The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible by Charles Eisenstein

The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible Reviews

• 
  Julie

  I am grateful for this book, which articulates so beautifully the world in which we find ourselves and offers guidance for the road ahead. I have been circling many of these same ideas recently, and it comes as a supreme relief that I am not alone. It's rare to find a book that puts together so many disparate cultural fragments into a coherent whole, let alone one that's so readable and engaging. I especially appreciate the author's candor -- he is clearly a fellow traveller, albeit an unusually articulate one. As we emerge from the crumbling old story of separation, control, domination, pass through the threshold between stories, and embark on the path to the new story of interbeing, this book is a much-needed companion. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
• 
  Mike

  Quite possibly the most Beautiful book I have ever read in my life! Charles is a wizard with words and has an incredible gift of transmitting powerful stories! Stories that penetrate so deep, that we discover uncharted territories within our very own beings as we follow their captivating and undeniable truths, pointing towards the truth that exists within us all. He does all of this using with an astonishing intellect, a great sense of humility, and above all a comprehensive compassion that you can feel pouring out from the pages.
  
  In this book, he gracefully weaves through many different topics and binds them together into a Beautiful tapestry that describes, How, with every individual action, we can move towards The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible!
• 
  C. Janelle

  I found the first two-thirds of this book to be kind of a slog. There are some really insightful gems in there, but Eisenstein's style is so incredibly wordy, I wasn't sure it was worth it to keep reading. I kept going just because a dear friend of mine said the book was awesome, and I wanted to get a sense of what she'd gotten out of it. With the chapter entitled "Righteousness" about 170 pages in (well beyond the point that I usually set a book down if it's not doing it for me) the book really seemed to coalesce, and I started to get into it. It was still wordy, but it was either less so or the insights were profound enough for me that the wordiness no longer bothered me.
  
  The basic premise is that the problems in the world are based on the fact that we operate within a Story of Separation, and that story is just that---a story. We can choose to live within a different story, the Story of Interbeing instead. Eisenstein goes on to enumerate the nature of the Story of Interbeing and the difficulties in moving from one story to the other.
  
  What really struck me about this book is that I've been thinking about the myth of Separation myself for quite a while. Sometimes I'm more trapped in Separation and sometimes I feel almost completely immersed in the story of Oneness (as I think of it), but it's always in my consciousness pulling me towards it. I think my first really profound experience of oneness happened during my first pregnancy when I went in for my first ultrasound at 18 weeks. Rather than making me feel closer to my baby, seeing her as a separate being on the screen was incongruous with the feeling of oneness I had in myself. At the time, I described the experience of oneness as the sense that I was giving birth to the universe, and that experience couldn't be contained within the boundaries of the video screen. Indeed, my entire experience within the medical model of birth was one of profound separation, with a few bright lights guiding me back to the oneness I felt (one of these lights was the incredible nurse we got during my labor, but that's a story for another time).
  
  I felt it again when I gave birth to my son at home, this feeling---this knowing---that I was a part of an eternity of creation and in that one moment, that eternity came through me. It's difficult to explain, but since then, I've worked to recapture that feeling of oneness and belonging. I've studied Buddhist, Jewish, Taoist, Baha'i, Muslim, and Christian traditions, and this feeling of oneness is only heightened as I see similarities between each of these traditions. The more I see the oneness, the more I want it, and the more I seek it.
  
  This book puts this experience of oneness in slightly different terms, like in terms of stories and power structures, and that resonates with me. So, I suppose I could say that I like the book because I already agree with it, which is true, but it's also not the whole story. I don't need validation of the way I see the world, but I do find it encouraging that someone else sees it the same way. I feel encouraged to continue trying each day to live the way I want to be and the way I want the world to be and to trust that by doing so, I'm doing what I can to change things.
  
  It was even encouraging just to see echoed what I've been noticing about the generation younger than mine, that there is an understanding, a passion, a fearlessness, and an acceptance that comes through in my in-person conversations with them and even in their exchanges on social media. It's a pleasure to be around, and it leaves me feeling hopeful. My spouse and I have one friend in particular who is living his idealism in such an earnest way and engages with the world with such honest curiosity and interest that I love being around him because it makes me feel like my desire to live my ideals is less silly than I sometimes worry it is.
  
