The Reluctant Mystic. Finished 9-5-17, 3/5 stars, memoir, 110 pages, pub.2016

“It felt like the whole world was shaking, inside me and all around me. It felt like bliss-perfect peace. This light was pouring through me, and as it was pouring through me, it was teaching me things.” So begins The Reluctant Mystic: Autobiography of an Awakening, the story of an extraordinary spiritual experience-one moment in a massage therapy office that forever changes the trajectory of the author’s life. In this compelling memoir and meditative guide, Nancy Torgove Clasby, an ordinary mother of three small children, gradually pieces together the greatest mysteries of life after a spontaneous awakening completely redirects her focus and energy and leads her to become a healer. More than twenty years later, Nancy has gone on to help hundreds of people with life-threatening illnesses, as well as those grieving lost loved ones. Along the way, she has been guided by three wise teachers and inspired by her many courageous clients. In Nancy’s words, “Each of us has a gift, and our purpose is to reconnect with that gift and then give it away.”  from Goodreads

I am not well-versed in mystics or healers, but was willing to be educated because this book was short, 110 pages.  One day this mother of three young children was in a session with her massage therapist, when the world opened up to her.

“I was on the table, fully clothed, and he was working at my head.  All of a sudden, my body started to shake, and it felt like I left my body.  My eyes were wide open, so I could see the room I was in, but I could also see through what I later found out was my “third eye,” which is an invisible energy center everyone has that sits in the middle of the forehead and is the seat of intuition.”  page 7

She sought out the advice of those around her and found supporters, including a rabbi, reverend and doctor, that would help push her in the right direction.  She learned to understand her gifts more clearly and spend the next 20 years as a healer.  I admit that much of it was too much for me, in part because it was new, no doubt.  But she was sincere and truly open and how rare is that?  She included pages written by her mentors, but the bulk of it was stories about some of her patients.  She included some different meditations at the end that left me feeling wonderful.  I love meditation and don’t do it often enough.

I can’t say I was the target audience but I’m glad I read something out of my comfort zone.  I feel a little more enlightened 🙂