Gary Zukav

Gary Zukav’s two kinds of power in The Seat of the Soul

Gary Zukav wrote The Seat of the Soul about a kind of power you hold on your own.

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Gary Zukav’s two kinds of power in The Seat of the Soul, on Astera

Zukav wrote The Dancing Wu Li Masters, a book on quantum physics, before this one. The Seat of the Soul came out in 1989 and went to number one on the New York Times list. He went on to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show 36 times.

The book names two kinds of power. External power is the ability to make things and people do what you want. Authentic power is your personality lined up with your soul.

Zukav on what authentic power feels like

  1. When the personality comes fully to serve the energy of its soul, that is authentic empowerment.
  2. Authentic power is the alignment of your personality with your soul.
  3. Life with more joy and less pain, life with more love and less fear, a life that you live consciously.You can read it after a hard choice and ask which kind of power made it.
  4. Harmony, cooperation, sharing, and reverence for Life.He gives these four as the values the soul holds. Put them next to your own list and see which ones match.

A question for your values list

The values exercise has you cut a long list of words down to three. Zukav would have you check each of the three against one question.

Which of your values needs somebody else to lose so you can have it?

Try Values

We built Values into the free Astera workspace to go with this book. Your answers save as you go.

Try it

The book itself is The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav.

Questions

Who is Gary Zukav?

He's an American writer. He studied at Harvard and served as a Green Beret officer in Vietnam. Then he wrote about physics, and later about the soul.

What does multisensory mean in the book?

Zukav says people are changing. We've been a five-sensory species chasing external power. He thinks we're learning to perceive more than the five senses give us, and to chase the other kind.

Is this a religious book?

It's spiritual, and it isn't tied to any religion. If the talk of souls puts you off, the two kinds of power still make sense in plain terms.

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