  For me, this book wasn't important so much for the content of the insights, but for the feeling it left me of being not alone in having these insights.
• 
  Francesca Marciano

  All I need to say is that I love Charles Eisentstein and I wish there were more people like him. This book maybe wordy and possibly at times repetitive (although I have nothing against repetitions when ideas go so deep) but it puts into words the unpronounceable. Even if you may not agree with everything he says you'll come away from this read with a new story and an alternative narrative of our lives. And that's a lot to get from one book.
• 
  David

  I'm not really sure what to say about this book. The content is varied and the thought processes behind Eisenstein's arguments are extremely deep. I suppose I should mention that I have read all of the author's books that have been published to date with the exception of "The Ascent of Humanity", which I plan to read sometime soon. Whenever I read Eisenstein, it is so thought-provoking and his books end up taking me a long time to read because there is so much to chew on.
  
  "The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible" is essentially about the space we currently occupy between two stories that describe the world/reality. The old story, the Story of Separation, views everything and everyone as separate. In that story, I am separate from the mailman and my cats are separate from the television. The state of the world in 2015 is the result of our species telling itself this story. The new story is the Story of Interbeing, in which everything is related. This is the concept of "everything is one" that we have heard the mystics repeat again and again, and which we see printed on Dr. Bronners Magic Soaps. By telling ourselves a new story, the unthinkable and miraculous will happen.
  
  I'm having a hard time articulating what the book is about, much less how I feel about it. At this time all I can really say is that I really enjoyed it, plan on reading it again, and will be passing it along to people I love. Maybe I'll be able to write a better review after a second reading.
• 
  Heather

  Ok, this took me several months to read. I borrowed it from the library twice, then finally had to buy it. Now I will start over again. I may keep reading this book forever.
  This is an amazing effort to put into words things that are hard to put into words. How can we describe alternatives to the story we live in when all our vocabulary is part of that story?
  I think this is a very important book.
• 
  Bryan Winchell

  I have been head over heels about Eisenstein's work ever since I read his important, epic "The Ascent of Humanity," a book that has the potential to completely overturn one's worldview if you let it. This book continues the themes Eisenstein introduced in that book and is meant as a rallying cry for us to begin living in a new Story of the World, one which empowers us to imagine a world of connectivity, where everything truly is connected and what each individual does matters to the big picture. It is a refreshingly positive outlook, though Eisenstein also does a great job of addressing the critiques he has received over the years by the cynical modern thinkers who claim that we are all separate beings living in a universe without purpose. I hastened to say much more, because Eisenstein is so much more eloquent than I am and I really do think this is a book that I'd recommend everyone read if they are concerned about the future of humanity and our planet. If you even sometimes feel like life has not lived up to what you once thought it would, read this book. If you still retain some of your idealism, read this book. If you are willing to challenge the cynical Western worldview, read this book. Heck, read this book, no matter what. I guarantee it will challenge your thinking.
• 
  Barbara Neznek

  I wish the world would read this book
• 
  Will

  I'm not even sure I know how best to describe this read. A slow burn; thought-provoking.
  
  We have a collection of ideas from Charles Eisenstein which deep dives into our systems and processes we are in as a society. He offers insight on how we might approach one another and our environment to affect change. Key concepts include approaching our adversaries with kindness and love; not combating hostility with more anger and hate.
  
  There is a lot here for me digest (which is why it took me so long to read). This review feels wholly inept in conveying just how powerful the material is. I may have to marinate on it a bit more.
• 
  Hannah Elizabeth

  I think this is the best book I have ever read. It is everything you've ever intuited during a transcendent experience, laid out as much as it can be in language. Through the concept of "interbeing", the idea that we are not separate from each other or from nature, Eisenstein explores the marriage of spirituality and activism (and spirit and matter in general), solving problems via attention and love instead of force, nonjudgment, deconstructing our beliefs about cause and effect and objectivity, and much more that all rang incredibly true. I feel energized after reading this and my heart feels full and open.
• 
  Enrique Mañas

  I really wanted to like Charles Eisenstein, probably due to some external recommendations and his undeniable beautiful writing style. I really tried. Maybe all this is my fault for not burning the book when I starting suspecting it.
  
