Self-help ✦ Penny’s Take
Samadhi
Stuart Ray Sarbacker · 2006
78/100
👍 Worth It
Sarbacker's two-dimensional numinous/cessative framework is a genuine scholarly contribution that advances the field past where Eliade left off, and Philosophy East and West recognized as much. This is dense graduate-level work — accessible only to readers with prior grounding in religious studies and South Asian traditions — but within that audience it is rigorous, original, and valuable. General readers will find it opaque; scholars of yoga and Buddhist studies will find it important.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Academic analysis of non-Christian meditative and yogic religious traditions including esoteric power states; may concern faith-conservative readers. We still scored it 78; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety62
substance90
craft72
originality88
accuracy88
hype80
age-fit65
human-eye78
Penny’s verdict78
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