A Sacred Journey: The Awakening

Dr. Jerry Berbaum
Book Marketing Solutions (2005)
ISBN 0974134538
Reviewed by Jennifer Woodard for Reader Views (6/06)

I have to begin with saying that this is a short book, only about 130 pages, but somewhat difficult to read. The information within the book is wonderful information. The writer should have broken the chapters into sub-chapters so that they could be more easily digested. It was difficult to continuously read this book, and I had to keep stopping and picking the book back up. The essence of the book is that man is on a path of spiritual awakening. That we are in a time of chaos and we are headed for a great spiritual awakening as a whole and that there are things that we can do to become a part of this great spiritual awakening and heal our mind, body and soul. His premise is to get us to understand that we are perfect just as we are and that what we must learn to do is love ourselves unconditionally and love others and nature unconditionally. The key to our happiness is the unconditional, nonjudgmental love that we give to ourselves and each other.

A Sacred Journey is broken down into two books:
Book 1: The Fruits of Knowledge
Book 2: Spiritual Awakening and Healing

The goal of this book is to understand that religion is not something that we necessarily need to follow, but a spirituality of the self. We are all spiritual beings in a temporary body. We must honor and respect the divine. We must understand that we are all connected, whether man, animal, fish or tree. That we all come from the divine in perfect form, there are no accidents. The key to happiness is self acceptance and simplicity. He wants you to understand that all that you need is within yourself, and that you create your world by your thoughts and actions. You do not have to look outside yourself to find your connection The Creator, the connection is within. I completely agree with what the author is saying, but if this is not information that you have read before or already believe in, then his book can be difficult to understand.

The author is a student of Native American, and Shamanic teachings. There could be many people who come across this book and not really understand what it means to be a student of Native American and Shamanic teachings and he could have done a better job of explaining what it means to be a student of these teaching. I myself am a student of paganism, so the things that he talks of were not new to me. When I first began my journey, if I had picked up his book, I would have been confused and left with a lot of questions. The book is more of an overview, and you will not get a lot of information to actually help you get on a path of spirituality and understanding of how to proceed on your journey of sacredness. There are many areas that he glosses over, but does not give enough information about. He probably could have added some worksheets to help people to better understand their place in this new spiritual awakening and help the reader feel as if they are on the right track.

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