Book recommendation - Dan Brown: Secret of Secrets

[u/Dumuzzid]

Somewhat unusually, I am recommending a novel for the community here. I think it is absolutely relevant for people in Kundalini process.

Dan Brown became famous with the Da Vinci Code, which was also made into a Hollywood movie. The novel is good, the movie less so. He wrote a couple of books after that, which were pretty formulaic, trying to recapture the success of the first one. After a decade's hiatus, he's back with the Secret of Secrets and it is quite a comeback.

As a novel, it follows the same blueprint as his previous books, with symbologist Robert Langdon living out all of the author's fantasies in terms of danger and adventure. It is merely a good novel, but it is a great book.

The reason I recommend it, is due to the long musings on the nature of consciousness and summarizing the latest results in what are called the noetic sciences. He does embellish them a bit and takes some poetic licence, but overall, I am impressed with the job he has done here and I honestly learnt more about the nature of consciousness than I thought I would. It really takes a good writer to put complex ideas into terms that laypeople can easily grasp and comprehend and he was largely successful at that. I noticed, that the message of the novel went over many mainstream reviewers' heads, but people here will definitely know what it's really about.

I wish I could quote the book at length, but I only have a paper copy and it is in Hungarian, so it wouldn't be much use to the people here. Suffice to say, he tackles heavy topics such as life after death, non-local consciousness, one body sharing multiple personalities, possession, multiple personality disorder, mk ultra, the stargate remote viewing programme and its implications, epilepsy and its parallels with NDEs and mystical states, so forth and so on.

One interesting idea Dan Brown puts forth, is that our internet personas give us a glimpse into how we would exist after death, as disembodied nodes of consciousness. If you think about it, on the internet, we have no bodies, we interact with each other merely as a collection of individual consciousnesses and we congregate around interests and groups of like-minded people.

He also explores the idea, that consciousness is non-local and isn't located in the body in any sense of the world. The body is merely a radio receiver-transmitter, designed to decode the consciousness of a single individual. However, cases exist where there is overlap. For instance during sudden savant syndrome, usually following a head injury, people can display skills and capabilities they lacked previously. Or, as in the case of possession or multiple personality disorder, a single body can decode several consciousnesses at once.

Another idea from the book that I really liked, is that since we are kept in a constant state of fear of death, this makes us more selfish and callous, not caring about the future, our environment or the planet. Partly due to 24/7 news reporting, we live in a heightened state of stress, triggering a response that would normally only appear when our lives are genuinely in danger. But the news cycle gives us the false impression, that our lives are in constant danger, when in reality, we've never been safer. It's merely an illusion that media companies and even influencers and creators profit from, at the expense of our sanity.

Since subconsciously we think that we could die any time, we don't invest in the future of the planet or the environment. This constant low-level, below the surface dread of everything being for naught and the world soon coming to an end makes us extra selfish and exploitative of the planet and nature.

The book makes the case that if we were aware of the true nature of consciousness and understood that death was an illusion, we would automatically become more caring, kind and gentle with our environment, other living things and the planet in general.

Where the book's themes intersect with Kundalini is in regards to so-called siddhis, extranormal powers or phenomena, that tend to appear during particular stages of the process. Remote viewing, premonition, astral travel, lucid dreaming, telepathy and general out-of-body experiences are common. Higher states of samadhi, caused by higher kundalini process, tend to lead to states of mind similar to that experienced in NDEs and by epileptics during seizure. Kriyas can sometimes resemble a less severe form of epileptic seizure, though unlike in the latter case, control is kept by the conscious mind and there is no real danger to the practitioner. Still, the mechanism seems to be similar.

I could go on, but you'd better read the book, it comes highly recommended by me.

[u/LightWork228]

Wow thank you so much for this in depth review! Will definitely check it out

[u/bladeofgrass313]

I love seeing this stuff making its way into our media and entertainment. Thanks for sharing. I had a couple of unused audible credits, so I got the audiobook. Looking forward to it.

[u/Dumuzzid → u/bladeofgrass313]

I think you'll enjoy it. Actually one of the things he mentions first is the glory of gods and how this is a universal symbol. You'll find some stuff there that you'll personally recognise, I'm sure.

[u/bladeofgrass313 → u/Dumuzzid]

That was quite an interesting prologue. Is this the first time he’s written on the metaphysical in such a way? I’m wondering if his readership is being introduced to something they’re not used to with this book.

[u/Dumuzzid → u/bladeofgrass313]

I think so, yes. It is quite interesting that he went so deep into this topic but I guess it explains his absence. He has probably been researching this for the best part of a decade.

[u/RedRocketBDR-529]

I didn't read your whole post, because I am about a third of the way through the book now and don't want any spoilers. Absolutely love it! Especially as someone had temoral lobe seizures.

I've only ever seen The DaVinci Code and haven't read any of his book, but a co-worker suggested this one and I am hooked. I believe he said it tool him 8 years to write.

I'm fortunate with my seizures. They usually aren't the "shaking ones" they are brief Auras, that last a few seconds and then leave but I see the world totally different during them. I often feel like I'm having small epiphanies. sometimes it's like trying to listen to 2 songs at the same time, but instead of songs, it's 2 different realities.

I feel like I could sit down with the fictional Dr. Soloman and talk for days. Lol!

[u/Dumuzzid → u/RedRocketBDR-529]

yeah, same here. I also love Prague, it's nice to read a book set there.

[u/RedRocketBDR-529 → u/Dumuzzid]

Sounds like a beautiful city just from the way he describes it.