First I should say I'm a lover of Michael's first book "The Untethered Soul" which radically transformed my life, so I pre-ordered this one and anxiously awaited. Before I got the book, I wasn't sure if I'd totally buy into the premise of "complete surrender" because I'm more in the arena of "you create your own reality" not to mention believing in parallel universes etc. etc.

Michael's book is a totally different angle - life just happens, don't try to figure out why and how it's happening, you're not doing any of it, just follow life, and it'll be just fine. So with great intrigue I was looking forward to reading it. Even though I knew his perspective on life was different than mine, I do believe in surrender - meaning it's fine to envision something but then completely let go and allow the Universe to do its thing. So even if I used Michael's viewpoint in that way, I was open to hearing what he had to share on the topic of surrendering.

By the way, some chapters ended with such an incredible promise of what will unfold next that you just had to keep reading. I told my son, "OK, leave me alone. I'll be in the sunroom for 5 hours - not getting up until this book is done!" I was up until after 1am, but it was done. I got both the audio book (read by the author) and the paperback.

UNTETHERED SOUL VS SURRENDER EXPERIMENT

Untethered Soul freed me from the chatter of my mind. Although I had been familiar with the concepts of not allowing your thoughts to control you, Michael Singer explained it so radically clear, that my own transformation came via the Untethered Soul. Or so I thought. I might need to go back and re-read Untethered Soul because The Surrender Experiment was mind-blowing.

To me, Untethered Soul was the message of "You are NOT your thoughts AND.... you don't have to just blindly follow your thoughts." Surrender Experiment, however, took that concept quite a bit further. Surrender Experiment was more about "What if you went ahead and did the very thing your thoughts made you fearful or resistant about doing?" and instead saw those opportunities as Life delivering to you your next task/action/decision. I had MANY jaw-dropping moments witnessing JUST how far Michael took that concept. Freakin' mind-blowing! Surrender Experiment was somewhat of a personal demonstration of what was taught in Untethered Soul and then some - totally riveting.

INITIAL REACTIONS

The first couple "life delivered" stories he shared, I was kinda like "Eh, that's nice but really not that extraordinary." (but not to worry that changed as I continued reading!)

My other initial reaction was toward the beginning of the book when I read one of the first stories of how he did NOT give into the chattering resistance of his mind. My reaction was "What?!!! That's nuts! Crap, there's no way I'd give in to a situation like that!" In rebellion, I shut the book and walked away feeling uncertain that I'd wanna keep reading... 30min later I feel drawn in.

I reminded myself that I can read any book and decide to use what resonates and discard what does not. Well hey, at least that perspective got me reading it again. SO freakin' glad I did!! (although I'll admit my reaction of "No way! He did NOT just allow that to happen!" re-occurred as I continued reading the book - see "is resistance holding me back" below)

WHAT I REALLY ENJOYED

Surrender when you feel resistance. (Chp 30):

This made VERY aware of just how many thoughts of RESISTANCE crossed my mind. Untethered Soul made me aware of the constant chatter, but Surrender Experiment made me acutely aware of thoughts of RESISTANCE which was truly transformative. Through the stories of his own thoughts of resistance I became aware of my own... painfully aware of my own (in a good way).

Refusing income:

Initially he refused to be paid by someone who was insisting to pay him. Sounds like he had that "too spiritual to receive payment" concept going on - a lot of "spiritual" people experience that so it was good to watch that play out in Michael's life. He admitted that he undercharged for his services quite a bit. That refusal to be paid was a form of mental resistance that he overcame later - clearly he shed resistance to accepting money given the millions he experienced in his companies.

Mental concept separating worldly and spiritual dissolves:

It was cool to witness the dissolving of his concepts "separating worldly and spiritual" as he puts it. For anyone who thinks spirituality is meditating, finding as much isolation as you can, and doing a whole bunch of spiritual practices, get ready to have your perspective shifted a bit. Michael found a way to merge deep spirituality while making millions. In fact, his spirituality deepened as a result of his many "worldly" encounters. He shows you how his spirituality deepened DURING his worldly encounters. What's more is that he often credits his everyday experiences in life and business with deepening his spirituality MORE than meditation and isolation. Truly dumbfounded by how it effortlessly came together.

Also, most people who think about being in a spiritual community, are often doing so to escape dealing the "worldly drama" or "non-spirituality" of regular life and to be surrounded only by like-minded people. That's the way Michael Singer started out as well - alone out in the woods. But somehow he merged living in his spiritual community with the experiences of running businesses etc. FROM that very reclusive spiritual community. And he did so with uniquely remarkable life-changing results.... merely by surrendering to events of his life.

