Raising the Soul provides means for you to better deal with today's hectic, stressful, cluttered, and chaotic lifestyles. If you think there should be more to your life than busyness and tension, then this is a great book to read and to stimulate you to take action by yourself for yourself. Raising the Soul is a very practical book that it is surprizing wasn't written before. But perhaps there aren't many authors who are both experienced in inner development and teachers. It gives clear, detailed explanations of how to consciously perform seven mental exercises, which have come down to us from ancient schools of learning, in ways that will best serve people in today's modern societies. This is not about devoting your days to pious meditation or escaping from the real world and living in seclusion. It is about spending a short amount of time each day strengthening your inner self and capacities so you can live your life more fully, completely, and gratefully, achieve more, and regret less. It is about increasing your inner understanding and self control in order to gain more from and give more to your relationships and your working life, no matter what they entail. And there are lots of anecdotes from real people who have performed these exercises to show you that they do indeed work. Common difficulties for practitioners are also discussed. Again, this is not about a dream world, it's about reality. Other books on self-development often use mystical language to explain things and/or fail to provide means for the everyday person to put what they discuss into practice. But not this one. The written style and language are clear and easy to understand. You can put into practice what you read immediately, if you wish. If you are the type who likes to hear about unseen worlds, I don't think you'll find anywhere a clearer and more concise discussion of the soul than is in Chapter 10. There are also suggestions for further reading. Enjoy the read and the examples, as Cohen suggests you do first. And after that, most of all, start doing the exercises.
