Beyond The Siddhis: Supernatural Powers and the Sutras of Patanjali

Author - John McAfee ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Woodland Publications was reviewed on 6-Nov-2008.

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1) Paperback Book Beyond The Siddhis: Supernatural Powers and the Sutras of Patanjali by Woodland Publications. As other reviewers have already pointed out the author makes a vain attempt to reduce the siddhis to nothing more than shifts in our everyday perception; no more than cryptic word games. The Author´s conclusions are utterly ludicrous and are reached through no reasonable amount of logic whatsoever. He tries to explain away and pronounce dead wrong things that 2500 years of Indian scholars and Yogic Ascetics know to be fact. This is by far and away the most ignorant, westernized interpretation of any area of Yoga I have ever seen. I wouldn´t be speaking so harshly if it weren´t entirely warranted. Trust me. If you want to learn about The Eight-Fold Path and the Siddhis I highly suggest you look elsewhere.¤

2) Paperback Book Beyond The Siddhis: Supernatural Powers and the Sutras of Patanjali by Woodland Publications. John McAfee explains these teachings in such a way as to make them understood, with a minimal amount of rhetoric. He writes easy and simply. His words flowed along the paper like pure silk. This was my first introduction to the Sutras of Patanjali and John McAfee and I´m glad I chose his book to bring these Sutras to life. At book´s end, I was left wanting more of his guidence.¤

3) Paperback Book Beyond The Siddhis: Supernatural Powers and the Sutras of Patanjali by Woodland Publications. The Author, probably because he´s not very far on the path, attempts to tell readers that the Siddhis are not to be taken at face value and are in fact only philosophical references. He goes through many of the most popular Siddhis such as Invisibility, Levitation, and Psychic Communication and instead of explaining and expounding on them as they were written by Patanjali over 2000 years ago, he takes outrageous liberties and "philosophizes" them to where they mean nothing.

For example in the section discussing Invisibility he first asks the question "How visible are we to begin with?" Then proceeds to run off with a bunch of philosophical tripe about how none of us are really visible since we cannot "see" each others true selves and nor can anyone "see" our true selves so we´re all already performing this siddhi everyday!

He continues to do this exact same thing with every Siddhi he covers, beginning with asking some meaningless philosophical questions and pointing out that we usually are already doing the siddhi we are trying to attain such as with Levitation where he asks "Are we really connected to the earth we wish to levitate above?"

This process of "philosophizing" the Siddhi´s into meaninglessness is totally opposite to what Patanjali and the Yogis since him having been teaching and practicing for the last 2000 years.

What´s most annoying about this book is that this "philosophizing" technique that the author uses is so out-dated and pathetic that the reader is just left shaking their head the whole time and wondering if the author was even around during the 60´s when this stupid technique was most used by every drug using self-professed guru that had to come up with a good explanation for their clueless followers as to why their enlightened teacher couldn´t walk on water.

Not to mention the ridiculous idea that these types of "gurus" like to maintain that Patajali, considered the father of yoga, would be stupid enough to write an INSTRUCTION book filled with abstract double meanings e.g. "Oh he didn´t mean Levitate off the ground, he meant for us to examine the idea of weather or not we really are on the ground in the first place and we will then find that we are already levitating!"

Given that Yoga is such a difficult subject for laymen to understand it´s sad that it must be riddled with selfish fakes like this that purposely seek to destroy what little truthful instruction we have left from the legendary adepts.

Bottom line if you want a good book on the Siddhis I suggest simply buying a direct Patajali´s Sutras translation. You´ll usually get all 4 books with none of the Sutras missing, the author will probably do the direct translation and then further explain things in more laymen´s terms. You still probably won´t find many authors that´ll heavily discuss their own Siddhi experiences but at least they don´t try to destroy what Yogis have spent over 2000 years trying to preserve.

I highly suggest "Raja Yoga" by Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda was one of the greatest Yogi´s of the 20th century and had a clear understanding of the science of Yoga and Patanjaili´s sutras and could at the same time present this information in a format available to the modern westerner. Keep in mind this book may be a little tough for beginners but if you understand it then it will be the most important book you´ve ever read.¤

4) Paperback Book Beyond The Siddhis: Supernatural Powers and the Sutras of Patanjali by Woodland Publications. This little book reminds me of the old Readers´ Digest digests that one left on the commode. If you´re in a hurry, and seek only the most ephemeral of companionship with THAT, then this book is for you. Otherwise, keep on shoppin´....¤

5) Paperback Book Beyond The Siddhis: Supernatural Powers and the Sutras of Patanjali by Woodland Publications. Mr. McAfee cleverly takes all the supernatural out of the Siddhis and reduces them to every day occurances. Explaining away every extraordinary ability as just a shift in perception of what Patanjali was really meaning. For instance in sutra 3.21 of becoming invisible. He takes this meaning to be that we let go of our self-centeredness and identity of ego and in doing so we become "invisible". In sutra 3.23 attaining the foreknowledge of death, he says we already do this by planning our life around the fact that we will die sometime in the future. We make wills and buy insurance so he says that Patanjali meant we should live our life as if each day was the last day or that our death was upon us. Living this way we would act very differently in our reality. McAfee explains everything in a logical shift your perception manner. I cannot disagree that we should look at life in some of the ways he has suggested but I strongly disagree that there is no higher abilites being described here. THERE ARE he simply just doesn´t want to accept that. At some point in the human experience we so completely anchor spirit in the material plane that we begin to develop "Abilites" that seem to defy known laws. That is because we do not understand these universal laws which make it possible for us to levitate, dematerialize, and do many other things. For further understanding of these abilites read: Unveiled Mysteries and The Magic Presence by Godfre Ray King. Also read Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East by Baird Spaulding.¤

6) Paperback Book Beyond The Siddhis: Supernatural Powers and the Sutras of Patanjali by Woodland Publications. An illuminating and radical approach to the supernatural powers section of Patanjali´s Sutras. Telepathy, time travel, levitation and super-sensory perception are among the siddhis discussed in depth.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 4-Dec-2008, 097115693X9780971156937, 810-050-130-210-3X0-711-S4B-8

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