Is there one book that changed your life?

Hi Polly....

I suppose it was the Bible.....

After I re-emerged back into society from spending many years on the road..just drifting along...my very first encounter with a detox unit was in the Sally Army hostel down in Southampton. After the detox I chose to stay in their residential hostel (Mayflower Unit) and worked each day sorting out secondhand clothes for their charity shops. It was there I had counselling sessions and went to bible classes...

It was these classes that helped put my life into perspective. They helped me find answers I had been seeking all my life...;)

Although I didn't stay there very long ( a few months ). I will always be grateful for the help and guidance I received whilst I was there which put me on my road to recovery... It took quite a while to finally get there but I eventually kicked the habits of both drink and drugs and now lead a relatively normal life....drink and drug free....:D

For me it has to be Conversations with God, Books 1, 2 and 3.

Oakapple that is great,I am going to purchase a bible,its on my next list but where would I start,do I just open any page and see what comes up or do you go through the different readings??,

For me it has to be Conversations with God, Books 1, 2 and 3.

Conversations with God was a great one for me too (I've only done the first one though), but the one that has really started me off on the journey of pro-active self-development was "Intruducing NLP" by Joseph O'Connor & John Seymour about 13 years ago.

Masha

I can trace things back to the Positive Woman by Gael Lindenfield. I read this on the train on the way back from a holiday in Scotland and it definitely changed my life by changing my mindset.

'Feel the Fear And Do It Anyway' by Susan Jeffers. It was recommended to me 10 years ago by an aromatherapist I saw during a bit of a mid-life crisis. The best book ever for me. I took an enormous leap out of my comfort zone after reading the book and it lead to one of the best experiences of my life - travelling round the world.

I think The Alchemist is also fabulous and gave me that "Aaaaaah, I get it" moment.

🙂

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff.

The Alchemist by Paul Coelho. Since reading it I am always looking out for signs and coincidences.:)

Oakapple that is great,I am going to purchase a bible,its on my next list but where would I start,do I just open any page and see what comes up or do you go through the different readings??,

Hi Star99...

From what I recall, we were in a group setting and it was a reading of the day, with questions and answers afterwards...I always took something from every reading

This was the first time I had seen any sobriety for a long time, so it was all new to me. like a fog being lifted......It was like coming out from within a darkened room and seeing daylight for the first time........

It gave me food for thought and made me look at the reality that was all around me. It gave me clarity of thought.

I found at that time in my life....wherever I opened that book and what ever passage I read.........I always got an answer.

Maybe you should try that tactic and see what happens......it worked for me 😉

Oakapple thats great,Im so glad you got so much from it,yes perhaps thats what I should do.LOL,Star.

I nearly said The Alchemist too.

The fell-walking books by A. Wainwright when I was little.

They opened up a new world for me, and I still get joy in the reading of them.

My two Psychology study books from the Open University, it was like someone gave me the key to several doors that had been previously locked and a passport to embark on a voyage of self discovery.:D

warmest wishes- calla lily x

My Life - Fidel Castro

Changed my life on many levels, not the politics, but the compassion to provide medical care and training for the world's poor.

Myarka.

Out on a Limb _ Shirley McLean....which arrived about the same time as my spiritual awakening, and gave me the leverage to consider
re-incarnation, one of the foundation pillars of my spiritual beliefs.

Celestine Prophecy was the one for me. It opened me up to so many possibilities. It was suggested to me at an NFSH Conference in the North many years ago and I bought a copy at the shop on the Frid evening and had read it through by Sunday lunchtime, I just couldn't put it down.

Love and light

reikiangel

xxx

What a lovely thread Polly. For me it's In The Meantime by Iyanla Vanzant, I have ready literally hundreds of books on the subject of self development and spirituality since my awakening 6 years ago but this one blew me away and gave me something to remember every day. The book is about emotional honesty and is so beautiful in it's simplicity.

Love

Rebecca xx

The Masters And The Path by C.W. Leadbeater. Theosophical Publishing House, first published 1925.

First Leadbeater describes in detail the fact that there are men and women who have spiritually evolved completely out of the mortal condition - yet still live and exist, as immortals. These are not 'yer' Gurus or any kind of public teacher of East or West. They have good reason, once having reached that stage, to remain out of public purview, and they do. Yet disciples who have prepared themselves sufficiently come into contact with them anyway, as they are now in a kind of resonance. Not leaving this as mere theory, or worse, fancy, Leadbeater quotes many examples of peoples' testimony to having met these Masters.

But that's only the opening portion of the book. Most of it then deals with how to become a disciple of these Masters, the stages along the Way, and this Way ultimately leads to achieving all that they have achieved. We can become what they are.

