Books for the Spiritually Curious

063—Do you have a busy mind filled with unwanted thoughts? Do you wonder why you aren't getting what you want? What happens when we die? What would God have to say about all the conflict in the world? Have we had previous lives? What would a neurosurgeon say about spirituality? 

You'll want to listen to this episode if you've ever asked any of these questions and are interested in the answers. Mary shares six books for the spiritually curious that you'll want to add to your reading list. You may just find a new favorite.
 

The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle
A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
https://rb.gy/rngvp

Ask and It Is Given, Esther and Jerry Hicks
Learning to Manifest Your Desires
https://rb.gy/jp50y

Conversations with God, Neale Donald Walsch
An Uncommon Dialogue
https://rb.gy/0msxd

Journey of Souls, Michael Newton, PhD
Case Studies of Life Between Lives
https://rb.gy/wmzdo

Soul Survivor, Bruce and Andrea Leininger
The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot
https://rb.gy/9vbsc 

Into the Magic Shop, James R. Doty, MD
A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart
https://rb.gy/gksbi

To learn more about Mary's work with The Food Whisperers, please visit:
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maryobana.com

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Transcript

Mary Obana 0:05 

I'm Mary Obana. Welcome to Shine. I’m all about friendly, soul-nourishing, spiritually-inspired conversations that expand perspectives and offer practical guidance so you can live joyfully and shine brightly. 

I believe:

Everyone has something special within them, a unique gift—a light you are to find and share with the world. You are here to shine. 

I believe:

You have a deep knowing; guidance that is ready to serve you. It is always available if you listen.

I believe:

You are here to live with complete joy and peace—nothing less. It’s just awaiting your allowing. 

Ready to get to it? Here we go! 

Mary Obana 00:54

Hey there! Welcome back! Recently, I have received a bunch of requests for book recommendations. I was considering an episode devoted to sharing some of my favorite books, so I took this as a sign! 

I read a lot. In fact, I have about five books going right now, two that I can’t wait to dive into. One is Rick Rubin’s “The Creative Act: A Way of Being.” My son Kai says that he sees everything as art – everything! I thought The Creative Act would give me a glimpse into a mind that sees life that way. I’m excited about this one.

The other book is “Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most” written by three professors, all directors at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture -- Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz. They teach a class by the same name, the most in-demand course at Yale, significantly affecting enrollees’ sense of life meaning. If I love these as much as I think I will, I’ll have to share more about them in a future episode.

So, onto some of my favorites.

I am a big fan of non-fiction, rarely reading anything else, so I’ll preface these recommendations with that. There are SO many books I love, but in the context of this podcast and since this is the first one I’m doing on books, most of these are more what I’d call “foundational reads” for me, meaning they have helped shape and reinforce my spiritual perspective. But I have also added a couple that read more like novels though still with a spiritual thread. And as I was flipping through them for this podcast, I realized I’m ready to read some again!

Books are personal, aren’t they? And they seem to come at certain times in your life, just when you need them. I hope you find something that you are inspired to read or read again in here. If any peaks your interest, take note of those. Follow your instinct to read it. As it has been said, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” 

Let’s get to it!

Ok, the first book is one I read in New Zealand in 2019. Isn’t it funny how you can associate books with a trip or a circumstance? Michael and I read it at the same time, so needless to say, it provided for some particularly thought-provoking conversations. 

It’s The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle

You might be familiar with Eckhart, the German-born spiritual teacher, and best-selling author. I’m guessing he is more widely known for his book The New Earth, published in 2005. But The Power of Now was his very first book and one of my favorites because of its profound nature and timeless teachings. My copy of this book has so many underlined passages and highlights and dogeared pages and sticky notes. It is jam-packed with so many truths. It's right up my philosophy alley – it’s a practical way to look at life and a guide to living a life of peace and enlightenment.

The book starts with Eckhart’s telling of his own story – a person riddled by constant anxiety his entire life until, at the age of 29, he woke one night with a feeling of absolute dread, feeling his life had no meaning. He was tired of struggling when a thought kept repeating itself in his mind, “I cannot live with myself any longer.”

That moment would change everything. Not because Eckhart would end his life but because, for the first time, it occurred to him how peculiar the thought was. “I cannot live with myself any longer?” Wait, was he one person or two? Who is the “I,” and who is the “myself”? 

