Spiritual Warfare

   Author: Jed McKenna

reviewed by Theresa Welsh

Someone calling himself Jed McKenna has written three books, all with the word "spiritual" in the titles. But Jed is not an advocate of spirituality; he is, rather, a spiritual nihilist. I've just finished reading an Advanced Reading Copy of his latest, Spiritual Warfare. After reading his first two books a few years back, I was skeptical as to whether Jed really existed, but willing to consider the message. But I'm afraid, for me, Jed has undone himself with this third book. He got my attention and I read it all in amazement, but by the end of the book I had decided that Jed McKenna is mainly a fraud.

A New Cast of Characters
In each book, Jed is living somewhere different surrounded by different people doing different things. In this book, he is mainly in Mexico (living in luxurious places - no poverty for this enlightened guy) and he is with Lisa, who has left her nice middle-class life and dentist husband in a crisis of angst over the meaning of life. There is also a woman named Brett, an improbable character who lives on a horse farm and had been teaching spiritual enlightenment to people who gathered in bleachers in the horse pasture while she strolled about in cowboy boots and lambasted them for their meaningless lives in badly phrased English (as in This ain't no New Age gimmick…). At least that was what she used to do before she died. Yes, Brett has been the victim of an apparently meaningless vehicle accident and the book leads up to her (meaningless?) memorial service, at which Jed's performance is the main event. Brett's fans have gathered again at the horse farm and Jed talks a lot about death. It seems he's not against it like most people are. Jed has looked death in the face and he likes it.

But Jed does not talk about death as a door to a new existence, or about how Brett's spirit is in a better place. No, as I was reading I kept wondering what Jed thought about the survival of human consciousness that is part of most ideas about spirituality. But by the time we get to Brett's eulogy, it is clear that Jed has come to the sure conclusion that humans sink back into the detritus of the universe and are just gone. He states it near the end of the book, as Brett's followers are raising their hands to argue some of his points. Jed tells them "…no talk of egoic immortality can survive two minutes of honest scrutiny… ." With that, he sweeps away thousands of years of spiritual traditions, teaching, and testimony. For a guy who claims to have discarded ego, he comes across as the exact opposite: an egomaniac, someone who has to be right about everything. Of spiritual traditions and religion, Jed tells us "Virtually all of religion and spirituality is about being happy and ignorant in the sewer…"

Contradictions and Old Ideas
He contradicts himself in many ways. He says at one point that Brett beat the cancer she had as a young woman by "surrendering" - letting the universe have its way. But he also says we have to be spiritual warriors (and consider the title of the book) and he emphasizes the violent upheaval of waking up from the dream state. Jed says being enlightened means losing or giving up the context of our lives (our connection to family, jobs, profession, beliefs, etc.), but he betrays his own desire for context numerous times when he writes about the importance of his books and how all the things he is doing in this narrative are to serve the book. Isn't that context?

Many of his ideas are not new. Listening to the universe and waiting for coincidences is hardly a new concept. The power and meaning of coincidence has been explored by many authors. The idea of surrendering, ending your struggle to get what you want (or think you want), the practice of gratitude for whatever you find in your life at the moment - these are ideas and practices that many have discovered and use. Jed endorses prayer but apparently does not believe in God (God is never a topic in his books.).

His first book mentioned a technique called Spiritual Autolysis, but with no explanation of what it is or how it works. He expands on it a bit in this book, and recommends it. Spiritual Autolysis apparently involves writing about what's happening in your life to clear out all the misconceptions, but with no examples, so I am left with no blueprint for how to do it. He later recommends what he calls Memento Mori, which is just remembering that you will die. These tools that are supposed to help you get to enlightenment are too vague to be any use (or did I just fail to "get it?").

