Spiritual book focusing on yoga, new age concepts of spirtual elevation, and expanding your consciousness. You'll learn:
• How to awaken your consciousness, peel away the layers, and discover who you truly are;
• How to tap into an infinite source of internal energy;
• How to recognize and work through internal blockages, release fears and disturbances, and elevate yourself spiritually;
• How to keep moving beyond your existing psychological limits and progress toward enlightenment; and
• How to be unconditionally happy, overcome the fear of death, find the natural equilibrium in everything, and experience God's divine love.

Book summary at: https://readingraphics.com/book-summary-the-untethered-soul/ ( )

I read this book because one of my clients from work loves it and talks about it all the time. I wish I could say it lived up to the expectations but sadly it didn't. There are a couple parts of the book that are good and has some wisdom, like when he talks about changing our negative self-talk and ignoring our inner critic, which he calls the "psyche." I also liked what he said about death kind of being like a wake up call for us and explains why we should live life to the fullest everyday. However this is the extent of what I liked, which is why it got 2 stars instead of 1.

There are a lot of things I don't like and don't agree with as well. My biggest problem with the book comes in chapter 15 when he talks about happiness. I get that we can choose to be happy even despite certain circumstances but to say we can be happy every moment of everyday for the rest of our lives is just unrealistic. There are going to be moments when we're sad or angry or hurt and that's ok. We have a range of emotions for a reason, they serve a purpose (I love the Disney film Inside Out for pointing this out so well), we're not meant to be happy all the time. Let's look at some of our emotions and how they play an important role in our lives. Take anger, if you see someone on the corner getting beat up and attacked, (for most people) it rouses your anger at the injustice and motivates you to want to help. Anger can be a good motivator sometimes. I said sometimes, not always. There are plenty of times when people act out on their anger and that's not a good thing but sometimes it's that spark we need to make a change in our world. Same thing can be said for sadness sometimes as well. In America, we've come a long way in gaining equal rights for others (not saying we don't still have a long way to go, cause we do) but we have come a long way and that never would have happened if everyone was just happy all the time. If you're happy and believe things are going well than what's there to change? But if you're angry or sad and have a heavy heart for all the injustices in the world, than it makes you want to change things, make them better.

The author also brings up God in here and says that God wouldn't want to be around people that are always unhappy, he wants to be around happy people. Now it's hard to know what "God" he's talking about here cause he does mesh some different theologies together but in his later chapters he does use a lot of Bible verses so let's assume he's talking about the "God" in Christianity and I'll point out some things that wouldn't make that statement true. God is not always happy himself, bold statement I know but let me show why I say this. Colossians 3:5-6 (NLT) says "So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming." So here we clearly see that God gets angry, there are many other verses that show this as well but I won't get into them. Besides, would a God who is always happy flood the world for 40 days and nights during Noah's time? Would a happy Jesus make a whip from some ropes and chase out the merchants selling stuff in the Temple? (John 2: 13-17). Jesus also wept with Mary and Martha, even though he raised Lazarus from death, he still wept with them first (John 11:33-35). So that whole statement about God wanting to be around happy people is total BS. Besides God is described as a Father to his creation, think about your father, do you really think he expects you to be happy 24/7?

The author does talk about not closing your heart and building up walls but remaining open to others and I think maybe he makes the assumption that to do this (remain open) you have to be happy all the time and not let things bother you but again this is unrealistic. Besides you can be sad and still be open to others. If you had a parent (or anyone close to you) pass away and you go to the funeral, chances are you're not going to be happy (unless you really hated the person) nor should you have to pretend to be. It's ok to be sad, like I mentioned earlier, even Jesus wept. Also, just because you are sad doesn't mean you have to shut down and close your heart. Yes that can happen, but it doesn't have to. You have to allow yourself to grieve and be ok with it.

Another issue I had with this book was saying that your problems are not really problems, they're just events that you perceive as problems. So hundreds or thousands of college freshman getting raped on campus every year is not a problem, just an event? Child abuse is not a problem, just an event? Mass shootings and genocide is not a problem, just an event? I'm sorry but that's more BS.
Honestly I'm hoping that I'm just misunderstanding what the author is trying to say cause it's hard to believe that someone of intelligence in this day and age would make statements like these but it seems like that's what he's doing.

The last 2 things I'll say about this book is that it lacks a flow. There seems to be a lot of different thoughts and ideas here but they're all jumbled together and doesn't seem to make sense. I think part of this may be due to the author trying to appeal to everyone, seeing as he starts bringing in Bible verses towards the end of the book. But you can't appeal to everyone at the same time, it's just not possible. The author himself talks about this in an earlier chapter when he talks about the ridiculousness of the "psyche" trying to make the world perfect for you by making sure everyone is happy with you, no one is offended, everyone likes you, etc. Yet it seems like he's trying to make everyone happy with the book and not offend anyone, again not possible. This brings me to my last point, I would be wary of anyone who preached something they're not even able to practice themselves. I'm willing to bet this author is not happy all the time 24/7. It's just not possible or healthy. Ok rant over, just know I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. ( )

Wow. I found this book really helpful in getting out of my own head and into my expansive self. This is a book you need to read slowly to let everything sink it. Yet it's very easy to relate to as he has fantastic metaphors to illustrate his concepts. You owe it to yourself to read this. ( )

i really enjoyed this book a lot more than i thought i would. my only critique is that sometimes it just said the same thing over and over again, which made it a little hard for me to get through, but the content was good on its own. i could've also done without the last chapter, but that's just my personal preference. learned some really good things otherwise that i will try to keep with me through the rest of my life. ( )

Great message overall but -1 for being annoyingly repetitive. ( )