The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety by M. Scott Peck

The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety Reviews

• 
  Matthew D

  I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I feel like it was one of the best books in terms of usefulness and ability to enlighten. I think the book can be summed up by the idea if we want to be a productive member of society we have to open ourselves to the pain of living, to overcome the pain we must discipline ourselves, we also cannot be loving without this discipline.
  
  Key Quotes:
  
  “Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”
  
  “Love is the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth... Love is as love does. Love is an act of will -- namely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.”
  
  “Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. ”
  
• 
  James Perkins

  I hadn't read any books on spirituality for a while, but I'd heard of Peck and I'd heard of his "Road" books, so I thought I'd give them a go. Unfortunately, it was a major disappointment. It started well: his background in psychiatry and mine in psychology gave us a common understanding, and his comments on Western society "dumbing down", the negative effects of lying, the positive effects of feeling grateful, all hit the mark. His own personal anecdotes, illustrating various points, made it more real. So there were many positive aspects to this book.
  
  Despite this, he managed to completely destroy his own credibility. He constantly wavered between Freudian psychology and Christian theology, with blind faith in both, one contradicting the other, and neither showing any basis in scientific enquiry. For a psychiatrist, he showed an amazing lack of understanding of human behaviour, assuming that all evil is inherent rather than learned - and when he started hearing voices, he chose to believe it was the "voice of God" rather than a problem with his own mental health. Yet his most annoying habit was constantly referencing his own books as if he was the font of all knowledge without equal. His arrogance stifled whatever message his text was supposed to impart.
  
  I am open-minded in my views on human spirituality, but this book left me feeling that something very important was missing.
• 
  Moses Kilolo

  This book is about spiritual growth, and so said offers a religious (Christian) approach to its message. However Mr. Scott successfully avoids being preachy. He does not present the Christian faith as superior to others, and the subtlety of this approach makes any reader across the board comfortable with his message.
  
  His first emphasis is on thinking. No one need mention what an important component this is, of all human acts of choice. And the author offers a critical study against simple thinking, instead campaigning for depth. He goes on to tackle consciousness and its mystery, showing how a sense of awareness can bring to life harmony and serendipity.
  
  His other main assertion is that in order to grow, we need to learn. And learning is equally a choice, in a sense that we chose to, and or not to learn in our endeavor to come out of our narcissism.
  
  Part two of the book offers insights on the everyday life. It shows the personal life choices such as those of vocation as well as organizational life choices and the choices we make about society. It is in the third part of the book that he talks about God. Here I find a few things that I do not agree with. But generally the writing is honest and heartfelt enough.
  
  Since this is my first book this year, I hope that I will keep up and read more of non-fiction works this year.
  
• 
  K.J. Kron

  I liked this book, but it was more of a review of his others. Not great unless you've never read his others.
• 
  Melania

  Reading this was challenging - I was worried about the religious content in the beginning when I read about the authour, only to read the first chapter and to relax that it wasn't "contaminated", struggled with the later ones, when terms like good and bad, evil and sin, soul and ego flew in all directions, only to find in the latter chapters quite a unique view of how he thinks God is, even though he consider himself as a christian, and was actually baptized in his forties as a christian, but not belonging to any religion (how is that even possible?), and confessed that he even did not read the whole Bible. So the ideas that did stuck wih me was his opinion on the existence of paradoxes and the need for " wholeness" and "integration/integrity", maybe even the importance of awareness. The poem at the end was an infusion of spirituality, so I'm pretty happy that I stuck with reading it all the way trough.
• 
  Himanshu Godara

  Few of the concepts touched upon are interesting but they were never full explored. It doesn’t delve deeper either on anxiety or spiritualIty, it feels more like an abstract instead of a full novel. Also, reference to previous novels, written by author, after every few pages is too much of self advertising and its not really relevant to the reading, so you do skip over it (like all the other ads).
• 
  Judith Symonds

  I found this book really hard to get into at first. However, after much perseverance I found that Dr Peck is very informative. This book is about thinking and now accepting popular culture. Dr Peck is a psychologist and many of his experiences with patients come through in his work. The thing that came up for me when I was reading this book was a story about a young woman who sounds much like me who suffered alot of frustration at work because most of her colleagues did not meet up to her standards. Many years ago my husband suggested that I 'make allowances' for those people who were not as fortunate to be as smart as me. At the time, I actually thought that he was helpfully reminding me not to be so 'perfect'. Now I see it in this book, that because I continually educate myself and love to learn new things, there is an art to having more compassion for people and getting to understand them better.
  
