Book Reviews By Catherine Carlson
By Phillip Permutt, Includes Over 400 Crystals to Transform Your Life
Phillip Permutt was recommended as an excellent resource for knowledge about crystals. When his new book, The Modern Guide to Crystal Healing came out, I thought it was a great opportunity to take a look. Permutt lives in the United Kingdom and began practicing crystal healing after a severe illness many years ago. He is now considered an expert in the field.
The nicely sized book is packed with an amazing amount of information organized in a simple fashion with sharp photographs for identification. The introduction contains a history of how crystals have been used throughout different civilizations. Crystals have been described in ancient texts and found in early graves. Permutt says that crystals work first with the energy system of the body which then affects the physical body, and that’s how they can help with healing. Permutt discusses several ways to work with crystals to benefit from them, including making an elixir. These can be taken as a drink or applied to the body. For example, amber elixir “can act as an antiseptic for cuts and grazes.”
There is a section on preparing for crystal work which includes how to choose a crystal that’s right for you. You may also choose one for someone else. Permutt tells the story of how he chose the yellow crystal citrine for a customer, having a feeling it was related to his digestion. The man insisted there was nothing wrong but took the crystal. Several days later he called to say at a dinner the previous night everyone he was with had gotten food poisoning. He was the only one who didn’t and had been carrying his citrine.
The Crystal Finder chapter has descriptions and clear photos for over 400 different crystals. Quartz and Amethyst are listed first because they are “two of the most powerful healing crystals.” For myself, I’m often drawn to crystals based on their color as are many people. The rest of the crystals are organized in rainbow order with colored bands at the top of each page. If you know you tend to be attracted to green stones, it’s easy to flip to that section.
For each crystal, he lists where it is sourced, astrological associations, and the chakra alignment followed by healing qualities. For example: the crystal aquamarine can be found in several countries including Afghanistan, Brazil, and the USA. It is associated with Aries, Gemini, and Pisces and aligns with the throat chakra. It is listed as protecting travelers, giving courage, and being helpful when studying or communicating. Aquamarine also “makes things happen.” Physically it is healthy for the kidneys, lymph, blood, teeth, and eyes. Emotionally it has a calming energy and helps if you’re feeling judgmental. What if you are repelled by certain colors or stones? He talks about the reasons behind that, too.
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Another way to find a crystal for you is based on the healing properties. The last chapter is all about crystal remedies. There is a section for crystals for physical remedies, another for emotional remedies, as well as sections for crystals for spiritual enhancement or lifestyle enhancement. I had been suffering from a frozen shoulder and wondered if there was anything listed to help me. There were several listings under both muscle and bone. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to actually see a separate listing for frozen shoulder! It said to “Hold azurite/malachite or liddicoatite in the hand of the affected shoulder.” I had some malachite and I tried holding it as suggested, for 30 minutes and I did notice a bit of pain relief. It was enough to inspire me to try it again. There are also several all-purpose crystals that are useful if you’re not sure where to begin.
Permutt says based on his experience and that of others, “a full-course of crystal healing leads to an improvement in well-being.” I own several books on crystals, but this one has inspired me to really investigate how to use them more in my daily life for all kinds of reasons. The tell-tale sign of a good resource book is how easily you can find what you are looking for, and this book is very well put together. I can already tell this is going to be a book I reach for often!
Anita Moorjani’s new book Sensitive is the New Strong: The Power of Empaths in an Increasingly Harsh World, is a slightly different spin on the subject of being highly sensitive or empathic. She knows the subject matter first-hand and the pain and suffering it can cause when a person isn’t aware of, or doesn’t know how to, deal with it. You see, in 2008, hours from dying from the end stages of cancer, she had a near death experience (NDE) and completely recovered. The late author Wayne Dyer discovered her story and was instrumental in her telling it through her earlier bestselling book Dying to be Me. Her new book’s title Sensitive is the New Strong grew out of her experience with the hurt she experienced from negative and critical people online. She began asking questions—Did others feel this way? Is this why there are so few sensitive people in leadership roles?
In the first part of the book The World of an Empath, she discusses her NDE and years later, a transformational encounter with a shaman in Costa Rica. She learned being an empath was the definitive reason for why she had been so challenged throughout her life. This new information gave her the language to understand herself and the people that she attracted to her work. Empaths are different than others and they often feel like there is something wrong with them, when in actuality, they are unaware of their gift and how to deal with it. Moorjani sums it up this way, “We’re six-sensory beings who’ve been conditioned to believe that we’re five-sensory beings in a world created by people who believe that they’re five-sensory beings.” How to know if this is you? There is a quiz to determine your empathic score. Are you somewhat sensitive or a full-blown mystic? I shared the quiz with a few friends and family and found not everyone can relate to being an empath.
In the second section, Your Relationship with Yourself, Moorjani goes deeper into how to function more ideally as an empath. She covers the energy zapping that occurs from using the internet. There’s an important chapter called Turning Up the Dial on your Ego. To help with stronger boundaries empaths need to align their ego with naturally high level of conscious awareness. She tells the story of her friend who became terminally ill (before she herself did). Moorjani felt guilty if she wasn’t helping her friend or her friend’s children and she became weak from her body’s natural inclination to feel what her friend was feeling. Moorjani’s underdeveloped ego led to her denial of her own needs. Even as Moorjani’s own illness began, she still cared more about how everyone around her was feeling than herself. She shares the wisdom that illness, whether small or big is often the body pushing back, and can be an alarm telling you, it’s time to value yourself as an individual, to pay attention to your own needs, before it’s too late.
In Part 3: Your Relationship with The World, Moorjani covers a big trigger for empaths—creating financial abundance. On the one hand empaths are naturally gifted at manifesting. However, their desire to people-please and give out of a desire to serve can lead to them to devalue themselves, their talents, and their work. Moorjani says following her NDE she would do healing work and speak to others about her experience for free. It took a lot of her time, but she loved doing it. Eventually she let go of her fear of what others would say due to the common belief that “money isn’t spiritual.” Doing so changed her whole world and she became the well-known author and speaker she is today.
This book is full of other helpful teachings for empaths such as learning to say “no” and dealing with the side of guilt that comes afterward. She herself ended up saying “no,” to an arranged marriage. She talks about the role of gender as an added layer to being an empath. In her culture she was groomed from an early age to be submissive and obedient in order to be a good wife to her husband and the family she would marry into. Moorjani was also bullied growing up and has a really unique way to approach confrontation and deal with adversaries. At the end of each chapter is a relevant meditation. There is one for tuning in, for abundance, and for being yourself unapologetically, to name a few.
Years ago, I saw Moorjani tell her incredible story in person. She speaks with confidence and authority because she has real experience. Maybe like Moorjani, you (or someone you know) feel things more deeply than most—you may feel drained from daily life more often than not. It took clinical death for Moorjani to honor and love herself, own her gifts, and connect to cosmic consciousness. To be clear, she is saying that her inability to be herself is what lead to her nearly dying! There is so much wisdom here from her own journey both before and after her NDE, including how to increase your life force so that you can, as she was instructed by her father, “live your life fearlessly.”
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