  However, this book is full of pseudo-science, wrong conclusions derived from wrong approaches, intentional lies and general garbage.
  
  Could not finish it, and will leave it at the next bus stop with a note:
  
  "Use to hold paper, not to read"
  
  I want my time back.
• 
  eliza

  This is the third of Eisenstein's books I've read (in addition to essays, articles, and talks of his I've absorbed), and I must say this one took the longest to grow on me. The ordering of the chapters was not logically evident, and I was admittedly ruffled by his step toward "fringe" interests (although he states he intentionally makes this move to provoke reader reflection on their versions of self-righteousness).
  
  Once I got beyond the resistance he accurately predicted I would feel, I came to really appreciate this book as a resource for people who want to evolve themselves as well as the world. I enjoyed Eisenstein's more jocular tone and and respect him for taking this opportunity to address his inner and outer critics head-on.
  
  Definitely a recommended read, but I strongly suggest reading one of his other works first.
• 
  Raelle Kaia

  I loved this book. One of the things I really like about Charles Eisenstein is that he doesn't deny how bleak the situation in front of us is, for our species and Gaia; but rather than giving up, he's focused on what we can do about it, with full knowledge of the magnitude of what we're facing. That's my attitude too, and it's great to come across a kindred spirit who not only seeks for optimism in the face of catastrophe, but doesn't suggest we pin our hopes on the empty promises we usually hear from others in their address to our situation. Usually you'll hear things like "technology will solve these problems - somehow," or "I don't know how we'll handle this, but people have predicted catastrophe in the past and they've been wrong, so therefore anyone who sees a coming catastrophe will also be wrong."
  
  What Charles does instead, is recognize that nothing less than a miraculous revolution in consciousness will suffice, so the thing to focus on is - how do we support the miraculous revolution in consciousness we need? This book provides a lot of great suggestions in that vein, starting with ourselves, and our own wounds of separation and grief. It's a great handbook for anyone who wants to move past despair regarding the future, but who is not willing to ignore the realities of how dire our global situation is.
• 
  Helen

  Eisenstein predicts a number of objections or doubts about his thesis, all of which I had. Although I would like to believe that "everything we do matters" in terms of creating the world we want to live in, I was not convinced. Still, there is food for thought here about whether a future better than we can imagine is possible and what paradigm shifts may allow for such possibilities.
• 
  Raoul G

  If I remember correctly I first heard of Charles Eisenstein when stumbling upon an quite extensive
  article he wrote about the COVID-19 pandemic. In it I found his perspective very refreshing and somehow different (but not in a conspiracy theory way 😄). So I looked up some of his books and found that this one attracted me most, judging only by the title. Admittedly, it sounds a bit utopic, but hey, that's not necessarily a bad thing, right?
  
  It is an interesting and also kind of strange experience to be reading this book while also reading Yuval Harari's
  Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow.
  Both authors claim that the subject, the self, is basically an illusion, or just a story we inhabit and tell ourselves and each other; a story we use to make sense of the world and interpret everything that happens.
  But while Harari explains this realization through the insights provided by the life sciences in a quite logical way, Eisenstein goes in the directly opposed direction by questioning science and even scientific consensus. He deems them as deeply flawed because they are rooted in what he calls the Story of Separation.
  Of course the outcome of the two approaches couldn't be farther away:
  Harari says that we might have to get used to the idea that what we perceive as the self is nothing more but a collection of competing algorithms (probably something akin to Richard Dawkins' memes).
  In Eisenstein's conception, the self is an illusion because basically all and everything is interconnected. He calls this the Story of Interbeing. This also leads him to question for example linear causality and to believe in a bunch of weird things (water memory, morphic fields, etc.)
  
  I recognized in myself a quite strong resistance to the overall conclusion Eisenstein reaches in his book, but in a certain way he disarms this resistance a bit by predicting and explaining it to the reader, and by admitting he himself often has his doubts about this Story of Interbeing. But, according to him, this resistance arises as a consequence of ourselves still inhabiting the old paradigm, the Story of Separation. And of course this is true: we live in a world where individualism, objectivism and science give us the lenses through which we see the world. I can't deny that Eisenstein's vision of inherent interconnection is beautiful, but that doesn't make it true. Again he is aware of that, and also has a quite interesting meta-discussion about stories or worldviews and their truths in the book. He admits that in the end nobody can be convinced by proofs or arguments that his vision is correct. According to him it comes down to choice: What story do you want to inhabit? How do you want to perceive the world? In my opinion making this choice is not as straightforward as he presents it.
  