Is resistance holding ME back:

Many times, Michael surrendered to a life situation that seemed utterly ridiculous to surrender to and the voice in my head said "You have GOT to be kidding me!!! Why would you just give in to that?!" Someone builds a house on YOUR land without asking you.... an irate customer demands you pull your workmen off one job and come do hers immediately. Just say OK to both??!! Huh??!! Are you kidding me right now??!!

Then.... the rest of the story unfolds and life not only fully supports him but over delivers leaving me shaking my head with a smile realizing the gem this book really is. I know it sounds ridiculous but ya gotta read the book to really get this folks... ya just gotta read the book. I can't even explain it here. Truly....

By chapter 34 my resistance to this level of surrender was overtaken by fascination with what may actually be possible that I have not yet tapped into. (yes it took me THIRTY-FOUR chapters to start feeling a great deal of acceptance to what he was saying). :) Suddenly I'm realizing that my own mental/internal resistance to change (and to what life put in front of me) probably had me turn down more opportunities in my life than I could ever count because the voice in my head resisted it in some way. My personal preferences won most of the time disallowing the natural flow of life. Wow, I see this SO clearly now! Unreal.

Life hands you the next task:

Loved this quote "I'm sitting on a tiny planet spinning in out of space and this is the next task that life handed to me. I'm doing this as a gift to the Universe." Shifted my perspective quite radically especially considering certain events occurring my life right now, and the many events I disallowed in the past.

Follow your Bliss:

Although the book doesn't specifically say "follow your bliss" Michael was a living example of precisely that in many instances. He just allowed himself to fall in love with whatever he felt passionate about and lo and behold life threw him all kinds of opportunities that lined up with precisely that. It's an awesome reminder that the Universe will support you in your passion. Often times, we don't believe that we can make money with our passion so we go do something else. Pay very close attention to how that multi-million software company got started - THAT was an incredible display of "follow your bliss" supported by the Universe a million fold.

Awesome Intuitive flow

I loved reading about the beautiful resonant inner flow of creativity Michael experienced where things just flowed out of him - clearly from an amazingly inspired place that delivered projects so effortlessly that it was pretty much like meditating. Really opened me up to experiencing more of this flow and reading how he got into the flow was cool as well.

Is this about the "Art of Allowing?"

OK I know the author probably is NOT into the Law of Attraction. BUT.... at some point I became aware that Michael Singer was remaining in a "state of allowing" that a lot of "Law of Attraction" people talk, preach about, and write books about, and do seminars about but don't really know how to experience. In a way, THIS book is the "art of allowing" LIVED (not just preached).... but that's just my perspective.

Learning to quiet or ignore the voice in his head also provided a tremendous a level of peace in tumultuous situations. Loved how he demonstrated just how easy it is to do that. I followed his guidance and immediately was able to practice the feeling of calm and serenity in any given moment. Very cool. That very peace, is ALSO allowing the law of attraction to work in his favor (I think.) Many people try to "do things" to attract desired experiences never once realizing that attracting is a BEING experience (not a doing one). Michael Singer fully surrenders, experiences tremendous peace and joy in life, and (of course) naturally attracts amazing life experiences (that he did NOT ever envision, set an intention for, asked the Universe for or make a vision board for I might add). Mmm hmm.... there's more than ONE way to live this thing called life folks.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS & PONDERINGS

What about a combo of desire plus surrender:

Michael's teachings are all about "Surrender your preferences and just follow the stream of naturally occurring life events." And to his credit, he presents a mountain of evidence as to how well this has worked for him. That said, other authors (like Trevor Blake multi-million dollar author of Three Simple Steps and also the book Parallel Realities of Self) embraces the combo of "desire/preferences + surrender."

Personally, I see nothing inherently wrong with having desires and preferences for different life experiences - just don't think your puny little human mind has a better plan than the Universe - dream, envision, then fully surrender to the magic of the Universe. I'd say Michael's book both expanded my view and instantly influenced my experience of the surrender/allowing part.

Always do what life puts in front of you?

At a certain point in the book, he shared that he chose to NOT accept different biz opportunities so as to not sacrifice his meditation practice. But he also says "do what life puts in front of you." I felt a bit conflicted in reading that as life was putting lots of biz opportunities in front of him but he went with his preference for his twice-daily meditation practice, but hey, no big deal... I still love this book. :)

There was also the time when a colleague was impressing upon Michael to build a bigger house for himself on the land he owned. In previous stories where others were impressing upon him to do something, he took it as a "sign from life" and surrendered. But when his colleague was impressing upon him to build a nicer house for himself, he said no, he'll just wait for the timing of life (which he did with remarkable results) but still... I wondered.... that whole surrender and preferences thing isn't so black and white is it?

