Life Beyond Belief, Everyday Living as Spiritual Practice

Excellent book, beautifully structured, written, and edited. Alice Gardner's personal touch creates a bond with the reader. She leads you from exactly where you are -- physically, emotionally, spiritually -- through layers of beliefs, programming, and conditioning, to a place of greater freedom. Gardner says you find the truth of your existence regardless of the context in which your life is currently being lived or what your mental conditioning is. You don't have to go to a monastery. You don't have to get divorced. You don't have to go on a diet. You don't have to do anything other than look where Alice Gardner points you. Gardner talks about marriage, eating for emotional reasons, family, relationships, body image, self-esteem, deep listening, layers of emotionality, love. The writing style is breezy and calm, organized and focused, and at the same time revelatory and demanding. Don't expect your life to become perfect, it won't, but what seem like problems will ease. You'll have a whole new view of your world. "Comforting" spirituality has its time and place. However, we can also face the truth of our lives and the truth of who we are, even if some of our emotional reactions may never change. Alice Gardner is an excellent person to take you into the world of radically honest spirituality. Go with her. Jerry Katz

"Life Beyond Belief" is a well-written and accessible guide to awakening from the dominion of the ego to the Heart of Life. Alice Gardner writes in an honest and sometimes humorous manner that reflects the joy of living in the present moment." - Katie Davis, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment

Life Beyond Belief is a must read for anyone who wants understanding in their pursuit of living Truth. For those of us who wonder at their lack of "progress," even when there is beautiful knowledge of our spiritual makeup, this book is incredibly helpful. With clarity and an obvious foundation of knowledge, Ms. Gardner presents the case that we are actually not backsliding when our thoughts and emotions take over. Instead, she give us the perspective that this is a necessary clearing of old fears and doubts. This perspective lightens our hearts, giving readers a much-needed relaxing into "what is." I highly recommend this book.

Amazing book! In this deeply personal account, Alice Gardner invites us to join her as she shares her own human story, her journey to spiritual awakening. Now like never before, I see the value of my own ordinary, everyday life. Truly it has opened up for me a "Life Beyond Belief", where compassion for my own conditioned patterns and beliefs is replacing my struggle with confusion and self-doubt. I go back to the book over and over. Each time I see a little clearer that my everyday life experiences are in the service of waking up to realizing the Peace and Freedom available and possible, already! Thank you Alice.

Alice Gardner has succeeded brilliantly in breathing her humanity into the story of awakening to "what is." Throughout the book, she points out the universality of the cross-cultural perennial Truth that everything is, quintessentially, only One. By directly encouraging us to actively use whatever experiences show up as an occasion to deepen our awareness, she short-circuits the mind's proclivity to separate itself from the heartbeat of Life. Clear, personal and very readable. Highly recommended. Chuck Hillig Author of: Enlightenment for Beginners, Looking for God: Seeing the Whole in One, Seeds for the Soul, The Way IT Is, and The Magic King. www.chuckhillig.com