Take a deep breath, and prepared to be awed: you’ve just entered my favorite room in my whole library.
What’s that, you say? It looks sort of–normal? But look again, won’t you? There in the corner: my old, ripped green sofa. The fireplace. The ringed coffee table by the window with the lamp that has just the right amount of light. There’s the book with creases and stains from my baby’s spitup.
No, there are no high ceilings here. No stained glass, no ancient works of art. This place is for the everyman. The plain folk.
This is where people like us are allowed to speak.
It’s a beautiful room, but its shelves aren’t yet full. The world needs more spirituality memoirs–many more. And as long as it keeps providing them, I’ll keep reading them–and updating this list.
I chose the books in the first section because they inspired me deeply, changed me for the better, and helped me find greater inner peace. The second section features all of the other spirituality memoirs I’ve come across in the spiritual-but-not-religious sector but may not have read yet. And I do mean all of them. (Like I said: we need lots more.)
By the way, a few of these memoirs come from a Christian, rather than a spiritual-but-not-religious, perspective. Sometimes you just gotta make exceptions.
Best Spiritual Memoirs
Autobiography of A Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda
Learning to Eat Along the Way, Margaret Bendet
Sex, Drugs and Meditation: How One Woman Changed Her Life, Saved Her Job and Found a Husband, Mary-Lou Stephens
Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott
Plan B, Anne Lamott
Grace, Eventually, Anne Lamott
Some Assembly Required, Anne Lamott
Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace, Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers, Anne Lamott
Eat Pray Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, Elizabeth Gilbert
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, Elizabeth Gilbert
Love Warrior, Glennon Doyle
Carry On, Warrior, Glennon Doyle
How To Stay Married: The Adventures of a Woman Who Learnt to Travel Light in Life, Love and Relationships,
Devotion: A Memoir, The Craggy Hole in My Heart and the Cat Who Fixed It, Geneen Roth
Confessions of A Latter-Day Virgin, Nicole Hardy
Mennonite in A Little Black Dress, Rhoda Janzen
The Wishing Year: A House, a Man, My Soul: A Memoir of Fulfilled Desire, Noelle Oxenhandler
A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis
Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis
A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken
Tremendous Trifles, G.K. Chesterton
The Cross and the Switchblade, David Wilkerson
The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence
He Came to Set the Captives Free, Rebecca Brown
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey, Jill Bolte Taylor
Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl
A Field Guide to Happiness: What I Learned in Bhutan about Living, Loving and Waking Up, Linda Leaming
The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom
Other Recommended Spiritual Memoirs
Learning to Breathe: My Yearlong Quest to Bring Calm to My Life, Priscilla Warner
Medicine Dance: One Woman’s Healing Journey into the World of Native American Sweatlodges, Drumming Meditations and Dance Fasts, Marsha Scarbrough
Girl in the Woods: A Memoir,
Chasing Spirits: The Building of the “Ghost Adventures” Crew, Nick Groff and Jeff Belanger
Grief, Meth, Addiction, God & Zen: A 45 Year Old Man’s Journey With Death, Reality & Recovery, David Carlyle and Cynthia Sharp
Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and Saint
The Ghosts and the Path: A Buddhist Monk’s Memoir, Ngawang Khechog
Meditations of a Modern Mystic, Maurine Doerken
The Buddha and the Borderline: My Recovery from Borderline Personality Disorder through Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Buddhism and Online Dating, Kiera Van Gelder
From Brooklyn to Benares and Back: A Spiritual Memoir, Dada Vedaprajinananda
On the Edge: Living with an Enlightened Master, Yoga Punya
I: A Meditation and a Memoir, Wiz Ji
Walking Home: A Pilgrimage from Humbled to Healed, Sonia Choquette
The Curve of the World: Into the Spiritual Heart of Yoga: A Memoir, Andy Douglas
Related Links
- New Age Spirituality Definition and History on Wikipedia
- New Age Spirituality Search on Google
- New Thought Definition and History on Wikipedia
- List of New Thought Denominations and Independent Centers on Wikipedia
- Free New Thought Ebooks at New Thought Library
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Nothing from the Mad Mystic of 42cd Street? Where’s Neville? Your Faith is your Fortune comes to mind. Free in the public domain.
Neville – – Yes, he is there. Towards the bottom. Not sure I got all of his stuff as I can’t find a Wikipedia entry on him.
There is one in Wikipedia but it is Romanian LOL. Google will translate. Much love to you!
Nice list. I hope to put my own story out there some day. But lately, so much has been going on (with regards to personal evolution) that the story is still being written, but not ready to be penned yet. I particularly loved My Stroke of Insight. And I love near death experiences, like Anita Moorjani’s, Dying To Be Me, and Dr. Eben Alexander’s, Proof of Heaven.
Love all of those. If you find anything else that’s not on my list, let me know and I will update. It is a work in progress.
This is superb, I want to reblog, but I xsnt from my phone! Can you use my Contact Me form and link to your post? I want to reblog this tonight!! Great job
Wow, I just saw this. I am sorry! Let me try to get there at some point … Again, thanks for reading. I have some serious comment backs to do but I’ll get to yours. Much love.
Great list. Love Elizabeth Gilbert. I see many familiar books on the list, others that I need to go and hunt down 🙂 Thank you so much for the follow of my blog 🙂 Every blessing to you in your journey.
Did you find any memoirs you liked? I love memoirs but a great spirituality one is not a common thing.
Most of my spiritual readings have been along the lines of Gregg Braden, Doreen Virtue, Louis Hay, Wayne Dyer, Patrick O’Donohue and some others. Not exactly memoirs. I also have listened to a lot of healers/speakers on-line, too many to list. Just a few of my favourites are Panache Desai, Matt Kahn, Magenta Pixie, Jamye Price….
great success stories..gd job