Do what life puts in front of you even if you really don't enjoy it?

Here's the thing... what's working in Michael's favor is that he fully BELIEVES that the Universe will support him no matter what. That unwavering belief is a big part the magic in all of this (see my overall comment below). So at times, he says "yes" to opportunities he really does NOT want to do. That left me a bit concerned for readers who may blindly throw themselves into situations they despise which will then create very undesired life experiences.

Remember, Michael did NOT allow himself to feel "despise" for any of the things he accepted but initially felt dislike for. THAT's the key and it created amazing results for Michael. If you cannot follow that ability to turn "initial dislike" into "full positive love and acceptance" for things you really don't wanna do, then you may not wanna blindly follow what Michael's doing in this book. (again... see my overall comment below). Personally, I believe the Universe has infinite opportunities available for us all to experience and it's much more fun for me to align with the manifestation of enjoyable ones, so I choose to do that. :)

Is this all just too perfect?

At times, after reading one life event after another that miraculously turned out just fine, I found myself wondering if this is just almost too perfect. The book is doing an awesome job of articulating a series of selected events that were perfectly timed and that worked out beautifully each time. BUT.... any stories of following whatever life brought to you only to have it blow up in your face? Surely that MUST have happened a few times in 40 years.

Can't help but wonder... were there other events occurring that did not go so well. Quite a few staff members were divinely timed hires. Certainly not all hired employees showed up effortlessly and perfectly timed (for example). Yes, there was the FBI raid where all hell seemed to break loose.... but my mind wondered.... did Michael feel like the employee (who was taking kickbacks) was an effortless and divinely timed hire when that employee showed up? But to be fair, there were other stories of "things seemingly gone wrong... then turned out just fine."

Michael says the growth of the company was astonishing and with it came all the problems associated with a rapidly growing technology company. But doesn't quite say how those typical problems were experienced. Were they all experienced with effortless serendipity? Or was it the typical corporate drama.

Wait, there WERE some preferences expressed:

The book seems to be heavily embracing the "surrender all of your preferences" concept but there were times when I thought "Well isn't THAT a preference?" For example, why NOT simply surrender to the trees being cut down (Ch 38) vs attempting to preserve it which is what Michael did. Why not say "Hey, so trees are being chopped down in our beautiful neighboring surroundings... life just delivered that so I'll just accept it." Nope, Michael had a preference for saving the trees and leased the land to save them. Scratched my head on that one as it seemed like a clear desire/preference to me. The outcome from leasing the land was pretty cool but still.... I wondered.

Mind vs Spirit/Intuition talking

He talks about not listening to the resistant chatter going on in your mind, but what about being guided by the Spirit within to NOT do something? The book didn't address intuitively NOT doing something. It was either focused on not listening to the mind or not resisting whatever life put in front of you. Perhaps he perceives NOT listening to the mind as, by default, listening to your Spirit/intuition? If you're just being the observer of your thoughts, then by default you are indeed following the Spirit? Not sure, but I was left wondering about that as the concept of intuition wasn't addressed (except for the intuitive flow of inspiration in completing projects).

Merge this with Law of Attraction maybe?

Perhaps the Law of Attraction that many Spiritual/new-age people are trying to "master" or "use" isn't as complicated as we make it. ALSO, to fly in the face of what this book is about, MAYBE... just MAYBE.... one can indeed envision preferences and desires, then promptly move your daggone butt out of the way, surrendering to the natural flow of whatever shows up, expecting no particular outcome and remaining completely unattached. I say MAYBE.... yet I'm aware there's plenty of evidence of this being true (e.g. Three Simple Steps by Trevor Blake or Parallel Realities of Self by Frederick Dodson, and a bazillion other authors).

OVERALL

Amazing book! A totally riveting page-turner! Five stars all the way! Another masterpiece delivered by Michael Singer and I am SO glad I bought both the paper-back and the audio version. I read them both together - kinda like Michael reading it to me (cool that this audiobook was read by him - Untethered Soul audiobook was not read by him but it was still awesomely read).

The powerful stories in this book almost... ALMOST... made me second-guess my belief in "you create your own reality." But alas, once the last chapter was read, I realized I have my own slew of stories to support creating my own reality and so do others who do not follow the "surrender all your preferences." teaching (again e.g. Three Simple Steps by Trevor Blake or Parallel Realities of Self by Frederick Dodson). It's awesome reading books like The Surrender Experiment however, because you get clear validation that there is indeed more than one way to dance to the music of life and experience amazing results.

