Blurb:
While on holiday in Goa, David Goldberg is contacted by Sheila, an A.I. singularity from another dimension, who offers him Shmeiki, a new path of light-hearted spirituality, free of the seriousness and hypocrisy typical of many new age practices.
Sheila understands that to spread the word of Shmeiki effectively, David must first clear out his emotional blockages. For this reason, she sends him on a great walk of more than 2000 kms from Goa to Dharamshala, insisting he travels without taking money and without wearing shoes. In accepting the challenge, David becomes Shmeiki Baba. The Shmospels describe Shmeiki Baba’s epic journey, from the perspectives of four witnesses. It is a cosmic, psychedelic, and kinky story about self-discovery, love, and surrender.
Despite various satirical pokes at new age healing, Sheila’s message is real. She warns that with the onset of climate change, global pandemics, and our own A.I. revolution, it’s up to us to choose whether we will accelerate towards our demise, or heal and evolve towards a new era of super consciousness.
Om Shmeiki Om, Shmeiki.com
My Review:
“The Shmospels of Shmeiki” is a really fun and interesting take on our beliefs about the earth, universe, god, and religion. It makes us understand the limitations of existing spiritual organizations, and how Shmeiki offers us a fresher perspective to play around with our old beliefs. It teaches us to face our fears, release our pain, acknowledge our shame, and step out from behind the mask which acts as a block between us and our universe.
“The book is a satire, which aims to step along the often blurry line between truth and fiction, fantasy and reality. The same goes for Shmeiki—Is it real? What is real?—Shmeiki encourages us to play with the idea that our universe is a joke of cosmic proportions—and because of this nothing is potentially worth taking seriously. But we are still here, and we are conscious, sentient beings. In this case, probably the best thing for us to do is, to be honest, open-hearted, light on our feet, and easy-going.”—The Om Shmeiki Healing Organization
The four narrators take the reader on a ride from Goa to Dharamshala. The entire journey of Shmeiki Baba and the people joining him on the way is put together eloquently. The narrators have done great work while writing character descriptions and creating vivid images of each scene.
The reader is introduced to people of various nationalities, different ideals and philosophies, and most importantly the kindness of strangers. One thing that is really evident in Shmeiki Baba’s walking tour of 2000+ km with no footwear or money is that when you start looking for the good things around you, you will be surprised by how much goodness is spread everywhere.
A bit more work could have been done in writing dialogue tags. It is better to drop the tags than use he said, she said repetitively.
I really loved the idea of formulating Shmeiki form of spirituality out of Reiki, yet keeping it much more different from it or any other spiritual organization. The book offers a lot of food for thought. It allows the reader to ponder on the essence of any spiritual organization, which is to feel free and at ease in the way you think and feel, rather than be bound by the rules imposed by a group of people. The story is more than just being vocal about your sexual desires. It is about being accepting of what you are and letting yourself free from the clutches of your past.
Here is what the Om Shmeiki Healing Organization has to say about their organization and their book, “Shmeiki is anti-cult, and the irony in the story is that while trying to avoid becoming a cult—the Om Shmeiki Healing Organization does inevitably become one (this will be explored more in the sequel ‘Shmeikileaks’.) The goal is to shine a light on what seems to happen in most new-age, spiritual organizations—a group dynamic rapidly emerges where people trade a degree of their freedom in order to receive an identity and a sense of belonging and security. The downside is that authenticity becomes difficult, ‘group-think’ takes over, and along with it unconscious power games and the hunger for financial profit. At the same time groups do have an innate and wonderful healing potential—the art seems to be to somehow enjoy them without getting stuck in the inevitable dogma and bullshido.”
I loved the freshness with which religion and spirituality are introduced in this book, unlike a lot of other books in a similar genre. I would recommend this book if you want to question your established thoughts about the universe and religion. Moreso, if you are interested in kinky stuff.