A review by ledimirnunez
The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Creator of El Topo by Alejandro Jodorowsky

3.0

I wrote myself a contract for how I should behave. My inspiration came from this book. Among the tenets were to 'never contract debts,' 'live only on money you have earned,' 'never regard something as your possession.' All of this requires great self-control, and a transcendence of will beyond normality. I don't know how to pinpoint the exact mind-state that I was in while reading this book, but I felt strangely positive. Alejandro approached Zen Buddhism with a characteristically immoderate demeanor such as mine, and so he tripped and fell a bunch of times. His relationship with Ejo Takata was beautiful, that of master and disciple, disciple and master. I guess the beauty in this book is that, despite being extremely didactic, it confesses to the pretty common naiveté of everyone undergoing, not only their spiritual journey, but their life's journey.

There are questionable anecdotes. That is, the reality of some occurrences can be brought into question. Nevertheless, I was fascinated. This could be an entirely fiction work of art, or an entirely true memoir, and it is still a powerful read. I love Alejandro's writing too. He is obviously an amazingly-polished storytellers. I have yet to watch any of his films in totality, because when I do I feel de-flowered. The images are just so raw, the ideas are so bizarre, that it all crosses into the dystopia-hysteria genre or utopia-dystopia-utopia genre...