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48 of 51 found the following review helpful:
 The Uniqueness of Me Apr 06, 2009
By William McPeck
"Coach/Consultant"
Having read some of my other reviews, the author contacted me and asked me to review this book. I found the book to be both interesting and challenging. Interesting in theory and concept and challenging in how to apply and make sense of it all. At times I felt like I was back in my college philosophy class, chasing my tail and never catching it. I can only imagine how challenging it was for the author to write the book.
If you read this book, be prepared to be exposed to psychological, sociological, anthropological, philosophical and theological concepts as they relate to the development of the human psyche. For me, one of the more interesting concepts was the author's linking the nature of the human psyche to the evolution of human culture. This was a new concept for me.
The book is built around the premise that when we are born, we are born with a unique, authentic being with our own life force or "original core." Unfortunately, to one degree or another, we all experience separation and invalidation from our parents and other significant persons in our life resulting in what the author calls "The Wound." Our wound becomes the source of "our greatest fears and self doubt, even self contempt." The author posits that our personality develops in a way that shields us from experiencing the pain of our wound. The author calls our personality our fear selves because it is built around protecting us from our greatest fears. This means that how you see yourself or how you see others is based on these false fear selves and is not a true representation of our core or authentic self.
Liberation From the Lie delves into great detail about The Wound, the various types of fear selves and their relationship to our authentic core or original life force. Fortunately for us, both The Wound and the fear selves we have adopted are porous enough so that our stronger original authentic core or life force can be observed at times and as a result, more fully uncovered.
The Liberation From the Lie presents the framework for embarking on a personal journey. The journey is one of self learning and discovery, rather than self help. In fact, the author states that employing self help techniques results not in self discovery, but in further refining or making our fear selves more sophisticated. To assist you on your personal journey of self discovery, the author has incorporated into the text, exercises for the reader to complete, thereby adding to the value of the text.
If you are looking for a prescriptive self help solution to your psychic pain, this is not the book for you. Reading this book will not be quick and it will require your full attention. You will need to think about and personally explore what the content means to you. If you truly contemplate what you have read, you will increase your understanding which aids your self development. While this book requires you to think, I believe you will be the better person for it.
30 of 31 found the following review helpful:
 Liberation Manual Apr 05, 2009
By Steve Burns
This is not a Self-Help book it is a liberation-from-self book. Why do we continually read self-help books in an endless search for some magic solution that will finally make us feel better? Why do we feel inadequate on some level but find it impossible to explain it in words? I believe Eric Gross explains in his book why this is the case. Very early in our childhood, at some point almost all of us were invalidated as human beings. This is an epidemic of our modern world so far removed from our hunter-gatherer forbears where babies were physically with their mothers 24/7 and the clan was geared for community and survival instead of ego gratification through hierarchy and ownership of material things. Our modern world invalidates us all at some point early on, and this creates a psychological wound. In our pain our minds create a mental projection which the author calls a Fear-Self. This Fear-Self is meant to protect us from experiencing the wound. The Fear-Selves take many forms, such as "The Achiever", "The Body Person", "The Expert", "The Spiritualist", "The Tough Guy", "The Loner", "The Imitator","The Terrified One","The Pleaser" or "The Resilient One". The big problem is that these mental projections take us over and we believe they are us, they are not, we are the pure unfettered consciousness that exists beneath these projections. These Fear-Selves do not live in the present moment they live in the past and are goal driven always seeking the next step for validation. Our true self lives in the present, and experiences the world through the senses not through thoughts of the past and future.
I started my spiritual quest as a Christian Fundamentalist, then studied Buddhism for years, I also have read countless self-help books to little avail, before this book Eckhart Tolle's books were the ones I found to be the most helpful in liberating me from my compulsive thoughts. This book has taken me to a whole new level of understanding. I am now longer attempting to improve my Fear-Self with self-help books. Now my quest is to liberate my true self from the Fear-Self through mindfulness of it's nature. I am no longer trying to get my Fear-Self to live in the Now. My true self can live in the Now, after I am mindful of my Fear-Self and see it for what it is a mental projection and not me. I am sure this review can not do justice to this book so I strongly encourage each reader of this review to read the book for themselves and let the author explain to you through the book the path to liberating yourself from the lie of the wound. My life has been changed with this new understanding and I believe yours will be also.
20 of 22 found the following review helpful:
The Only Thing to Fear ... Mar 04, 2009
By James W. Mooney
"cybervigilante"
Everything evolves, including spirituality. Liberation from the Lie is a new concept that builds on solid traditions such as Zen, Advaita, and Navajo healing. Most of us carry some deep Wound from childhood that we paper over with a false self, in order to avoid the pain. Unfortunately, the false self is largely a bundle of drama, fear, anxiety, and really bad decisions that mess up our lives. We think it is us, but it isn't. With the help of this book's techniques, we heal the wound and discard the false self, revealing a true and deeper self of joy, love, and happiness.
17 of 19 found the following review helpful:
Great Book Mar 04, 2009
By Scott Kiloby
I dare you to read this book and not see yourself in it, especially in the list of Fear-Selves. This book steps outside of common paradigms of spirituality, religion, psychology, and philosophy and provides a fresh view of the human condition.
Fear is at the root of the false self. Eric is spot on about that. If this isn't seen, we live inauthentic lives. We react from conditioned ideas--masks.
Rather than asking you to discard everything, this book invites you to see and understand, as any great book about authentic living does. To see and understand is to transcend and include, not to exclude and deny. Seeing and understanding is the hallmark of truly authentic living.
The basic message of this book is exactly what is needed in this crazy life: to realize our authentic and true selves free from the bondage of striving. This is a call to no longer live and act from fear, but rather from the presence of love inherent in our being.
Scott Kiloby, author of Love's Quiet Revolution: The End Of The Spiritual Search
11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
At last! A book that makes a difference! Feb 28, 2009
By Cynthia Green
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," Henry David Thoreau wrote in 1854. Now, more than 150 years later, so many men and women alike are practically screaming with despair. The economy is in shambles; brutal wars and atrocities abound; the gap grows ever wider between the super-wealthy "haves" and the burgeoning number of "have-nots." We are constantly searching for the quick fix that will fill the emptiness in our souls--binging on consumer goods bought largely on credit, chasing the fountain of youth with plastic surgery, working longer and harder at spirit-crushing jobs that produce little of value, and anesthetizing our pain with booze, drugs, and reality TV.
If, like me, you are one of the many who would like to jump off this crazy treadmill--but just can't figure out how--reading "Liberation from the Lie" is like stumbling upon a signpost in the wilderness. Following the author's incisive examination of how we got where we are today--and how we can start to turn our lives in a different direction--offers nothing short of a life-changing experience.
This is NOT your typical self-help book! Drawing on his own experience working with Native Americans, Mr. Gross leads us on a unique journey through the evolution of human culture, proposing a very credible theory that links our most deep-seated fears and anxieties to the transformation from the early hunter-gatherer way of life to modern, industrialized society. Then he helps us to identify the false fronts that we develop as a shield against our fear and pain and starts us on a path that leaves behind our ceaseless striving, seeking, conflict, and dissatisfaction.
The book's presentation is lively and entertaining, and Mr. Gross' message is ultimately inspiring and uplifting. Even though I have read many "self-help" and psychology books in my time, I came away from this book with a totally fresh perspective on life and new ways of thinking about our troubled times. If ever we have needed a book like "Liberation from the Lie," it is NOW!
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