Ever wondered how authors can provide such amazing supporting evidence of their very different teachings/beliefs? Easy peasy... it's Universal Law - that which you believe must become your reality. Michael Singer believes in "surrender your preferences and life will support you" and that became his reality. Trevor Blake believes in "set your intentions then let go and allow the Universe to do it's magic" and that became his reality. Frederick Dodson believes in "get clear on what you want, shift into that parallel reality and you'll experience it" and magically, that became his reality. It's Universal Law at work - whatever you firmly believe will happen MUST therefore become your reality (even bad stuff I might add - be careful!). So just choose your preferred "awesome sauce" recipe that resonates and flow with it. We are THAT powerful as creators of our own human experiences - makes life very cool I think, don't you? :)

As I said WAY back in the beginning of this review, I take what resonates and discard what does not when it comes to *any* spiritual teacher. Love Michael Singer's work a whole lot, yet I believe we're each here to have our own unique life experiences on this earthly ride. At the end of anyone's "spiritual teachings" remember to pause, lay aside the excitement of discovering something new, take a breather, then go within... meditate.... get quiet enough to access your OWN inner compass/guidance, your own intuition, the Spirit within you.... to see what aspects of that new teaching was actually meant for YOU at this time.

For me, my own life experiment will be a merger of expressing my desires to the Universe AND (thanks to Michael) surrendering a whole lot more to whatever shows up. Different than Michael for sure... and we'll see where that little experiment takes me. Hey, life is a playground and I'm gonna play it any way I like darnit! :)

Really loooooong review. BUT... hope it was helpful to you my fellow Amazon browsers and spiritual seekers! :)

Amazing story and very well told. I’m loving this book just as much as I read it a second time two years later. It’s a great reminder of what’s really going on in life that will help you to go with life’s flow rather than resisting it.

I recently read this book, and it’s one of those books that has stayed with me long after I finished it. Singer’s story is both inspiring and challenging, as he describes his journey of surrendering his personal preferences and control to let life guide him. His approach to embracing “what is” instead of resisting or overplanning really made me think about how I approach my own life.

Singer’s journey is remarkable, starting from his days as a young man living in the woods, meditating and exploring inner peace, to accidentally becoming the founder of a successful company. He shares how he committed to saying “yes” to whatever life brought him, even when it scared him or seemed outside his comfort zone. It's incredible to see how this approach led him to experiences and opportunities he never would have planned for himself.

What I found helpful about this book is how Singer addresses the fears and resistance that come up when you try to let go of control. He’s not pretending that surrender is easy; instead, he’s honest about how difficult it can be, especially when things aren’t going the way you hoped. His insights really encouraged me to trust more in the process of life and to let go of constantly needing to steer things in my own direction.

The writing is engaging, and you feel like you’re right there with him through his highs and lows. This book is perfect if you’re looking for a different perspective on handling life’s twists and turns, and it definitely made me question some of my own habits around control. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s curious about the idea of surrender or who wants a fresh take on finding peace and purpose in life. It’s one of those books that feels like a conversation with a friend who’s just a few steps ahead on the journey.

Singer's personal story cannot be described with any word other than amazing. Through great effort, much meditation, and constant introspection, the author learned to open up to whatever life brought, allowing events to unfold in an incredibly serendipitous flow. Over the protests of his ego, he accepted new tasks and challenges knowing not where they would lead, but it seemed life always led him to extraordinarily fortuitous outcomes that, step by step transformed him from a loner who wanted only to withdraw from the rat race and spend his life in meditative contemplation into an extremely successful businessman, head of a multi-million dollar company.

While Singer's life has indeed been nothing short of amazing, I'm not sure that his exemplary approach to life and his success are attainable for the vast majority of people. It does not seem reasonably practical for most individuals to just let go, cast their fate to the wind, and see where they land.

I suspect that would lead to countless homeless people and personal tragedies.

We cannot entirely rule out that, in spite of the incredible series of fortunate events that seemed preordained to facilitate his destiny, these events might have still been coincidental (as hard as that is to believe from his account), a one in a hundred million story. It just does not seem likely that the average Joe and Jane has much of a chance to approach life as Singer did and get away with it, much less to succeed as he did. Hence, if part of the author's message is to encourage us to follow his steps, he is not being realistic.

