will the REAL you please stand up? a review

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Will the REAL You Please Stand Up?: 7 Spiritual Strategies to Help You Discover Your Purpose and Live It with Passion by Fran Harris

An empowering book. A lot of the things Fran had to say hit home with me, but I disagreed with some major things too.

She seems to make some contradictory statements, first saying how great it was to go to college and have so much religious diversity ("like 31 flavors of baskin robins!"). Then she says "in college, before each game, we gathered in a circle and prayed to God. Not to the Christians' God. Not to the Muslims' Allah. Not to the Jews' God. Not to Jehovah. But to God. To Spirit. The Oneness that united us all."

Which seems to eliminate diversity, by consolidating all the flavors into the same "spirit" and "oneness."

She goes on to talk about the restrictions religion places on people, and how it doesn't matter how many times a day you pray or how many "hail marys" you say.

I happen to agree, I believe neither are necessarily indicators of your relationship or status with God, as are many of the rites and customs inflicted on religious people.

But what happened to her diversity? If we erase this part of the Catholic faith, and remove that part of the Muslim faith, and then just get rid of everything else that imposes (arguably) unnecessary rules and restrictions in all the different religions... then we end up all the same. No more celebrating our differences, no more need for tolerance, no more pluralism because we've all subscribed to one belief system now. For someone claiming to be a pluralist I just cant quite buy the flavor shes selling.

BUT. She encourages being the kind of person you want to attract, taking responsibility for your choices while accepting and "unleashing" your abilities and potential, and the importance of "blasting out" love instead of fear, anger, and criticism. I appreciate her insight and energy, and a lot of her points about breaking free from religious, social, and emotional untruths and pressures were right on. Sometimes her examples of things to let go of are rather odd, given their practical and necessary nature - paying your credit card debt, changing the oil in your car, watching your calories - but I appreciate her war-cry to change the things that are inhibiting you and replace them with faith, hard work, not depending on others to feel loved or to gain your sense of worth... good stuff. It's already helped me adjust the way I perceive and interact with others, how I respond to challenges, and how I go about attracting good things in my life.