A miraculous flashback
Published by: Hay House
ISBN: 978-93-81398-67-8
Pages: 371
Price: INR 499
When I first learned that Dr Dyer is writing a new book titled I Can See Clearly Now, I just knew this was going to be one of his most beautiful books. But it surpassed my expectations and turned out to be not only beautiful but also inspiring and gripping. The book is a memoir of this enormously gifted and blessed author, who’s written more than 40 books, many of them worldwide best-sellers and publishing phenomena. Through his public television pledge shows, he has reached the non-reading segment with his messages of self-reliance, self-growth and compassion.
He begins I Can See Clearly Now with the earliest recollection of his life when he is just a 19-month-old baby, but a wise one. He seldom cries and is always mouthing words of wisdom far beyond what is expected from someone his age. As the book progresses, we begin to grow with him—right from his childhood spent at orphanages, through his youth and early adulthood, and finally into his evolution as a number one best-selling author and a favourite of the media.
As he describes the events in his life and the choices he makes, we can only be spellbound by the synchronicity of it all. His whole life is a string of miracles—one after another, joined together by his decision at every turning point to live his life on his terms, never cowing down to the unreasonable and irrational pressures of the society.
There are 58 chapters, each divided into two parts—a first person flashback of a turning point or an influential event of his life, followed by a look back from the current vantage point. Because he writes the flashback in present tense, it feels more immediate and connects with you, taking you back with him in time to the exact place and the situation that he is narrating.
One of the many dimensions of the book is the way it captures the author’s transformation from a predominantly reason-oriented author into an internationally respected spiritual teacher who has cultivated an attitude that is “open to everything and attached to nothing”.
As we witness his magnificent life, we find that he has faced a series of crossroads in his life and each time he took the road less travelled. For example, his decision to quit his prestigious position as a professor at the university to promote his new book against all odds is a breathtaking story of what one man can do. The book, Your Erroneous Zones, whose first print was only 6,000 copies went on to become the number one best-seller of the decade selling nearly 100 million copies published in 47 languages worldwide. Dr Dyer is a living testimony to Henry David Thoreau’s observation that “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
This brings me to his mentors, who he credits generously for their influence on his thinking. Throughout his narrative he thanks various authors including Albert Ellis, Abraham Maslow, Viktor Frankl and, of course, Henry David Thoreau for sharing their wisdom.
A book like this comes once in a lifetime of an author, if it comes at all. Dr Dyer’s life is a powerful story of assertiveness, transformation and true success—success that goes way beyond its traditional definitions limited to material possessions and achievements.
And a book like this comes rarely into the reader’s life too—a book in which you will see a reflection of your own life and how everything that has ever happened did for a reason.
This was first published in the May 2014 issue of Complete Wellbeing.