Natural Urges

By Christina Leimer

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0971795002
• ISBN13: 9780971795006
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Twisted Tree Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.5" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Direct-Experience Spirituality

Natural Urges is a rare gem of a book. On the topic of direct-experience spirituality, written in narrative style, author ChrisTina Leimer reminds us that spirituality "means simply 'of the spirit' . . . our core, our essence, our power source, our internal compass or guide that plugs us into all life and allows us to transcend our own ego and circumstances" (p. 31). Remarkably, not one ounce of religious dogma is in the entire book!I found this book highly thoughtful, reflective, inspiring, soothing, and engrossing. Rather than "teaching" us her particular brand of spirituality, Leimer invites readers, by example, to look at our own Natural Urges of intuition, creativity, transcendence, and guidance. I was so engrossed with her style of writing, what she had to say, and how she said it that I could not put the book down. Since my first reading, I have found myself picking it up again and again just to tap back into its well-honed wisdom.At 150 pages the book left me wanting more. She notes that most people are often struck dumb or defensive when the topic of spirituality comes up. "I've got my own spirituality" is a common reply when Leimer says outright that she would like "to discuss spirituality. Not argue about it, just exchange ideas and views. . . . The one hitch . . . is that you need someone else to do it with. Otherwise you end up standing in a corner talking to yourself" (p. 22). Humor is sprinkled liberally throughout the book, something not often found in other books dealing with such weighty matters as self-reflection, exceptional experiences, and questions of "Meaning." Written from the core and evolution of Leimer's own spiritual journey and loaded with anecdotes, I got the feeling--the knowing and recognition--of a kindred spirit, or, as she calls it, another "consciousness shifter" (p. 87). She writes about the fears, the pitfalls, the critical junctures, the moments of synchronicity and Aha! from hindsight and invites us to do the same by example. She offers "Energy Exchanges," "Hidden Talents," "Seeing Patterns," "Killing Time," "Between Two Worlds," and "Ways of Knowing," as just some of the 25 chapter headings. Leimer has an uncanny ability to capture the intangible; to conceptualize and ground it so what is typically nebulous and ineffable becomes real, immediate, and full of life. The essay chapters are short, to the point, and each is built around a unifying theme that is thoughtfully, even logically, constructed. The themes connect and interweave offering more than the sum of their parts. This is not one more "how to" book written by yet another self-proclaimed guru. Natural Urges by ChrisTina Leimer is the real thing: written by a real person who has been there--and is still doing that.

A Journey Within

The impact is there in the opening words; the first page; it tantalizes you with a sense of the unknown. It promises to hint at answers. If not for anything else, I would've bought this book out of sheer curiosity to know how the writer interpreted her inner self and conducted a dialogue with it.The words flow natural and spontaneous. No one here is teaching anything, there are no lessons to be learnt. No theories to ponder and debate. Only experiences, feelings and knowledge grounded in reality have been shared here. It suddenly struck me, the writer here was not telling a tale, but laying herself bare. She shared her innermost thoughts, her doubts and intuitions, which very often, one is scared to admit even to one's own self.As I flipped the pages she held my hand and took me along on her spiritual journeys. I too felt that astonishment at our discoveries, sometimes I felt that I knew this answer all along, at other points my mind reeled as I found out something new.The truth now looked so simple, yet I'd never stumbled upon it, till the book pointed it out to me."Playing ball over running water"- such is the imagery evoked in this book! I can never forget this. It will stay with me forever and each time I think of it, it will tell me something more."The purple swan"- a symbol of the writer's discovery that a being can exist in multiple forms or dimensions, simultaneously. This shook me, I'd never thought in these terms before. In Hindu mythology and spiritual studies,reincarnation is an accepted belief. As a Hindu,I believe in it,and set much store by it. But the author's suggestion went much beyond all this, I had to try and blank out all I felt about reincarnation and start thinking again in a new track;only this time it was a multi-track. I'm still dwelling on it, I'm not very comfortable with it,but I now that this is a possibility- Like Christina's purple swan one can coexist simultaneously in more than one world, or twice in the same world. I must thank her for making me aware of this.I would definitely recommend Natural Urges to others who are spiritually oriented,or those who are curious enough to learn something new.I'll tell them that this book is not about a guru who peddles her doctrine.The reader is not expected to accept any novel belief, no, it is not new age faith. Rather, it is about a girl discovering there is more to her than her physical self. It is about the truths that become apparent to her, and simultaneously to us as we read about it. The methods and experiences revealed by the writer would help the reader in her spiritual pursuit.These essays are a revelation. Christina shows that one need not be a yogi, like it is believed here in India,to attain enlightenment. I salute her courage to stand up to the skeptical world and lay bare her spiritual self. Her fumbles,her insights and triumphs tell us so much, it will make it easy for us as we embark on our spiritual journey.

Unadorned Intuition

This slim volume is a personal expression of a contemporary naturalistic spirituality based foremost on the author's having trusted her own intuitions and inner promptings. More a series of personal anecdotes and reflections based in the author's own experience than a how-to manual or an exercise in private religion-making, it is refreshing in its accord between experience, voice and message.It is a short book of some 150 pages written in an appealingly clear manner without special terminology or complex argumentation. ChrisTina tells what she's experienced, what it's meant to her, and invites the reader to hir own authenticity. It is free of hieratic address, and is more a conversational, even a playful--but never self-indulgent--relation of her experience of living with feet aground and a clear 'connection with our spirit.'There are a little over a score of short chapters composed in a hearty, personal vein featuring (for examples): insight (noticing when she is 'wrapping a paradigm around a new experience, rather than just seeing without classifying or judging'); information (a www address for scientists discussing ESP); and astute interpretation (avoiding language that 'carries heavy cultural baggage that...obscure[s] experience, halt[s] thinking, and divide[s] us into warring camps'; and dedication, (to 'courage, daring, wisdom, and prudence').Not a scholarly or otherwise academic book, nor a testament or a catechism of any formal sort, this is simply an honest, judicious, autobiographically unpretentious statement of experience, faith in engaging life, and of the 'natural energy processes underlying daily life.'I liked it because I have since its publication met the writer and been able to confirm that she is true to her words, and because in a New Age of various kinds of pomp and cant, it rings clean of these in its statement of 'internal compass.'This book is suited for readers of any age interested in contemporary or New Age spirituality, intuition, autobiography or apologia or popular cultural interpretation and critique.For a complementary look at the topics, see, for instance, "Intuition: The Inside Story," Davis-Floyd and Arvidson, eds. (Routledge, 1997).

Reader review for Natural Urges

Natural Urges really made me think. It set out some key issues for me and made me reflect upon them in my own words. I would recommend it to people who I know are questioning their own personal spirituality more than anyone else.This book came at a time of my life when I was increasingly interested in knowing about my own spirituality and personality---perhaps it was being in my mid-twenties; perhaps giving birth to my first child. I picked up Natural Urges for personal guidance.The idea that religions should evolve over time; that the beliefs of our forefathers might not necessarily relate to the beliefs of our society today really hit home. I thought it was also interesting reading about the author's and others' personal spiritual evolution.