There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem

[Editor's Note: The following is a combined review with the unabridged THERE IS A SPIRITUAL SOLUTION TO EVERY PROBLEM.]--The longer program is a recording of a seminar in which Dyer encourages us to surrender to the good of the universe, pay attention to life's energy, and create the life we are destined to have simply by thinking about it with complete emotional conviction. The shorter program is a gorgeous studio recording that is equally powerful and enlightening, but that offers less social texture--and less supporting material--than the unabridged seminar version. Dyer also has more gravitas in the studio than in front of an audience, where his conversational style takes some of the intensity out of his message. In both formats, Dyer's growing humility and continuous quest for clarity make him one of the best spiritual teachers of our age. T.W. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

August 13, 2001
The first half of this book is virtually interchangeable with any number of manuals by Deepak Chopra, John Bradshaw and Marianne Williamson. Self-help guru Dyer urges readers not to let their problems get them down; problems, he chirps, are just illusions anyway. Like many other pop spirituality writers in our multicultural age, Dyer draws on spiritual wisdom from the world over, peppering his pages with quotations from the Bhagavad Gita and the Bible. Dyer too often veers into the blatantly self-promotional, weaving in letters from readers who say their lives have been utterly transformed by following his advice. But the second half of the book—an extended meditation on Francis of Assisi's well-known prayer "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace"—distinguishes this offering from the rest of the self-help pack. Dyer urges readers to choose peace, to think about the sun's light and energy when they stumble into a place of darkness and to focus on hope when all they feel is despair. He advises acting loving in situations filled with anger and hate, letting go of fear and "shifting from pessimism to optimism." These aren't breathtakingly original suggestions, but Dyer, returning again and again to the words of St. Francis, presents such familiar lessons in a fresh and loving way. Dyer's large and loyal following will enjoy this book, but he would have done his readers a favor by lopping off the first 140 pages.