He shares that he was so stunned by this realization that his mind stopped for the first time in his life. The constant noise that had plagued his existence – the anxiety-ridden thoughts that would swirl continuously in his head – quieted. The false, suffering self, which is ultimately a complete concoction of the mind, collapsed. What was left was consciousness.

Ok, so you might be thinking, what the heck!? Consciousness? What does that mean? I think of consciousness as objective observation. Observing things for the things that they are. The consciousness from which you are observing is your true nature – that place where labels and judgment don’t exist. Where you don’t identify with anything. You just ARE, liberated from your mind. 

For those who have come to know me, you now know that one of the core tenants of living a life of peace is detaching from the mind. Recognizing what it is and understanding that our experiences are a complete reflection of our PERSPECTIVE. We are not disturbed by things but by the view we take of them. Our beliefs and how we THINK about things define how we experience them and shape how we feel. And no one controls your thoughts but YOU. Eckhart says, “All problems are illusions of the mind.”

Here’s a passage from the book. Eckhart writes, “When you listen to a thought, you are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought. A new dimension of consciousness has come in. As you listen to the thought, you feel a conscious presence – your deeper self – behind or underneath the thought, as it were. The thought then loses its power over you and quickly subsides because you are no longer energizing the mind through identification with it.” 

Whenever you can observe the mind, you are no longer trapped in it – then you are able to experience the only thing that is real – the NOW. This is where stillness and peace live.

The Power of Now is a guide teaching exactly HOW to live in the now and makes you aware of the tricky things the mind does to draw you away from it. For instance, complaining is always non-acceptance of what IS and carries a negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself a victim. In every unwanted circumstance, you have three choices: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it. And whatever action you take, drop the negativity first. Action arising out of insight into what is required is more effective than action arising out of negativity. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those options NOW, then accept the consequences without excuses. It’s just what IS.

Some gems:

All that is possible is already within you. The only place true change can occur is NOW.

There are no problems, only situations to be dealt with.

Enlightenment is consciously choosing to relinquish your attachment to the past and future and to make the NOW the main focus of your life.

This is one of those books that will change how you look at things and make you realize that suffering is of our own making, which means with awareness, you can live without it.

The Power of Now, by Eckhardt Tolle.

The next book is Ask, and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires by Esther and Jerry Hicks

If you want to learn about manifesting and the Law of Attraction, look no further than “Ask and It is Given.” 

This book reflects the teachings of Abraham, a collective consciousness from the non-physical realm channeled by Esther Hicks. 

As you’ve heard me say many times, everything is energy. This book details the laws of vibration and attraction and offers teachings so that you can manifest what you desire. Simply put, as they say, if you aren’t getting what you want, it’s not because you don’t want it enough, are not intelligent enough, are not worthy enough, because fate is against you, or because someone else is meant to have it instead. The reason you have not already received what you desire is that you are holding yourself in a vibrational holding pattern that does not match the vibration of your desire. This is about releasing your resistant thoughts, which can show up as tension, anger, frustration, etc., so you can clear the path to receive what you want.

This book offers the steps to do it… ask, let the Universe answer, then allow it in. Understanding the Art of Allowing is essential to receiving what you want – getting yourself in vibrational harmony with what you want. Many of us hold an energy of LACK when we want something so badly – we must transition our energy to a one of HAVING. They teach you how to do that. The whole second half of the book presents 22 proven processes to improve your point of attraction so you can find the ones that work best for you.

If you want to learn about manifesting, this is the Bible! Ask, and It Is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks.

It’s funny how you can buy a book, crack it open, then put it down only for it to end up on a shelf for years unread. This happens when the timing isn’t right, and it’s what happened to me with Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch.

I bought this book so many years ago; I can’t even remember when – it looks like it was first published in 1995. Then a few years ago, someone referenced it in a conversation, and I thought, “I think I own that book.” This is when you know the time has come. When you are guided to a book, you are meant to read.

I was drawn to Conversations with God a few months after writing my book Shine and was struck first by the author’s experience. In the introduction, he shares, “This book was not written by me, it happened to me.” That’s the way I felt when I wrote Shine. The words came rapidly to and through me and onto the page. They weren’t my words, but words I knew I was meant to share. Answers to the questions I long held within me – why am I here? What is my purpose? And the answers came. Neale Donald Walsh had questions, too—lots of them. This book chronicles the answers he received. 

