Freeing our Authentic Selves

Review by Mel Mathews

Filled with insight and wisdom, Free the Children is most unique and original in its own sense, yet equal in rank to the works of Carlos Castaneda and Don Miguel Ruiz. This beautifully written story is about a love shared between a father and son. Yet, it is not about a father ‘fathering’ a son. Quite the opposite – Boye, with an innocent wisdom that has not been distorted by the conventional impositions of social institutions, teaches, or better yet, ‘boys’ a Father. Bruce Scott reclaims and liberates his own lost innocent self as he and Boye travel the country, meeting up with bizarre people in the most uncanny places, and sharing profound experiences that bring about a shift in awareness and alters their way of seeing and being in the world.

One of the scenes that remain with me is when Bruce is trying to convince Boye that he needs to become free of a certain belief that supposedly has him imprisoned. Eight or nine-year-old Boye simply explains to his father that all is well in his world, and instead it is Bruce who must become free. Then, turning on a dime, Boye shifts back to the wonder of living in the moment, in search of an ice cream or a handful of candy. In other words, Boye is fine just as he is, and by remaining true to this inner wisdom and innocence, and speaking his truth, he forces his father back upon self, where he must face his own trauma and not hand it off to his son to be redeemed. Free the Children has a dream-like quality and reads like a fine piece of literature as opposed to the many modern day self-help books. If you are looking for concrete answers and direction in life… well, you’ll be hard pressed to find such things in this publication. However, Free the Children has the potential to lead us back to our own original voices that may well have been lost years ago when we learned to say ‘yes’ to social impositions and false belief systems, and ‘no’ to our authentic selves.

Title: Free the Children

Author: Bruce Scott

Publisher: North Atlantic

ISBN 9781556436857