Stalking God

Book excerpt: Anjali Kumar, a pragmatic lawyer for Google, was part of a rapidly growing population in America: highly spiritual but religiously uncommitted. But when her daughter was born, she became compelled to find God -- or at least some kind of enlightenment. Convinced that traditional religions were not a fit for her, and knowing that she couldn't simply Google an answer to "What is the meaning of life?", Kumar set out on a spiritual pilgrimage, looking for answers -- and nothing was off limits or too unorthodox. She headed to the mountains of Peru to learn from the shamans, attended the techie haunt of Burning Man, practiced transcendental meditation, convened with angels, and visited saints, goddesses, witches, and faith healers. She even hired a medium to convene with the dead. Kumar's lighthearted story offers a revealing look at the timeless and vexing issue of spirituality in an era when more and more people are walking away from formal religions. Narrated from the open-minded perspective of a spiritual seeker rather than a religious scholar, Kumar offers an honest account of some of the less than mainstream spiritual practices that are followed by millions of people in the world today as she searches for the answers to life's most universal questions: Why are we here? What happens when we die? Is there a God?