living mystic with my overall knowledge and understanding of mysticism and spiritual philosophy. As I read book after book, it is apparent to me that I have no peers in the field of spiritual exegesis and elaboration.

I wish this weren’t the case. I wish that I could point people to living spiritual masters and great spiritual writers, but all I see is a vast wasteland of mediocrity (and less-than-mediocrity). There are some high-integrity spiritual teachers, and a few teachers who are true experts in a specific tradition – but no one, other than me, seems capable of putting it all together, in forging a deep and wide esoteric perennial philosophy.

In the forthcoming weeks, I will, for both fun and educational purposes, be commenting on some of these teacher-writers (as well as some dead ones, too). Dale Carnegie is probably turning over in his grave right now, wondering why I would “stir up a hornet’s nest” by “digging into the Dharmas” of these teachers. But unlike me, Dale Carnegie didn’t have Scorpio rising and five planets in the eighth house.… Read the full article

The Greatest Story Ever Told?

January 23, 2016
My just-published novel, Kill Jesus: The Shocking Return of the Chosen One, is a mind-blowing story if ever there was one. The story may or may not be the greatest ever told, but it is certainly a sui generis thriller that will not only entertain readers, but educate them as well. Beyond its entertainment value, the book proffers profound spiritual and political philosophy that is sure to make you think differently and ponder deeply.  

Now, a word of caution: If wild sex and violence offend you, then you might find some of the contents of this book objectionable. But if you are neither a pacifist nor a puritan, you will doubtless take delight in surely the most spellbinding story in ages.


[Note: The Kindle version of "Kill Jesus" just became available at Amazon, and will be on sale for just $2.99 for the next week. Please write an Amazon review of it if you like it. And share your enthusism for it with everybody in your social network. If you don't have a Kindle device, you can download free software from Amazon, and read it on your PC. And if you don't mind paying more, the book is also available as a paperback.]… Read the full article

Awakening to Your Invisible Inner Reality

January 22, 2016
[This is an excerpt from my book "Beyond the Power of Now."]

Q: You’ve said that identification with the physical form prevents enlightenment. So how can this body, this physical form, lead to a realization of Being?

A: According to Tolle, “The body you can see and touch cannot take you into Being.” But even though the gross physical form cannot enlighten you, Tolle insists that the “invisible inner body,” the “animating presence within you,” can bring you to a realization of Being. Tolle states that this “inner body lies at the threshold between your form identity and your essence identity, your true nature.” Tolle considers this inner energy field so important to the enlightenment process that he enjoins us to “never lose touch with it.”

What, exactly, is this “invisible inner body” or “animating presence” that Tolle is directing us to? Very simply, it is what Hindu yogis term the prana-maya-kosha, the second of the five hierarchically ordered (from grossest to most subtle) koshas, or “sheaths,” that encase or envelop (and veil) the indwelling Being-Consciousness. In his monumental text The Yoga Tradition, Dr.… Read the full article

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