The main several stages or levels of 'progress' - what you can do, how it feels, and the degree of attunement with the Masters and with your Higher Self that you have at each stage is immensely useful to me. Because the stages are described so well, you can easily tell where you have reached. If you've moved on at all, you'll know it from this book. If you're just kidding yourself, and you've hardly taken more than one step yet, this book also leaves you in no doubt about that.

It was hardly coincidence that this book came my way just a few weeks before I was due to leave England and travel overland to india for the first time. It's a wonderful road-map of the Path of spiritual progress, and of what real progress is and isn't. A classic.

V

Hi Polly

There are several books that have changed my views on life, some have been mentioned like Shirley McLean's Out on a Limb and The Celestine Prophesy, started the expandsion of my spiritual quest, and Jesus the Man by Professor Barbara Thiering changed my thinking too. The latter was pivotal.

Another that really stands out is Arthur Guirdham's The Great Heresy, about the Cathars led me to read a whole lot more in that direction, then Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods took me into the realms of mystery of ancient civilisations which I have followed up ever since, until I started studying again.

I sometimes wish life didn't get in the way of reading!!!!

Difficult to narrow it down to just one book! (I'm a bit of a book geek, I have a huge collection including many 1st editions and owned a bookshop for a few years too). That said, I think The Interior Castle by St Teresa of Avila certainly sent me off on an interesting journey.

for me was the in the arms of the wind by james christie a wow book also a book by Brain Weiss have forgotten the title.

Amethsytfairy:)

....ive read quite a few of those books,, ive must have a shocking memory:eek:, ive forgotten that i read them!!

A good one that i dip into is ' you can heal your life' louise hay..

will be making a list of the others:D and mooching on amazon...:)

The Eagle and the Rose by Rosemary Altea, it started me off on my own spiritual journey......I have no idea where I would be today if it wasn't for that book.

Angel x

when i look at my bookshelf anybody would think i am some sort of self help guru, thing is i must have the ability to read a book then empty my head! 😮

I forget what ive got, but i do love my books they are my babies..:D, and nobody is allowed to borrow them unless they are checked out and have to be back to me by a certain date,,:p,, just one of my little neurosis (sp) :002::011:

There's no one book, but a series of books that have changed my life over the years - a sort of a progression over periods of my life.

My earliest was a very rare, unobtainable book called "Wehshti Zebur", a book written in Hindi/Punjabi verse, that my mum used to recite to me when I was a baby. Wehshti means "from heaven" and "zebur" is treasure ie Divine Treasure. The book has been with our family for generations, few can read it, and it's pages have faded and broken. My mum would recite or rather sing the verses, then explain it to us in Pahari/Kashmiri, and her stories would bring us to tears. The verses/stories were about the old testement prophets - lots about noah, david, soloman, abraham, jakob, joseph, moses - the problems they faced, the women they loved, the mistakes they made. Zebur, btw, also means "old testament" and refers in particular to Davids book of Psalms/Songs.

Then when I could read Urdu script myself (at age 5!), I loved to read hamzanama, the adventures of Amir Hamza (who was the prophet Muhammad's uncle, a master swordsman, a brave spiritual warrior that took on armies, jinns, evil spirits in mystic worlds and beat them! It contained Sufi wisdom, was very anti-priests (mullahs). The version that I read had his side-kick, the very funny Umru.

btw: hamzanama has been translated and available in english, this page has some reviews:

Later (in england) I became fascinated by yogic books - the yogi by spiritual practice would seek to raise his kundalini and become a superman, able to walk on water. Iyengar's books and Gopi Krishna's account of his experience was a great help.

Other books/writers that "changed" my life included Paramhansa Yogananda, Lobsang Rampa, Carlos Castaneda, Mantak Chia and Daniel Reid.

Spiritual Emergency by Stanislaw Grof

Effortless pain relief by Ingrid Bacci definitely helped me on my journey.

I'm a bit of a bookaholic so it's hard to narrow it down to just one book (plus I've forgotten a few things I've read) but here are some books that have had a big impact on my life/way of thinking in one way or another (I may remember more in the near future ;)) :

- The Bible

- The Shack (William Young- recommended by Angel on this forum)

- Feel the fear and do it anyway (Susan Jeffers)

- Angry conversations with God (Susan Isaacs)

- The road less travelled (Scott Peck)

- The power of your subconscious mind (Jospeh Murphy)

I also liked the "Conversations with God" books by Neale Donald Walsch

for me was the in the arms of the wind by james christie a wow book also a book by Brain Weiss have forgotten the title.

Amethsytfairy:)

Sorry, just found this thread: you are probably referring to "Many Lives, Many Masters" - great book!

Debbie