2 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Lead Us to a Place by Andrew Pacholyk begins with a brief history of the author's early career as a dancer and how he travelled all over the world with his dancing, which exposed him to many different cultures and broadened his view of the world. When his dancing career was unexpectedly cut short, he used his experiences to guide him to a new career using a holistic approach to medicine to help people to unify the body, mind, and spirit so that they can connect with nature and a higher self. He leads us through the use of crystals and essential oils, chakras, meditation, and yoga to name a few. He also divides a person's life into four seasons from spring (youth) through winter (old age) emphasizing a person's emotional focus, appropriate crystals, food, and even music for each season. Lead Us to a Place is, I believe, meant to be a roadmap for people who wish to pursue a more holistic approach to healing and seek a higher version of themselves.
I give this book two out of four stars. While I believe this book will resonate with a small group of readers, I could not give more stars because Lead Us to a Place is in dire need of editing. There are numerous places where the author uses the wrong word and detracts from the meaning of the text. Then there are commas spattered about willy nilly that add to the confusion. At first, I thought I was reading a draft of the text, but then I realized that this book actually appears in print! Lead Us to a Place is a book which will probably go right over the head of the average reader, and the errors are downright distracting, which makes it difficult to follow.
The main thing I disliked about the book is that although it is a nonfiction book, it reads a lot like a textbook. For example, near the beginning of the book, Pacholyk writes all about crystals and how to use them and what specific ones are used for. It is written in the form of a very long list, which I personally would never be able to remember. I would have liked to see something more visual like a table or illustration to help the visual learners out there. Also, there is an overwhelming amount of information presented in this one book, and it makes it difficult to focus. I wish the author had taken the time to explain things in more depth. Then, instead of one very long book, he could have multiple books--each of which is easier to understand.
With all of that said, there were some bright parts in the book that I thoroughly enjoyed. For one, the gemstones scattered throughout the text are a nice touch. These are small excerpts of poetry written by the author himself. For another thing, there are a few personal exercises near the beginning that can be completed by the readers to gain a deeper understanding of themselves. I wish more of those could be included throughout the book. Also, the personal stories throughout the book make it more interesting and less like a textbook. Finally, there are interesting facts strewn throughout the text about spirituality, the Golden Rule, and about how Sunday came to be the day of rest in Christianity, just to name a few.
Overall, I get the impression that the author is very knowledgeable on the subjects presented in the book, which may have made it hard to narrow down the subject matter. He seems to be genuinely into what he does and into helping his clients gain a deeper understanding of their own spirituality, true selves, and their places in the world. I definitely believe that this book would appeal to readers who already have a fundamental understating of holistic medicine and the metaphysical. I think the book may make a little more sense to this audience, but as someone who has only a casual curiosity on this subject, I cannot recommend Lead Us to a Place to the average reader.
******
Lead us to a place
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Edevil's review? Post a comment saying so!
