Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Perennial (1995), Edition: Reprint, 208 pages
Description
"A powerful message for all of us. I was hypnotized by the simple truths and spiritual lessons. Read it and tell everyone you know to do the same." --Wayne Dyer This incredible adventure story--and New York Times bestseller--offers us an opportunity to discover the wisdom of an ancient culture and to hear its powerful message. An American woman is summoned by a remote tribe of nomadic Aboriginals who call themselves the "Real People" to accompany them on a four-month-long walkabout through the Outback. While traveling barefoot with them through 1,400 miles of rugged desert terrain, she learns a new way of life, including their methods of healing, based on the wisdom of their 50,000-year-old culture. Ultimately, she experiences a dramatic personal transformation. Mutant Message Down Under recounts a unique, timely, and powerful life-enhancing message for all humankind: It is not too late to save our world from destruction if we realize that all living things--be they plants, animals, or human beings--are part of the same universal oneness. If we heed the message, our lives, like the lives of the Real People, can be filled with this great sense of purpose.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member CateK
Blatant cultural appropriation and exploitation.
LibraryThing member rosies
would have enjoyed it if I knew it was fiction; what does author have to say after all these years?
LibraryThing member Akubra
A shameless slap in the face of both Aboriginal Australians and readers of the book. I read it before the truth about it was revealed. When I discovered that truth I threw the book in the rubbish bin where it belongs.
LibraryThing member MarthaHuntley
I first read this in an edition that claimed it actually happened; and that she was a Ph.D., inferred she was a doctor and an anthropologist. The stories about it all being made up came out after I had finished the book, and made me feel like I had been scammed. Since then she has had a lot of
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anger from Aboriginals in Australia who deeply resent her misrepresentation of them and their beliefs and way of life. She seems totally uncaring of the truth, of respecting the people she writes about, and apparently, she's made a mint and a career from this book. I reread it for a book discussion group, but felt real anger and sadness while doing so. I love fiction, but think there should be some element of truth, truthfulness, honesty in fiction. We'll probably have a pretty hot discussion in our reading group over this book and its author! Show Less
LibraryThing member akswede
I read this in high school and found it fascinating, but I've since learned that the author made it all up. When confronted by indigenous Australians, Morgan admitted publicly that she faked the whole thing. If she had marketed it as fiction, that would be one thing (still highly inaccurate, of
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course), but faking it it really unethical and an insult to real Australian Aboriginal groups. Shame on you, Marlo Morgan! Show Less
LibraryThing member Lindoula
I read this in high school and found it fascinating, but I've since learned that the author made it all up. When confronted by indigenous Australians, Morgan admitted publicly that she faked the whole thing. If she had marketed it as fiction, that would be one thing (still highly inaccurate, of
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course), but faking it it really unethical and an insult to real Australian Aboriginal groups. Shame on you, Marlo Morgan! Show Less
LibraryThing member Liciasings
Powerful memoir, spiritual & intriguing. Unlike anything else I've ever read.
LibraryThing member mccin68
American healthcare professional, Marlo Morgan is invited to Australia to teach. There she is chosen by the Ancient Ones, aborginies still living in the outback to do a walkabout across Australia with them. during her wanderings she learns the truth about who we are and what we need to do to save
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ourselves as a race (mutants) disconnected from the univeral consciousness. Quote: "I was not surprised when someone commented how symbolic gravy was the the mutant value system. mutants allow circumstances and conditions to bury universal law under a mixture of convenience, materialism and insecurity". Show Less
LibraryThing member SweetbriarPoet
Although not true literature (the writing style is very amateurish), there are some great points made in this woman's journey. I hope in my heart that she really took this walk. NOTE: My rating system is very rough...2 and 1/2 stars is about average for me...
LibraryThing member pathlessness
Being a personal experience the book is really amazing. The biggest surprise for me was to discover at the end of reading that the writer is a woman – it is not clear from the name and taking into account all the dangerous adventures she lived in the book. Through her courageous spirit we learn
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about the of Australian aborigine society , amazingly existing along with the “white civilization” but refusing the “artificial” life in the cities and calling themselves “real men”. Herbs instead of medicines, telepathy instead of telephone, and communion with animals instead of psychologist – all this produced a big change in her vision of human adventure called life. “Il y a eu croissance spirituelle parce que je considerais comme un du m’a ete refuse et que j’ai pris conscience de la dualite”. Show Less
LibraryThing member skinglist
Knew this was a controversial book when I got it but I never expected to see something like this
"Great!" I thought to myself. "I've spent seven hundred dollars on airfare, hotel room, and now new clothes for this introduction to native Australians, and now I found out they can't even speak English,
Not to mention the general antagonistic tone of the author's note. Didn't finish it and I don't intend to, but not sure what I'm going to do with it since I don't feel comfortable wild releasing it.