So Who is Jed McKenna… Really
We learn little by little, as the book progresses, a few facts about the mysterious Jed. He is clearly very intelligent and well-read. He uses extensive quotations from famous authors, and expecially likes Walt Whitman. We learn that he dumped his conventional life at an early age (we don't know exactly what age or how old he is now). He places no value on family and demonstrated his detachment by throwing away a valued family heirloom when he went through his awakening. He is a loner who doesn't answer his email or keep in touch with people. Yet he participated in elaborate plans for Brett's memorial service. His breaking away from family is a common story, although Jed takes it to extremes. My own generation, coming of age in the 1960s, was famous for throwing off all context that mattered to our parents' generation. The effects varied, as many took up dissolute lives of drug use. Remember Charles Manson and the young women he seduced? Others, like Ram Dass (formerly Harvard professor Dr. Richard Alpert), turned to Eastern spirituality and taught new ways of looking at life. Getting rid of your old life tends to create a vacuum into which you must put something. What will fill Jed's life now that he is, as he says, finished. "The whole author-teacher gig is over."

Or is it? How can he be finished when the difficult job of promoting this book is just beginning. I have an idea of what's involved in selling a book, since I have just self-published a book of my own (nothing to do with spirituality; it's about my experiences as an early software developer. See www.microcomputerpioneers.com). There's an enormous amount of work involved in setting up a website and shopping cart software, finding distributors, getting listed in online stores, getting reviewers to read and review the book, etc. Of course Jed's Wisefool Press has already done a lot of the work with the first two books, so the process is to some extent in place. I got my copy because I received an email from John Gallagher of Wisefool Press about the book and I requested a review copy. I've done some internet searches to learn more about Wisefool Press and Jed McKenna. Jed does not provide a picture of himself or any information about himself on the books or the website, although he does have pictures of many of his reviewers. I found many internet references to Jed, including some articles he's written (a good technique for book promotion). In one article, he meets his sister for lunch in Manhatten and tells us he feels no connection to her or his family. Jed or whoever is Wisefool Press (who is John Gallagher?) has done their work of using internet tools for book promotion very well, getting many references to Jed and the books. I tried "whois" (a tool for finding the person or organization who registered a website domain name) and found www.wisefoolpress.com is privately registered, meaning no information is available. The snail mail address is a private mail box in Iowa City.

Believe me, I am not criticizing Jed because he has self-published his books. I like to review self-published books and wholeheartedly endorse the new technologies that make it so much easier and cheaper for anyone to publish their work. Big publishers are looking for the big score and pass over many worthwhile manuscripts, and lots of authors have found publishing their work themselves to be more satisfying than arguing with editors over what should be in the book and how the book should be put together. Jed is hardly the type to take orders from Madison Avenue types -- the very people who's dreamstate lives he holds in such contempt. But why does Jed hide himself from us? Is it because he thinks his biography and credentials are irrelevant, that his message must carry the content and the messenger is not important? That may be so, but I still want to know who is writing these books. My web search told me that I am not the only person who has read Jed's books and wondered who he is, and I am not the only one who wonders if there really is a Jed McKenna. If Jed is just another snake-oil salesman in the spirituality marketplace, then isn't it possible he is maintaining this mysterious aura as a deliberate tactic?

To Jed, all the other spiritual teachers out there are the purveyors of snake-oil, and, he claims, they all have poor track records. But Jed does not tell us how many students he has led to actual enlightenment or how he knows the students of these other teachers are not enlightened. In one part of the book, he is with another spiritual author, identified only as "Bob," and, in Bob's presence, Jed begins naming and dismissing a host of other teachers, including Bob's mentors. He is particularly hard on a guy named Ramana Maharshi. I had never heard of this guy, so I don't know if Jed's criticism is justified, but why attack anyone? Is Jed motivated by trying to help us readers (not to mention poor Bob) to understand that these teachers/gurus are all telling us the wrong thing? Or is it just the well-known pychological trick of building yourself up by disparaging your rivals? Why does Jed need to begin his book with an amusing little story of eluding police in a New England resort town, then rhetorically ask, "How many spiritual books start like that?" But of course, this is not a spiritual book. Jed McKenna is a spiritual debunker. There is no "spirit" in his concepts; no spiritual world, no spiritual beings. In his enlightened state, he has concluded that spirits, like everything else (whether idea, material object, or conscious entity) do not exist, or are just part of the same nothing that is Jed's universe.

