Uncharted: The Journey through Uncertainty to Infinite Possibility by Colette Baron-ReidMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I would rate this at a 3½ rather than just a 3.
I am a fan of Colette Baron-Reid: I follow her on twitter and FB, and listen to her videos from time to time, and regularly visit her website. I also have several sets of her cards, the Oracle Map cards being my favourite, so I wanted to give this book a 5 star rating, but I just couldn't. I didn't even feel it warranted a 4.
Maybe I am just too well-read in the self-help and personal development genre, and maybe for someone new to a lot of things that Colette is trying to impart it would come across differently, but I found this book chaotic.
Colette is trying to bring together three schools of thought, which is not an easy thing to do. One of psychic awareness, one of personal development, and one of how science actually plays a part in both of these. She didn't fail in doing any of that, but she was overly wordy about it, and I felt there was a lot of 'padding' to this book, which I feel was a marketing tool more than anything. There was continued reference to her first book 'The Map' (which I haven't read) and also to her personal creation the 'Invision Process' which is a course Colette has developed and runs through Hay House Publishing (as I understand it).
There was also repetition in her own personal story about finding her true path into being a psychic after doing a television show (another plug). She hinted at other elements to her personal story and events that happened to her at the age of 19, but it was clear she was not comfortable talking about these, even though they would have added to the personal development she was encouraging the reader to undertake, and given it more depth.
I also felt that at the beginning, when Colette defined her spiritual world, she described it in a way that it was a fact and the same for everyone, whereas I was not convinced about that; it can be very individual, and spirit manifests in different ways for different people. Readers could worry they are doing something wrong if they don't experience things the way Colette does. She had a lot of her own terminology for that, which thankfully, she did provide a legend for, but I felt it made it more complicated and chaotic - although I liked the term 'small self' for the ego. I felt the entire book could have been structured better.
What I did like about the book was that at the end of each part/chapter there was a section called 'Traveller's Notes' which basically gave a break down of that chapter and the main points that had just been covered, so you could clarify what that chapter had been about, which was useful as often a lot got lost in tangents and over description. And Colette also provided some excellent exercises for the reader to do, to learn about themselves and find their own way to a calm state of mind and allow themselves to listen more closely to their soul.
I will definitely use and reference this book in the future for the exercises and even Traveller's Notes. But I would be careful who I recommended it to.
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