Simplistically profound, but...

I enjoyed this book. It's simplicity in delivering the profound was excellent and I have to say I agree with 99% of its content, as I already try to live my life by its direction. <br /><br />However, I do question some of Tolle's indefatigable argument against putting, future thought, to one side. Is it so wrong, on making some future arrangement to say, `I'll look forward to it,' and meaning it ? And, in the extreme... How many victims of the Holocaust or similar event, who, because they were unable to bring about change, accepted, the `Now,' perished, when those who projected their thoughts away from the indescribable inhumanity of their `Now,' to an improved future, survived ? It is called... `hope.'<br /><br /><br />

Fantastic

if you are looking for a way to heal yourself and understand why you have gone through what you have gone through in your life then this is the book to buy. Louise L Hay helps you to heal yourself at your own pace and also explains that there is always a reason deep down for what ever illness or pain that you are experiencing. A Fantastic book and highly recommended.

Could I be happy, more often?

Self confessed pessimist Professor Martin Seligman has over 50 years of “ …mostly wet weather being in his soul. ” He wants to share his discovery that happiness is within the readers ’ power and not the result of good luck or genes.

He introduces ‘ Positive Psychology ’ . The concept has three themes and associated written tests (many may be taken on-line):
* Positive emotion - its effect on satisfaction with the past, optimism about the future and happiness in the present
* Strengths and virtues, and
* How the reader ’ s increased insight might be deployed in work, love, parenting and personal satisfaction

Seligman tells how his five-year-old daughter argued if she could stop whining - so could he! He then read a paper on how positive emotion generates greater creativity in fulfilling aspirations. Seligman realised “ …a positive mood... bouys... (so) detect not what is wrong, but what is right ” , reminiscent of Kurt Wrights work.

Seligman develops a Happiness formula, H=S+C+V:

* ‘ H ’ - enduring level of happiness

* ’S’ - set range, effectively our genetic predisposition

* ’C’ - circumstances, a factor potentially affecting us most, but not the case in practice.

* ‘ V ’ – Voluntary Variables, the most crucial factor relating positive emotion with the past, present or future.

Gratitude and forgiveness are key factors affecting our opinion of, and satisfaction with, the past. An exercise is described where undergraduates expressed gratitude to an invited guest for affecting something important in their lives. The examples are powerful. Seligman doesn’t pretend we can forget or suppress bad memories. He describes how forgiving allows a victim to free themselves from the past, facilitating the possibility of greater life satisfaction.

The degree to which we believe events are temporary or permanent significantly affects our expectation about the future. Although I learned my outlook was at least a little optimistic, Seligman comments such an appraisal might come at the expense of being less realistic! He recommends the ‘ ABCDE ’ model for when we are accusing ourselves of some perceived failing or deficiency. The approach is to dispute and then dismantle negative self-talk. The reader is offered a seven day ‘ ABCDE ’ template, so that adverse inner dialogue can be recognised, recorded and disabled.

For present happiness, the author defines two states:

*"The pleasures… have clear sensory and strong emotional components… ” They can be bodily e.g. touch, sight, sound, smell or taste
* The gratifications include any of the above, however the distinctions are they"…last longer, involve quite a lot of thinking and interpretation, do not habituate easily and are undergirded by our strengths and virtues…These are activities not necessarily accompanied by feelings at all".

Positive Psychology classifies “ just twenty-four strengths …The last time anyone bothered to count, in 1936, more than eighteen thousand words in English referred to traits. ” Surprisingly, this ignores Cattell ’ s work, which subsequently identified 16.

Three criteria define strengths, they are:
* valued in almost every culture
* valued in their own right - not just a means to an end
* malleable

The author argues some of the twenty-four strengths are deeply characteristic, defining these as"Signature Strengths", believing"the highest success in living and the deepest emotional satisfaction comes from building and using your Signature Strengths".

Seligman contends these strengths fit six core virtues occurring across most cultures; Wisdom and knowledge, Courage, Love and humanity, Justice, Temperance, Spirituality and transcendence.

He adds, to live the ‘ good life ’ is about using your Signature Strengths everyday, but admits sometimes undertaking tasks he ’ s good at, yet which leave him feeling drained and less authentic. Myers Briggs knows we sometimes use our less preferred skills, without enjoying them.

80+ pages are devoted to answering the implied question"So now you know your strengths, what are you going to do with them"? In my view he is not a pioneer in this particular area.

Seligman highly rates Csikszentmihalyi, definer of ‘ flow ’ , recognised by several features especially, a sense of time standing still and our sense of self vanishing.

Seligman says to increase flow:

* Identify your Signature Strengths
* Choose work that lets you use them every day
* Recraft your present work
* When employing, choose those with Signature Strengths to mesh with the work you give them
* As a manager, allow employees to recraft (within bounds) their work.

While Csikszentmihalyi calls the states attached to flow as ‘ enjoyments ’ , Seligman prefers ‘ gratifications ’ , it plays down the emotional aspects.

