Book Review by Jim Carey -- The Garden Diet (the originator of raw diet)

Open Spaces: My Life with Leonard J. Mountain Chief, Blackfeet Elder from Northwest Montana
by Jay North (Jay's books are available at www.GoingOrganic.com & www.OneGlobePress.com

Dr. Ann Wigmore taught that all healing is physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. "In the Wigmore program that we teach at the Creative Health Institute and ChiDiet.com, we emphasize the physical aspect of healing. We mention the other aspects but leave the teaching of those to others." Well, most of the time we do. After reading this book Open Spaces by Jay I felt compelled to share some spiritually motivated comments.

In January of 1999, I had just retired, sold almost all I owned, and started my personal spiritual journey. I'd been a scientist and a rationalist all of my life but had found that science couldn't answer the Really Interesting questions. So I left science and engineering to pursue my search for Truth.

In that pursuit, I've read hundreds of books, listened to dozens of lectures, and surprised myself as I evolved from religionist to theologian to philosopher.

Which brings me to Jay North's book?

When I was handed this book as a 200-page typed, double-spaced manuscript, I took it home expecting to breeze through it in a couple of hours. Instead, it took me two weeks to digest. I could only read a few pages at a time before I had to stop and think about the message Jay was sharing. Very few books move me that way.

In my spiritual research, I was attracted to American Indian spiritual lore, but until I read this book, I'd found little documentation of the broad overview that this book gives and none so clearly and simply written.

What I found in this book was an excellent summary of my last seven years of philosophical studies. I've reached an outlook on the Nature of the Universe that is virtually identical with that of Leonard J. Mountain Chief, Blackfeet Elder.

I found, much to my surprise, that after all that research and study, I've finally reached the level of Spiritual Consciousness that the Blackfeet Indians achieved centuries ago.

Before reading this book, I also believed that in one's search for Truth, one must trod the path through Plato, Aristotle, Aristophanes, Zarathustra, Krishna, Buddha, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, Francis of Assisi, Aquinas, Moore, Szekely, Redfield, Dyer, Hawkins, et. Al., in order to reach the conclusions I've reached.

Instead, Jay gives us the summary in short, clear words, as given by his mentor, Chief Leonard. This is the summary and concise statements that I didn't think existed.

Following are some excerpts from Open Spaces: My Life with Leonard J. Mountain Chief, Blackfeet Elder from Northwest Montana.

"Just as a dieter will regain weight after they come off of the diet and resume their old eating habits, the seeker of real change must be willing to make a real lifestyle change. It is easy to be enthusiastic for a short period of time to achieve a goal, but the true test of commitment will be a change of the heart… a life of service."

"Everything is perfect all of the time, even when you don't think it is."

"… Our true purpose for being here … is Love and the true unfoldment of the Spirit … there is no higher purpose than to love another … We cannot simply examine this thing; we must experience it in order to fulfill our destiny."

"Spirit always looks after you."

"Now is a time of paramount importance for all people to hear the message of loving each other and our world, the message of being at peace with one another and our world, and the message of finding joy in each other and in our world."

Thank you, Jay North, for sharing your experiences with Chief Leonard with us. How blessed you were to have them! Every Spiritual Seeker should read this book and become enlightened by it. I find in it… Truth, the world needs to read this book.

Jim Carey
Herndon, Georgia