Book Three :: Contains Bonus Material

Guns and bombs are children’s toys.
A true war wages, and you’re invited.

IT’S AN INVITATION you may not be able to accept if you want to, or decline if you don’t. It’s an invitation to fight in a war like no other; a war where loss is counted as gain, surrender as victory, and where the enemy you must face, an enemy of unimaginable superiority, is yourself.

In Spiritual Warfare, the metaphor of warfare rarely appears. Instead, we are presented with the living reality of a very normal woman — a wife and mother with a demanding career and high-stress lifestyle — and we see what happens when she receives an invitation that, try as she might, she can’t refuse. And we meet another woman, a woman who accepted the invitation and fought and won. In the closing chapters of this book, we attend her memorial service as Jed delivers her eulogy.

Spiritual Warfare issues a damning and irrefutable indictment of its own audience and genre, putting spirituality and religion themselves on trial. A terrible crime is being committed against humanity, a crime of oppression and subjugation far beyond Orwell’s 1984. We are the victims of this crime, but we are also its perpetrators. Our motive is fear, our sin is ignorance, and the chain in which we enslave ourselves is belief.

“Belief means not wanting to know what is true.”
–Friedrich Nietzsche–

Spiritual Warfare is a book for those who do want to know; people who want to escape from their dark asylum and experience a direct and authentic spirituality; people for whom it’s time to look, to think, to know, and — at long last — to put away childish things.

"Great book! Perfect way to wrap up the trilogy."

P. Gagliardi

"An incredible follow-up to Damnedest and Incorrect."

M. Hall

"These three books are precious gifts to Humanity."

E. de Vries

"This is the most powerful book of the three.
These books have profoundly changed my life."

C. Jensen

"WOW! A masterpiece! Very disturbing. Someone had to say it, and I'm glad it was Jed McKenna. I know of no one who has written about enlightenment in a more enlightened way."

Tijn Touber
Ode Magazine

"I found Spiritual Warfare a beautiful, wonderful, breathtaking book. Apart from the truth it contains, it is admirably well structured. What a beautiful story, and how cleverly put together. What I also liked immensely were the quotes from other books. How appropriate, how 'enlightening'! What a joy to read!"

M. Wishaupt

"An Absolute Ego Holocaust!! This is the best of the trilogy. It addresses where most of us are — neck deep in delusion. I've been 'searching' for 12 years after something unknown to me until reading Spiritual Warfare. How sad that most of us will never get real about waking up. Jed shows us our plight with humor and unparalleled honesty. Thank you so much!"

B. Nagle

"Spiritual Warfare is one of the most dangerous books ever written. Take what is said in these pages seriously, and you will find yourself examining the only topic in this universe that truly matters. The author's prose is stronger than ever, and the humor from his earlier books remains in tact. However, do not underestimate or brush aside the gravity of what is discussed and revealed in this final installment of the Enlightenment Trilogy, whether you agree with some, all, or even none what is said within these pages.

Truth cannot be put into words. Yet the miracle of this volume in particular is how closely Jed McKenna has come to giving even 'the tourists' a bird's eye view of living the virtually undiscussable quandary of Truth-Realization, as well as the death/rebirth trauma and triumph that leads to the integrated state he calls Human Adulthood. When it comes to the direct revelation of what is Real, brace for impact. The nuclear blast on the cover of Spiritual Warfare is NOT an analogy. Proceed at your own risk."

D. Scoma, Ph.D.

"Four years ago I was a joyful granolahead, immersed in my holistic practice, seeing clients for sessions on feng shui, meditation, being quoted in newspapers, giving lectures and feeling very Spiritual. Then, out of the ether, an invisible bomb went off in my life. When the smoke cleared I'd lost mate, friends, home, and career. I ended up on a mountain in Virginia, and finding no real wisdom there, decided to go back to school and get a master's degree in public health.

This, of course, is where the real filleting took place. This is where, sandwiched between the rubble of my former life and the fortress of science, I read Jed's first book. And then the second.

Do you know this filleting? When all that you believe is You is simply no longer You, yet no substitute You shows up to take it's place, leaving this being that used to be You flopping around like a dying fish in the living that is this world? Where you alternate between the most profound anguish you've ever known and a rage so intense it's like you've swallowed a barbed fireball that is now lodged in your chest? Where, having woken up to the pointlessness of it all, you find that you can no longer meditate or workout or do anything that even remotely resembled "a practice"? Where you get that years and years and years of Spiritual Growth were a lie, a farce, a fleecing? When you finally, genuinely get that there will be no soulmate, no best friend, no home, no stellar career.

