Spiritual Partnership: The Journey to Authentic Power

Zukav, the author acclaimed for books such as The Dancing Wu Li Masters and The Seat of The Soul, brings us a paradigm-shifting book about relationships. This book is not just about intimate partner relationships, but about principles that apply to all relationships. It examines how humanity appears to be facing a shift from 5-sensory perception to multi-sensory perception (perception beyond the physical senses). According to Zukav, this shift provides an opportunity for us to base our relationships on developing spiritually - supporting one another's spiritual growth and building internal power rather than seeking external power. In this conceptualization, Zukav discusses how fear-based aspects of ourselves constantly seek external power to pursue an illusion of security. The love-fear dichotomy is seen at the heart of this challenge. Zukav points out how all the institutions of our existing society are geared toward pursuit of external power (that includes traditional ideas of marriage) - something which will theoretically fall away as humanity evolves in the next couple of generations. This book presents clear ideas and guidelines for building spiritual partnerships - which involves facing fears, building self-awareness, letting go of judgments, having integrity, and having compassion for oneself and others. The book is excellent in offering an outline of the hows and whys of spiritual partnerships. Zukav has a smooth, engaging style of writing that will draw in readers to embrace what he is teaching. These teachings will definitely help foster healthier relationships and spiritual development. My own reservation about some portions of this book (the reason I'm not giving it a full five stars) centers around Zukav's vision of humanity's transformation in the coming decades. Humanity has always had multi-sensory ability - in ancient eras (and even now in some indegenous cultures) people were actually more tuned in to their non-physical sensory awareness. Zukav implies that there's occuring now a rapid shift into a reality on Earth where everyone will be regularly tuned into ESP on a constant basis. Frankly, that seems highly questionable - and most people don't appear close to being spiritually mature enough to handle that expansion of sensory awareness. This book is well suited to those aligning with their soul/higher self and pursuing spiritual development - but it doesn't seem that humanity as a whole is making this shift that Zukav describes - a segment of the population who are likely to be interested in this type of book are embracing such a shift, yet the masses are to a great extent asleep to their spiritual selves. The future that Zukav predicts is a potential reality, but not one that appears immanent. I applaud him for showing us what's possible, though I think credibility is diminished when a future is foretold as if it's certain.

Spiritual Partnership: The Journey to Authentic Power is a dynamic guide to spiritual self-improvement through greater connection with and perception of our fellow human beings. Author Gary Zukav contends that spiritual partnerships are not only for married couples; any two human beings who choose to engage as equals with the goal of spiritual development can create them. The key lies within the choice to grow spiritually with interactions defined by experience in multisensory dimensions (not confined to merely the five senses), and the mutual choice to grow spiritually with interactions rather than descent into blame, judgment, and hostility. A life-transforming book, highly recommended.

Full Disclosure - I am heading a team that is producing the online engagement platform for this author and I personally designed the cover of the book. So you can assume my review is biased but in fact, it is heartfully accurate. My evaluation is with integrity and gratitude for the quality of these ideas and practices. I read Gary Zukav's Dancing Wu Li Masters just when I got to college in 1979 and it changed my life to learn, for the first time, about quantum physics and its profound relationship to consciousness that Zukav revealed to the non-physicist masses in 1979. This knowledge set me on a course to explore the implications of human computer interface modeled after the way consciousness structures our reality, which we are now applying to elearning. After reading Spiritual Partnership, I have experienced another quantum shift, this time of the heart not the head. Readers who have ingested a lot of self-help books might initially be hit with the feeling that the principles in Spiritual Partnership are too simple to work: making spiritual growth your highest priority, cultivating emotional awareness, saying or doing what is most difficult, taking responsibility for your feelings, experiences and actions without blaming; examining your deeper intentions, choosing responsibly, releasing distance you feel from anyone, etc. While I had heard some of these ideas before, I have never felt them penetrate so deeply as after I read this book. Zukav has a brilliant way of using metaphor to make simple but profound principles stick in the head and heart. For example, he uses the example of his father's antique diamond scale as a symbol of the balance of superiority or inferiority you feel towards others. As long as the scale is tipped - either you feel inferior to a particular person, or you feel superior - in either case you are not practicing or experiencing authentic power, and your spiritual growth suffers. After having read this book, I still have the same reactions - say of righteous indignation when I feel I am right in an argument - but now I am beginning to develop the ability to independently witness these reactions before I act unconsciously and make matters worse. I am catching myself in unconscious patterns more often, and I feel my spiritual growth is being dramatically accelerated by the principles in this book. If you have ever been repeatedly exasperated by interactions with certain people in your life, this book will help you transform those events into opportunities to learn more about yourself, grow spiritually, and be less dependent on external circumstances or people changing in order for you to be happy. Oprah called Gary's book "The Seat of the Soul" the most profound book she ever read. But this book, "Spiritual Partnership" has already changed my life dramatically for the better, and I recommend it to anyone who is willing to make spiritual growth their highest priority. You will be rewarded by growing more fearless a

This book is about a new kind or relationship, it goes beyond the old roles in marriage of a provider and homemaker, it is more than friendship, it is even more valuable than traditional family relationships. A Spiritual partnership is between equals to accomplish spiritual growth. It serves a different purpose of all the traditional forms of relationships. The partners are together in order to help one another grow spiritually instead of enhance their physical comfort and safety. Spiritual partnerships are relationships that more spiritually receptive people use to create authentic power with in themselves. Their goal is to share spiritual growth with each other. They allow each other to see the emotional armor they wear because of irritability, righteosuness, superiority, and inferiority that is caused because of inner fear, and remove it. They allow each other to lay down their weapons of anger, jealousy, and vengeance because of love. Spiritual partners are on a quest for authentic power that comes from with in as love over takes fear as the underlying motivation in their mutual lives. These relationships do not seek external power, they seek to change themselves. They trust one another enough to explore their fear and love together. They are brave enough to probe the depths of intimacy. Their path is one where they do not try to solve one anothers problems, encourage bad bahavior, or enable destructive behavior. They are their to ask the right questions, search for the underlying fear in their partner, listen with their heart, and love unconditionally. Spiritual partners realize that their problems are internal not external. Another marriage, more money, alcohol, drugs, sex, or a better job is not the solution to their problems. People that are driven by solely their five senses leave circumstances only to discover that the demons that plague their mind were waiting for them in their new circumstances. Multisensory people are evolving that are in touch with their soul, heart, and intuition. This book provides a map to join in this journey. This review does not begin to do justice to the deep spiritual insights that are found in this book. This book gives you the guidelines on how to create such a beautiful spiritual relationship. If you are ready for this message it could literally begin to change your life and relationships permanently. "The more you explore your intentions the more you will see that no matter how many options you appear to have, you actually have only two-love and fear. Loving intentions create authentic power." Perfect love casts out all fear.