Religious critics have called him the Antichrist for claiming you can save yourself, no God or Jesus required. Secular critics call his ideas and looping ways with language New Age twaddle.

This is someone who in conversation uses the term "is-ness" (the state of "being in the now") who, when he says "human being," means "being" as a verb. "I am, you are" — and nothing more need be said. Sort of. Actually, it takes many words to map out an earthly path to Tolle's "new heaven."

Tolle quotes often from the Bible, from Christianity and Buddhism, and half a dozen other world religions. But the words of Buddha and Jesus take a unique Tolle spin. For example, "Your thought identity, your words, are ultimately illusionary. Jesus knew this when he talked about 'deny thyself.' Most Christians do not fully understand what that means. It means 'no self.' Buddha, too, recognized the inherent unreality of our self-image" he says.

By submitting yourself to this thought-free state, you can finally recognize "The Truth" within yourself — that you already have all the joy, creativity, energy, love you seek. You possess all the higher power, you reach your own heaven, he says.

"Was Jesus the son of God?" he asks rhetorically. "Yes. But so are you. You just haven't realized it yet."