Review of “Life in the Universe,” a book by Marshall Vian Summers
I don’t know where to start, I am a little bit confused. In this book, you are supposedly listening to God: and by the way, after reading it, I am not sure anymore that we should write God’s name with a capital G. If Marshall would have told us that he was in contact with something, a superior energy or just perhaps an alien, it would have been possible to listen to it from another perspective but here, because he is telling us that it is God’s message to Humanity, it is very different.
The one word which has always been associated with God in my knowledge is Love. I did not spot it once in the book. Instead, the most frequent words are risk, danger, problems and difficulties.
This book is an apocalyptic vision of the Universe where what happens on Earth is basically what happens everywhere else in the Universe with lots of wars, greed and violence… It is a hopeless message supposedly delivered by God. This book is based on fear and protection rather than on Love and hope.
The Greater Community Of The Universe
When finally after 75 pages of depressing description “God” starts to tell us about spirituality and how marvelous is the experience of what he calls the greater community of the Universe, it looks very much like a masochistic experience. It is too little too late.
God speaks to us in a very condescending way, telling us how we see the world. I don’t know who is his target audience but obviously not me.
For him, knowledge is the most powerful force in the Universe and then he tells us that everything is about the Mystery which in my definition is the absence of knowledge. Just a little bit confusing but I guess that as a poor little human it is ok to not understand everything God says.
Later, he says that time is not an issue for God but God takes the time to speak to Marshall because apparently there is an issue of time.
Despite a few very nice lines about spiritual development, it seems that God can’t stop himself from coming back over and over again to danger, fight and fear. If Marshall’s goal was to encourage people to develop their spiritual side, in my opinion he failed. You don’t reach your spiritual self through fear.
I feel very much that this book has been written in the 1970s instead of 2008. There is such an old fashioned vision of spirituality. We are no longer at the time of following guides and gurus to find our way but discovering our own inner truth and beauty by ourselves. Perhaps God forgot that the New Age movement passed by decades ago.
Inspired By God or Star Trek?
This book seems to have been inspired by Star Track rather than God, and at some moments, it sounds very much like scientology. If I am not mistaken, its founder is another person who has been addressed by God.
A very disappointing view of the Universe. It feels as though God forgot that the very energy that blocks Love is fear and this book is full of reasons to be fearful.
There is perhaps a nice message, or perhaps a nice intention, behind this entire book, but so drowned in an ocean of negative words and concepts that it has a really hard time to step up.
More people are waking up to a new reality
All around the world, more and more people are waking up to a new reality, and to a new consciousness of themselves, their inner beauty and inner power, as well as a consciousness of connection between all living creatures on the planet and in the Universe. The world never has been more ready to face whatever is in store for us and I really don’t think that this “revelation” helps in any way, the big Human shift happening in front of our very eyes.
“Life in the Universe”
by Marshall Vian Summers
available June 1st.
New Knowledge Library
Boulder, CO