Useful Concepts, But Not Original
I actually did like some of Jed's concepts. The idea of Human Adulthood is a good one. Yes, people should move beyond childish concepts of halo-wearing saints and fork-tailed devils, powerful parent-figures granting wishes to humble supplicants and other images that turn religion into cartoon stuff. Yes, most people do go through life "asleep" and never examine any of their underlying assumptions. Jed, like other authors, tells us that all you see and touch and feel is maya, the Hindu concept for the illusory nature of so-called reality (Jed drives home this concept by naming his dog Maya). This concept too has been well developed by other authors. The idea that we go through life with a false identity is better elucidated in Charles T. Tart's book, Waking Up. Tart discusses how we all play roles in our daily life and I know this is so, since I labored in the corporate world more years than I like to think about. I always thought of it as putting on my mask and going to work. But at least I knew it was a mask.

Jed uses a lot of movie analogies, but I warily noticed his liking for The Matrix and tried to remember what other book I'd read that used this analogy extensively. Then I remembered. It was one of David Icke's books. I laughed to myself as I remembered this because Icke is an interesting, original and entertaining writer who will make you think, but he is basically a nut. We are all stuck in the matrix and think it is our real life, when actually it is all an illusion, etc. The best book on this concept is Michael Talbot's book, The Holographic Universe. Talbot is more of a researcher and thinker than spiritual teacher, and he makes his case persuasively and without slamming spiritual traditions the way Jed does. If you're up to wading through mind-bending concepts, try any book by P.D. Ouspensky; his books attempt to explain the ideas of Gurdjieff, whose basic teaching was that we are all asleep.

Back to Musing About Jed - Who is This Guy?
So what can I conclude about Jed McKenna? This book, with its multiple locations and characters and glimpses of Jed himself makes it more probable that he really exists, but less probable that what he has to say is going to be of real benefit to any of us. While I conclude that there is a person behind these books (obviously, someone wrote them), he may be presenting us with an elaborate puzzle. He dedicated this third book to counter-culture author Ken Kesey. Look up Ken Kesey on Wikipedia and you will learn that Kesey had a son named Jed who died under tragic circimstances in 1984 (and Jed McKenna quotes liberally from the George Orwell book, 1984. Hmmm…). Also note that Kesey once toured in a bus named "Further" and further is a Jed McKenna slogan. Jed McKenna says however advanced you think you are, you should be looking to go further. As to the last name, McKenna, what about Terence McKenna, another counter-culture author? Terence McKenna was opposed to "guru-based forms of spiritual awakening," according to Wikipedia. Gee, that sounds familiar. Could our mysterious enlightened author be trying to tell us something between the lines? Is he secretly laughing at the "wise fools" who buy into the idea that he is enlightened? Are Jed McKenna's books the DaVinci Code of spiritual literature? Watch out for axe-wielding albino monks!

What about his amusing two-page Spiritual Disclaimer in the front of the book? It's full of gems of parady like this:

   "Purchase or possession of this book does not grant admittance to idylic or mythical realms including but not limited to: Atlantis, Elyseum, Garden of Eden, Heaven, Never-Never-Land, Nirvana, Paradise..." (you get the idea)

Yep, Jed has a sense of humor, and you may find some ideas and food for thought in his books. Whoever he is, he's not like other writers who write on "spirituality" (and if you find yourself agreeing with Jed, you'll have to revise your old definitions of this word).

As I said in my review of his first book, if you think you can learn from Jed (or just want to be amazed, entertained, and possibly hoodwinked), then click on over to amazon.com or Wisefool Press and order a copy of one of his books (best to start with the first one, Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing). And, oh yes, send me an email if you think I am wrong in my analysis. Unlike "Jed McKenna" (whoever he may be), I sometimes answer my email and my biographical information and resume are online for all to see.

See My Review of Jed's first book.

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