Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

By Sam Harris

Book Overview

For the millions of Americans who want spirituality without religion, Waking Up is a guide to meditation as a rational practice informed by neuroscience and psychology. From Sam Harris, neuroscientist and author of numerous New York Times bestselling books, Waking Up is for the twenty percent of Americans who follow no religion but who suspect that important truths can be found in the experiences of such figures as Jesus, the Buddha, Lao Tzu, Rumi, and the other saints and sages of history. Throughout this book, Harris argues that there is more to understanding reality than science and secular culture generally allow, and that how we pay attention to the present moment largely determines the quality of our lives. Waking Up is part memoir and part exploration of the scientific underpinnings of spirituality. No other book marries contemplative wisdom and modern science in this way, and no author other than Sam Harris--a scientist, philosopher, and famous skeptic--could write it.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1451636016
• ISBN13: 9781451636017
• Release Date: September 2014
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.4" x 1.0" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Not worth it

Written from a pedestal. Author assumes our thoughts and intellect is low.

Two Thumbs Down

My discussion group was reading this book and decided to drop it after about 50 pages. I kept on but couldn't get past page 67. Knew I'd had enough when he claimed, falsely, that only 25% of Americans believe in evolution. I hoped for a conversation about spirituality without "religion," not to be schooled about the unscientific idea of a soul. There is a big difference between science and faith. I'm afraid the writer has some kind of grudge he's trying to settle.