Perhaps the most useful advice offered by Ms. Murto is for the reader to develop a spiritual practice, a recommendation I unreservedly support.

Beyond this, however, sits a body of information that is largely composed of the personal opinions and observations of this author. In fact, much to my astonishment, in the introduction, Ms. Murto explicitly remarks that she has “intentionally avoided reading other alternative material relating to spirituality or healing” and that she did so “to be sure my material is pure and uninfluenced by others.” She continues by explaining that the book is based on information she channeled “directly from Source,” but then - somewhat confusingly - notes that parts of Chapter 2 contain “information that crossed my path that supports the channeled information that I received.” In a few places the author mentions the work of others but provides no footnotes or endnotes. There is one written meditation in the book as well as links to several others located on her personal website. The book concludes with a short list of references primarily dealing with the importance of touch (contact comfort) and the “broken heart” syndrome.

While I admire Ms. Murto’s courage in writing this book and have no doubt her writing accurately reflects personal experience, as a reviewer I am obliged to point out three major defects in this book. First, for thousands of years a number of cultures have been developing spiritual traditions that contain a large and growing body of knowledge and wisdom pertaining to the human soul. These traditions contain mature, well-documented methods for spiritual awakening, cultivation of self-knowledge, and spiritual healing. To abstain from reading this literature seems somewhat irrational and there is evidence throughout Ms. Murto’s book that it contains ideas that certainly did not originate with her (e.g., Chakra System), some of which are presented in ways that are inconsistent with the knowledge that has accumulated over the centuries. In short, I think her observations and opinions on some subjects are less than “state of the art.” Second, apparently Ms. Murto has not had the benefit of studying under a spiritual master but is, instead, self-taught. As the publisher states, “the book has its roots in Carol's Soul Awareness class and it was inspired by Carol's healing work with her clients. … Carol was truly inspired to bring to the page … content that is not only learned based on her 16 years of experience in her healing work, but also channeled.” This might help explain the origins of defect number three. The third and most noteworthy shortcoming is that this book rests solidly on a flawed premise, specifically “the basic principle and tenant” of the book “is the message that healing of the Soul is ultimately the root source and “top line” of overall healing” (emphasis added). By contrast, most of the world’s major spiritual traditions consider the Soul to be part of the Divine realm and, as such, perfect. What causes much suffering in the human condition, according to those traditions, is the degree to which we are estranged from our divine source, not that the Soul itself is in need of healing. Throughout the book the author mentions injuries to the Soul. By adopting the perspective that the Soul is injured and in need of healing, Ms. Murto is promulgating a paradigm that is out of alignment with probably every major spiritual tradition.

In addition, the book also contains a number of outright errors. For example, Ms. Murto indicates that the Soul is accessed through the subconscious mind. She then goes on to state, accurately, that we can access the "Higher Conscious Mind" through meditation and infers that this is how one connects with the Soul. If we are to do soul work, it seems important to get clear on how one connects to the Soul. Approaching this work through the unconscious mind is not the wisest choice. A more significant mistake is when the author makes the statement that “the Soul has its own language … the language of feelings” that it uses “to communicate with us." The past few decades have seen explosive growth in research on human emotions; we now know much about the biology (i.e. hormones and neurotransmitters), psychophysiology and cognitive neuroscience of emotions. The fear that one experiences when encountering a grizzly bear in the wild has little to do with the Soul communicating with us and far more to do with a primitive response mechanism that evolved to ensure survival when faced with an existential threat. This is not to say that some emotions, such as love and gratitude, are unconnected to the Soul, but rather to illustrate that throughout the book Ms. Murto makes absolute statements that are false even though they often contain a kernel of truth. What is unclear is whether these oversimplifications are an attempt to make the contents of the book more accessible to novices or a reflection of the author’s level of understanding.

An additional feature of this book is inclusion of “healing stories” based on the author’s work with particular clients. While these chronicles are a useful component of the book, I would have preferred if they were greatly condensed and set apart as separate “case study” boxes, perhaps using a basic template for all the demonstrations. As they are now, I found that they interfered with the flow of the core narrative.

Notwithstanding these critical comments, the book contain some good, solid information that is generally well-organized, coherent and thoughtful. Essentially Ms. Murto describes one possible pathway on the journey to what she calls “your true self, your Soul self.” If this were a first draft of a thesis by one of my graduate students I would make two key recommendations: (1) do additional reading in the world literature and then correct the errors, and (2) carefully edit the manuscript down to about half the current length.

