The price of wisdom

Am I being a grumpy old man or is 50 quid a lot to pay to listen to a talk? It's the ticket price for An Evening with Deepak Chopra at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester next month. I'm sure it would be very interesting and uplifting, and I'd like to go, but £50 seems rather steep, don't you think?


Deepak Chopra has written over 50 books on spiritual topics ranging from love, healing, life after death, and so on. Indeed, two of his books are sat on the bookshelf in front of me (SynchroDestiny and The Book of Secrets). So maybe he can justify the £50 price-tag and I'm sure he'll fill the 2,400-seater hall. But it is a shame that he (or rather the organisations surrounding him) is charging a price that will mean a lot of people who would really benefit from hearing what he has to say are put off.

Anyway, if you're not put off, here is the link to the event via which you can book a seat. I doubt I'll end up going myself, but if I do I'll be the one tutting under my breath and moaning about the price of the ice-creams.

The Spiritual Zone

Is there a "Spiritual Zone"? Gary Quinn seems to think so. And he should know because he lives there. And he says you can too! I think Gary actually lives in Beverly Hills in California, but I'm guessing the Spiritual Zone isn't a geographical thing, nor is it to do with the size of the house you live in. No, according to Gary, the Spiritual Zone is "a welcoming place of trust, peace, love, belonging, joy and abundance". Cool. (A house in Beverly Hills is just a bonus.)

On a recent trip to the library, I picked up Gary's book Living in the Spiritual Zone (published by Hodder Mobius). The book's subtitle is 10 Steps to Change Your Life and Discover Your Truth. That's right. It's one of those New Agey type self-help books that in the past I would be so dismissive about. But that was the old me. The new me decided to borrow the book. And who knows, I might even get round to reading it.

That was a few months ago. Having re-newed the book with the library a few times, I did finally get round to reading it. And do you know what? It was actually pretty good! He talks about all the stuff that these kinds of books usually talk about (love, truth, forgiveness... that kind of shit) in a way that is very accessible and isn't too "preachy". In fact, it all made a lot of sense.

I guess the next step would be to put it into practice. But when I do, there'll be no stopping me... Beverly Hills, here I come!