Bending God: A Memoir

by Eric Robison, Christopher Robison (Editor), Matt Struve (Illustrator)

Bending God: A Memoir is the beginning of an epic, often unreal, spiritual adventure. Enter a world of invisible beings, a grown man being thrown backwards by nothing but the mind of another, clouds that pour out of a hole in a brilliantly clear blue sky and, ultimately, the paranormal connection to awakening. All the stranger because it is a true story. As you read this book you will doubt that what you re reading is true. It is all true. No exaggerations. No distortions. It defies the limits of everything we believe to be possible. It is the tale of a young, cynical skeptic. Burned by years of fruitless searching, he denied any thought of a true mystical reality. The world was only what science could explain. Until the day he met a strange man, hidden in the hills of a small town. A self-proclaimed psychic he hoped would bring some amusement. Instead, this man spoke of the creation of the Universe, the experience of God, and the purpose of those rare souls who feel a deep spiritual calling within them. The restless tug of an unknown destiny. Before it was over he offered the briefest glimpse of another world. He peeled back reality to reveal a hidden dimensional reality. Shocked and numb, he could not believe what he saw. So began a journey where the flat, physical world around us suddenly transforms into a place of profound mystery and wonder. Bending God offers such a world. A mystery beyond imagining. All the more fantastic because it is real.

Genres: Spirituality

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Bryan Winchell]

This is a very readable spiritual coming-of-age story that looks at the reality that underlies the reality we can perceive with our senses and one young man's attempts to cast aside his cynicism and doubt and immerse himself in this beautific, exciting world. It reads like a novel and seems to have worked for me insofar as it awakened my seeker side and reminded me that reality is a whole lot weirder than most of us imagine.

[Jonathan Leeming]

Honestly, really bored by this book.
I kept reading, hoping that on the next page there would be some groundbreaking wisdom or supernatural experience, which is how the book was marketed...
But alas, no.

Very badly written, self-indulgent, inarticulate, dull, and VERY BORING!
Recommend you avoid...

[Kari E Steele]

Extremely captivating!

After reading the Handbook of the Navigator I naturally moved to this book. It gave me a little peek into a world I always knew was there but I had not yet found my community. I look forward to more!

[Adell gubbins]

Excellent insiders view of exic pepins teaching style.

A great insight to the teacher I'm beginning to learn some fantastic insists from truly a great addition to my collection

[Kimberly]

I actually read this book a while ago. Here's my review I wrote (transferred from my blog) after I finished it.

Part One:

So I’m reading “Bending God: A Memoir” by Eric Robison.

1. To be honest the narrative/autobiographical portion of the book isn’t all that interesting. I find my self reading one “Hey what’s up, man? Hey What’s up?” scene after another. It’s a little bit unnecessarily detailed and unengaging, because you get lost in the narrator’s meticulously recorded stream of consciousness. His narrative centres around his internal dialogue with himself, the “Counsel” (the inner voice in his head), his conversations with Eric Pepin and others, and just going from one place to another. It’s not really fun to read as a “story”, if you know what I mean. I grew bored reading about him eating his soggy cereal or driving to somewhere or just two pages of conversations that have nothing to do with the story. Well, I do appreciate that it’s an authentic account with little embellishment, because I suppose the way he writes and presents the story of his life is how we will perceive what happens in our lives. It’s linear and it has a lot to do with our internal actions and reactions to the people around us. However, like I said, it’s just not really fun to read. I think there needs to be fictionalization to some degree, not in terms of making up details, but in terms of structure. Most of the time I’m just skipping through and jumping to the part when Eric Pepin is talking.

2. Some of the key ideas that I’ve come across so far:

micro/macro energy bodies, our connections with the universe
the idea of a earth having a “planetary soul”
ghost hauntings and sightings produced by electrical currents
different levels of entities
aura/energy body vs physical body
how the universe was created and how it all came to be (which was not revealed but only briefly paraphrased in the book! If this is a commercial scheme I’ve fallen for it. I bought Eric Pepin’s book on Kobo. It’s only $3 ish so it’s not that big of a deal. But I was a bit bombed about it.

3. I still need to finish the book. I will write another note when I finish.

Part Two:

So I finished Bending God by Eric Robison. As a memoir it really wasn’t that interesting. At times I feel I was reading too much into it; a lot of the “foreshadowing” turned out to be just something that happened. All in all it’s a super straightforward account about his spiritual endeavours with Eric Pepin and his relationships with Kathy and his brother. I don’t really have much to say about it, other than I really enjoyed reading his conversation with Eric Pepin, but the rest, I felt, slipped away as failed to take hold. I was so trapped by his internal monologue; it was like I was swimming inside his head with nothing tangible and interesting to hold onto. Well, the truth is, I skipped most of his personal accounts because it was so boring. I’m kind of sorry to say this because his memoir does have some rich and insightful material (aka the words of Eric Pepin) but it’s kind of watered down by his eternal stream of consciousness.

Anyway. I feel like I need to take a break from reading spiritual texts or spiritual related stuff. After you continuously accumulate knowledge and insights, you need to take some time off to digest everything. This kind of thing requires “thoughtful” thought (and I call myself an English major) and not just passive consumption.

[Julie Landy]

This is not a quick read. Every page/chapter creates possibilites that need to be reflected upon. Quit a few concepts fly in the face of belief systems that have been drilled into members of many faiths. But for those that question "is this it" or say"surely there is more than this" should slow down and take a leap of renewed wonder and read this book. It's a autobiography of a man's journey to find God and how his teacher finds him and guides him on a self discovery path and all its possibilities.. Be open minded and quizzical. Good read!