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1-Star Amazon Reviews of Spiritual Books
And what these surprisingly heartfelt rants teach us about our spirituality
Last week, I wrote an essay called “The Power of Here.” It was an obvious play on Eckhart Tolle’s world-famous The Power of Now, and I wanted to draw some parallels between Tolle’s teachings about presence in time and with this essay’s talk of presence in place. So, I looked up the book on Amazon to refresh myself on some basic publishing details.
This led me to possibly the weirdest book review I have ever read.
The nearly 3,000-word manifesto came from an anonymous American reviewer named Someonereallyimportant. It began, “I have had what felt like a true fight between good and evil for my soul in recent years.” Over the ensuing paragraphs, this reallyimportantSomeone recounted his relationships with women, who abused and “tempted” him, with at least one physically assaulting him (I’m a bit confused on the details), and how the pain and depression led him, like many of us are led, to a spiritual path.
While reading The Power of Now, this reviewer had an insight about Ambien and evil. He’d felt taken over by some external force while sleepwalking on Ambien, and believed the experience to be a kind of demon, literal or figurative, taking control of his body.