Soul Experience
The 4th Level of Identity
Soul Experience suggests some compelling answers to questions of how one might live a fuller and more meaningful life.
Thought-provoking and inspirational, Al Killeen’s self-help work Soul Experience explores how to make being human a lot more rewarding.
Killeen, a renowned personal coach, has a lifelong interest in spiritualism and different planes of reality. According to him, almost any challenge can be answered by thinking about one’s experiences in a completely different way.
Killeen draws on his personal experiences to accentuate this point. As a child, he saw how living based on ego ruined his parents and siblings and caused his family misery. Those experiences led him to seek out a different way of being; he spent years training to be a monk before getting married and settling into “normal” life.
At the start of the book, he traces these personal explorations of the levels of identity, never forgetting his training in mysticism. Through challenges such as losing a position in a company he’d worked years to build, he learned to redirect his passions and live life through what he calls the fourth identity, or a place from which one strives to serve a higher, value-based purpose.
The book’s theories are accessibly presented for a wide range of readers, regardless of spiritual or religious beliefs. The concept of the fourth identity is shown to have parallels in the world’s major religions and spiritualities. With examples ranging from the Buddha to Jesus to Martin Luther King Jr., the book successfully shows how living a life free from ego and personal attachment leads to enlightenment, purpose, and joy.
The book also explores how a person might read and interpret the Bible and other religious texts in a way that is illuminating rather than dogmatic; this will be an appealing prospect for those who have trouble with organized religion. Its aims may be grand, but the book’s writing is consumable and straightforward.
Though the book may be a bit too confident in its promise to provide answers “to whatever questions you have that have evaded you in life so far,” it does a thorough job of explaining how to reach the fourth identity and makes a convincing case that existing there improves one’s relationships, health, occupation, and direction. A bevy of stories and examples are used to bolster these claims. The book is persuasive in arguing that shifts in perspective can result in greater connections and fulfillment.
Soul Experience suggests some compelling answers to questions of how one might live a fuller and more meaningful life.
Reviewed by
Angela McQuay
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
