The Future of God: A Practical Approach to Spirituality for Our Times Paperback – November 10, 2015

First, I desire to say I have read and enjoyed many of Deepak's books never a disappointment and I have become more closely enlightened (in hopes of someday reaching that peace in totality and never ending)......but in the last year I have felt disconnected from God, knowing I can never be disconnected since God is in me as me and God never changes, I do. But I currently feel the disconnection just the same. When I came across Deepak's new book the title reading "The Future of God", in my Heart it felt that this could be the diamond of Gods brilliant Light that I needed to reconnect with God and learn how to always be in Gods Light and Love. The reviews were mostly positive except there were rumblings that there would be backlash from it but no one's review I read explained what that really meant, or give a clue. So, here I am giving others a clue before deciding to purchase this book. I don't hold back and this is all honesty from my Heart and this is "my" opinion only. Discover your own.During the read of The Future of God, I read and had an inner experience from a side of Deepak I thought did not exist in his own words I have heard him say; "I never get angry, I am always in my peace". I thought of Deepak as one of the enlightened ones. As I started reading Deepak's book I was startled at what I was reading, I gasped, yes gasped but kept reading in hopes it would get better. As I kept reading I was understanding why there may be backlash because of this book......I felt in my Heart this writing was taking a personal tone towards an individual named over and over and over in "Stage 1", and throughout the book, it felt to "me" like a bashing towards this person and this persons writings. This person, Dawkins, I have no idea who he is, and if I have no idea who this man is, it is sure that I have not read any of his writings. Okay the man is atheist, okay he has followers and okay "Stage 1" is supposed to be a level for those who have no belief or think they have no belief in "God" and this is prominently pointed out over and over.......to convince those who are atheist followers, to see another side one needs to shed some glimmer of hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel or in this case the read, something they can sink their teeth into, but bashing another's belief or their writings is not the answer, it felt personal towards another individual. And I am disappointed by it coming from Deepak. The reading of Stage 1: Unbelief became so hard to read I ended up skipping it altogether moving on to Stage 2: Faith. In my personal life I am teetering between what Deepak explains in Stage 2: Faith and Stage 3: Knowledge, and truly I was hoping for guidance with how to stay in God's Light and Love. In the end, for me, coming from my Heart......the read was largely a disappointment knowing what Deepak is capable of, brilliance. Yes, there were offerings of exercises but to be honest the read in Stage 2: Faith, for me, and coming from my Heart, went on and on and on I ended up skipping the remaining read of Stage 2 and went on to Stage 3. There, I did read all the material and I could sink my teeth into his words, most of it. But nothing I hadn't heard before I didn't read or feel the guidance in this read.One last comment, I am not really sure who Deepak was writing this book for or what audience he was gearing towards.....it wasn't for the average reader, I fall into this category, me as the average reader of comprehension. I literally had to look up about every third word for its meaning in the dictionary. For example and this of course was not in the book, this is just an example; a word used say "boutupa".....sound Greek? that's how it felt to me, I would look up the word in the dictionary and it meant "butter"....why doesn't one just say butter and reach all readers, so all readers can understand the writings fluidly and not be constantly distracted with having to look up the words. Again, I have read many of Deepak's books and I have never had trouble understanding what his messages were and I didn't have to look up every other word for its meaning. In fact, I never had to look up any word, I understood his message.I gave this book a three star rating, I would have given it a one star rating but I did regain some of my Light and feeling of God's Love reading through "Stage 3: Knowledge", so I didn't leave this book totally empty handed, or empty minded. And I did get something out of it what seems to be very important information, Deepak, in his book, mentioned a South Indian spiritual master, Nisargadatta Mahara, and he quoted him.......I of course added a note to look up this gentleman and behold one of his books, "I AM THAT", has been translated to English. One of the written reviews said "Nisargadatta Maharaj's "I AM THAT" is the last spiritual book you'll ever need to read. Congratulations, you've reached the end of your search! Nisargadatta's words are alive and will cut like a razor to the core of your being. Get this book! Read it and be devoured by it. Here are a few quotes.........." Verified purchaser, God I hope so. I just have one last journey in my last chapter of life pursuing my Spiritual all-knowing and experience Peace, Love and Light......and someday laugh, laugh, laugh again with all these experiences in its entirety......I will be satisfied....I have a strong desire to understand how to stay in Gods Light and Love without wavering and feeling a sudden disconnection.....any suggestions anyone? I AM grateful.