• 
  Cristina Preda

  I loved this book. Still love it, as I discovered when I re-read it. There are so many little gems to be discovered every time you read it... it's the kind of book that reveal itself gradually as you grow older and hopefully wiser.
  
  The first time I read it all I saw was how well other people fit in the various categories described by the author. 'Yes! This is my mom, this is X, this is Y!' True, it made me better understand others but the real value came the second time around when I started to see... well, me. And this is where the work begins.
  
  I highly recommend it to everyone interested in self-discovery and self-development. Not an easy road to take, but the only one that leads to truth and authenticity.
• 
  Annie Frame

  Loved this book. Scott Peck didn't hold back and says it like it is. Delving into the human mind he makes a lot of sense of people and their behaviour. Although some readers might disgree with certain aspects I found The Road Less Travelled and Beyond a perfect read for those living in the mad world around us. Once again Scott Peck, thank you for a thoroughly good read.
• 
  Rida Rizvi

  As usual, M.Scott Peck leaves nothing but stunned and deeply influenced. This book has deep discussion about faith and grace attached to it. Perspectives are so ordinary yet overlooked by us that they appear unique and moving. Growth remains central theme of his writing which makes the reader critically analyze their motivations, goal and progress towards it. A very different aspect which has been highlighted in this book is 'community building'. Aspects related to community building helps in professional as well as personal life to be a better version of self such that others, connected to us remain central to our 'growth'. All in all, a beautiful read.
• 
  Mohammed H

  What a gem of a book. It closely looks at discipline and how from a young age its developed through our parents influence, transference and environment. It also looks at the characteristics and reasons for not being discplined. Its simply states that people without discipline are not able to delay gratification, don't take responsibility, having an unrealistic view of the world and cannot balance their lives.
  
  Psychoanalysis is a process that an individual has to take I believe to better understand his own reality or the map that they have in their head while trying to make it a better one through a therapist.
  
  In the second part the author explains or tries to define love or what is not love. Some surprising definitions and myths about love squashed so hard you will re think the word love all over again. Listening was also discussed and advice is given how to listen to your spouse and children, very useful I thought. The correlation between love and listening as the author would put it " Love in action "
  
  This book is about growth and self examination through the mind of a psychoanlisis, you will understand how they work what they do for you and how they help people. It is truly an ART fixing people's realities only is accomplished by LOVE. The author wrote this book for other psychotherapist that are studying psychoanalysis. He is indirectly helping them to grow spiritually. In addition this book looks at how to deal with religion when using psychoanalysis with patients. In some way its enlightening to read other people's stories with religion and how it helped them and dramatically also destroyed their lives. You will also find a good analysis about religion and science and how each team perceives one another.
  
  I really think this book should be taught in schools. Should be part of schools curriculum. It will allow future generations to discuss their realities and question religion for their own benefit and will most definitely make them know how to love.
  
  Thank you for taking the time to read my review.
  
  
  Dr Peck, Rest in peace, you have gifted the world a great gift. Your Love is evident in every page of this book. Thanking you is not enough rather spreading your book and explaining it to other is the least one can do.
• 
  Andre-Louis

  THY WILL NOT MINE BE DONE
• 
  Aria

  The first half of the book was ok, not so much new, but ok. Mostly talking about how "discipline" helps solving problems in life and examples of the cases that its lack is disastrous.
  
  The second half is terrible though. This is when he goes to spirituality and the motivation behind discipline which is "love". To see how meaningless it was, the author says because of second law of thermodynamics, evolution shouldn't have happened. It's because of "love" that it has happened! He not only has no understanding of second law of thermodynamics, but doesn't understand evolution either.
  
