In this remarkable book, Chopra takes us step by step from the first stage, where the brain's fight or flight response leads us to god who is an all-powerful and sometimes unpredictable parent, to the seventh stage, where the brain experiences God as pure being, beyond thought, a sacred presence. It is at this seventh stage that we attain a true, life changing spiritual understanding of the world and our place in it; it is the level at which saints and sages dwell. All seven stages are available to each of us, all the time.