A cross between Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestseller, Eat Pray Love, and Carlos Castaneda’s cult classic, The Teachings of Don Juan, author Rosemary Dan’s memoir, When the Time is Right, takes readers along on her personal journey of spiritual revelation.
Argentinean-born Dan begins this journey from a rarefied position as the wife of an ambassador. But rather than revel in the world of cultural privilege, she craves to know what lies beneath the glittering veneer. Her spiritual quest takes her from Patagonia and the Andes mountains to the vastness of Australia and the metaphysical trenches of India’s seeming chaos. She vividly describes the mind-blowing adventures she has along her way. On her journey, she meets Machi, a medicine woman who leads the author to unravel her past lives and her “true essence” as a natural healer and psychic. In Australia, Dan connects with the Aborigines and their dream landscapes, and in India she finds Sai Baba, her ultimate spiritual guide. The author’s admiration for her guru is palpable: “He was calling me to Him just like God call His Children to Him,” Dan writes. “…I felt myself disappear into Him and then the emptiness just disappeared.”
Non-believers may raise an eyebrow to Dan’s observations, and the author might have convinced more readers if her memoir included scientific studies on the power of meditation or the records of near-death experiences (of which there are now thousands). Nonetheless, her wisdom will resonate with those who willingly accept the experiences of spiritual seekers without judgment.
Dan ends her well-written memoir assuring readers that the world is a loving place of profound and blissful connection and writes: “My final conclusion is that we are all one. Love is the most powerful healer and when it comes from the deepest corners of our hearts…it lifts us into indescribable ecstasy.” For readers interested in tackling the bigger meaning of life, the time to read When the Time is Right may be now.