The narrative on love follows a familiar pattern; case studies, a questionnaire, vast cross-referencing, in-depth research and statistics. Seligman identifies what he regards as a most surprising outcome “ … children of stable marriages are more interested in long-term relationships than are the children of divorce ” - I wasn ’ t surprised!

The Professor exudes dry humour - “ I did something I don’t recommend to you; I read …all the major marriage manuals. This is a depressing task for a positive psychologist…about how to make a bad marriage more tolerable. ”

He suggests two summary love principles “ You must not scrimp on the attention you pay to the person you love... (and) the quantity is crucial. ”

I was intrigued with Mrs Seligman ’ s work on raising children, (especially as a parent and co-author of ‘ The Coaching Parent ’ ). In a self-effacing journey, she doesn’t disappoint, providing at least eight techniques for building positive emotion. The ‘ strengths test ’ for children, similar to the adult version, can be used by any child aged about seven plus.

Concluding, the author invites us to live a ‘ meaningful life ’ .

* The good life “ …consists in deriving (authentic) happiness by using your Signature Strengths every day ”

* The “ …meaningful life… uses these same strengths to forward knowledge, power or goodness… something much larger than you. ”

This book contains detailed material, backed up with substance, multiple tests and well summarised chapters. It includes comprehensive end notes adding 300+ paragraphs of background information linked to related research material. I believe he achieves his purpose, and demonstrates exactly why happiness is within the readers ’ power!

David Miskimin 2006

Singh and Ernst display a lack of knowledge about the role of nutrition.

Reading the publicity about this book, we were expecting a carefully analysed set of data and information with good scientific references. We were not expecting a book that is quite so biased and that in places reads more like an emotional rant than a contribution to science. We shall use the information the book contains on nutrition/diets as our example because this is the area we are most familiar with. Considering that advice on nutrition is provided by many different types of CAM practitioner, the treatment of this subject is astonishingly weak. <br /><br />The book contains only two pages on nutrition. The first quotes the Prince of Wales suggesting that `we should further investigate the beneficial nature of these treatments [the Gerson diet]'. Singh and Ernst use this innocuous statement to suggest that the Prince is promoting a therapy that `starves already malnourished patients' and `often means that patients abandon their conventional treatment.' Such sensational misrepresentation has nothing to do with science and smacks of the lowest standards of journalism.<br /><br />The main section on alternative diets, to which the authors devote just a single page (approximately the same as they devote to Bach-flower remedies and crystal therapy), merely lists a range of diets, such as the McDougall diet and the Pritkin diet, and dismisses them all with the two-line conclusion: `Alternative diets are burdened with the risk of malnutrition and have not been shown to be effective for any condition. Our advice is to stay well clear of them.'<br /><br />We shall take just three examples to show how irresponsible this treatment of nutrition is . First the role of diet in heart disease. The Framingham study of heart disease, which began with the establishment of the National Heart Institute in the USA after WW2, has generated more than a thousand peer-reviewed scientific studies. Beginning in 1961, these researchers convincingly showed a strong correlation between blood cholesterol levels and heart disease. The importance of this work changed the way we thought about heart disease from a belief that it was an inevitable wearing-out of the body to the idea that it could be prevented - including, importantly, by a change of diet. Similar evidence links obesity and type-2 diabetes to consumption of a modern Western diet. Most distinguished nutritional scientists, such as Professor T Colin Campbell of Cornell University, attribute such relationships to eating a diet that contains too much animal fat and cholesterol - and, indeed, too much food of animal origin and too little of vegetable origin.<br /><br />The second example is the role of nutrition in mental illness. As long ago as the 1970s, Professor Michael Crawford, a distinguished chemical nutritionist, warned that the explosion in the prevalence of heart disease that had occurred throughout the West in the twentieth century would soon be followed by a similar increase in mental illness. In 2005 a report entitled `Changing diets, Changing minds', produced by an impressive list of eminent scientists, including nutritionists, behavioural scientists and doctors, also drew attention to the important role of nutrition in helping to prevent mental illness. The report, unlike the book by Singh and Ernst, is a fully referenced, careful and balanced analysis of factors such as the role of additives, saturated fats and trans-fats relative to essential poly-unsaturated fats in the diet and the significance of these factors in the epidemic of mood disorders now affecting the West. The January 2008 report of an enquiry held by the Associate Parliamentary Food and Health Forum entitled `The Links between Diet and Behaviour: the influence of nutrition on mental health' also emphasised the importance of nutrition in mental health.<br /><br />Finally, the relation of diet to cancer. There are many peer-reviewed publications in the scientific literature drawing attention to the links between hormone-related and other cancers and foods such as dairy produce, which are high in steroid hormones including oestrogen, progesterone and growth-factors. These studies include research from Harvard , Bristol and Tokyo universities and the famous Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Many of them are given in the bibliography of the book that one of us (Jane Plant) wrote describing how, fifteen years ago, she overcame her own breast cancer, which had recurred five times, with a combination of chemotherapy and a diet modelled on that of rural China. Breast cancer rates have always been very much lower there than in the West. There is another extensive bibliography of such references in her book on prostate cancer and in Professor Campbell's excellent book, The China Study. <br /><br />There are few peer-reviewed studies of the role of dietary change in survival from cancer, though several such studies have been started in relation to breast cancer. When Jane wrote the latest editions of her breast and prostate cancer books in August 2007 she could find only one such study - which looked into the effects of diet in early prostate cancer. This showed clearly that patients who changed to a diet high in fruit and vegetables, whole-grain cereals, soya and pulses, fared better than those who kept to a typical Western diet. Since there is presently so little on this subject in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, it is difficult to see how Singh and Ernst's rejection of the role of nutrition in cancer survival meets their claim to be giving evidence-based information.<br /><br />In short, it would seem to be totally irresponsible to claim to be trying to determine the truth and then to give a superficial opinion about the role of nutrition as Singh and Ernst have done. <br /><br />We have drawn attention to the book's inadequacy in the way it treats nutrition, but there are similar flaws throughout the book in the way that the authors treat CAM.<br /><br />Patrick Holford, Founder of Institute for Optimum Nutrition and author of The Optimum Nutrition Bible and Professor Jane Plant CBE DSC FRSM FRSE, Member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution 2000-2006, Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances 2000-present. Author of Your Life in Your Hands: understand, overcome and prevent breast cancer and ovarian cancer, Prostate cancer: understand, prevent and overcome prostate cancer and (with Janet Stephenson) Beating stress, anxiety and depression. www.janeplant.com<br />

