The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit Paperback – April 1, 2001

I bought this book then ended up half way around the world walking across Spain. Great story, but beware, you may get swept up in the magic of it all and find yourself walking the Camino de Santiago.

Love Shirley MacLaine! She is timeless as are the insights in this book. This book is inspirational to “get up and get going” as we “walk each other home” through the difficult times. Even one little step is a beginning.

Since "The Camino" is itself a very personal book, I feel that the only way I can review it is to be personal as well. I am not a fan of Ms. MacClaine's, though I have been very impressed by the few of her movies I've seen. One time I was very tired traveling on a plane somewhere overseas, and though I wanted to sleep, I simply could not stop watching a movie I really did not want to watch, called "Madame Sousatzka," because Ms. MacClaine's performance was so magnetizing and compelling. I was very glad to find out that she won a Golden Globe for it. I am totally turned off by the cult of celebrity, and I found the parts of this book where the author went through some very trying times because of her celebrity to be weird and disturbing, yet from what she wrote she handled the weirdness well. I had thought that in Europe people were less bamboozled by celebrity than in the US, but apparently I was mistaken. I got a tremendous amount out "The Camino", and am appreciative to the author for that. I feel that each of us on the spiritual path has some or perhaps a lot of the truth, and we bounce off each other on the quest for higher consciousness. No one has anything close to the "whole truth," but in "The Camino" I found a lot of candor, wisdom, humor, pithy insights, food for thought, along with a fine travelogue of what the author experienced, both internally and externally. I have traveled a lot and have grown spiritually from those experiences, and I've also done a number of long distance events to get the endorphins going. Yet I resonate better with the simple knowing that reincarnation and karma are basic laws of life's evolution. I prefer to be present and aware in this life, and not be preoccupied so much about the past, or what happened in Atlantis and Lemuria. I also know how to transcend space time, but again, only the space time in this life. I do not find it helpful to ponder that at some level all my lifetimes are going on at the same time. Thus I only resonated partially with what the author wrote about her regressions to her past lives, which I feel she over-stresses in her books, as well to those places in the distant past where mankind might have lived in a "Garden of Eden." I did get a lot from her discussions about androgyny in Lemuria and "sex divisions" in Atlantis. Whatever the veracity of what she experienced in her "dream visions" in those places, I felt that the insights about sex and the quest for wholeness she gained from them were quite accurate. My basic point of contention with the author's path is that she seems to be on an endless quest for some kind of absolute truth through endless physical and mental activity (to say nothing of her many incarnations), and she never seems to attain it, no matter how much seeking she does. At the beginning of her walk on the Camino, her angelguide Ariel tells her that the path is the goal, but she keeps missing that crucial point, which to me is that few if any souls who come to earth become "totally enlightened," that is, finish the journey, and I don't believe that the "end" is ever achieved by endless "doing" and seeking spiritual experiences. Thus my own suggestion to Ms. MacClaine would be to simply realize how much you do know, how much you have realized, which is considerable, and just quiet your mind and accept where you are, and let go as much as possible. I found myself thinking over and over, Shirley, you've got it, as much as just about anyone can, but then she would start analyzing and intellectualizing her experiences, and seeking more and more of them, and (perhaps) lose it! And there is no doubt that Ms. MacClaine is ready for quieting her mind. She mentions on p. 174 the great teacher, Krishnamurti, who claimed that he could walk for hours without a single thought, surely a superior state to an endlessly seeking mind that in my opinion can never satisfy its thirst for knowledge, awareness, or whatever it is that it/she is seeking. I highly recommend K's first book, "The First And Last Freedom," to any seekers who want to try to see the folly of this endless quest for "enlightenment," and just be, w/o the need to become, ceaselessly. I also do not agree at all that everything in life has meaning, purpose, and that we create our own reality at all times. There is truth in all of these points, but I feel that these are very simplistic New Age notions that seem to satisfy those who have to be certain that they can "know" the truth, the truth about our lives, the truth about the universe (whatever that is - I, a mere mortal, would never claim to understand the "universe"), etc. And Ms. MacClaine's endless search for this impossible "knowing" doesn't even work for her - just read the part of the book where she says that she still feels like a caterpillar waiting to become a butterfly. Personally if I won just one of the awards she has won, or wrote even one international bestseller, or had the phenomenal experiences she's had in her productive life, I would be satisfied. This is a profound book and I highly recommend it, whatever my judgements!

As much study as I've done about Spain, I only recently stumbled upon the walk people do, referred to as the Santiago de Compestela Camino. I found other books that chronicle the authors' trek on the Camino--and will probably buy one or two of these soon--but because I've read some of MacLaine's books in the past, I thought I would get this one. I don't really have any regrets about doing so, but many of her 'experiences' are way too esoteric for me.As I was reading MacLaine's account of her journey, I was reminded of an interview I heard years ago with a man who does the Iditarod, the annual long-distance sled dog race in early March from Anchorage to Nome. He was talking about the fact that the Mushers (the human who controls the sled/dogs) usually experience profound hallucinations on the journey, due to the combination of the physical exertion, isolation from others, and lack of diverse stimulation. As he was leading his sled one year, for example, he said his long-deceased father was sittng at the edge of the sled. Though he was aware on some level that this was hallucinatory phenomena, he also managed to carry on a conversation with his dad.Was MacLaine's experience a hallucination or revelation, as she would have us believe? I'm not too sure. I'm certainly open to the notion of influences in our lives we don't understand, but some of what she wrote (experienced) just seems bizarre; Atlantis, UFOs, androgenous beings, finding jewelry owned in a past life in a shop window, Adam and Eve ... At times, I simply had to skim over those parts, as it was too surreal for me.That aside, I mostly enjoyed reading her accounts of the trek, though the general theme is that her experiences weren't particularly positive. Granted, some of this was because she was hounded by the press, but she also seemed to have a lot of negative or problematic encounters with the native population, people and dogs. I doubt this is common.Anyhow, if you want one person's perspective on doing the Camino, I wouldn't discourage you from reading the book. In some ways, however, it is less about the Camino and more about MacLaine's physical experience of it---blisters, bugbites, and fatigue---as well as her, well, spiritual (for lack of a better word) experiences.

I loved Shirley’s Journey, open minded sharing and honesty. The story was interesting to me as a hiker, women and human.I did not feel at the end that I would like to do this huge hike- I’ll stick with mountains and avoid cities.She is courageous and imaginative - a fine women and talented- but a bus tour I took from Madrid to Pamplona stopping at Burgos and many wonderful historical sites left me wanting to see more of Spain.

I read this in the last week of my Camino Frances walk and loved it very much. It is deep, honest and soulful, and delves into advanced concepts of spiritual philosophy. This book is NOT a guide; nor is it a memoir of the Way or the author's life. Rather, it highlights spiritual knowledge gleaned by the author during her Camino, along with the frustrations she encountered while trying to connect to and absorb that information. I can see why a lot of people struggled through it, because the spiritual philosophy is complex, hard to grasp, and can come across as mumbo jumbo if you haven't had the exposure or background to build up to this point.

interesting read

It came on time and was exactly what I wanted. Thank you.

excellent

Schon erstaunlich, was sich die Autorin da zugemutet hat. Aber ihre Visionen sind sehr abgehoben und die Länge und Breite, in der sie dargestellt werden, auf die Dauer ermüdend.Ich schätze die Schauspielerin und Autorin, aber dieses Werk ist mir ein bisschen too much.

Another courageous book by Shirley MacLaine. Thought provoking, insightful. She has real guts coming forward with this experience. I hope to make this walk myself, and found the information very useful.