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adyashanti
August 2008 
Integral Review
Posted on Jun 3rd, 2008
by 
MrTeacup
MrTeacup
A new edition of Integral Review is out. Highlights:
- A reflection on a retreat with Adyashanti - the author has some critical things to say about Adyashanti, but the piece is positive overall. My favorite part is when Adyashanti says that his retreats tripled in size when he changed his name from Steven Gray!
- A review of the novel The Seeker Academy by L.D. Gussin. The story follows Grace Hudson, spiritual seeker, on her journey through various New Age retreats and workshops, encountering "narcissism, spiritual elitism and emotional dysfunction". Gussin also gets into some of the pre-rational beliefs, and advocates a return to reason and critical thinking in spirituality. This is not something you hear often enough, so it's going on my reading list. The book is not just a slam against New Age though: "despite these and other shortcomings, this seeking can be of value, that there is truth to be found."
One thing about the book that is fascinating and also kind of sad is that the author sent review copies to a bunch of spiritual magazines and only one printed a review. The author addresses this on his blog in a three part series - yes, three parts complaining about a lack of reviews. On one hand, this seems excessive and a bit whiny - there's so many books out there now, it's hard to get noticed, it's not a conspiracy to supress your genius, etc. But on the other hand, it would not surprise me that this also speaks to an unwillingness on the part of spiritual leaders to accept this very valid critique.
Access: Public
Mr. Teacup,
My complaint, as far as I can tell, isn't about a suppressing of genius I don't think I have. In my mind it is thematically consistent with the book. I set out to write a literary novel about this movement with many gravitational centers and names. My models included Blithdale Romance and The Magic Mountain, other novels about countercultures and retreats from the Western mainstream. The vitality of the counterculture is what I care about.
What I've found and criticized is a literary establishment so hateful of the movement that it won't consider it as a literary subject, and a movement establishment so afraid of criticism that it won't look in a novelistic mirror. I think in both cases one can find a source for these attitudes by following the money.
Integral Review now says clearly that my novel is very much worth reading, and why.
L.D.