The Best Spiritual Book You Probably Haven’t Read

And why you should.

In our book club this month we’re reading one of my favorite books of all time: The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer

In the book, Singer shares the story of how a spiritual awakening in his youth set him on a seemingly magical path that ultimately led him to write his most well-known book, the New York Times bestseller and international sensation The Untethered Soul.

If you’ve never read The Untethered Soul, it’s, in my opinion, one of the best books ever written on the topic of mindfulness (even Oprah agrees!). The Surrender Experiment is the story behind it—how Singer came up with the philosophy that made him an household name and embedded it into his daily life.

And if you don’t generally read autobiographical books, or are not sure whether it’s one that you’d enjoy, here are three questions I recommend asking yourself to find out:

1. Do I want to free myself from the voice inside my head keeping me stuck in fear and self-doubt?

Singer describes a huge turning point in his life during a moment when he realized: “When push comes to shove, I don’t care what it takes, just free me from myself.” That desperation to escape his inner prison drove him to make a radical decision: stop listening to the neurotic voice inside his head and surrender to whatever life brought him. This book is the story of how he learned to do exactly that.

2. Do I feel like no matter how much work I put into self-healing, I can never get ahead?

In The Surrender Experiment, Singer writes: “Could it really be so hard to just let it rain when it rains and be sunny when it’s sunny without complaining about it? Apparently the mind can’t do it.” This recognition, that no amount of intellectual work would rid him of his biggest problem—a mind that never stopped complaining—forced him to look for another way to inner peace, the path to which he outlines in the book.

3. Do I feel more anxiety and pessimism than I’d like, and want to learn how to transform hardship into growth?

Singer writes: “I had seen time and again how what at first appeared to be a problem turned out to be a guiding force of change leading me forward.” This skill—transforming struggle into growth—has the power to change everything for us and is in itself well worth the price of admission (which might be zero if you can find The Surrender Experiment at your local library.)

Ultimately, the book works because Singer didn’t just write it, he embodied it completely. Through his writing you can watch Singer’s entire life unfold—from living alone in the woods to accidentally creating a spiritual community to building a billion dollar company to writing an international bestseller. And yet, as impressive as they are, it’s not Singer’s accomplishments that make The Surrender Experiment the incredible book it is, but the fact that none of it came from forcing or overthinking. Every last bit of success that Singer experienced came from accepting whatever life presented to him and choosing to make the best of it. As he writes in one of my favorite passages from the book:

My formula for success was very simple: Do whatever is put in front of you with all your heart and soul without regard for personal results. Do the work as though it were given to you by the universe itself—because it was.

I can’t even begin to count how many times that idea has run through my head since I first read it, but I do know that The Surrender Experiment was one of those rare literary experiences that fundamentally changed something inside me—and I will forever be grateful for it.

I hope this message inspires you to read it so that it can do the same for you.

- Will Watson

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Want to read it with us? Join our book club community this Sunday for a recap of The Untethered Soul, and the following 3 Sundays for an in-depth exploration of The Surrender Experiment. Since your first month is free, you can attend all 4 meetings, and everything else our community offers, at absolutely no cost.