Your Forgotten Self is a lovely book -- warm and wise, intelligent and compassionate. The author, David Robert Ord, has clearly tapped into the full beauty of the Christ story and brought it alive in new ways that make it meaningful for today’s world. Your Forgotten Self breathes new life and meaning into the idea of a “Christ consciousness” and illustrates how we can develop it within ourselves. The message in this book, that we should stop thinking of Jesus as being different from us, is at once both enormously powerful and hopeful.

Your Forgotten Self is all about entering into an experience of the Christ nature yourself – and the secret is that this is something you have always known but have forgotten, or ceased to believe. The author is reminding us now that we are not different from Christ, and that we need to set aside the obstacles -- the doubt, the guilt, or the insecurities that have prevented us from believing that we are entitled to live at one with Christ. As the author recounts, Jesus awakened within the disciples an aspect of themselves of which they had been unaware. (I would add, as an aside, that the reader does not need to be “Christian” to get the benefit of this message – this is the story of a Master -- the ascended consciousness that we all can aspire to, whatever our faith.)

Some of the most hopeful and compelling passages relate the joy and freedom that such a consciousness presents, and how Jesus lived his life in a transparent manner. Jesus loved himself and was confident – he had no self-doubt or sense of inferiority, he didn’t need other’s validation or opinions, and he had no need to impress anyone – he knew he was one with God and loved by him, and he delighted in life. If you can imagine living in such a way – with no fear of others judging you, with no need to impress others or defend yourself, it can take your breath away! That is the hopeful message and the promise of Your Forgotten Self – that you can awaken and remember how this higher consciousness feels.

There have been many books written lately that tell us that “Heaven is NOW” but this one comes the closest to making it believable and achievable. Your Forgotten Self is full of insight and gentle instruction for identifying and overcoming the guilt, shame and anxieties that are blocking your own Christ consciousness. According to Mr. Ord, the “second coming” is an on-going process, and it is contained within us – it is the awakening of all that you have forgotten. If the author is correct, then Your Forgotten Self puts us one step closer to heaven on earth.

Cheryl Shainmark
for Merlian News

 

David Robert Ord's long-term fascination with Jesus has apparently led him right to his own mirror--the object of every true spirituality. His book, "Your Forgotten Self: Mirrored in Jesus the Christ" is a lay book that covers profound subject matter in a "let's sit down and chat" manner. Every single question raised by searching Christians is covered in this book. Questions like: What is the nature of man? What was the purpose of Jesus' crucifixion? How does one access a living, vital God? And yet the answers are far from the traditional answers we've heard for centuries. No, these answers urge us to look in the mirror to find God. The answers inform us that we were born, literally in the likeness of the Divine, but that we have forgotten who we are. We are, the author tells us, God made flesh. But because we do not see ourselves this way, we create all manner of images of self in the mirrors of our lives. And because we do so, we have created a world filled with dark, dingy, unworthy self-images, reflected back to us in our relationships, our politics, our crime, our racism, etc. He tells us that all we need do is look within to find the true nature of our being. And he tells us how to do that in simple, direct language that brings the reader to his own mirror. Though this book is written about a character very present in Christianity, it is a must read for anyone who is searching for a real spirituality--not that one fed to us by churches, gurus and other external institutions, but one that creates for us "a heart flowing with rivers of living water." Read this book and open up to a whole new paradigm about life!

Andrea Mathews, DD, LPC, NCC