Adam C. Hall was a broken man. He angrily muscled his way through life. His temper was legendary with his business associates. His home life wasn’t much better either. His marriage to his wife Gigi was deteriorating and his three daughters sometimes ended up the targets of his erratic behavior. He thought he could find solace in drinking with buddies or rounds of golf, but he still felt empty inside. It took a long time and lot of spiritual searching, but in The EarthKeeper, he details how he was able to find peace even when he lost everything.

This book is a tale of spiritual angst and eventual salvation through the use of Native American shaman theology. While the threads of his life—his marriage, his job, his health—are all unraveling, he finds that coincidental encounters with shamanistic information help him to find peace. The first is a sketchy palm reader invited to a friend’s party. After that, he chances upon a few books to read, including The Sacred Path and A Course in Miracles, and finds that practicing yoga helps him find a center in his life. Looking to explore further, he goes on extended Vision Quests to truly get in touch with his life. Even though his marriage completely falls apart and his family moves away, he finds the motivation to continue his quest for fulfillment. Eventually, he determines that he needs to give back to the Earth by “undeveloping” areas and returning them to a more natural state.

One needs to have a very open mind before approaching this book, otherwise it will sound like a bunch of hooey and hokum. Hall goes through a tremendous amount of bad times before he learns how channel his energies into better activities. All we can hope for our fellow humans is that they find peace. Many roads lead there and each person has to travel their own path. Hall finds peace through the combination of Native American shaman ritual, yoga meditation, and a lot of self-reflection. In the end, he found what he was looking for (or rather, it found him). The more antagonistic or narrow-minded reader may find this to be a bunch of baloney, but I didn’t. I kept thinking I didn’t want to like, but instead I found myself drawn into Hall’s self-discovery. His tale reads quick and forces one to examine at least a little bit of their own life. Are you living with purpose? Are you happy? These are pretty universal questions, and I for one was glad to go along for the ride. ( )