The Messages and Secrets of the Universe
Spiritual Psychoanalysis
Proposing changes to correct the imbalance of spiritual energies throughout the universe, The Messages and Secrets of the Universe is an ambitious text.
Ionel Rotanu’s reflective treatise The Messages and Secrets of the Universe uses personal examples to address spiritual principles at work in the world.
Arguing that each body contains both matter and spirit and that each spirit contains both negative and positive energies, the book asserts that bodies evolve based on the energies they create and expend. It also states that individual bodies are part of, and reflect, larger entities. It makes use of personal anecdotes and historical examples, as of COVID-19 and the Russo-Ukrainian War, to argue that the balance of energies has been upset throughout the universe. But, it asserts, changes made based on spiritual psychoanalysis can correct this course.
However, as it moves from personal into world and regional examples, the nonsequential narrative sacrifices clarity in service of grandiosity. Its chapters are disorganized as well, with declarations such as “Attention! Important!” beginning paragraphs and not being followed through on. It alienates its audience by declaring its spiritual principles “simple” and then describing them using a bevy of muddled details.
Elsewhere, the book is prone to making unnuanced generalizations, including about groups of people like men, women, and Russians; about the compatibility of science and spirituality, which is insufficiently illustrated herein; and with the metaphor of matter and spirit having a relationship akin to that of husband and wife. Further, not all of its personal stories are followed through to their declared conclusions, as with an underdeveloped mention of Rotaru learning from his wife and daughters about the optimal, energy-restorative, reciprocal relationship between matter and spirit.
More clear and illustrative are the book’s succinct treatments of Rotaru’s mother and the Russo-Ukrainian War. The former is a loving tribute to a woman said to exhibit a balance of energies, about whom charming stories are told; the latter diagnoses the Russo-Ukrainian War according to the book’s spiritual principles, beginning with a psychoanalysis of Vladimir Putin as a representation of negative energies, followed by the energies exemplified by Ukraine and other involved parties.
Still, the book as a whole evades coherence. While individual examples within it are evocative, as with Rotaru’s memories of growing up under Soviet communism, its message about universal reforms is vague and obscured. The conclusion includes statements about what should be done and how, but not enough is done before them to make their delivery persuasive.
An ambitious manifesto, The Messages and Secrets of the Universe proposes a marriage of science and spirituality by way of personal and sociopolitical examples.
Reviewed by
Mari Carlson
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.
