New Book Alert: Golden Keys To Open Doors: About Spiritual Cotton Candy by Harry Meier; Unique Book of Spiritual Advice is Direct, Upfront, and Highly Inspirational

New Book Alert: Golden Keys To Open Doors: About Spiritual Cotton Candy by Harry Meier; Unique Book of Spiritual Advice is Direct, Upfront, and Highly Inspirational





By Julie Sara Porter


Bookworm Reviews

Sometimes guide books want to help you by using uplifting phrases, visualizations of a perfect life, and taking all of your problems to a Higher Power. They try to be cheerful and build you up with sweet thoughts and positive words. Others just want to slap you in the face with cold reality, shake you out of your complacency, and be as direct as possible.


Harry Meier's Golden Keys to Open Doors is an example of the direct kind of book. Meier's book forgoes the feel good spiritual advice of others and goes right for the plain honest truth. It can be a difficult book to read. Sometimes you want the pleasant words, but sometimes you want the plain ones too. Meier delivers just that.


It is similar to The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F&$k in that it uses advice that is solid and upfront that runs contrary to other books of its kind. However sometimes we need that author to say “Okay this way didn't work out for you, tough luck. Try it like this.”

You have to hand it to anyone who begins their book with “Read it or not/Understand it or not/Enjoy it or not/I don't care.” You can't be more honest than that. Meier uses a metaphoric mountain and suggests the Reader bought the book to climb that mountain. This book, Meier says is not the book to help you climb it. (Thanks if I'm ever on Everest, I will be sure to note what book I am not bringing.)


The introduction introduces the concept of spiritual cotton candy. That term appears to refer to metaphors that gurus use that make their followers feel good but have no real meaning. This book is definitely free of that.

Many of the chapters contain bits of advice that hearken to Benjamin Franklin by way of Mark Manson (author of Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#$k). These sentences like “You do not need to be wise. Simply look for what men search for. That should be enough” are common sense, practical, and somewhat forceful in their approach.

In a chapter about achieving enlightenment, Meier scoffs at the dramatic search for enlightenment of other gurus. He preferred more concrete means like “There is nothing to do. Let's do it” and “You read too quickly and only understand particles.”
The meditation chapter provides interesting thought provoking words like “What does it mean when you see a blue stone during meditation? That you are meditating and you see a blue stone.” Not exactly a puzzler.

Golden Keys to Open Doors is a book that makes the Reader pay attention to every word even to the point where the text draws them in by saying they are reading too quickly. Sometimes the text says “Again, you are reading too quickly. Have you really read what (Meier) has written?”. Like a parent who lectures their kid and, when the kid has zoned out, asks “what did I say?” It makes the Reader sit up and take notice which is what this book is meant to do.

Golden Keys to Open Doors is the kind of book that makes you pay attention by slapping you a bit with reality. That's what makes it ideal for self-help, because it asks for the Reader to help themselves.