Author: Jed McKenna

Publisher: Wisefool Press

ISBN: 978-0-9714352-2-3

How does one go about inciting change in people’s behavior? Probably, you either have to explore the underlying issues that influence their actions, thus providing them with an awakening of the psychological elements at work, or you can focus on the surface of a particular issue, thereby giving them the necessary gear to effect change. Both of these methods are adopted by Jed McKenna in his latest tome Spiritual Warfare which is the third of his series of his enlightenment trilogy.

 McKenna professes that since he comprehends the universe, he recognizes how to deal with it. He informs us in the beginning of Spiritual Warfare that he is conscious of the universe’s patterns, signs, subtle variations in rightness and not-rightness, flow and obstruction that all play a role in making it work. Although we may believe that the universe and McKenna are two different entities, they are in fact the absence of that artificial distinction that he is talking about. It is this absence that is one of the topics examined and explored throughout the book.

According to McKenna, “it is the thing that everyone wants to know about and tap into: effortless functioning, direct knowing, the manifestation of abundance, health, prosperity, happiness. If we grasp how the universe works and how we can merge back into it, we can learn to operate in alignment with it. For some, however, as is the case with one of McKenna’s characters, Lisa, there is skepticism and all of this universe talk is drivel. All they see is randomness and chaos everywhere. There really is no real order to things.    

For McKenna it really has nothing to do with enlightenment or truth-realization, but rather it has to do with being a naturally developed human being instead of spiritually underdeveloped or a developmentally retarded human being. As McKenna points out, it is essential that we make the transition from Human Children to Human Adults and then continuing a lifetime’s development in order to be aligned with the universe-“that’s what life really is, and no one knows it.”

To illustrate his points, McKenna follows the behavior of two characters, and as he mentions, these characters may only be shadowy apparitions inhabiting his own dreamscape environment. We meet Lisa, an attorney, who is recently divorced from her dentist husband and Bob, a longstanding spiritual expert and author. We are shown how Lisa completes her transition to adulthood and her continuing development within it, while Bob continues to be stuck in all of his publications, knowledge and spiritual egohood.

As is the case with any discipline, you need to understand the lingo or the jargon before you can fully appreciate what is being alleged or taught. Consequently, a very important chapter is devoted to various terms that McKenna continuously employs throughout his book. Although, the chapter’s first sentences state that you can skip it and if confused return later, I highly recommend that you read it in order to secure a better grasp of what McKenna’s is talking about in his subsequent chapters. It is here where we become familiarized with the concepts of  the dreamstate paradigm, spiritual enlightenment, Maya: architect of delusion, human adulthood and human childhood, differences between human adulthood and spiritual enlightenment, simplicity, surrender, focus & intent, price or truth, ignorance, fear, gratitude, and further.

One of the terms that McKenna continuously refers to is Maya: architect of delusion which he describes as the intelligence of fear. “It is Maya who bestows upon us the miraculous and life-giving power to see what’s not and to not see what is. It is Maya who makes the dreamstate possible and escape from it nearly impossible.”

According to McKenna, if you wish to escape the Dreamstate, you have to destroy Maya layer by layer. Furthermore, Maya is not a she and it is not external to you. It resides inside of you and the layers you need to destroy are the stuff of which your ego is made. In the war against Maya, it has every advantage except one, truth, as Maya doesn’t exist but truth does.

McKenna does not hold back going after enlightenment as sold to us by its many New Age proponents as well as the self-help aisles of bookstores and bought into one therapy, modality or ideology after another. And as one of his characters notes, “we’re subject to kharma-dharma dipsdy doodle and we just gotta be good sheep; no pressure, no urgency, nothing to do but lay low and ride it out.”

To McKenna the difference between adulthood and enlightenment is that the former is awakening within the dreamstate while the latter is awakening from it. And as he mentions, “Shallow, early-state Adulthood is often mistaken for, and sold as, Spiritual enlightenment, but it’s not. It’s just the first glimpse of life, the death/rebirth transition from womb to world.” Furthermore, it is not truth or enlightenment that people are looking for but rather human adulthood. However, unfortunately, as McKenna illustrates, the way to human adulthood is not an easy voyage as no one has any idea to what degree they have been shaped by the people and conditions of their environment until they undertake to extricate themselves from it. This becomes particularly in evidence when our nasty ego gets in the way and controls are thoughts and actions.

Although you may consider Spiritual Warfare to be a lengthy lecture from an avuncular professor with a fondness for coining new words and terms, you have to admit that McKenna is very impressive in neatly assembling and correlating all of his ideas.  Many readers may not agree with McKenna’s opinions and his take on life, and I am sure his critics will call him uninformed and simplistic. Nonetheless, he does present his arguments with a great deal of passion and conviction. Moreover, if approached with an open mind and a grain of salt, McKenna’s rant succeeds in achieving its ultimate goal: it forces people to think.

The above review of the ARC copy was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN:  Norm is a Retired Title Attorney and now is the Editor & Publisher of Bookpleasures. Here are more of Norm Goldman's Reviews