The Mystical Backpacker: How to Discover Your Destiny in the Modern World

by Hannah Papp

Overview

Part memoir, part guidebook, The Mystical Backpacker invites you to explore your inner terrain and learn how to create your own unique version of a modern day vision quest or walk-about.

Tired of living a life based on other’s expectations, Hannah Papp quit her job, bought a EuroRail ticket and a map, notified her landlady, and left town. Embarking on a journey across Europe with no plan and no direction, Hannah stumbled into becoming a modern-day Mystical Backpacker. Along the way her discoveries and the teachers she encountered allowed her to go on a deeper journey into the self and the spirit—revealing the real self she had long been missing.

The Mystical Backpacker shows you how to identify the signs along the road that will lead to teachers and experiences that will reorient your own life map. Ultimately, The Mystical Backpacker offers a solution, a way to break free and find your inner self’s rhythms and needs, fulfilling your true destiny. It’s time you hit the road and become a mystical backpacker.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781582704869
Publisher:	Atria Books/Beyond Words
Publication date:	05/05/2015
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 5.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Hannah Papp was born in Manhattan, learned to walk on Long Island, and then blossomed into womanhood in Toronto. After finishing her undergraduate degree, she attended graduate school at an American accredited university in Budapest, Hungary. It was from this locale—embittered by love and disillusioned by Eastern Europe—that she became a mystical backpacker. Today, she is the author of the popular blog My Secret Psychic Life and the founder and owner of an award-winning business in Washington, DC.

Editorial Reviews

04/13/2015
Fans of Cheryl Strayed and Elizabeth Gilbert will recognize the format of this travel memoir, but Papp’s youthful viewpoint stands out in a field more given to midlife reckonings. She reviews her first solo backpacking trip, taken in 2000 after she finished graduate study in Budapest, with an eye toward helping other travelers on their journeys. Papp relates her European adventure through journal entries, poems, and photographs as well as an anecdote-filled narrative, and though one might wish for more vivid accounts of her interactions with others on the trail, her story conveys her open-mindedness about all that she encounters. Papp builds on the “mystical nature” of solo travel with exercises and journal writing prompts in each chapter. While the travel diary benefits from Papp’s openness, the “how to” portion of the book does not. Prompts are fairly general (“make a list of your 10 happiest memories in life”) and suggestions for mining the mystical tend toward the familiar (look for signs, write affirmations, reflect on your life). The voice of youth is refreshing, but could use refinement. Agent: Regina Brooks, Serendipity Literary Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"In this mix of travel guide and inspirational how-to, [Papp] shares her tips, both practical and mystical, for making it happen. With an instructive, almost conspiratorial tone, Papp comes across like a close friend advising the reader on how to follow in her footsteps….her infectious enthusiasm will encourage readers to go out into the wide world to find what they carry inside."

Booklist - Bridget Thoreson

"In the spirit of Odysseus and his journey home, Hannah Papp shares her personal odyssey, inspiring us on our own soul's path. A must read!"

Linda Howe

"Follow Hannah Papp and learn how to go beyond living in the status quo to regain meaning and passion in your life. This book is truly inspirational."

Santra Ingerman

"Papp begins this travel-memoir-turned-spiritual-guidebook by dissecting the word mystical, making it clear that this account of her travels through Europe is meant to offer readers more than just her own adventure tale….Above all, the book is entertaining, and Papp's enthusiasm is inspiring."

Retailing Insight - Anna Jedrziewski

"If you've been seeking spiritual nourishment that will actually change your life, you'll find it in these pages, because the author so beautifully inspires you to find it in your heart and in the awesome world around you."

Karl Samuels

"In a world where the only constancy is change, staying put where we were is not an option.We need to set out in search of new and better trails. What better way todo that than by mystical backpacking? This book will tell you how."

Ervin Laszlo

04/15/2015
There's a moment in this title in which occasional blogger (mysecretpsychiclife.com) Papp points out that the word vacation literally means to vacate your life as you know it, to leave your comfort zone. It's so obvious that one rarely thinks of it as such. And that's the crux of this book, partly memoir and partly self-help, which encourages the reader to vacate the routines of life in order to divine what really matters. Papp's own journey took her from a lackluster existence in Budapest across Italy, Spain, and to the Grecian Isles, where she chronicles adventures and foibles, friendships cemented, and epiphanies arrived at, largely about her life's work. The guidance aspect of the book—the "mystical exercises"—largely consist of journaling, reflection, and identifying and letting go of the negative components of your life before the voyage. Though her advice presupposes a fairly pleasant, touristic trip, and not, for instance, a foray into a war-ravaged region or uninhabited arctic terrain, it's still a fairly effective thought exercise in taking a break so that life may be seen with clearer, braver eyes upon return. VERDICT A surprisingly common-sense guide to finding yourself through the dislocation of travel.—Emilia Packard, Austin, TX

Library Journal