"Great!" I thought to myself. "I've spent seven hundred dollars on airfare, hotel room, and now new clothes for this introduction to native Australians, and now I found out they can't even speak English,
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let alone recognize current fashions."Not to mention the general antagonistic tone of the author's note. Didn't finish it and I don't intend to, but not sure what I'm going to do with it since I don't feel comfortable wild releasing it.
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LibraryThing member ilea91063
A wealthy urban woman writer (the mutant) is forcefully invited to join an Aboriginal group in Australia to walk across Australia. I "walked" with her as she discovered how to live spiritually and practically in one of the harshest places on earth. I was galvanized by the loving way she described
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the people of the group and the journey. Show Less
LibraryThing member SueNehme
This book was so much fun to read! I truly enjoyed the story line and greatly appreciate the author's reverence and honor for the community she was privileged enough to get to experience. A return to the old is more like a return to the new.
LibraryThing member smknuth1
Morgan's note to the reader states that this story is fiction based on her real adventure. It's a real message whether or not the details of her experience are true. I'm a believer in both and the message is clear. Everyone should read this text.
LibraryThing member bolgai
When this book was originally published in 1991 it was promoted as nonfiction and in the foreword the author says that the story the reader is about to discover is a true account of what happened to her in Australia. Years later however the book was republished as fiction and there are a few
On one hand I wanted to believe that the book is a memoir because the idea of a small society living in peace with themselves and the world around them, and not upsetting the natural balance of their environment is reassuring at a time when we keep hearing about climate change, whole species disappearing, pockets of land that has not been touched by humans becoming smaller and smaller. Now, I'm not a person who'll willingly move out of the city and live without electricity and plumbing to reduce my carbon footprint, but I will recycle and conserve water and power whenever I can, and I do believe that our actions affect the planet in a way that's ultimately detrimental to the length of time the human race will be able to enjoy themselves on Earth. After all, if one uses resources faster than they can be replenished sooner or later they will run out, and we have not yet figured out a way to make natural gas and oil or grow trees faster than it happens in nature.
On the other hand as I read the book some things struck me as odd. There were mentions of concepts and places that I wouldn't expect to hear from a people who were portrayed as a group who shun technology and all things modern because they see little value in them, such as mutation and outer space. The timeline seemed somewhat flexible at times, to say the least. The author seemed to go between needing an interpreter's help during the simplest of conversations and having complex discussions with members of the tribe without the interpreter present. And speaking of the members of the tribe, I did not understand why everybody had names that meant something when translated, such as Secret Keeper and Female Healer, and even Ms. Morgan was given a name fashioned in the same way, but the man who served as interpreter was known simply as Ooota? I was also put off by frequent talk about how the author was loosing weight on this walkabout, how pounds were literally melting off of her, and yet we have only relatively general depiction of her life with the tribe. I don't know about you, but I would much rather hear more about the daily life of a people so unlike my own than about how much thinner one American has gotten over the course of several months in the outback. There also seemed to be an undercurrent of "if you reject this account as truth then you're with those who say that people living without technology in the bush are lesser beings and that's just wrong", which grated on my nerves with its one-sidedness.
There was quite a bit of what can be referred to as "new age-y" talk about the importance of discovering and developing our own unique gifts, about how all humans are linked to each other, about us covering up the fundamental essense of life by figurative gravies and frostings, honoring animals' purpose by hunting them for food, how every experience is a lesson to be learned and if we don't learn it then we're presented with the same lesson again, etc. In some things the author completely lost me, in others I agreed with her because ultimately there is tremendous personal value in actively pursuing areas in which one is talented, and being aware of our impact on the world has value for all mankind.
Last but not least let's talk about writing. It is a book after all, regardless of whether it's a novel or a memoir. The writing was pretty consistent with what I'd expect from a first novel by a person with no literary aspirations, although it was polished by the Harper Collins team of experts and therefore is generally smoother reading than some independently-published books I've seen over the last year. There was a lot of telling instead of showing and I would have appreciated more scenes depicting the events of the months of the walkabout instead of the simple mentions that things happened and people exist. The author says that the particulars were omitted to protect the privacy of the people, but with everything I've read after finishing the book I can't help but think that it's just a copout.
I'm glad that I've read this book, if nothing else it made me think about the world and my place in it while I was reading and about people's goals and intentions when I finished it.
