Handbook to Higher Consciousness

by Ken Keyes Jr.

I must have been around 18 years old when I first got my hands on the book “Handbook to Higher Consciousness” by Ken Keyes Jr. The impact was immediate on how it altered my view of the world around me. The first edition came out in 1972. By the last edition in 1978 there were 500,000 copies made and sold. I still have the original copy I bought, battered to say the least, yet an appreciated early addition to my growing library.

My very first underlined sentence was in the second chapter, “Secrets of Happiness”, page 5: “As we grow into higher consciousness we discover that it is more important to be the right person than to find the right person”.

Considering I was an 18 year old conditioned into the “Someday my Prince will come” mentality, I gravitated to this advice like moth to a flame.

The books’ many chapters can all be found with my enthusiastic underlining of sentences I felt were written only for me.
In rereading many of these pages for the purpose of this sharing, I realize how much of its wisdom holds true to my life today.

The last chapter – “The Purpose of Your Life” – summarizes the whole philosophy of his work. At times in the later years of perusing the book I found a sort of Scientology mood to it which kept me from turning to it for my further development. However, with a keen intent to discover pearls within its pages, it is worth browsing through its chapters.

Ken Keyes Jr. has many books to his credits including “Taming Your Mind”, “Loving Your Body” and “How to make Your Life Work”, or “Why Aren’t You Happy”.

The level of the knowledge I seek these days tends to lean more towards ancient spiritual texts, but for a young questioning mind at that time in the late 70’s this book stirred a dormant seed.