Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
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| Author | Sam Harris |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Spirituality, religion |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
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Publication date
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September 9, 2014 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 256 (Hardcover) |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | Free Will |
| Followed by | Islam and the Future of Tolerance |
Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion is a 2014 book by Sam Harris. Harris discusses a wide range of topics including secular spirituality (essentially within the context of spiritual naturalism), the illusion of the self, psychedelics, and meditation. He attempts to show that a certain form of spirituality is integral to understanding the nature of the mind. Harris has recommended Dzogchen, a Tibetan Buddhist practice.
Waking Up has been praised by literary critics. Frank Bruni of The New York Times wrote, "Harris's book [...] caught my eye because it's so entirely of this moment, so keenly in touch with the growing number of Americans who are willing to say that they do not find the succor they crave, or a truth that makes sense to them, in organized religion." Stephen Cave of the Financial Times similarly described it as "a fine book" and observed, "although it portrays only a fragment of the emerging picture of post-Christian spirituality, it nonetheless does so with great colour and clarity – like a shining stained glass window for a church that is still being built."Kirkus Reviews called it "A demanding, illusion-shattering book certain to receive criticism from both the scientific and the religious camps."
It received a more mixed response from Trevor Quirk of The New Republic, who criticized what he perceived as the book's inconsistencies and Harris's willingness to belittle religious people. He nevertheless wrote, "[Harris's] new book, whether discussing the poverty of spiritual language, the neurophysiology of consciousness, psychedelic experience, or the quandaries of the self, at the very least acknowledges the potency and importance of the religious impulse—though Harris might name it differently—that fundamental and common instinct to seek not just an answer to life, but a way to live that answer."
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