  So what can I say about the book? I can't fully agree with the book, although I don't really think the book was intended to provoke agreement. Instead of just reading the book, you, in a way, read yourself while reading it. It questions the way you perceive and make meaning of the world, and in this regard I would say it is a good book. In the following I'll leave you with some of the interesting and thought provoking bits of the book:
  
  About our story:
  "Is heightened security the best we can aspire to? What happened to visions of a society without locks, without poverty, without war? Are these things beyond our technological capacities? Why are the visions of a more beautiful world that seemed so close in the middle twentieth century now seem so unreachable that all we can hope for is to survive in an ever more competitive, ever more degraded world? Truly, our stories have failed us. Is it too much to ask, to live in a world where our human gifts go toward the benefit of all? Where our daily activities contribute to the healing of the biosphere and the well-being of other people? We need a Story of the People—a real one, that doesn’t feel like a fantasy—in which a more beautiful world is once again possible."
  
  About climate change:
  "Whatever the mechanism—greenhouse gases, deforestation, or solar fluctuations—climate change is sending us an important message. We and Earth are one. As above, so below: what we do to each other, even to the smallest animal or plant, we do to all creation. Perhaps all our small, invisible acts imprint themselves upon the world in ways we do not understand."
  
  About spirituality and politics:
  "By the same token, any effort to change people’s basic perceptions of the world is political work. What kind of people take refuge in sprawling suburbs? What kind of people work at jobs that satisfy no desire but the desire for security? What kind of people stand passively by while their nation prosecutes one unjust war after another? The answer is: fearful people. Alienated people. Wounded people. That’s why spiritual work is political, if it spreads love, connection, forgiveness, acceptance, and healing."
  
  About economy:
  "Perhaps nowhere is the artificiality of scarcity so obvious as it is with money. As the example of food illustrates, most of the material want in this world is due to lack not of anything tangible, but to lack of money. Ironically, money is the one thing we can produce in unlimited quantities: it is mere bits in computers. Yet we create it in a way that renders it inherently scarce, and that drives a tendency toward concentration of wealth, which means overabundance for some and scarcity for the rest... The scarcity of money, in turn, draws from the scarcity of love, intimacy, and connection. The foundational axiom of economics says as much: human beings are motivated to maximize rational self-interest. This axiom is a statement of separateness and, I hazard to say, loneliness. Everyone out there is a utility-maximizer, in it for themselves. You are alone. Why does this seem so true, at least to economists?"
  
  About human needs:
  "A multiplicity of basic human needs go chronically, tragically unmet in modern society. These include the need to express one’s gifts and do meaningful work, the need to love and be loved, the need to be truly seen and heard, and to see and hear other people, the need for connection to nature, the need to play, explore, and have adventures, the need for emotional intimacy, the need to serve something larger than oneself, and the need sometimes to do absolutely nothing and just be."
  
  About empathy:
  "This is the essence of Separation: If I were in the totality of your circumstances, I would do differently from you. A substantial body of experimental evidence shows that this statement is false, that in fact if you were in the totality of his circumstances, you would do exactly as he does. As I shall explain, to align ourselves with this truth is perhaps the most powerful way to magnify our effectiveness as agents of change. It is the essence of compassion to put oneself in another’s shoes. It says, you and I are one; we are the same being looking out at the world through different eyes, occupying different nexus points in the universal web of relationship."
  