Reading this book with an open-mind is a breath of fresh air. A good part of the worlds population has been indoctrinated into the Abrahamic religions of "DOs and Don'ts" with all its trimmings, another part is conditioned into believing that you must "Pay off your karmic Debt." Both these ideologies have incrementally estranged humanity from God and with this long age of reasoning and scientific enlightenment comes this adding of fuel to the fire of atheism. I've been monitoring the growth of spirituality for many years and have personally witnessed a whole evolutionary trend heading in a new direction. More and more people of western cultures are seeing themselves as being more spiritual and less religious. Some people are atheistic to the old anthropomorphic view of God being a man in the sky (and rightly so) but philosophical that there is an underlying living conscious force permeating the universe. It is my guess that each one of us has a splinter of this which is our conscience, the inner knower of gnostic traditions what some term as the higher-self and the mere intuition that lets us know what is right from wrong. These are the starting points as to where God can be found. Religion will someday be no more, however, a new kind of spirituality is on the horizon and Dr. Chopra's writings reflects this. There's also been a melding of science and spirituality for the last several decades and once again Chopra elucidates this in his writings. He uses Einstein as an example and one of my favorite Einstein quotes is on page 32, "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." Without the morals of religion science finds itself seeping through cracks of depravity and becomes our worst enemy and conversely religion without science seeps through its own cracks of ignorance and becomes this cold and cruel taskmaster. We can reinterpret Einstein's quote into our own pet peeve quotes and each time we'll find ourselves realizing how right he is. Although, he was born into a Jewish family and non practicing in his faith, he, Einstein recognized this underlying intelligent force of the universe. So much opposite of what many of our modern day embracing Newtonian scientist are espousing. There are now some scientist who are breaking away from the Newtonian only philosophy of science and are coming to their convictions that there is more. Chopra makes his fair share of points on the subject. I really enjoyed this book. It is sobering read and I'm sure that anyone who is looking for alternative answers as opposed to the traditions of religious doctrines will also find this book intriguing.

This book is a master piece. Old generation may be OK in their beliefs but new generation has steadily questioned God in current Form. With no ready answers, guidance, proper arguments or alternatives it was easy to be drawn away from Faith (as it stands today) towards unbelief aided by militant Atheism and wrong use of religion.This wonderful book (keeping West in mind) seeks to shake the traditional God 1.0 concepts, encourage one to see God without illusions and make a total shift in awareness towards God 2.0. This means moving away from Form/Person in the sky- heaven/Bestower type concepts to that which is pure Consciousness.In the East, especially so in India many work on similar path (as the author mentions). Actually some spiritual masters in India have gone into the realms of beyond Consciousness as well. But even here the new generation is found wavering and needs such a guide book that lays down the path to Pure Consciousness in simplistic terms.It would therefore be apt to say that this master piece of a book is a universal guide with a Real alternative. This book will serve its intended purpose and we may start to see signs like "Relax there is no God" being replaced by "Relax there is Pure Consciousness, connect and Be"Like the Author suggests "Don’t be attached to your own goodness or someone else’s badness. Find out your real relationship to God, and base your life on that.The beauty of the spiritual path is that you are supported by an infinite power every step of the way".

To me, there is no better structure of inner journey towards God-realization than what this book offers.I was immensely enriched by the lessons that Dr. Chopra illustrated in this book.

I loved this book

As usual, Deepak Chopra has produced a wonderful book full of insight and is very successful at pointing out the flaws and the prejudice of Richard Dawkins et al. This is because his concept of spirituality is far more wide sweeping than that of many believers who do not have such an extensive understanding of Faiths other than their own. He is also, of course an eminent doctor and scientist.

Really loved this content. It needs a lot of reflection, post reading, but Deepak is a very clear thinker and writer so he takes you on the journey smoothly. Thinking about God or consciencious is a big, big subject so be prepared to enter into the process with thoughfulness!

Brilliant book of how we can develop better mindsets that fit a world we are only just beginning to understand