Truths are expressed in many forms and through many teachers – and it needs to be that way because what resonates with one might not resonate with another. But so many of the messages contained have so many similarities. For instance, Walsh asks about prayer and why people don’t get what they pray for. God responds, “You will not have that for which you ask, nor can you have anything you want. This is because your very request is a statement of lack, and you're saying you want a thing only works to produce that precise experience—wanting—in your reality. The correct prayer is, therefore, never a prayer of supplication but a prayer of gratitude. When you thank God in advance for that which you choose to experience in your reality, you, in effect, acknowledge that it is there. Thankfulness is thus the most powerful statement to God, an affirmation that even before you ask, I have answered. Therefore, never supplicate. Appreciate.” Sound familiar? 

Then he asks, why are we here? God responds, “To remember who you are.” I freaked out when I read this – one of the first messages that came through me and onto the page for Shine was that this is a “remembering” – remembering the unique gifts you have that come from the love within you.

So many questions are asked and answered in this book – all the ones you can imagine: why is there conflict in the world? Why do bad things happen? Is God to be feared? Is God judgmental? Is there a hell? Questions about good and evil, relationships, religions, love, faith, and karma. And that’s just Book 1. If you enjoy this, there is a Book 2 and  Book 3 as well. It’s written from an ordinary person’s point of view, and the answers are straightforward and easy to understand—Conversations with God, by Neale Donald Walsch. I enjoyed it.

Oooh, this next one is such a good one. Journey of Souls by Dr. Michael Newton

If you’ve ever wondered why you have come to this life experience, where you go after death, and what happens when you get there, this book is for you.

Michael Newton is a counseling psychologist, teacher, and certified Master Hypnotherapist who, through his work, stumbled into a world that we cannot see – that place between lives.

As a counseling psychologist, Newton specializes in behavior modification to treat psychological disorders. Much of his work involves short-term cognitive restructuring helping his clients connect thoughts and emotions to promote healthy behavior. Using hypnotherapy, he would work with his clients to uncover the origins of disturbing memories or childhood trauma by regressing them to a younger age. 

A skeptic by nature, Newton resisted any requests from his clients to explore previous lives thinking it was unorthodox and non-clinical until one of his clients complained of a lifetime of chronic pain on his right side. Through hypnosis, he eventually uncovered his former life as a World War I soldier who was killed by a bayonet in France, and they were able to eliminate the pain altogether. It didn’t take long for him to realize that deep-seated memories offer a glimpse into past experiences, often too real and connected to be ignored. He then understood how therapeutically important the link is between the bodies and events of our former lives and who we are today. 

He shares that he began regressing his clients back in time to access their memories from their former lives. In so doing, he discovered incredible similarities in reported experiences between lives and the spirit world. This book documents his findings through many case studies detailing what was revealed in his sessions. The background of his clients varied greatly – men and women, some very religious, others had no particular spiritual beliefs at all, and most were somewhere in between. Yet, their experiences had remarkable consistency, using the same words, colloquial language, and graphic descriptions. But what was revealed --- WOW! These accounts reveal answers to all those things you’ve wondered about, like how it feels to die and what you see and feel right after death. Is it true that loved ones greet us when we pass over? What’s the deal with soul families or groups, spirit guides, when and where you first learn to recognize soulmates on Earth… it’s wild and crazy and utterly fascinating! 

Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives.

The next one is called Soul Survivor, by Bruce and Andrea Leininger

If you want to read a mind-blowing true story of how our souls reincarnate, you have to read this book. It’s a complete page-turner. You won’t believe it!

This is the story of James Leininger, who, after just turning two and speaking for the first time in sentences, began having recurrent nightmares. They would come almost every night until one night, his mother Andrea realized he wasn’t just screaming, he was saying something, “Plane on fire! Little man can’t get out! Plane on fire! Little man can’t get out!” It was so odd. What would make him say that? They asked their pediatrician, who just chalked it up to night terrors that he would grow out of. But they persisted. Then one day, James was in a store with his mother, who saw a bin of odds and ends toys. Trying to give him a distraction so she could get some shopping done, she plucked out a small model propeller plane and handed it to James, exclaiming, “And there’s even a bomb on the bottom!” James, still in diapers, looked at the toy plane and said something that stopped his mom cold in her tracks, “That’s not a bomb, Mommy. That’s a dwop tank.”

