The author presents a systematic walk through nine phases or levels of consciousness awareness. As he says, level 9 is non-dual and is not really a level at all. Marion uses examples from the saints and from his own experience with quotes from the Christian Bible as well, to demonstrate what he is talking about. Much of my own experience is in harmony with what he says about the first 7 levels except for the part about the pain involved in the Night of the Senses and Night of the Soul, using the terms of St. John of the Cross. Later the author reveals that it is possible to experience these levels without the pain that John of the Cross and the author had. I found what he had to say about the last two levels to be a stretch and at times irritating to me. Remembering how I felt going into earlier levels with the same feeling, I relaxed and continued to read with an open mind.

The author did lose me in the final part where, to my thinking, he surmises what the Kingdom of Heaven on earth will be like. That to me, was supposition that I was not looking for, but he surely is within his right to tell us what he thinks it could be like. He did not claim to have inside knowledge about it or try to make it some kind of doctrine we must believe.

All around, I loved this book. It is a book that actually presents Christians as children of God in a very real sense. Be warned that while I do not believe this book violates what Jesus actually taught and did, it is not what I have heard in churches today. ( )