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21 of 24 found the following review helpful:
 Invaluable guide Dec 07, 2009
By Margot Ridler
Are you a seeker of truth? A seeker of enlightenment, awakening, becoming one with your true Self, etc.? Then this book will burst a few bubbles you might have floating around in your brain about what this really means. I was such a seeker once, with no clue what awakening or enlightenment was really all about. There was just this immense pressure to seek and to keep going no matter what. May be this sounds familiar to you? It was like I had this maddening task master living inside, beating at me relentlessly 24/7 saying: "seek, seek, seek". But what was I really seeking? I had no clue. I was insanely driven but had no goal to pursue because I did not know what I was actually after - that was, until I came across Norquist's Haunted Universe.
There it was - black on white - what waking up was really all about. And believe me, it will shock you big time because it has nothing to do with bliss and love and heaven on earth and all that kind of stuff that's scoring big-time as best sellers in today's market place. Take it from "me" - waking up is exactly as Norquist describes.
If you are really serious and can't ignore the call to wake up - as I could not - Norquist's Haunted Universe will be a most treasured guide. It was for "me". It was my "bible" along with a few other books. I highly, highly recommend it.
12 of 15 found the following review helpful:
About life and death--and something more important Dec 19, 2009
By David Weimer
For the serious seeker, Haunted Universe is a serious book. For the ripe individual, who the author says is ready at any moment to fall from the tree of delusion, this book is made to shake that tree violently, helping such a borderline person fall into the "feeling/knowing" state prerequisite to Final Discovery.
Can this book deliver? There is one way to find out. It is probably different from every other work you will find on the subject of spiritual enlightenment.
Norquist believes that you can be talked into Ultimate Reality, that you can be led to a Final Awakening. He says also that this is impossible if someone has not already walked every single step up to that final door. He refers to the paradox often and states that no one ever existed or ever would, and that efforts made toward enlightenment are impossible, pointless and indispensable.
Everyone has a unique perspective. Norquist is no different. Except he says things like, "Reality is the sound of a pebble rolling down a hill on a planet in a star system that we will never know." And, "Not only that, there is no higher self, no ultimate being pulling the strings. A look behind the curtain proves: there is no one there! The smoke and mirrors are not hiding anything; there is just smoke and mirrors."
Enlightened people come back to an existence that doesn't exist, Norquist contends, adding, "Enlightenment reveals that the only thing going on in the universe is spontaneous manifestation. No chance and no design. Only perfect, automatic machine-like emergence."
This author designed his book to take you somewhere you have never been. He's offering you a rocket ride. You can't be told, he says; you have to go there. It's profound in its simplicity. Like the quietly-shared changed perspective that all astronauts embody when they return to Earth. "The Truth is the dream of a sleeping rock," Norquist says.
From images of a nebula in the constellation Aquarius referred to as the "Eye of God," to excessive use of white space--many pages in this book contain only a phrase or short sentence--to the progression of the chapters and the ideas contained therein, this work's form and function are singular. Haunted is also the quickest 415-plus-page read you'll ever encounter. I read it in forty minutes. But I might just as easily spend a lifetime on one page or one sentence.
I decided to mark each page where I found something profound or unusual and found that I'd bent over the corner of most pages. Norquist has a shockingly simple perspective on consciousness and the Universe--which he seriously describes as haunted. He says that consciousness IS the universe and that there are no beings in existence experiencing the universe; there is only Universe/Consciousness manifesting spontaneously and perfectly.
Norquist's vision of reality is not at first blush optimistic or self-affirming: "Emptiness is the natural state of reality," he says. "Reality is not intellectual, it is mindless... Once you feel/know it you will be finally free. Don't let anyone deceive you, "you" must disappear." He relentlessly pounds directly through the center of the self--this "delusion" that he says does not exist. Compared to the sun, a candle flame does not exist and in that light, Norquist is affirming an ultimate Self that someone may, against tremendous odds, find themselves to be.
Norquist suffers no fools. He discourages casual readers and talks straight to the few who can hear him. He tells you to play along and suspend disbelief for a while to get the full effect of his "ghost story." After all, he says, his ghost story is actually yours.
Haunted Universe is an attempt to pull or shove you into a perspective that you were incapable of experiencing before, as long as you still called yourself 'you.'
There's also a wall-staring exercise at the end of his book and a couple of bonus chapters that have appeared elsewhere as essays.
I recommend Haunted Universe to any serious seeker of ultimates. Read it often. There's something in this book between and inside the white spaces. Something huge. For the haunted seeker, many books are read but few are chosen. Choose this book.
D. Weimer
Flushing, Ohio
17 of 23 found the following review helpful:
Provocative, Beautiful and Inspiring! Nov 21, 2009
By Dogen
"insidesounds"
How do I critique a book that is beyond description? I'll start by saying this is a beautiful book to open at random. Each and every page is filled with photos and text that is sublime. Steven's unconventional teaching is presented and combined in zen like quotes and paragraphs that have the power to enlighten.
Haunted Universe has become one of my favorite books. The quotes are arranged in such a way as to make them tremendously potent. In fact, the author asks you if you really want to read this book! Perhaps not he continues. For some, the best advice is to forget the whole enlightenment thing. I chose to read on, and my life has never been quite the same. As a close friend said after reading it: " It was like a double trigger!" So very true! Just reading the words is an exercise in simplicity and clarity. If you've begun to see the futility of seeking, then you are ready for this book.
The text can be read as a story, but at the same time, it can be picked up and opened to any page, as certain quotes may contain profound insights. It derives it's power from the enormous silence behind the words. Turn a few pages, and you will be moved and inspired, perhaps frightened.
In the beginning, Norquist states he initially had no interest in writing anything about this subject. A few days later, he wrote an article about his experience which became known as: "What is enlightenment, no, I mean really, like what is it?". After reading the article many times over, I have yet to read anything that comes close to what enlightenment is. Also included is another article written for the TAT Foundation.
The last chapter is called "The Practice" and is devoted to helping people achieve a breakthrough. Many of us have gotten close, but remain short of a glimpse into Reality.
One of my favorite quotes by Steven Norquist is: "The Truth can never be believed in, it can only be known." The exercise essentially pinpoints how to achieve the difference between just believing and knowing. To evoke the feeling and knowing state, as apposed to intellectualizing it, can make all the difference in overcoming the barriers that keep us from our own awakening.
The size and quality of this book impressed me. It has the look and feel akin to an art book on spirituality. It certainly doesn't feel like a paperback and wouldn't consider classifying it as such.
A powerful and beautifully put together book! I recommend it highly.
7 of 9 found the following review helpful:
"Haunted Universe is the Fight Club of spiritual texts" Jan 11, 2010
By Ryan Johnson
"Nobody"
This kind of book needs to find you at the right time. It may infuriate your ego, or it may be that last little nudge into the abyss. It depends on where the reader is at and how strong their ego is. Good Luck Reader, I wish you oblivion!
7 of 9 found the following review helpful:
Yes! Dec 17, 2009
By John Lenz
If you are serious about Enlightenment this is the book! It will rock your world... it may even annihilate it! Haunted Universe: The True Knowledge of Enlightenment is the most powerful, direct book I have ever read on the subject of Ultimate Reality. Steven Norquist has done an outstanding job... Writing about something beyond words!
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