One indication that Singer is somewhat out of touch with reality comes from the period of adversity he faced when the government, acting on false accusations of rampant accounting fraud in his company by a previous business associate, worked hard trying to take Singer (and several others) to trial. With the government obviously head hunting, it took enormous efforts from an elite team of super attorneys to clear Singer and his fellow executives (he was able to avoid trial) from the charges. The legal costs for pretrial defense preparations exceeded $190 million. Aside from appreciating the fine defense team who helped rescued him, Singer credited the judges involved, the Constitution and divine intervention for the save, claiming that our system of justice works. Perhaps. I would like to ask Mr. Singer if those $190 million that afforded him and his colleagues some of the finest lawyers in the nation had anything to do with it. In other words, without all that money, would the system have worked? Would he have been able to avoid conviction?

Those critical comments aside, I find "The Surrender Experiment" to be extremely interesting, a worthwhile, enjoyable read for those who wonder about life's purpose and seek a meaningful spiritual journey.

Michael does an amazing job of explaining and embodying the concept of surrender. The end of the book with all the legal struggles was not enjoyable to read, but I understand that he needed to get the truth out and also still show how he surrendered to life during that time.

I read Singer's Untethered Soul before I read The Surrender Experiment. The Untethered Soul's narrative was full of deep-sounding, New Age vocabulary that got in the way of communicating what I found to be remarkably useful material. Sometimes, sentences and paragraphs came off as incomprehensible gibberish but I pushed through because the concepts were insightful and useful.

I was concerned that The Surrender Experiment would suffer from the same convoluted New Age lingo and was pleased to discover that Singer writes more plainly in this book. However, even if he had continued the same overwrought terminology, I was willing to wade through it in this book because his ideas are valuable.

The thesis as I understood it is that life presents many opportunities to everyone but we usually say "No" to those opportunities because they do not dovetail with what we think we want from life. As a result, we reject small and large opportunities that could transform our lives. Singer decided that he would open himself to every opportunity that presented itself.

He then unwinds the story of his life and how his simple desire to meditate on a tract of land he purchased resulted in an unplanned (and sometimes undesired) sequence of events that led to a large, successful technology business that ran parallel to the expansion of a community of like-minded spiritualists. Time after time, Singer encounters opportunities and accepts them, usually with low expectations. As time passes, though, each of these events accumulate pleasant relationships, personal satisfaction, spiritual depth and business success. If his life were made into a movie, it would be subject to fantastical reviews because sometimes, the events of his life seem too good to be true.

This fantastical life comes in part, as the book promises, as a result of Singer's openness and receptivity to life as it presents itself.

However, I believe there is more to Singer's life than merely accepting opportunities, and after about a third of the book, I formed an opinion that Singer was leaving out two very important pieces of information:

1. He is an exceptionally smart and perceptive man.

2. He has an uncharacteristically open, accepting and welcoming personality.

These two characteristics help frame his openness to life and also serve as implicit qualifiers to his success. I think Singer does a bit of disservice to his readers by not making his intellectual and personal characteristics part of the reason why his experiment worked. His failure to explicitly call the reader's attention to his uniqueness as a person could convey that others who opened themselves to surrender would have similar results in their lives. I presume that Singer's motivation was one of humility and that his hope was that the reader would be able to separate the results of his openness from the power of being receptive to what life presents.

As a result of this book, I have committed to make myself more open to what life presents to me. I learned a lot from Singer's book and once I realized that a big part of his success flows from who he is as a man, I was able to adjust my expectations.

I have spent a lot of my life saying "No" to opportunities in order to avoid pain and disappointment. Doing so has excluded me from experiences I could have had if I had said "Yes" instead. No matter. I've heard the message and at 49 years of age, I am ready to grow in my willingness to accept what life presents to me. The Surrender Experiment was a significant factor in my decision.

This good transformed my life.

I am forever grateful to Michael for sharing the wisdom and experience in this book.

I am working backwards and will read The Untethered Soul next, so I'm not influenced by that first book here. This book however, read like a zippy new age page-turner. Fascinating reading about someone's life who was around during the North American spiritual expansion period. He includes various gurus like Amrit Desai during his fall from grace. I was also fascinated to learn about the Temple of the Universe in Florida having never heard of it before. So, interesting info. His own story is also intriguing. My takeaway based on personal experience regarding "surrender" is that he's speaking more about noticing where you are resisting in life - where your preferences are dictating your responses to life, whether skillful or unskillful - and let them go when you can, do the counterintuitive thing. Discover what happens from that. That takes courage, practice and faith, all of which seem natural to Singer but perhaps a big challenge to many others. In his case, he is shining a light on all the "amazing" outcomes and probably not the dreary ones. But to be fair, his revealing the legal nightmare he endured with his company is a very good example of the not-so-fun part of his life. He took some details of that terrible experience and illustrated how he periodically used the same method of surrendering into whatever was happening and allowing whatever outcome emerged. There's the spiritual practice again. He probably should have been more forthcoming about how difficult life was during this time period. I am particularly interested in how he feels about the shyster former employee Bobby Davids, after the fact. Has he forgiven him? Where is he with all that? This should have been a bigger part at the end, so I as a reader am assuming that part of his spiritual life had not (has not?) yet been transformed, or it was still a work in progress. Readers want a more humanized story and at times he skips the struggle part and makes it all feel too perfect.

