Book Review
Title: "May Cause Miracles: A 40-Day Guidebook of Subtle Shifts for Radical Change and Unlimited Happiness"
Author: Gabrielle Bernstein
Publisher: Harmony, 2013; 272 pages; $23
A friend of mine recently posted an interesting image from her trip to New York. It was a photo of a Brooklyn storefront, the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co., to be precise.
The awning out front declares the store’s owners to be "purveyors of high-quality crime-fighting merchandise." With the help of the products they sell, "dastardly plots will be foiled," "secret alliances will be forged" and "underground lairs will be found."
This serious and subversively silly business is just one signal of the increasing fascination our culture has with the concept that each and every one of us might actually have superpowers we can tap into and call forth as needed.
For several years now in her books and wildly popular articles, Gabrielle Bernstein has been building a devoted following by conjuring forth the superpower she says we all possess: the power to create miracles and, more accurately, to live miraculously fear-free lives.
Bernstein’s miracles don’t include walking on water or parting seas, although wine might be involved. Instead, her definition of the miraculous life is focused on training the mind to maintain peace and prosperity by trading fear for love.
According to Bernstein’s new book, "May Cause Miracles: A 40-Day Guidebook of Subtle Shifts for Radical Change and Unlimited Happiness," practicing these small tweaks in world view every day for just over a month can cause seismic shifts in your body image, self-concept, money matters and relationships, including the critical relationship each of us has with ourselves.
In "May Cause Miracles," Bernstein provides a modern-day practicum for the classic self-help text, "A Course in Miracles," including insights from her own practice of "ACIM" in specific contexts around money, relationships and self-love and specific meditations, action steps and affirmations for implementing some of the most pivotal points of "ACIM" in readers’ everyday lives.
"May Cause Miracles" presents six weeks of action items for readers to implement the most powerful points of "ACIM" in their own lives, with the end aim of embracing and understanding their individual superpowers of living without fear and owning their ability to cause what many would view as miraculous things to happen in their lives. To preview just a couple of the weekly programs contained in "May Cause Miracles":
Week 3: Body Image. Bernstein briefs readers on how destructive emotions like fear and guilt can manifest in physical self-abuse and disease, and makes the case that healing can be achieved by addressing and eliminating these same emotions and mental states, replacing them with forgiveness and love. Bernstein then provides day-to-day action items for witnessing how readers might have been mistreating their bodies, getting at the root metaphysics underlying this behavior, and beginning to heal their relationships with their own bodies through meditations centered around gratitude and self-love.
Week 5: Raise Your Self-Worth, Raise Your Net Worth. In tackling readers’ relationships with money, Bernstein aims to help them get out of the two extreme dysfunctions that many of us find ourselves facing, from the fear of lack and spending and enjoying the money we do have to the belief that having more money is the key to status, success and happiness. Bernstein advocates and teaches readers "to value money as a source of creating, serving and enjoying the gifts of life," shifting their "energetic connection to [their] finances."
While some might find "May Cause Miracles" to be a bit New Age or woo-woo for their tastes, "ACIM" aficionados and those who have never read "ACIM" but always meant to will find it to be a digestible, actionable and highly relatable companion (or alternative) to the revered text.