• 
  Mighk

  In 1993 I read Daniel Quinn's book Ishmael and it opened a door to a very different perspective on how our world works. Since then I've read many other books that have attempted to do the same, and they have all helped me in various ways to see where we are and where we are going as a species. Charles Eisenstein's latest book is like the flood lamp that's been turned on, illuminating both sides of that doorway that Quinn opened. The path that brought us to where we are and the path forward are the same path. You have to see the path behind you clearly to get a better sense of what the path forward will present to you.
• 
  Vrinda

  A lot of good stuff in this book! This book was first real intro to this author, and my time reading this book also coincided with a weekend workshop of his that I participated in at Esalen in November 2019. I feel like a main takeaway of this book feels like deeper compassion and a more nonjudgmental stance in many/all situations. I also really like the frame of the story of separation —> the story of reunion / interbeing. May it be so! I plan to read more of his work.
• 
  Yvonne S

  Excellent. Commended to everyone. "Reawaken to the beauty and the joy that is meant to be." It is time to let go of The Story of Separation in favor of The Story of Interbeing. We are all in it together and everything counts.
• 
  Kin

  i am at the right place where reading this book is like having a conservation with a wise friend
• 
  Hans

  Many aren't ready for the ideas contained in this book. To get the most out of it the reader ought to have a natural love and appreciation for, as well as a rich and varied background in, a variety of subjects from physics, biology, psychology, politics and history. This is because the author's thesis is deeply contextual. He weaves seamlessly and comprehensively pieces of a larger puzzle contained within each discipline to create a new emerging paradigm that challenges the old. Like the air we breathe we are completely unable to see how the collective paradigms have reached their zenith and are crumbling under the weight of their own logical conclusions. We intuitively grasp and sense that something is wrong but can only point to the symptoms that surround us unable to identify the root cause. What if the root problem is actually the underlying assumptions that form the foundation for the modern popular paradigm itself?
  
  That all being said it is quite difficult to review this book without reducing it into an over-simplification that completely ruins it. Ultimately the author admirably attempts to challenge the root assumptions that have guided Western Civilization, which he dubs "The story of Separation". He claims that this narrative have driven Western civilization towards a culture of alienation from each other, from the planet, from even oneself. The antidote being the "story of Reunion" which is instead seeks to recognize and appreciate the complex web of inter-relationships that drive life on the planet as well as the mental and emotional well being of society.
  
  When we experience this paradigm shift and start to see the world from a new perspective it will help us feel that somehow everything is going to be alright. To appreciate, from nuanced and subtle to the more striking beauty that is all around us every day.
  
  This conclusion had me reflecting back upon my own journey to understand what "love" actually is. In my decade long research I had personally come to the conclusion that the root of love was "the recognition of the unity of all things". Which is to say fully appreciating that separation is largely an illusion. Our entire lives are not only dependent upon countless relationships from the food we eat and it's production to the clothes we wear, to the cars we drive but didn't make, houses we live in but didn't build. Our personal relationships, to our friends, co-workers and family. Each layer of relationships build and sustain a myriad of others as well as our own. To the planetary orbits and rotation of the earth around the sun that gives life to the planet itself.
• 
  Hannah

  This book goes hard - main takeaways:
  - Stop trying to be a good person: instead, just choose who you are. From that, your contribution to the world will be far greater than what comes out of covert vanity.
  - Reject the narrative of separation in all forms: this includes letting go of the concepts of good vs evil, moral vs immoral, positive vs negative altogether.
  - To give is the most primal instinct of connection: we must give in ways that are valuable in and of itself, rather than to receive something in return.
  
• 
  Tobias Stadler

  Wow.
• 
  hiromi

  beautiful and heart-warming~ but there are some clunky writes, could be shorter…
• 
  Andrew

  Eisenstein is a contemporary philosopher who, throughout this book, speaks to and touches on something beautiful and oft-forgotten in modern life. That something being the idea of interconnectedness, oneness, or as he calls it, “the story of interbeing.” Now I do have a bias going into this book, as I regard that idea to either be the deepest or the most superficial truth. Anyways, he posits that we, specifically we in Western cultures, currently live in the all pervading story of separation. Underpinning the very fabric of what we perceive as reality, the story of separation is what is to account for the seemingly endless injustices and problems that we face today. From climate change, war, deforestation, factory farming, strip mining, mass extinction, the killing of indigenous communities for land, genocide, addiction, sex trafficking, wealth inequality, to so much more; their roots and home can be found in the narrative of separation.
  
  The idea being that this story of separation permeates down to the very premise of who you think you are and what your place in the universe is. You are a separate self among other separate selves in a separate, indifferent and maybe even hostile universe. Your purpose being to maximize on your self interest, which will undoubtedly come at the cost of others competing to do the same. From these principles(and others laid out in the book), the justifications are made to conquer and control people and the world around us.
  