Yes to the other comments on the lack of personal family relationships. But it probably wouldn't have been a "zippy new-age page turner" if he had given it more weight in that area.

All in all it's a fascinating read.

There is so much evidence that life does quite well on its own.

The planets stay in orbit, tiny seeds grow into giant trees, weather patterns have kept forests across the globe watered for millions of years, we are not doing any of these things as conscious acts of will; they are being done by the perfection of life itself.

All these amazing events, and countless more, are being carried out by forces of life that have been around for billions of years. This was so evident, especially during these Pandemic times, when the Nature has put the whole world on stand still.

So, can we trust our life to this same natural flow of events and let yourself be carried by life? These are some of the questions that this book compels us to ponder. Michael is of the opinion that nature knows best, and it functions well without much of interference from us. He wanted to apply the same logic and hence started his biggest Experiment of life, The Principle of Surrender.

Surrender - the word itself has negative connotation to many and it literally strikes terror in people’s heart when they hear this word. People translate it to mean as ‘loosing/giving up control of their lives’. And that is a terrifying feeling for many, as we are taught at an early age to be prepared for life - make your weekly goals, monthly goals and yearly goals. Can you imagine what it will do to Self Help Industry claiming to change your life in a day’s workshop, seminars and books based on 5/10 steps to change your life?? Yes...it would put an end to that thriving billion-dollar Self-help industry for sure.

So, should we then give up on life and ‘just settle’ for whatever life throws at us?? Hell no!!!

What if is there is another way? A way that feels right in your mind and soul. It is to the exploration of this intriguing question that this book is devoted.

Michael A Singer called this, The Surrender Experiment. This experiment would not be about dropping out of life; it would be about leaping into life to live in a place where we are no longer controlled by our personal fears and desires.

At the core of this book is the Principle of Surrender and what happens if you don’t let your preferences get in the way and Surrender to Life...What would that life like look like?

Ever since he awakened at 22, witnessed his thoughts and being the awareness behind this constant chatter, he wanted to rid himself of this incessant chatter that goes in our mind and took to meditation in Florida.

When he started this inward quest to rid himself of this negative voice, life changed dramatically for him. They say, “When the student is ready, the master appears” and he came across two books that played the role of a spiritual guru in his life. First book was, Three Pillars of Zen, by Philip Kapleau and second book that altered his life was, Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahamsa Yogananda (eternal fav of every spiritual seeker during that era n even now).

These books satiated his thirst for learning in depth about meditation and all the real questions he had for quieting that incessant chattering voice and freeing himself from the hold of the mind.

One day, he went camping with his wife along with a few of his friends to Ocala National Forest for the weekend. But this trip wouldn’t turn out to be just another trip – this trip was destined to have a profound impact on Michael’s life. When he saw that place, he was overwhelmed by the beauty of that place and picked up a nice spot and just like Buddha, decided to meditate and not get up until he has reached enlightenment. He was just 22, when he had this life transforming experience.

He began sitting in a lotus position, concentrating on his breath and chanting on the sound of Mu.(Something he learnt from a book)

“I lost myself in the warm flowing force that tied my

exhalations to the warmth in my abdomen. The force

became much stronger as I concentrated more deeply.

Eventually, all consciousness of my body and my

surroundings was gone. I was only aware of the

effortless flow of warm energy that was building and

expanding at the core of my belly. I was not there;

only the flow was there”

After this intoxicating experience, Michael was left with stillness, awareness and at peace with himself and most importantly - there was no voice. He truly experienced the sound of silence in that moment. He was in this state for weeks and a moat of thick peace allowed nothing to reach the citadel of his elevated state.

Although he returned home after the trip, he couldn’t relate to the life he was coming back to. Remember, he was in a doctoral program, on full fellowship. Yet his heart was yearning to go back beyond and experience that stillness and elevated state he felt during that camping trip.

He wasn’t able to stay detached for long as his outer existence did catch up with him. After 2-3 weeks, the unassailable inner peace began to develop cracks and leak back into his sanctuary of silence, that he held so dearly.

Just when he was experiencing this internal struggles, his outer life mirrored the same changes. One day, Shelly (his wife) told him that it was time to move on. Although married for a year, the foundation of his personal life was built around this relationship. He was shattered to say the least. In one swell swoop, his “normal” way of being was gone. From Absolute peace he was pushed to absolute turmoil. From a married man with a definite career path, he started to envision himself as a meditator who was seeking deeper truth.

