Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19796 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 504 pages

Synopsis
In Eastern Body, Western Mind, chakra authority Anodea Judith brought a fresh approach to the yoga-based Eastern chakra system, adapting it to the Western framework of Jungian psychology, somatic therapy, childhood developmental theory, and metaphysics. This groundbreaking work in transpersonal psychology has been revised and redesigned for a more accessible presentation. Each chapter focuses on a single chakra, starting with a description of its characteristics, then exploring its particular childhood developmental patterns, traumas and abuses, and how to heal and maintain balance.

Customer Reviews

Not your usual new age drivel
I have to be honest, when I first got this book, I expected it to be either an onslaught of tasteless commercial new age jargon, or a polarised attempt to assert the superiority of eastern over western philosophy. Once I started reading, however, I was immediately drawn in, if not captivated, by the author's balanced, intelligent and insightful style, and her ability to relate the eastern chakra paradigm to western systems of developmental theory and personal growth, from Piaget to Maszlow to Jung. I am presently about 300 pages into it (in chakra 5 of the 7) and reading it has been a genuine journey of self-discovery for me. I can enthusiastically say that this is one of the most fascinating and soul-stirring books I have ever read and I can already feel the reflections emerging from it have had a life-changing impact upon me. Not a "how to" book, but a true "make you think" book. This one stays on my shelf, and I will buy many copies as gifts for others.

Bringing Eastern & Western Philosophy together
This is an extraordinary book, succeeding in bringing Eastern and Western psychology & philosophy together in a comprehensive, down-to-earth, understandable way. Anodea Judith presents the chakra-system as a personal ladder to spiritual and emotional growth, almost analogue to the stages of development in the model of Erikson. What's unique (or at least, special) is the well-succeeded integration of Eastern and Western models of child and adult development. Hats off to Anodea Judith!

OK, as far as it goes
While the writing is easy to follow, I found this book to be rather annoying. I realize she is writing for people who may not have any knowledge of the chakra system. However, I found that her writing style was verbose, of the school "why say in a paragraph what you can say in six?" Despite that, I felt the book was lacking information. If you want to know more you are encouraged to buy yet another of her books, the workbook. And so, you are left rather hanging. I've encountered other such books where you need to buy additional books, and it is a real turn off, and this is the primary reason for only two stars. Go borrow it from the library. A better book for an east-west discussion of chakras and psychology is Carolyn Myss's Anatomy of Spirit.