Jeff Maziarek Reviews Walking Through Illusion

Title: Walking Through Illusion
by Betsy Otter Thompson
http://www.betsythompson.com
Nonfiction: Spirituality


Originally reviewed by Jeff Maziarek for Amazon.

Five Star Review



Walking Thorough Illusion features a group of short stories about people in the Bible who had some association or awareness of Jesus. As a person who is not in any way drawn to conventional religion, I was at first skeptical regarding any value this book might bring to me. However, since it was recommended to me I decided to keep an open mind as I began reading it.


It took just a couple of chapters for me to get really drawn into this work. The author very creatively sets up each chapter (or story) as a fictional conversation between herself and Jesus about a particular topic, (e.g., obstacles, morality, approval, curiosity, death, time), but the content is by no means dogmatic in any way. I must admit I was very impressed the way in which the author was able to effectively distill the essence of the teachings of Jesus in a very practical, non-religious manner. In summary, I found this book to be very well-written, and both inventive and highly thought-provoking. I highly recommend it as a spiritual and personal growth resource. Here's one of my favorite passages from it:

"I believe that God is a power within - not a power that is only met upon death. If that's true, it simplifies things, don't you think? No more dialogues about whose God is valid and whose God is not since every soul is equally valid. No more wars in the name of God since God is you, me, and everyone. No more posturing that God told me to do this and God told me to say that since God isn't separate from the speaker. No more worries about taking the name of God in vain since you might as well be cursing yourself. No more religions claiming that they have the one true path, since every path that offers a person love is the path of true redemption. No more guilt for breaking God's rules since the rules we have are the ones we've given ourselves."



About the author:
Betsy Otter Thompson may be found at http://www.facebook.com/people/Betsy-Otter-Thompson/1026372698 and http://linkedin.com/pub/betsy-otter-thompson/23/549/a9b . She blogs at http://www.betsyotterthompson.blogspot.com and tweets at
http://www.twitter.com/betsyothompson.




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