Seraphim Rose

Havdala at Doves and Pomegranates does a short review of Seraphim Rose's The Soul After Death (here's the first part). I never got through the book and developed a deep suspicion of it and its author because I found it so nearly unreadable (I developed this habit trying to read Gurdjieff; by the end of the introduction, I was wondering what he was trying to hide. I got the same sense about Rose.)

Havdala's review is both more respectful and more detailed than my first impressions, but she still lays in a couple of good punches:

Yet this book (I’m halfway through) is full of dualism, old wives’ tales, carefully clipped quotes from the famous Fathers, irrelevant accounts of out of the body experiences, references to obscure early saints who are not necessarily Fathers, dependence on 19th century Russian bishops, gnosticism and theosophy. I’m pinching myself black and blue to remember that Seraphim Rose wrote this. I suppose I have to accept it as a reminder that all our idols have feet of clay.

Read both parts of her review; it's well worth it.