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websites that post a wide variety of information intended to prove that the account is in fact fictitious. I have read both the book and the articles protesting it, as well as the account of the statement Ms. Morgan's made to the representatives of an Australian Aboriginal association acknowledging that her book is a work of fiction, and find that more than anything this whole situation makes me sad and disappointed. If what Ms. Morgan writes about really happened then why are people so determined to discredit her and her book? And if her story is fiction then why did she make such an effort to make people believe that it's not? Why apologize to the Aboriginal representatives if there's nothing to apologize for? And if there is something to apologize for then why shrug it off and continue as if nothing happened? Money seems to be the answer, and if financial gain is based on deception that makes me deeply disappointed in my fellow man. On one hand I wanted to believe that the book is a memoir because the idea of a small society living in peace with themselves and the world around them, and not upsetting the natural balance of their environment is reassuring at a time when we keep hearing about climate change, whole species disappearing, pockets of land that has not been touched by humans becoming smaller and smaller. Now, I'm not a person who'll willingly move out of the city and live without electricity and plumbing to reduce my carbon footprint, but I will recycle and conserve water and power whenever I can, and I do believe that our actions affect the planet in a way that's ultimately detrimental to the length of time the human race will be able to enjoy themselves on Earth. After all, if one uses resources faster than they can be replenished sooner or later they will run out, and we have not yet figured out a way to make natural gas and oil or grow trees faster than it happens in nature.
On the other hand as I read the book some things struck me as odd. There were mentions of concepts and places that I wouldn't expect to hear from a people who were portrayed as a group who shun technology and all things modern because they see little value in them, such as mutation and outer space. The timeline seemed somewhat flexible at times, to say the least. The author seemed to go between needing an interpreter's help during the simplest of conversations and having complex discussions with members of the tribe without the interpreter present. And speaking of the members of the tribe, I did not understand why everybody had names that meant something when translated, such as Secret Keeper and Female Healer, and even Ms. Morgan was given a name fashioned in the same way, but the man who served as interpreter was known simply as Ooota? I was also put off by frequent talk about how the author was loosing weight on this walkabout, how pounds were literally melting off of her, and yet we have only relatively general depiction of her life with the tribe. I don't know about you, but I would much rather hear more about the daily life of a people so unlike my own than about how much thinner one American has gotten over the course of several months in the outback. There also seemed to be an undercurrent of "if you reject this account as truth then you're with those who say that people living without technology in the bush are lesser beings and that's just wrong", which grated on my nerves with its one-sidedness.
There was quite a bit of what can be referred to as "new age-y" talk about the importance of discovering and developing our own unique gifts, about how all humans are linked to each other, about us covering up the fundamental essense of life by figurative gravies and frostings, honoring animals' purpose by hunting them for food, how every experience is a lesson to be learned and if we don't learn it then we're presented with the same lesson again, etc. In some things the author completely lost me, in others I agreed with her because ultimately there is tremendous personal value in actively pursuing areas in which one is talented, and being aware of our impact on the world has value for all mankind.
Last but not least let's talk about writing. It is a book after all, regardless of whether it's a novel or a memoir. The writing was pretty consistent with what I'd expect from a first novel by a person with no literary aspirations, although it was polished by the Harper Collins team of experts and therefore is generally smoother reading than some independently-published books I've seen over the last year. There was a lot of telling instead of showing and I would have appreciated more scenes depicting the events of the months of the walkabout instead of the simple mentions that things happened and people exist. The author says that the particulars were omitted to protect the privacy of the people, but with everything I've read after finishing the book I can't help but think that it's just a copout.
I'm glad that I've read this book, if nothing else it made me think about the world and my place in it while I was reading and about people's goals and intentions when I finished it.
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LibraryThing member 6boysandme
Summary-An Amercian woman gets the incredible opportunity to go on walkabout with an Aborigine tribe. The lessons learned are recorded in this deeply thought provoking book.
Quote- "The tribe does not criticize our modern inventions...but they do believe that in seeking knowledge Mutants need to
Quote- "The tribe does not criticize our modern inventions...but they do believe that in seeking knowledge Mutants need to
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include the sentence, "if is is in the highest good or all of life everywhere." Show Less
LibraryThing member wealhtheowwylfing
One woman goes on a walkabout with an Aboriginal tribe. To this day, two things stick in my mind: when she has her period, she collects it in a leaf tube; and when she returns to "civilization" many months later, she has to literally cut off inches of calluses from her feet.
LibraryThing member John5918
Not sure what to make of this book. If it's true, or even partially true with some wishful embroidery on the part of the narrator as to how and why she came to be amongst the Aborigines, then it's a very interesting account of living with Australian Aborigines and gives some insights into the
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interaction of Aboriginal spirituality with the modern world. If it's completely made up, as another reviewer suggests, then it probably is rubbish and offensive. Show Less
LibraryThing member KittyCunningham
I do not like her style of writing. I liked what she wrote about. This book is Free To Good Home if anyone wants it. I've gotten everything out of it I'm going to.
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1990
1996
Physical description
208 p.; 5.5 x 0.75 inches
ISBN
0060926317 / 9780060926311
Other editions
Mutant message downunder by Marlo Morgan (Paperback)