  I hope I hadn't wasted my time reading it at all!
• 
  Alejna Alija

  Hard to get into it at the beginning, but once you are at the core of it you wrap yourself deep inside as you cannot leave the book for a minute! the author is a very priest in the background disguised with modern psychology and theology. if you are not that much of a spiritual person you might get annoyed at some parts, but even the greatest unbelievers would find big life lessons, helpful tips to life and a lot of modern psychology revealed.
• 
  A.J. Aaron

  It is about spiritual growth in an age of anxiety. This man puts it all together nicely in this book. He establishes the need for thinking again. In a society that has given over their decisions to everyone else by following established roads Dr. Peck re-ignites the need for genius and thinking about life daily. How the lack of thought causes the inequity and injustice's and prejudices in life.
• 
  Karen

  This book changed my life. I read it 24 years ago and it has become a parental inner voice of navigating and copping with life. It has been a great source of, comfort, strength and perspective. Today I am considered very emotionally grounded and sound and the foundation for this is from The Road Less Traveled.
• 
  Pwlina

  Ο πρώτος "δρόμος" με ταξίδεψε αρκετά, ο δεύτερος λιγο λιγότερο και ο τρίτος αρκετές φορές γίνεται κουραστικός επαναλαμβάνοντας το πρώτο βιβλίο και με αρκετές αναφορές στα αλλα βιβλία του συγγραφέα. Αναμφισβήτητα "οι δρόμοι" εχουν σκοπό απόκτησης επίγνωσης και κατανόησης πολύπλοκων θεμάτων για την ανάπτυξη και την εξέλιξη του ανθρώπου.
• 
  Kristen

  I reread this book about once a year and it always has a calming effect
• 
  Jim

  The title led me to expect more.
• 
  J. Chris

  Nothing new in this book. I loved "The Road Less Traveled" but this was blah and a nothing new sequal.
• 
  Arlene Selman

  I read this just out of high school. I loved it and it changed my life. It was a stepping stone into inner self work.
• 
  Nathan Albright

  This was the third and (hopefully) final book in the series that M. Scott Peck wrote relating to his breakthrough work The Road Less Traveled.  As someone who is by no means hostile to positive psychology and who shares many of the fundamental beliefs of the author concerning the difficulties of life, the benefits of suffering and difficulty, and the need for responsibility and personal growth, there is much to enjoy in all of the books in this series, of which I am aware of and have read three.  While this is by no means a bad book or even a disappointing book, it is a reminder that at this point in Peck's writing he had said most of what he wanted to say.  Like many writers, he points the reader continually, sometimes multiple times in the same paragraph, to books he has written before.  There are hundreds and even perhaps thousands of references that the author makes to a previous case, a previous novel, an insight from a previous book, and all of that makes this book seem somewhat inessential, merely as an opportunity for the writer to remind the reader to turn to his existing works, rather than something new for the reader to appreciate.
  
  Like the other books in the series, this one is divided into several parts, in this case three.  And like the other books in this series, the parts are themselves somewhat complicated.  After an introduction and an editor's preface, the book begins with a crusade against simplism (I).  This includes chapters on thinking (1), consciousness (2), and learning and growth (3), each of them with smaller sections that deal, for example, with paradoxes, and the reality that while thinking too little is your problem, thinking too much is someone else's problem.  After that, the second part of the book wrestles with the complexity of everyday life (II) with chapters on personal (4) and organizational (5) life choices as well as choices about society (6), including sections on civility and various paradoxes about human nature and responsibility.  The book then closes with a brief look at the simplicity that lies on the other side of complexity (III), with chapters on the "science" of God as well as a lengthy and somewhat awkward poem to God where the author explores his own tangled and complex path to belief.  While the author may have felt very strongly about this poem it comes off a bit cringy at least to me as a reader.
  
  And that is my sense of the book as a whole.  To a great extent this book feels like a good stopping point.  The author reaches the point where he has little more to say than a strident reminder to the reader to remember (or to go back and read) previous works where the author has explored some aspect of psychology and spirituality.  The author shares some embarrassing poetry as part of an otherwise serious book.  This work feels like a summary of previous efforts tied together to remind the author of their coherence as well as an excellent demonstration of the author's reading of others and some personal discussion of the author's own life history and his own path to what he viewed as insight.  There is a lot to appreciate here, and if the work does not disappoint, it does at least remind the reader that at this point M. Scott Peck had little new to say, and had exhausted his means of saying it by the time one comes to the conclusion of his closing poem.  But while he had little new to say here, what he had to say was worth reading, at least.
• 
  Lino Matteo

