I have written a good book, an important book, an amusing book, a transformative book, a book that can save humanity from certain self-destruction, but nobody knows about it. That’s because I’m a nobody. Nobodies can’t get noticed in our culture unless they are fashion models, rock stars, demagogues or celebrities in sophomoric films or sitcoms. What a dilemma. So I have no choice, I have to get aggressive—become as tasteless as the culture demands—seize the only opportunity afforded me by my barely sentient fellow travelers. Am I doing this out of compassion? Nah! I’m doing it because it’s fun.
I am not operating under the delusion that anyone will buy or even want to read my book, it’s too weird. I’m more than a little weird myself. I have self-published books with a highly esoteric content that seeks to be noticed among the other 800,000 self-published titles and 200,000 commercially viable titles. One million titles annually. That’s a lot, right? The average sales of a book like mine? One hundred as in 100 and that’s the average and not even I am arrogant enough to think that my book is average.
So you might think that what I am about to do is a little self-promotional. Well duh! Who knows my book better than I do? My own assessment as to the value and significance of what I have written has to be far superior to that of a professional literary critic. Besides, my book’s content is virtually unknown in the western hemisphere and there are no critics who could understand it let alone review it intelligently. So I am going to help them out. I’m serious! Now is not the time for false modesty.
Even with his formidable intellect and reputation, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) had difficulty selling his masterpiece “Thus spake Zarathustra. Nietzsche had a bitter time getting it into print; the first part was delayed because the publisher’s presses were busy with an order for 500,000 hymn-books, and then by a stream of anti-semitic pamphlets; and the publisher refused to print the last part at all, as quite worthless from the point of view of shekels; so that the author had to pay for its publication himself. Forty copies of the book were sold; seven were given away; one acknowledged; no one praised it. Never was a man so much alone.”[i] Tell me about it.
Given the importance of the ever-present opportunity for a mystic to influence human consciousness in the direction of choosing awareness over self-destruction and suffering, now is not the time for self-deprecation. Self-promotion of both brand and books is acceptable and even to be encouraged. No less a personage than Walt Whitman was not shy in hawking his lyrical and mystical poetry. “Walt Whitman notoriously wrote his own anonymous reviews, which would not be out of place today on Amazon. ‘An American bard at last!’ he raved in 1855. ‘Large, proud, affectionate, eating, drinking and breeding, his costume manly and free, his face sunburnt and bearded.’”[ii]
For over thirty years, Vimala Thakar has traveled the world from her native India teaching about what it means to be truly human, which is to say what it means to be divine. She was urged to do this by Krishnamurti who urged her to be courageous in confronting self-destructive human behavior. When he asked her in 1961 what she had been doing, she said she spent her time speaking with friends who found her ideas interesting. That was not good enough for Krishnamurti.
“‘That is quite natural,’ he replied, ‘But why don’t you explode.’ Why don’t you put bombs under all these old people who follow the wrong line? Why don’t you go around India? Is anyone doing this? If there were half a dozen, I would not say a word to you. There is none. There is much to do. There is no time. Go—shout from the house tops. You are on the wrong track! This is not the way of peace! Go out and set them on fire! There is none who is doing this. Not even one. What are you waiting for?’”[iii] And she did. If we realize a profound truth we cannot be shy.
I should have written my own reviews on Amazon, albeit not anonymously. I have not compared myself to Shakespeare, not yet at least, but I do believe in the profound content of Simple Reality. It is too important for the future of humanity to not encourage the choice of truth over illusion, response over reaction. Now is not the time to demur, to pretend modesty when we are in a crisis, when our very existence is threatened by our ignorance and our delusional fears.
“A mystic strides across the human stage, confident and vigorous, no half-steppin’ in the joy-filled dance of life.” This is how Walt Whitman might have expressed his identity and this is the goal for all of us whether we are shrinking violets or hairy-chested type-A’s.
For those of you engage in the profession of reviewing books—feel free to use any of the following. Even if you don’t review books feel free to use any of the following. I won’t sue you for failing to make attribution, I promise.
- Haven’t heard of this title? Where Am I? The First Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality. You will. You will.
- A scathing indictment of an unconscious humanity. God this is good stuff!
- Who is this guy? Where is he from? Henry writes with an objectivity of a visitor from another planet.
- This book has exploded on the human intellectual scene!
- The most controversial book since Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
- A kaleidoscope of feelings, beliefs, attitudes, and values that point to a world transformed.
- The work of an iconoclast par excellence. Henry’s hammer has left few of society’s venerated statues standing or unscathed.
- At last! For those of us who are fed up with being wacked by the ego—a friend to help us fight back.
- This author has entered the marketplace of ideas and like an explosive-laden terrorist he detonated his book—not causing pain to humanity, but revealing the causes of human suffering.
- Henry has created a book that merges intuition with intellectual understanding revealing a process whereby consciousness itself can be created. Can a book do that? The answer is paradoxically yes and no!! If the reader is ready for an insightful breakthrough, and the discipline to get there, it can happen. Are you ready?
- This book could have been entitled A Beginner’s Guide to Self-Transformation.
- This is the first in a trilogy ambitiously claiming to aid the reader in the creation of consciousness itself.
- This book synthesizes the wisdom of some of humanity’s most profound thinkers, East and West, ancient and modern.
- Henry wrote the book that he wanted to read. I am glad he did because I too wanted to read this book, but unlike him, I didn’t know it.
- In his first book, the Mile High Sage takes us into the spiritual stratosphere giving us a spiritual perspective of Reality from “on high.” (Not “while high” you naughty doubters.)
- A telling indictment of an American society careening headlong along the highway of self-annihilation.
- Henry tells it like it is and points us in the direction of how it could be.
- The first prosaic synthesis of Western philosophy that is truly comprehensive, pragmatic and profound.
- The Gospel heard again in the myriad and melodic voices of science, philosophy, cosmology, religion and the world beyond.
- Order right away on Amazon. You don’t want to fail being in-the-know when the subject of this remarkable book comes up at the water cooler—and it will!
- The pandemic is coming and most of you are not inoculated. Get your shot today. A backlog of orders is sure to ensue, after all Amazon is not equipped to handle the “perfect storm” of orders for this once-in-a-century shocker!
That oughta do it!
[i] Durant, Will. The Story of Philosophy. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1926, page 312.
[ii] Perrottet, Tony. “Building the Brand.” The New York Times Book Review. May 1, 2011, page 27.
[iii] Parish, Chris. “Set Them on Fire!” What is Enlightenment? Fall/Winter 1996, page 38.
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Find a much more in-depth discussion in books by Roy Charles Henry.
