Author and professor Ray has created a daring declaration of the immediate need to energize one’s life. This unconventional treatise is especially targeted to young people, who, she feels, are in danger of becoming bitter and avoiding becoming better. The book is a rare combination of prose, poetry, aphorisms, philosophy, and advice. It begins with exhortations to enjoy life purposefully: “Life is the choice of having a personal voice.” The book, the author asserts, springs from deeply perceived universal ideas seen with new eyes, “a new matrix” based on what is termed “human fractals.” She introduces “Five Cycles of Being”: essence, dissonance, mental clarity or “sanitation,” consonance, and angelic action. Colorful illustrations, underlinings, and bullet points give the book a fast-paced, accessible feel. Encouraging messages include quotations from sources from Einstein to Zen to Edgar Cayce, and the work concludes with a short essay based on Martin Luther King’s famous words, “I have a dream.”

The author, who teaches language arts, has based her philosophy on experience; as an immigrant who has achieved success in the United States, she has seen her students enlivened by her dynamic methodology. She includes a few well-chosen personal stories to enhance her overarching thesis of self-help and self-exploration. She is convinced that rhyming statements are more readily grasped, and so she employs them often. Blending scientific concepts and psychological counseling techniques with mystical, New Age, and spiritual tropes, she reveals to the reader that this book represents the culmination of her philosophical work. Her zestful writing style makes it easy to imagine the effect that her personal presence and enthusiasm would have on listeners in a classroom or workshop setting. The repeated theme, to “go beyond, fully beyond, completely beyond,” has the power to stimulate readers who seek new motivation and inspiration.

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