Here the author of Ageless Body, Timeless Mind and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success has written an exploration of the seven ways we experience God—ways that are shaped not by any one religion but by an instinct that is hardwired into the brain. In this book, which Robert Thurman has called “the most important book about God for our times,” Chopra takes us step by step, from the first stage, where the brain’s “fight or flight” response is lived as the experience of a God who is an all-powerful and sometimes unpredictable parent, to the seventh stage, where the brain experiences God as pure being, beyond thought, a sacred presence that just is. All seven stages exist, right now, in each of us, all the time:

Level 1 (Fight-or-Flight Response) You fulfill your life through family, community, a sense of belonging, and material comforts.

Level 2 (Reactive Response) You fulfill your life through success, power, influence, status, and other ego satisfactions.

Level 3 (Restful Awareness Response) You fulfill your life through peace, centeredness, self-acceptance, and inner silence.

Level 4 (Intuitive Response) You fulfill your life through insight, empathy, tolerance, and forgiveness.

Level 5 (Creative Response) You fulfill your life through inspiration, expanded creativity in art or science, and unlimited discovery.

Level 6 (Visionary Response) You fulfill your life through reverence, compassion, devoted service, and universal love.

Level 7 (Sacred Response) You fulfill your life through wholeness and unity with the divine.

How to Know God charts a course through the mysterious waters of the soul, as we explore mysticism, religious ecstasy, genius, telepathy, multiple personality, and clairvoyance, drawing insights from psychology, neurology, and physics, as well as from the great spiritual traditions.

“Chopra shows that God consciousness unfolds in a series of stages, each important and remarkable in itself, yet each getting closer to Source. This is at once a map of Spirit, and a map of your own deepest Self, for in the last analysis, they are one and the same.” —Ken Wilber, author of Integral Psychology