sam stringer

Tolle's overall viewpoint of "living in the now" is very interesting and would definitely help a lot of people if they applied it to their lives. However, Tolle's uninformed viewpoints that he forces on his readers as "fact" overshadows the goodness in this book. Tolle states that "there are only two genders, male and female" who will always be incomplete without the other to balance them, this viewpoint is very harmful to people who don't fit in the traditional gender binary and completely disregards all of the people in the lgbtq+ community who are not drawn to the opposite gender at all. Tolle also states that in order to be enlightened that women must overcome pms, which is a syndrome that comes as a result of hormonal changes during one's menstrual cycle and cannot just be "overcome". And lastly, Tolle states that women cannot be "fully conscious" if they identify with the pain from other women, blatantly stating that he believes women who are upset for other women's suffering are holding on to a victim identity, which is obviously false. So yes, this book has some interesting points, but if anyone chooses to read it please keep these things in mind.