Given the errors, overgeneralizations and plethora of similar books in the marketplace, I cannot recommend this book. ( )

As the introduction tells us, this book takes us into a deep journey of awareness & healing through the root source of the soul.
I particularly liked the explanation & diagrams illustrating the seven Chakras & their effect on our well being.
Each chapter delves into various aspects of our soul & how it can affect us emotionally, psychologically, spiritually & physically from birth throughout our daily lives.
At the end of each chapter there is a case study of an individual & the effects their problems have on their Chakras & well-being. In one person's case, I was fascinated by the simple statement "we are drawn to certain people for a reason" & the explanation about the purpose & reason for this.
While I found the book to be "heavy going" at times I did find it quite interesting as I could relate to some aspects of what the author was saying & was left with "food for thought" on various other aspects. ( )

In the introduction the author reveals that the book was based on information channeled through herself. She states that she purposely avoided reading other material related to spirituality or healing so that her information would be "pure" and untainted by the experiences of others. To me, this does not ensure "purity" at all. What is the guarantee that her channeled information is pure truth? With channeled information there is a great danger that the information received is coming from the astral body, which is known for distortion and unreliability. Certainly some of what she brings through does not ring true with what we know from other transmitters of spiritual information who are more mentally oriented, more advanced spiritually, and thus not as prone to astral distortion.

That doesn't mean that all her information is totally off base, but it is simplistically presented and contains much that is misleading. For instance, it is generally agreed that the healing of the three lower personality vehicles (mental, emotional, physical) begins with reestablishing our connection to the Soul. However, the author constantly refers to "the healing of the Soul" throughout the book, as if it is the Soul that is injured. The fact is that the Soul does not need to be healed. It cannot be injured. It is the only part of us that is whole and perfect. It is when the connection between our personality and the Soul gets severed that the condition of separation leads to "dis-ease" in the lower vehicles. When we heal this cleavage between our personality and the Soul, then we will be led to experience the healing of these lower bodies and to the discovery of "truths." It is through the healing of this disconnection that gives the Soul the opportunity to serve as a "mentor and guide to our life purpose," as she states.

Another example of the author's faulty channeled information is her statement in Chapter 1 that the chakras are "a part of the Soul." The chakras are actually part of the etheric field that surrounds the physical body and not on the plane of the Soul at all. If the chakras are functioning properly, they receive the higher energy influences impacting the physical body. The etheric field parallels the physical body's nervous system.

The Soul, on the other hand, is anchored in us through our mental body (the chakra at the top of the head) and through the heart chakra, not through all the chakras. Thus, if we are not mentally oriented, the information we receive may actually be tainted, coming from chakras that are not linked with the Soul at all.

Also, the author states that the Soul uses the "language of feelings ... to communicate with us." This is a very irresponsible statement. Most of our feelings are lower emotions coming from the lower chakras and/or astral influence. We would be very misled if we assume that all our emotions are messages from the Soul. The Soul does communicate with us through the higher emotions, and these are balanced by the higher mental. To reach these higher emotions, we must have a mental focus.

Further on the author states that we access the Soul by first accessing the subconscious mind. The subconscious is a great morass of information, including a lot of distorted misinformation from the astral body. So it would be highly unlikely that we would access the Soul through this muck. As stated above, it is the higher mind that we need to access in order to gain contact with the Soul, not the subconscious. The true light of the Soul is received via the higher mind.

The author states correctly that we can tap into this higher mind via meditation. And she does refer to the "Higher Conscious Mind" further down, but it should not be confused with the subconscious.

Again in Chapter 2 the author speaks about "Soul Injury" (my biggest peeve about this book) and the emotions that arise. I repeat that the Soul does not and cannot get injured. It is above and beyond such a possibility. What gets injured is the pathway between our lower self and the Soul. And the pain and injury are felt by the personality, not by the Soul. The painful emotions the author describes in this chapter are experienced by the emotional body, which then have repercussions on the mental and physical bodies.

The author cites a few scientific studies to back up some of her statements. She doesn't provide footnotes, but there is a short bibliography at the end of the book.

The bulk of the book is taken up by long descriptions of clients who have sought her out for healing and how she was able to advise them and guide them to a level of healing. I did not have much patience with these long descriptions. They should have been edited for conciseness. Most of the author's statements are relatively simplistic, but it could be that the audience she is aiming for is relatively unquestioning and naive.

This being an e-book, the author provides links to meditations on her website, and there is a meditation written out toward the end of the book. I did not try out any of these meditations mainly because I already use meditations that are more advanced.

The author's advice to develop a spiritual practice can definitely be endorsed. And if her book leads more people to do that, then it will have served a good purpose. Hopefully people will study the books that this author eschewed and get a better sense of the human constitution, how it relates to other planes of existence and how complex the healing process actually is. ( )

Carol Murto's book gives you a deeper understanding of the soul's importance in our lives. She does make you aware of our soul's energy and possible injury. Her helpful direction of how to be more in touch with our soul and how we can overcome and correct the injuries our soul may have,,will prove most helpful in becoming closer to the Divine (God, Jesus, Buddah, etc.) Also, the examples that are in her book of clients she has helped gives you a real understanding of Carol's knowledge and wisdom in connecting with and understanding our souls.
This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers Giveaway and I am giving my honest review of this book. ( )

I'm not sure what I think of this book. The ideas/opinions put forth seem very uplifting and comforting but I can't help feeling very sceptical. Perhaps it's my personal circumstances but I can't accept that anything (even the conviction of this author) could make me heal. It is, however, a lovely book and very well written with a lot of faith and conviction by the author. ( )