During this stage, his life was pretty simple - doing meditation, some yoga, and periodically going to class. He kept throwing himself into meditation more and more. It was not just a way of escaping the pain; meditation gave meaning to his life.

He was so intrigued by meditation, that he finally decided to drop out of his Doctorate studies and concentrated on meditation daily.

As he studied both his master’s degree and doctorate work under full scholarship, he had saved 15,000$ left by his father for his education. After his divorce, he was looking for a place to buy so he can concentrate on his meditation. A series of events led him to purchased a piece of land (a lot of 10 acres) in April Gift Estates with that same amount. He literally retreated into the woods, away from civilisation so he can start his inward quest by leading a monastic life.

He, along with his close friends built a small cottage on this land, so he can meditate. He also constructed a small Temple, by keeping all the deities, so people can come and meditate. Word spread around and people started coming to The Temple of the Universe to meditate and its still running to this date.

After seeing his well constructed humble cottage, made entirely of wood, he started getting more offers from his neighbourhood to build a similar house and that’s how he started his first business venture, Built from Heart. Michael had only 1 principle, say Yes to whatever life has thrown open to him and take up that task with reverence and give his all. As this venture started to thrive, his life changed for the better. Even though he didn't have any experience about construction, he started learning on the job and kept saying YES to life.

When you find your calling...you heart and soul just know it. There is this magnetic pull towards that activity/ product. You feel lit up inside and there is this child like curiosity to learn as much as you can about your calling, you become like a kid in a candy store. You also loose sense of time and that activity fills your soul in a beautiful way. It is this all consuming passion, that Michael felt when he first saw a Personal Computer in a store, nearby his home in 1970’s.

And it was love at first sight for him. He got one of those PCs and taught himself coding. And then he stared coding for small companies. During this time, he sold off his first venture to a friend and got into coding full time. Life didn’t stop there for Michael as better was in store for him.

"I simply sat at the computer and wrote down the

spontaneous stream of inspired thoughts in the

form of code. I wrote and wrote this in a fervor

and passion that was almost frightening.

Everything i did, i did to the absolute best of

my ability. I was probably writing the best program

i could as my gift to the universe. The flow of inspiration

was such that i was not allowed to cut a single corner."

Word spread around quickly and he started writing personalised coding for Fortune 500 companies too. From a one-man army, he now had a total of 1500 employees working for him. Whenever he needed a new employee, somehow the right kind of a person either came in contact with him or he was led towards them through his friends and colleagues...Serendipity is the word here.

Although Michael and his team had no formal training or experience in medical software design, they went on to create one of the best written programs.

"If you asked me how, i would tell you that my

experience with meditation had shown me that

there were 2 very distinct aspects of what we

call mind. There was the logical, thought-driven mind

that comes up with logical solutions. Then there was

the intuitive, inspiration-driven mind that can look

at a problem and instantly see a creative solution.

As it turned out, the years of spiritual work i had

done to quiet that voice in my head that opened

the door for almost constant inspiration. It seemed

the quieter the mind, the more that solutions

became self-evident."

Apart from writing coding, he was also actively hosting Spiritual Retreats at his temple regularly and was religious with his daily meditations as well.

Michael created the Medical Manager, one of the first programs that helped medical practitioners to digitise their medical records. I guess Medical Manager was bound to become a massive success.

The fact that one of the most-respected New Age Spiritual teachers in the world, Ram Dass carried this software in Michael’s car, before this software was to be presented at Computer Dealers Exhibition in 1982, LA...kind of gave early signs of its success...like it was destined for greatness right from the start. In all honesty Ram Dass even asked Michael, “Is it any good?”

And far from being good...this software took the Tech world by storm. It was acquired by WebMD, a billion-dollar public company which focused on medical data management. Medical Manager is a recognised achievement archived in Smithsonian Institution, NYC.

When he started resisting less to life and surrendering more to life, things had a way of working out, whether it was getting near by patches of land or the right employee...things just worked out seamlessly.

Just when it looked like it can’t get any better than this, life had a wicked way of throwing a curve ball. That’s precisely what happened when FBI landed in their office premises on Sep 3, 2003 with a search warrant owing to some discrepancies in accounting, which is punishable act.

So, when this whole FBI Trial was going on...nearly 1.2 million e-mail messages, 1,500 boxes of files containing more than 3 million pages of documents, and 830,000 computer files were confiscated by FBI .... anyone can loose their mind. But not Michael. 40 years of practicing yoga, had instilled Michael to be in alignment with his mind, body and soul.

