I visited Chartres cathedral nearly forty years ago and the effect was powerful. I reverberated for several days. And honestly certain memories of the two days I spent there are as clear as any. It was one of the first intimations that there is a spiritual or, just say, another dimension that one can actually live and breathe in.
I hope that the last sentence will alert architectural students and enthusiasts who see no difference between a High Gothic cathedral and a six story parking lot that this is not a book they will enjoy. It's for people who have been touched by this magnificent building or other deep aesthetic experience, and for them is highly recommended. It is clear, fully comprehensible and feasible. The only thing I would have left out is the part about chakras, which is interesting but was and could not be sufficiently explored to merit inclusion.
The space a great cathedral created is an artistic phenomenon never again achieved in western art, as far as I know. It is a place of palpable silence where one can have a complete immersion in peace, despite one's fellow tourists. All western prayerful spaces come from this.
No book could encompass Chartres. After all, it's not the place per se but the truth it reveals that constitutes its being, and this is for us an infinite study. But there are many new and interesting insights in this book