Book Review: Demian, by Herman Hesse
August 11th, 2006This book was one of my first introductions to the idea of following an unconventional spiritual path. Rereading it recently, I found the story of how Max Demian guided the young Emil Sinclair away from his familiar world and into the pursuit of spiritual fulfillment just as engrossing as I had the first time.
I was also struck by how similar Demian’s message was to so many modern spiritual teachers today. The idea that he and Sinclair were among a select few with the courage to break free of societal limitations and help humanity leap forward into a new stage of evolution sounded exactly like something I might have heard yesterday from the local guru-du-jour. I found myself wondering just what it says about human evolution that this book was first published in 1919—does that mean humanity made a quantum leap back then, and is now working on a new one? Or are we still trying at that first one almost a hundred years later? Hmmm…..





