The Prophet's Way: A Guide to Living in the Now

Thom's book cracked my heart wide-open. It' clearly the definitive journey of our time: waking up to the possibility, certainly the responsibility, of reaching toward a maturity of Soul. This journey takes you into the Suffering of the World. From the Hunt Clubs in Bogota, Columbia: those who hunt children for sport. To the poverty of Africa, India, and the diminishment of the integrity of the Earth itself. This is a book that you FEEL to the Depths of your Soul. It shakes you and changes you. After reading the book several years ago, it was my honor and privledge to visit with Thom and his mentor Herr Muller in Germany, and walk the Prophets Way Path. It was a moving and life affirming moment. It launched me to embrace a suffering world. I now work with At-Risk kids taking them into the wilderness. I listen to their stories. Hold their pain by affirming and mirroring the best in each one of them. We are all linked in a common humanity and that is the message of Thom's book. It affirms the best in each of us and asks us to CHANGE.

I just finished reading the Prophet's Way.. I was absolutely entranced. All that I have read, combined with our first real energy crisis in California has really made me wake up, although I feel more like I'm in a daze thinking about all of it. I never thought about vegetarianism in this way it is presented before. I never knew that a meat-eating lifestyle perpetuates the disintigration of our earth and reaches out to harm so many areas. "Diet for a new America" is what I'll be reading next.

Thom Hartmann's two books The Prophet's Way and The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight were two books impossible to put down which transformed how I see the world and my role in it--both on spiritual and practical levels. Prophet's Way is a very personal account of Hartmann's own fascinating path to enlightenment whereas Last Hours is an objective analysis of the global problems we face from a cultural historical, environmental and spiritual perspective. Thom Hartmann is a true master of the human spirit and his message, if heard by enough of us, may well play a critical role in the salvation of humanity.

Review: The Prophet's WayThom Hartmann is an individual who has changed the world by providing exciting new paradigms for understanding the psychological, neurological, and (in Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight) ecological domains of human experience. He rides the conceptual bow wave and loves to play with ideas and make his creative contribution from that place.In Prophet's Way, he moves from his work as a conceptual iconoclastic to share his love for his spiritual guru--a German mystic named Herr Muller--and to describe the miraculous experience of being around him in their travels. The journey Hartmann takes us on is not done to glorify his guru or promote his teachings. It is a journey that stays true to Hartmann's lifelong interest in the power of the human mind and spirit to shape reality in extraordinary ways. In Prophet's Way, the author describes how the power of love can be focused to change physical reality so as to bring things into being that were thought to be impossible. This book took was written with heart and obvious courage. Hartmann didn't have to write about his relationship with his guru. He risked getting a lot of criticism for talking about the joy of giving up his free will in this way. But he pulls it off marvelously! One of Hartmann's jobs for Herr Muller was to travel internationally setting up children's homes along the line of the establishment he ran in Salem, New Hampshire twenty years ago. Hartmann would often get on the plane, not sure how he would be received on the other end, because often all the details had been left to chance. But chance always seemed to come through when Herr Muller put his mind on getting a project in place for homeless kids. Prophet's Way, gives you a sense of what it's like to live deep in the faith that if you're on the right path you don't really need to know where the path is going. You'll be taken care of. I have always found this kind of "cosmic innocence" (to quote William Blake) difficult to live. I enjoyed reading about how Thom Hartmann not only lives this philosophy but leaves the world better for it.

I have never had so many problems doing a review before. I don't even *like* the word, "problems", usually seeing them as challenges instead. The process of reviewing this book was challenging to the point of being problematical. While part of me was energetically focused on this very personal dilemma, part of me was asking, "Why?", seeking the meanings beneath the surface of the obstacles occurring and recurring at annoying and increasingly quick intervals.This reached a crisis point during an interminably long sleepless night. This morning I realized that most of what I've been encountering is because this book is one of the most important I have ever read; that it is both life-changing and life-challenging -- and how in the world can I do it justice in a few bytes of a review?I still don't know. All I can do is urge you to read this book. At worst, you will be entertained by a wonderful and inspiring story; at best, and more likely, it will change your life.In the beginning, Thom Hartmann talks about the physical mountainside path in Bavaria that his mentor, Herr Muller, calls his "prophet's way". He then invites us to walk along with him as he shares his own journey along this path that began in his early years and continues to this day. "The Prophet's Way" is the story of one man's personal journey toward self-actualization, yet it also takes on the shape and form of "every-(wo)man's journey" as its message speaks strongly and with beautiful simplicity to the very heart and soul and spirit of who we are and what we are here to accomplish.Thom Hartmann talks about many things that we have all heard before, yet they are presented in a more in-depth and personal way. There are also many things he shares that are juxta-positioned in a way that we can't help but see and experience them differently.To isolate just one example of the former, there were two 'basics' that underscore a great deal of the author's personal experiences, and ! that we can all relate to. One is that the underlying need for each being on this planet is for love; the other is that the underlying drive for each being on this planet is to find and fulfill their life's purpose.This book is a testimonial of Thom Hartmann's personal search for that love, growing toward becoming that love, and thus being directed by that love toward his own life's purpose. It isn't about being perfect or living the life of a saint or being or doing anything that is outside the realm of human possibility. It's about being conscious of the small and large ways divine love manifests in our lives every day; how that loving Presence is constantly and caringly nudging us toward being more of who we really are, and doing more of what we've come to do.Of the latter, (seeing things differently), the author's sharing in the chapter called "Living on the Edge" and how he presents fractals helped me to not only see my life differently, but also to identify ways for living my life with more positive influe