  The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Some Thoughts
  
  by M. Scott Peck
  
  
  The books subtitle is “Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety” and while the book is almost 25 years old are we any less anxious? Pandemic, climate change, political deadlock would all tend to let us thing that things are getting worse. Yet, one line in the book rings true: “Indeed, we might think on our more optimistic days of Utopia as having already started, albeit barely.”
  I tend to take the viewpoint that no society has ever been as successful as ours – the most tangible benefits, for the greatest number of people, with more time for leisure, hobbies, travel, and family, yet. Yet. Yet we are all greatly stressed. We all complicate simple things and look for simple answers for complex issues. We have no time for thinking as we are too busy doing. Who has time to sharpen the saw when there is so much wood to cut?
  Why?
  The book makes strong arguments for the need to achieve “a deeper awareness of how to live rich, fulfilling lives in a world fraught with stress and anxiety.” For the same society that has provided so much for so many have the capacity for destruction – slowly or quickly – like we have never before seen. “The survival of our civilization may well depend upon whether our institutions can evolve into sustainable communities and hence become ongoing learning organizations.”
  
  The author shares a lifetime of profound ‘scientific’ insight with a deep and wisdom on spirituality. He has addressed millions via his books and lectures and while he is no longer amongst us on this earth, perhaps he is still encouraging us along. Scott Peck talks about decision making that should lead to ethical choices for the betterment of society. He deals with good and evil; the need to overcome narcissism; the necessity of community and the importance of love.
  
  Dr. Peck also shares thoughts and guidance on growing old, the journey towards death, the need to learn and the need to share. You do not need to like all of the talk to leave with some wise and profound lessons. The reading and pondering of The Road Less Traveled and Beyond is an adventure worth undertaking, and especially poignant during this New Normal.
  
  Happy Reading.
  Lino Matteo ©™
  Twitter @Lino_Matteo
  
  https://linomatteo.wordpress.com/2021...
  
• 
  Drick

  For those who have read many of M. Scott Peck's book, this is a rehash of what he has written previously. Throughout the book he quotes himself and retells stories he shared in earlier books. So if you are (like me) expecting something new and refreshing in Peck's honest tell-it-like-it-is style, you will be disappointed. The one area that is more developed is his thoughts on the latter stages of life. While he was only 61 when this book was published, it feels like he is giving us his "greatest hits" and preparing to head off into the great beyond. Perhaps most challenging for me was his idea that this latter stage of life is an adventure like every other stage; it's just the last stage.
  
  As it turned out Peck died 8 years after this book was published. He died in 2005 with Parkinson's and cancer. In this book he speaks very highly of his marriage to his wife Lily so it is odd that he divorced her a year before his death, which seems tragic. However, I am sure in typical Peck fashion he would recast as yet another adventure.
  
  In any case if one is looking for something new, this is not the book for you. Even so, it is a good swan song for an author who has spoken clearly on many aspects of the human condition including and especially our relationship to God, of which he was unabashedly committed
• 
  Ishani Dutta

  Sequel to the infamous Road Less Travelled, I wasn’t as captured as I was with the original. Whilst it was a great read, and I have marks and annotations on most pages, I found that there was a lack of original thought and a lot of repetition of the content from his previous work.
  
  My favourite sections were thinking and consciousness. So many great observations and thoughtful insights. Something I know I will look back to read and flick through. Gave me a unique way to think about decision making especially when it comes to careers and life goals.
  
  However, aspects I glanced over or didn’t read properly were all the references to Christian values and religion in relation to becoming a moral person. In my opinion, this really dated the book. Whilst the original book (it’s prequel) written in 1984 was so poignant and timeless. I found this one (written in 1997) slightly less culturally aware.
  
  Would I recommend others to read it? Definitely yes to the original, but for this one? I would most likely say to flick through my highlighted notes. This might be a harsh assessment, but I think a truer depiction of the effect such subjective and religiously driven writing can have.
• 
  Dennis Leth

  A great book about spirituality, change, and god.
  
  It's an interesting book as it is written by a psychotherapist and deeply spiritual writer. The book is mostly about change. Personal change, organizational change, and change/transformation of communities.
  
  It may sound like a promotion of religious beliefs but the book is actually a good advocate for the process behind the change and what to be aware of.
  
  One point I like to point out because of my personal experience with hard transformation (due to alcohol abuse) is that it is impossible to see the change yourself. It feels like walking into the valley of death. But you need to go through it. No matter what kind of change/transformation you want in life. You need to let go of something, to get something new. Change requires you to trust the process sometimes religion of some sort helps you with that. Sometimes knowledge is everything.
  
  Learning is the key to change. So keep an eye out for possibilities of learning and grab them.