His mom had no idea what a drop tank was, but when she got home that night and shared what happened with her husband Bruce, she learned that it was an extra gas tank that airplanes used to extend their range. How would he know that they wondered!? And what would follow and the explicit level of detail little James would reveal through his drawings and conversations, and interviews will boggle your mind.

One of the things that makes this story so interesting is that Bruce is a devout Christian and an outright rejecter of reincarnation. His faith promised him eternal life and did not include the possibility of the soul returning in some future incarnation. He couldn’t deny that all these things were coming from his son, but he was committed to disproving that there was any connection to a past life. So, the research began. Painstaking research would confront their skepticism and re-examine their entire belief system as they reached the inescapable conclusion that their sweet little boy James was reliving the life of James Huston, a World War II fighter pilot who was killed in battle – now over 70 years ago. 

I am telling you, the sheer number of James’ recounted specifics in this book is outrageous, right down to the names of the other pilots. And his recollections aren’t only related to the details of his previous life – I’m just going to say CRAZY! If you’ve ever wondered or doubted whether someone could come back as someone else, this will open your eyes.

The book is called Soul Survivor by Bruce and Andrea Leininger.

Alright, the final book for today is called Into the Magic Shop by James R. Doty, MD 

Sometimes books find you. I was in Sun Valley, ID nursing my leg after my accident. Unable to snowboard, I finished all the books I had brought with me, so we went to the cute local bookstore in town called Chapter One. I love local bookstores! I can spend hours in them! I always like looking at the Spirituality or Inspirational reads sections, but both were located on the second floor, requiring me to navigate with crutches up a steep, narrow staircase just a few days post-surgery, so the owner brought some books down for me. I knew right away this was the one.

The author was in town recently for an event, so she was excited about the book. It was written by Dr. James Doty, a neurosurgeon, neuroscientist, and professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University. Between my Stanford roots and a brother who also went to Stanford and happens to be a neurosurgeon, it called to me! 

This is the story of the life of Jim Doty. Raised by an alcoholic father and a dysfunctional, chronically depressed mother, Jim had a rough childhood – bills weren’t getting paid, his parents were unavailable, he was anxious and afraid, and his outlook was bleak. Then, at the age of 12, Jim wandered into the magic shop in town and met a woman named Ruth who saw something special in him. Ruth offered to teach him the most extraordinary magic of all: the ability to make anything he wanted actually to appear. So every day for six weeks, Jim would learn to relax his body, tame his mind, open his heart, and clarify his intent. These exercises would ease his suffering and help him manifest his greatest desires. It changed his life. Jim would go on to become a neurosurgeon and amass great wealth in a medical startup until he lost his way. Man, this Jim Doty has been on some journey! It’s a great story – and it’s true!

Into the Magic Shop is about the connection between the brain and the heart and his discovery that, as he writes, “when the brain changes, we change. That is a truth proven by science. But an even greater truth is that when our heart changes, everything changes. And that change is not only in how we see the world but in how the world sees us.”

Today, James Doty is also the director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University, of which the Dalai Lama is a founding benefactor. For the last several years, he has focused on studying compassion’s effect on mental and physiological health and longevity.

I love when science meets spirituality. This is a great read. You’ll enjoy it. It’s called Into The Magic Shop, by James Doty.

I could go on and on with books, but we’ll stop there for now! I hope there’s something that sparked your interest. Books are such gifts. They take us on these rides, sometimes to escape, often to inspire, but always to learn. I’m always so fascinated by people’s stories and where their experiences take them. Each of these books gives us a glimpse into other people’s stories, and I never tire of the beautiful places their often-unexpected experiences take them. From Eckhart Tolle’s low point. Who would know that the thought “I cannot live with myself any longer” would unleash a life devoted to helping others or how a little boy’s dreams could open up the perspective of so many, or a chance encounter with a woman in a magic shop on a hot summer day could go on to transform Jim Doty’s life – and would inspire him to then transform others. His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, shared, "Dr. Doty brings his heart to every problem and through his heart creates change." Regular people led to their work not in spite of but BECAUSE of where they have been. And this is true for you, too. Never doubt the value of your experiences to your journey. I love it.

I will include these books and links to them in the show notes and on my website, maryobana.com/podcast. Thanks for joining me today. Until next time, take it easy!