An Authority Check

	Book review on The Essence of Reality by Nehrer, Thomas Daniel (2008) Reviewed by Malcolm Hollick, 2009 published in Network Review No 98
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I have very mixed feelings about The Essence of Reality by Thomas Daniel Nehrer. On the one hand I agree with much of what he says, with a few notable exceptions discussed below. On the other hand, I reacted strongly against what strikes me as his egotistical attitude.

Nehrer sets out to explain the nature of Reality and how to reach a clear awareness of it. His central thesis is that the Essence of Reality is consciousness, rather than matter. In other words, the material world arises from will and intention rather than being the stage upon which we act them out. Nehrer is on firm ground, I believe, when he claims that other people sense our inner qualities and how we feel about ourselves. Their responses to this intuitive understanding can have a dramatic effect on our lives. However, he goes much further than this when he argues that we create our own reality, suggesting a few times that we have only ourselves to blame if our lives don't match our desires. His main focus here is on inner qualities, but he does occasionally slip very close to the New Age nonsense that we can all manifest a Rolls Royce and a mansion, perfect health and the ideal partner if we set about it the right way. He also comes close to blaming the victims of disease or bad luck.

Nehrer talks about how everything is connected and an expression of the One. But at the same time his approach is very individualistic. He argues that we can be masters of our own destiny by rejecting all authority, engaging in various personal development techniques, and having clear intentions. This seems to me to ignore the very essence of Oneness. In seeking to manifest the material reality of our desires, we are not acting alone, but co-creating the future with every other conscious being in the universe. The flow of Reality is therefore the synthesis of all these intentions, and cannot satisfy everyone's desires simultaneously unless they all happen to mesh perfectly. To me, the process of manifestation is one of aligning our desires, intentions and will with the cosmic pattern, or gaining a clear awareness of the flow of Reality as Nehrer might put it. Inevitably, our egos and human failings mean that at times we do not get what we want - particularly perhaps on the outer, material level. But we may get what we need, or at least what is necessary for the Whole.

So how do we reach this clear awareness? The first step, according to Nehrer, is to reject everything we've learned from our culture, and to take nothing on authority. Rather, we should use introspection to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Having rejected classic meditation, a smorgasbord of healing methods, prayer, kinesiology and various other approaches, Nehrer recommends several tools to help with this process. These include meditation (in the form of quieting the mind, which he claims is not what classic meditation is about), self-hypnosis (for deep physical relaxation), ideomotor response (using a pendulum to gain information from the subconscious mind), automatic writing (to bring subconscious issues to the surface), dream interpretation, and auto­suggestion (seemingly another word for affirmations).

The healing process Nehrer advocates is to pick a thought pattern or problem, regress back to its beginnings in some event early in life, and then change it

understanding can have a dramatic effect on our lives. However, he goes much further than this when he argues that we create our own reality, suggesting a few times that we have only ourselves to blame if our lives don't match our desires. His main focus here is on inner qualities, but he does occasionally slip very close to the New Age nonsense that we can all manifest a Rolls Royce and a mansion, perfect health and the ideal partner if we set about it the right way. He also comes close to blaming the victims of disease or bad luck.

Nehrer talks about how everything is connected and an expression of the One. But at the same time his approach is very individualistic. He argues that we can be masters of our own destiny by rejecting all authority, engaging in various personal development techniques, and having clear intentions. This seems to me to ignore the very essence of Oneness. In seeking to manifest the material reality of our desires, we are not acting alone, but co-creating the future with every other conscious being in the universe. The flow of Reality is therefore the synthesis of all these intentions, and cannot satisfy everyone's desires simultaneously unless they all happen to mesh perfectly. To me, the process of manifestation is one of aligning our desires, intentions and will with the cosmic pattern, or gaining a clear awareness of the flow of Reality as Nehrer might put it. Inevitably, our egos and human failings mean that at times we do not get what we want - particularly perhaps on the outer, material level. But we may get what we need, or at least what is necessary for the Whole.

So how do we reach this clear awareness? The first step, according to Nehrer, is to reject everything we've learned from our culture, and to take nothing on authority. Rather, we should use introspection to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Having rejected classic meditation, a smorgasbord of healing methods, prayer, kinesiology and various other approaches, Nehrer recommends several tools to help with this process. These include meditation (in the form of quieting the mind, which he claims is not what classic meditation is about), self-hypnosis (for deep physical relaxation), ideomotor response (using a pendulum to gain information from the subconscious mind), automatic writing (to bring subconscious issues to the surface),

dream interpretation, and auto­suggestion (seemingly another word for affirmations).

The healing process Nehrer advocates is to pick a thought pattern or problem, regress back to its beginnings in some event early in life, and then change it through auto­suggestion. When reduced to its basics in this way, the process is similar to many therapies. The key difference is that Nehrer rejects any idea of help, seeing all interventions as involving issues of authority, power and control. He seems never to have experienced the power of a good therapist, counsellor or coach to facilitate self-discovery and personal freedom. And he seems not to realise our need of others as mirrors, or to challenge us with 'Hey, what about ....?'

The process also fails to address some big questions. First, is it actually possible to start with a clean slate, without taking anything on authority? I doubt it, and it is clear that Nehrer owes a large, unacknowledged debt to the world in which he grew up and the extensive reading he has obviously done - but deliberately not referenced. We all stand on the shoulders of giants, even if we question their conclusions. Second, can we really get to the bottom of our own nature and the essence of Reality through introspection alone? Again, I doubt it. Our psyches are extraordinarily skilled at concealing the truth about ourselves from even the most searching and persistent inquiry. And our deepest behaviour patterns are usually associated with experiences in early infancy, birth, or even in the womb, before we had conscious awareness. To get at these often requires powerful therapies such as Holotropic Breathwork or Peak States of Consciousness. Third, is the relationship between mind and emotions. Nehrer, in common with A Course in Miracles and many other approaches, lays responsibility for our problems at the feet of the mind. Change the mind and all else changes, including the emotions. From my perspective, and those of many therapies, however, the emotions are more fundamental. We need to start by healing emotional traumas and then mind healing can follow.

Finally, I want to return to the issue of what appears to me to be Nehrer's egotism. On several occasions he tells the reader not to treat him or his ideas as any kind of authority. And yet the whole tenor of the book sets him up as just that. He starts out by arguing that 'you', his reader, have distorted views of Reality due to the beliefs and myths of your culture. He then sets himself above any such limitation, as the following two quotations illustrate. 'Having ... cleared away all the synthetic notions, beliefs and definitions absorbed during childhood, I only depict for you How Life Works when seen clearly.' (p.7) 'On my own and through my own specified, introspective cleansing, I came to see the flow and gist of life clearly. From a higher perspective, I am able to reflect meaningfully on great teachers of the past, able to discern distortion in the message ...' (p.176)

In my view, those with 'a clear awareness' don't need or want to promote themselves. Their messages speak for themselves. Thus Nehrer's attitude repels me and I am more critical of his larger message than I might otherwise be. Perhaps this is just my resistance to authority?

Malcolm Hollick is author of The
Science of Oneness: A worldview for
the twenty-first century

 

 

 

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