Hidden truths of life

Miracles Happen. This is the name of Dr Brian Weiss's latest book, written in collaboration with his daughter Amy Weiss. Superlatives are the only words that do justice to Weiss's works and this one is no different. Now before my review gets too boring for even me to read let's speak about just why this book is interesting.

For one, the book is basically a compilation of letters Weiss has received over the years, stating just how powerfully his past life regression therapy has helped people. Weiss deals with all things that come under the realm of the extraordinary and I particularly liked this section that dealt with the significance of animals in our lives. Also, since most of what Weiss deals with almost comes under the gamut of the paranormal, it is interesting how Weiss had this rather valid doubt.

On two different occasions Weiss, asked two Buddhist monks how come he had never encountered any negative entities as in people who are possessed or any other evil spirit trying to play havoc. His query was only met with laughter on both occasions and the response that the monks gave was that for such things to occur there has to be a match of frequencies and since Weiss only hopes to heal through love and peace, he is vibrationally at a much higher level. It is incredibly reassuring to read that Weiss truly believes that there is no such thing as evil, there might be misguided spirits who Weiss likens to mischievous children. So all of us who have been scared stiff with movies like the exorcist can breathe easy.

I can go on endlessly about this book which speaks about the fact that there is no such thing as a coincidence, that almost all phobias have their roots in a forgotten soul memory and that we are all in this earth school to learn our lessons in compassion and love. And before I begin to sound like Dr Weiss himself let's move onto our next book. Before I begin there is this rather interesting fact I would like to share.

I had recently visited the book store Landmark at Punjagutta and was all set to pick up Kareena Kapoor's 'The Style Diary of a Bollywood Diva'. The book, Miracles Happen was right next to it and I have yet to figure out just how I managed to simply randomly pick it up. That again makes me believe that when you are meant to do something, the universe simply propels you in that direction. Even Kareena Kapoor apparently feels the same way.

The book 'The Style Diary....' as published by Shobhaa De deserves a whole column for its review. Kareena's fans will be happy with this glossy and slightly pink tinged book but people looking for some genuine style tips will be a bit disappointed. All the same it's a unique effort and in case Bhoomika Chawla were to bring out such a book I would go sprinting to pick up a copy.

Finally we have Malcom Gladswell's book 'Outliers' which speaks of the fact that people succeed in the fields that they do because somewhere at a subconscious level they have been oriented for success. For instance, USA has the maximum number of students from engineering and Maths department coming from either India or China. Even among Indians, it is the people from Andhra Pradesh who dominate the rather mind boggling engineering field. Gladwell actually draws a parallel stating that Andhra is called the rice bowl of India and the same is said about the south part of china.

Rice is considered a rather difficult crop to grow and hence people who grow these crops quite naturally have to be hard working. And strangely it's been seen that fields like Maths require hard work more than just intelligence. The connections that Gladwell draw are baffling and for that reason alone, Gladwell's works are sheer awe inspiring. A review can hardly do justice to them.