disappointment in a book I had looked forward to

Okay, without getting into specifics I follow a rather eclectic earthy spiritual path.

I sent away for several books with an Indigenous theme and boy am I ever disappointed. There are people I am sure that would find my practices humorous but even I found myself laughing and guffawing at these reads. Hokey Malarkey is what these books were. They were not written from the standpoint of someone actually knowledgable on the subject rather 'stolen' and spun as though the reader was an idiot and the writer the quinisential authority. The authors aren't even First Nations themselves - which is a big red flag to me. I even recognised much of it as plagarized from the Internet and other sources I am familiar with.

So I have a great deal of thoughts about this. First of all the irritation the material has been stolen. Second of all is the fact these people have made a mess of the material and numerous mistakes. Third of all that there would be naive readers out there that would take such material as the written truth verbatim. What a shame as following and honouring such a path can be both legitimate and rewarding.

It has occurred to me that regardless of the spiritual slant that this sort of thing likely happens time and time again. That one has the nagging feeling that their beliefs have been treated as a joke.

Not something that really requires help or support to digest; I just really needed to get this off my chest.

it's a little bit like, and a bit different than, that book: "The Secret". the authors were well known in the field of spiritual psychology, and four of them collaborated on explaining how positive thoughts and affirmations could 'attract' what one desired. then after they had made a fortune, a couple of yrs later, they discreetly withdrew their endorsement of the 'method', claiming it was 'over simplified'.

some people ARE so desperate that they will grasp at straws... it is very sad that nothing is safe from the scam artists.

It's extremely difficult to get a proper view on the non-Western cultures. Perhaps you could search for books written by social anthropologists (eg Clifford Geertz, Fiona Bowie) although even they aren't free of bias and misunderstandings. It's impossible for one person to interpret whole culture appropriately.

What a marvelous idea! You are correct. Thank you a big bunch!

I too am blazing an earthy, eclectic spiritual path. I'm sorry that your new books were such a disappointment. I hate when that happens. Nowadays I always check the "Look Inside" feature and read the reviews on Amazon before I dare to order something. That minimizes the risk of getting less than I'd bargained for.

I do not hear many people talking about it, but there is a fundamental problem with talking about religions as "Western," "Eastern," or "Non-Western."

First, where is the dividing line between West and East? One option would be to use the border between Europe and Asia, along the path of the Ural Mountains. Another option would be to draw a longitude line cutting through Jerusalem. Strangely, few writers seem to address where they divide between West and East.

Second, how do you pick a location for a world religion with followers that migrate? For Hinduism, it makes sense to consider India the religion's center. For Christianity, there are reasons to pick Jerusalem and Rome. Though it would be reasonable to associate Protestantism with Germany and Orthodox with Constantinople/Istanbul in addition to that.

Then there's the inconsistent use of terminology to consider. The convention is to write about Christianity as a Western religion.

Some writers categorize Islam as Western, perhaps by analogy to Judaism. Others categorize Islam as Eastern, perhaps taking Jerusalem as a dividing line, although a look at a map shows Mecca is relatively close to Jerusalem. Still others, perplexingly, do not categorize Islam as either Western or Eastern.

Also, what do you do with something like the Aboriginal religions of Australia? Geographically, it would make sense to call them Eastern. In terms of the history of religion, it is not helpful to call them Eastern because they have little in common with the religions of East Asia. On the other hand, you might carve out a separate group from "Indigenous" and place Aboriginal religion there, along with Native American, Ainu, and others.

Your disappointment is due to your expectations.

A lot of these books are jokes and contain bad material, so it is good that you do not buy into it.