Seven Games of Life

And How to Play

By: Richard Smoley

Narrated by: Alan Carlson

An eclectic, spicy smorgasbord of philosophical food for thought.—KIRKUS REVIEWS

Life can seem to be a serious business. We could also look at it as a game—or a series of games. They include survival, love, power, pleasure, courage, creativity, and the Master Game!

In this insightful book, Richard Smoley gives a lively but profound account of these games. He talks about how we play them, the mistakes we make, and how we can play them best.

The culmination is the Master Game. Richard explores practices from the great spiritual traditions to show how to reach this mastery. If you play this game, you will reach new heights of wisdom, courage, kindness, and performance.

Richard, the author of thirteen books including G&D’s Introduction to the Occult, interweaves ideas from great thinkers and traditions with his own dry and irreverent wisdom, gleaned from forty years of study and practice, to show how to play the most important game of all.

“There is only one question: what are we to make of this life? Most books that aim to help with that central question fail, because they amount to lists: eat this, pray to that, think about the other thing, follow one truth, carry this thingamabob. Richard Smoley offers something better. It is like a conversation with a wise friend who trusts you, talking about this reality so you’re better able to relate to the ones beyond."–Quentin Hardy, Head of Editorial, Google Cloud

©2023 Richard Smoley (P)2023 G&D Media

Critic reviews

Survival, love, and spiritual enlightenment are among the prizes we must seek, according to this lively treatise on the human predicament.

Smoley, the author of Inner Christianity (2002) and editor of Quest: Journal of the Theosophical Society of America, posits seven metaphorical "games" that depict prominent aspects of existence. The survival game is won by procuring basic needs, but these can be quite different, henotes, depending on whether you're an English aristocrat or a homeless tunnel dweller in Las Vegas. Love is a game that's usually transactional, Smoley contends, with lovers judging each other by "the Equation" of desirability, but the secret to love is "the perception of the unity of all being. "The power game can involve Machiavellian cunning—"it is never wise to underestimate the extent to which your subordinates can sabotage you"—or a numinous "power-from-within" that draws on a universal "life force." The pleasure game motivates us in everything from oral sex to champagne connoisseurship, while the creativity game is an interplay between form and innovation in everything from classical architecture to the absurdly standardized rules of movie scripts, which requires that the big plot break occurs on page 25. Smoley celebrates the courage game through the deeds of warriors like Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson—an example whom some readers will find problematic—and he proposes "death in battle is like a famous ride in an amusement park—something not to be missed at one point or another in a sequence of earthly lifetimes." Finally, the master game is the realm of rare souls who awaken to deeper wisdom, often through meditative exercises. Smoley's pensees mix an acerbic realism, complete with advice on office politics, with a mystical and even occult sensibility; he is influenced by spiritualist G.I. Gurdjieff, cites astrology as a useful means of assessing romantic compatibility, and mentions a "strikingly and unexpectedly accurate" palm reading he received. The book has a free-wheeling curiosity and erudition, and it approaches profound questions in prose that's lucid and entertainingly tart: "The lifelessness and superficiality of the current American literary novel cannot be because it has reached the technical limits of what is a very broad and accepting genre, but because, one senses, of some larger social vitiation: a masturbatory self-obsession has supplanted great themes and vistas." The result is a stimulating read.

An eclectic, spicy smorgasbord of philosophical food for thought.

KIRKUS REVIEWS

Chapter 7 Will Blow Your Mind

If you ever wondered what mind, body and spirit means exactly; listen to chapter 7. I’ve read and listened to several of Richard Smoley’s books. I am an avid listener to his ideas. He is very well read. I appreciate his insights and perspective.

Great book would recommend

Will provide a refreshing outlook on the patterns we are going through in life. We are subconsciously switching through and abiding by the rules of these games.