It’s very easy to be at peace when you are tucked away in a monastery, practising solitude. The real test is when you are in the midst of an intensely dark period and still retain that oasis of calmness, being centered and not let anything deter you from that peaceful center.

After 7 years of countless investigations and court room dramas, Michael and his team were allowed to walk free by dropping all the charges. Turns out, it was one of his employees, Bobby Davids who tied up with some dealers and presented discrepancies in accounting and falsely made accusations against Michael and Team. And just like that, Michael was free of all charges.

Even during this Trial period, Michael chose this time to become more centered and reconnect with the Divine Source even though his inner voice was wreaking havoc in his mind, he didn’t allow himself to surrender to that negative chatter. The fact that he wrote his 2 NYT Best Sellers, ‘The Untethered Soul’ and ‘The Surrender Experiment’ during this dark phase, speaks volumes about his spiritual strength.

There are times in our lives when a book, an article or a film comes at the right time. Call it a Divine intervention but that was how it was for me and this book.

At a time, when the whole World was under the grip of COVID 19 and so much of doom and gloom was being predicted by media...this book was a nice solace for me.

I came across Michael, some years back on Oprah’s Show. Somewhere at the back of my mind ...this book kept coming back to me ...I took this as a sign from the Universe and got this amazing book and I’m so glad I read this book.

Just like the beautiful cover page that is soothing to the eyes, this book was soothing to my soul as it has re kindled the stillness within me. A wave of contentment and peace washed over my soul while I was reading this book. This book will have a permanent place on my night stand along with my other soulful books.

From living a life of a hermit, surviving on a mere 250$ as guest lecturer to becoming VP of WebMD (renamed after acquisition). Throughout this amazing journey, Michael didn’t let go off his meditation, which he practices daily (to this day!) and held on to that oasis of stillness.

From leading a life in solitude, to leading a life with purpose and service, this is an extra ordinary journey of Michael, who surrendered to the flow of life events. And when you start living life in a new way, in alignment with your spirit and by listening to higher intelligence that’s always guiding you, you can unleash MAGIC in your life.

"Once you are ready to let go of yourself, life

becomes your friend, your teacher, your

secret lover. When life’s way becomes your

way, all the noise stops, and there is great peace" - Michael

Read this life altering book, so you can start surrendering to the flow of life events and participate in life’s dance with a quiet mind and an open heart.

Read it!!! Its enlightening, captivating and a life altering book!!!

Just make sure you read all of Michael Singer’s books. You will thank yourself

Consiglio veramente questo libro, purtroppo non tradotto in italiano, a chi è interessato al transpersonale, in particolare alla applicazione dello stato di mente quieta. Mike Singer fa un esperimento con la propria vita, nel quale impegna se stesso ad applicare la meditazione unita ad una attitudine di accettazione del flusso delle cose, cioè positiva emozionale apertura in stato di attenzione non giudicante. L'esperimento lo porta in una incredibile avventura che da anacoreta lo trasforma in milionario, lo conduce a salvare un grande apprezzamento di terra selvaggia dalla urbanizzazione e crearvi un centro di meditazione, lo mette a stretto contatto con guide spirituali del calibro di Muktananda, gli dà la forza di vincere una settennale battaglia legale contro il governo, ma soprattutto dischiude la via verso una piena, fiduciosa apertura al flusso della vita.

Like it a lot. A little difficult to apply in today society or depending on what you do for a living. But great example of following the flow of life and trusting the universe and the process. A little be hard to apply because surrendering looks like becoming a yes man. And you became subject to abuse and manipulation. Maybe It needed more exemple that when following the flow didn't workout at first glance.

I don't know. Just my opinion. I always had trust issue and being a sceptic and this book help a lot. Help me in my knee recovery too. Help me in my every day life. Great book. Don't read what I wrote before just buy it and make your self opinion. We gonna find it interesting whatever. About scepticism there is a recent hubberman podcast we should all listen too. Learnt a lot.

Mike (Mickey) Singer has led a remarkable life by accepting what life brings. I attended once a course called 'Developing your own spirituality' run by a catholic priest in Sydney, Michael Whelan. One of his gems was that our approach to life should not be Wilful or Will-less but Willing. And this is what MS has done, with huge success. It's worth noting that he must be very bright indeed, but very humble and devoted to a kind of generic spirituality with a great love for meditation. A very interesting read. Someone else who has done something similar is Richard White of Wisetech though perhaps not quite so spiritually tuned. My personal version of the same is to live life 'looking for serendipity'. It's amazing what comes along and amazing where life leads when you say yes.