Don't quit your day job

Susan Shumsky is a former long-time member of TM, a new religious movement founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. She has also studied New Thought and some kind of neo-Theosophy.

It does show, and I can't say I like it.

"Ascension" is narcissistic spirituality at its worst. Death doesn't really exist, and we die only because we tell ourselves that we're mortal. All spiritual masters pictured in this book seem to be 20 years old (often female and at least once...nude). No wise, old, wrinkled woman in sight. Ascension is said to be within everybody's reach. And ascension is something similar to what happened to Jesus, Enoch or Elijah. You develop an incorruptible body of light which makes you immortal. Start your journey TODAY with the "breakthrough meditation" in the last chapter of this book, offered for free by Divine Revelation (registered trade mark).

One of the affirmations you are supposed to repeat is "I AM The Resurrection and the Life. I AM that I AM". That is, I'm Jesus Christ and Jehovah! Sure, there's probably an esoteric-Gnostic meaning to all this, but...come on, what can this comparison to the main characters in the King James Version possibly *mean* in an American context? It sounds like the purest narcissism.

I don't deny that the author's roller-coaster ride through different cultures in search of immortals has a certain intrinsic interest. Jesus isn't the only divine, quasi-divine or human being who is said to have been resurrected. All the other usual suspects are there: the Taoist sages, Burmese magicians, Tibetan masters, Ramalinga, Babaji and the gurus of Yogananda. It's less clear why the author also mentions the avatars of Vishnu or retells various Hindu legends. Does she believe they are literally true? One chapter deals with Annalee Skarin, an excommunicated Mormon who supposedly became an immortal being in 1952, just like Enoch. However, she occasionally visited Earth to speak at classes devoted to her teachings! (Wikipedia claims that Skarin's died in 1988 and that her grave is at a cemetery in Corning, California. But sure, I haven' checked.) What makes all this interesting is, of course, the implications - positive or negative - for the claims of Christians concerning the unique character of Jesus. However, I think an anthropological survey would have been more useful.

One chapter deals with Madame Blavatsky's supposed masters, but here the problems of Shumsky's message show themselves again. One of the masters was St. Germain, "the man who never dies". Yet, his exploits as retold by the author strike me as frivolous, materialist and not particularly spiritual. St. Germain had an obsession with expensive clothes and jewels, moved in upper class circles and constantly gave elixirs of youth to the ladies of the French aristocracy. An original way to spend your eternal life! How about helping French peasants in need? Maybe some of them could need a jewel or two...

Despite everything, I will award "Ascension" three stars (the OK rating) since it does explain Shumsky's message and give the reader glimpses of this particular kind of spirituality, but if you think you're gonna be immortal by invoking the violet flame, you might get just a wee bit disappointed. "Hey, don't quit your day job".