I want to tell people: it will be really, really bad. Very bad. Truly awful. You will be flayed alive, and it will be you as both flayee and flayer, and once you start, you will be powerless to stop. Everything that you have worked so hard to build in your life will come crashing down. You will enter into that land of madness you've fought off for so long. You will have no one to turn to. There will be no advice. And there will moments that the hilariousness of it all hits, and you're laughing so hard tears roll down your face. And on the other side lies tremendous freedom. Because when everything is gone, it all becomes clear: what's real, what's not. No, there will be no soulmate, no best friend, no cash, no Becoming The Grand PooBah of anything in this world. You get that at any moment, you could be homeless, all of your money/assets/worldly goods go 'poof', or fall down the stairs and break your fool head. And you're okay with that.

Personally, I'm not fully awake yet. There are still things here that have to burn. And I seriously doubt that I've arrived at the Adulthood Jed writes about in Spiritual Warfare. But if I have anyone in this world who knows me, knows where I've been, where I'm going, it's his books, because of course, there is no him, there is no Jed. Which really, when you think about it, is terrifically brilliant. It seems that the greatest trap these days is the one of Spiritual Teacher. So many souls getting lost along this way, stopping in at the ashram to order up a little wisdom and then finding that you can never get full, never really get fed, and so there you stay, and your life is lost. With Jed, because there is no Jed, there is no place to put the power, the juice, the fire except into yourself. And so if you keep showing up, keep turning the questions back inside of yourself, the enlightenment you long for will start a blaze. And once you're on fire, even holy water won't put you out.

Isn't that marvelous?

K. Turner

"How could I possibly offer feedback on a book like this???!!! It is ALL IN THERE!! Congratulations Jed and thank you. I am grateful to be able to buy an advanced copy and really would have paid any price!!! THANK YOU!!"

G. Conn

"In this book lies the truth of the world."

Richard Ritsudo Morrissey
Zen Buddhist Priest

"I LOVE the way you write. You have such a good sense of humor! I laugh out loud reading your books. The adventurous way you have with things is very refreshing. What a fun person you are!"

S. Schwalm

"You are a sane voice in a crazy world.... Please write another book, it doesn't even have to be a Spiritual book. I love your sense of humour, you had me laughing out loud many times."

K. Van Rossum

"I can't thank you enough for all three of Jed McKenna's books, but especially for his latest, Spiritual Warfare.

Having pursued money and success for the first 37 years of my life, and spirituality for the last 16 years, I found myself in a very strange place of being happy to be alive and not interested in any pursuit. For years it seemed as if I was living in hell, losing everything that mattered to me: husband, money, job, friends, and finally, last year, spiritual teacher and spiritual community.

Then, all of a sudden I found myself on the other side of the shore. I felt no need to pursue anything, and everything I wanted — the perfect job, the perfect home, etc — showed up almost as soon as I thought about it. I found myself truly happy for the first time. Life was a game, and I could have everything I really wanted because I knew the rules! All the melodrama was gone or quickly disappearing, as friends who now seemed like insane children started leaving my life.

I didn't know what I had become. During my spiritual search I had read hundreds of books, but none described the stage that I was at. I knew that I wasn't enlightened, as I still thought of myself as separate. But I wasn't like most of the people around me either, whiny children not taking responsibility for their lives or their choices. I felt clear and awake.

I prayed for understanding, and Mr. McKenna's books were the answer to my prayer. I found out that I was a Human Adult! His description of this state and the bloodbath that it takes to get here, is absolutely accurate. Human Adulthood is not for the faint of heart, but it's worth it.

I also know that I am not done, and Mr. McKenna shows me where I am heading. From his books I've gotten a clear picture of what it is to be enlightened, and I know that is my final destination — not because enlightenment sounds like fun, but because anything that isn't true or real makes me nauseous.

I am so grateful for the confirmation that these books are offering, and for the roadmap that they are showing of the only true path Home.

Thank you.

D. Gurlides

"Heretical, provocative, disturbing, and monumentally paradoxical. Highly recommended for the fearless few."

Jerry Katz, Nonduality.com; Editor,
One: Essential Writings on Nonduality