Ora Nadrich’s Latest Book: Mindfulness & Mysticism

Ora Nadrich’s new book is titled Mindfulness & Mysticism: Connecting Present Moment Awareness with Higher States of Consciousness. The read is pretty efficient at avoiding the many pitfalls of its kind, falling within the multiple nonfiction subcategories of self-help, holism, and mysticism. It’s a juggling act that requires a certain amount of narrative confidence and ideological conciseness, making concepts somewhat exclusionary to one’s beliefs accessible to the widest possible audience. Nadrich is quick to juxtapose ruminations on a decidedly more altruistic, spiritualistic level with references to a more clinical, even semi-scientific overview.

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/oranadrich/?hl=en

At the end of the day, she writes, it’s less about what one individualistically believes and more about opening one’s self up to new possibilities. Particularly so within the framework of an ever-changing world. There’s a poignancy works like Mindfulness & Mysticism possess today, not just literarily but also by the virtue of their place culturally. In the face of the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, people have found themselves in droves turning to faith and other forms of worship – courtesy of an increasingly grim and challenging vista some would call the onset of a world going mad. It makes someone like Nadrich, able to simultaneously soothe with holistic rhetoric but with a grounded, unemotional edge, all the more reliable as a storytelling presence. It’s clear she believes wholeheartedly in what she promotes, but doesn’t flaunt her personal convictions excessively.

“What is delusional is believing that the only way we can experience bliss and euphoria is through drugs, alcohol, or even the over use of our smart phones, which stimulates chemicals in the brain like dopamine,” she writes in the book’s introduction. “…what is it that we are numbing ourselves from, and why so much drug and alcohol use? If our own brains can manufacture chemicals that can literally produce the type of endorphins that make us feel as good, or as high as a drug or alcohol can, why in the world aren’t we looking within for the very gifts, remedies and even cures for what ails us? We have the answers, we just aren’t asking ourselves the right questions.”

She goes on to state in one of the book’s key chapters, “Human beings are supposed to be the smartest species on Earth…If intelligence is rated by how well a species performs the job of being a successful member of that species, then dolphins, who don’t have to manipulate their environment like we do to survive, and get to focus their intellect on other things, could possibly be more intelligent than us…To quote Einstein…’Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.’

AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Mysticism-Connecting-Awareness-Consciousness/dp/0578981335/

We keep trying to figure out the universe through science, and not delve deeper into understanding the mystery of consciousness, of which we are a part. We must understand ourselves, and know who we are, who we really are.” By being so plainspoken about the potential ramifications of what Nadrich continually refers to as our blindness, she’s more effectively able to drive home the contrasting positivity Mindfulness & Mysticism really is about. Fundamentally, the greatest impediment to one becoming truly awake is themselves. The courage lies less in making the transition, then in ensuring the process that leads one to embracing such a transition.

Nicole Killian