  Eisenstein promotes a “new” story (new in the west) in which we can act from and are seeing a transition towards. The story of interbeing. The idea that our existence is relational to one another. We are fundamentally connected to one another and the universe. What we do to one another we do to ourselves. And each of us has something important to express while we’re here. Throughout the book he lays out these ideas, how they relate to our current understanding, or story, and how to make the shift individually and ultimately collectively.
  
  Admittedly, being an idealistic hippie at heart it was bound to resonate, and the invoking of Jungian analytical thought (maybe I’m just seeing a correlation here as Jung is never explicitly mentioned) and Buddhist thinking within the book only helped to do so. However, I was not too credulous when reading this book. Even I recoiled in disbelief when certain things were mentioned, mainly about the fringe sciences. I’m also slightly skeptical if such a profound cultural shift can be made before the impending environmental catastrophes. Although at that point we’d probably be forced to take on some more caring attitudes toward our fellow humans lest we meet extinction. And there are, relatively trivial, philosophical aspects of this book that leave me confused such as the the revocation of determinism but then embracing situationism (which seems to me to be somewhat deterministic). Regardless I’m probably just being pedantic as, I think, this doesn’t defraud the grander message of the book. And overall, I feel Eisenstein does well to make a case for transitioning our narrative.
  
  This book spoke to that part of me that feels something isn’t right here culturally. The part of me that knows we have the capacity to do better and be connected to one another. Kinder to other beings and the home we share. The part of me saying, “‘Please believe me. It isn’t supposed to be this way. Something awful has taken over the world.’” This book helps instill the adage that change starts with me! For that I’m very grateful for this book.
• 
  Kony

  This book gently defies categories. It's a spiritual roadmap for those who suspect that our (Western) culture is mired in false narratives, and who crave a more humanistic narrative. It's also an ethical manifesto, proclaiming that the key to addressing our social, political, and environmental problems is embracing our basic need for connection. Its mission is not to persuade cynics, but to sustain hope among the hopeful, and to inspire progressive idealists to find each other and work together.
  
  Truth be told, it's rhapsodic, abstract, and smacks of privilege. But the author is self-aware of the flaws in his message and in his character as message-bearer. And he is graceful not only in accepting these flaws, but in inviting skeptical readers to explore their own impulses to criticize these flaws. He suggests, insightfully, that such impulses stem from some fear or unmet need.
  
  Despite feeling impatient with this book in places (it gets pretty woo-woo), I deeply appreciate the author's optimism, his spiritual wisdom, his love for humanity, and his rare ability to write with both painful sincerity and sharp intelligence.
• 
  Colette

  I did not agree with some of this author's ideas, but it is beautifully written and thought-provoking. I found the last 100 pages less engaging. I did mark many passages to be remembered and reviewed. If I were to become an activist I would like to be a compassionate one as Eisenstein suggests is possible.
  
  Some of the principles of the "new story" (p. 15):
  
  -That my being partaken of your being and that of all beings. This goes beyond interdependency -- our very existence is relational.
  
  -That, therefore, what we do to another, we do to ourselves.
  
  -That each of us has a unique and necessary gift to give the world.
  
  -That the purpose of life is to express our gifts.
  
  -That every act is significant and has an effect on the cosmos.
  
  -That we are fundamentally in separate from each other, from all beings, and from the universe.
  
  -That every person we encounter and every experience we have mirrors something in ourselves.
  
  -That humanity is meant to join fully the tribe of all life on Earth, offering our uniquely human gifts toward the well-being and development of the whole.
  
  -That purpose, consciousness, and intelligence are innate properties of matter and the universe.
• 
  Marmot

  I liked the concept of this book and found the ideas within it interesting. However, the writing was drawn out, repetitive and didn’t really seem to get to the point. It was a bit like a long winded monologue. I feel it could have been improved had an editor stepped in and shortened it to 100 pages. I just couldn’t get to the end of it in time for our book club meeting to discuss it.
• 
  Renetsu

  Fascinating exploration of activism which reframed many of my concepts and confirmed for me that it is useful I continue what I am offering.