FANTASTIC BOOK!

I read this when my girlfriend bought it and I completely recommend it. We had some problems in the bedroom so she bought it as a source of info. Not only did it give us a new perspective on what we were going through but also an enormous number of techniques to try. Some quite frankly were real eye openers! Buy this book if you want to learn useful things about your sexlife and have enough very sexy things to try for the next two years.

ANOTHER GREAT ADDITION TO MY COLLLECTION

I have the guide book, 101 orders and the wish cards by the same author - Stephen Richards and only recently discovered this CD, even though it has been out a little while now. I have also just purchased the Chakra clearing CD. This CD is real mind blowing stuff, its like an addiction, you want to listen to it over and over again, no need for cosmically ordering yourself, all of the hard work is taken out of it and the CD does it all for you. I feel like a new person born again with a lust for life. Don't just take my word for it, give it a try for yourself and you will have a better understanding of what the CD can do for you. Good Luck.

Simple, enjoyable and basic insight into Buddhist philosophy

A very easy book to read and a great antidote to the excesses of our western life style of consumption and greed.<br /><br />It provides an easily digestible look at practical ways to live simply and happily. <br /><br />It can seem patronising and too simple in places, it discusses things that are pretty obvious to most but that is because there is much truth in what the Dalai Lama says and his philosophy is pretty simple.<br /><br />Live Happily!

Not Hooked

Just as well this is a quick read. The basic premise is OK but it has been explored far better in other books. For my money the old-skool"The Magic of Thinking Big" is a far better buy if you are after practical inspiration. As for this being an a message snuck under our radar in the guise of an engrossing story I disagree. Its fourth rate US soaked cheese that would better grace the pages of some lightweight women’s weekly. I am very open minded when it comes to self-help books (they do help!) but the clumsy, faux-feelgood, sacharine nature of this one actually made me feel cynical! Not the desired effect! ! And the less said about the"inspirational" poetry shamelessly plugged within, the better. Oy vay. I wanted to like this. But sorry, this is clearly selling on hype, and feels very much like a"product" constructed by someone in a suit who wants our money. Plus....I still feel sorry for poor dead forgotten Dan!

Loony tunes

The concept of the non-physical entity Abraham detailing 22 processes, behavioural guidances for all humans to utilise in their lives is a little loony. Why only 22 processes, why not unlimited processes, as that is the way the universe works? I must admit, I got part way through this and started wondering how people could relate to this???? As way out this book is it did touch upon some serious stuff, albeit how we are influenced by the universal laws that govern our time/space reality. A shame such theories were given over to an entity that seems as way out as Jonathan Cainer's entity in his pitiful excuse of a book, and yet I and other people are buying this stuff.

The biggest pile of tosh

I am afraid that the only people who can get anything out of this book are those who have never reflected on life nor managed to find access to the part of their brain that develops intelligence.

Healing for today

I am getting well into these sorts of books, all thanks to having read a cosmic ordering book by Stephen Richards. I never knew such a world existed and here it is. This book is not a replacement for a doctor, but great for those nagging things doctors put down to wear and tear, etc which is just an excuse because they haven't a clue. This book is written by someone who knows what they are doing, and that is half the battle, great stuff.

Stopgap fixed it for me

I agree with some reviewers, there is a little too much emphasis on the religious angle. I only mention this as some atheists, agnostics and followers of non-Christian religions may find this a little overwhelming. If you block out the references to religion and just concentrate on the chakra clearing then all is well. I was recommended to use this by author Stephen Richards when I came up against some blockages in my cosmic ordering. I will keep on using this for clearing my chakras until his"Cosmic Ordering Chakra Clearing" kit is available later this year, as he has devised this purely for cosmic ordering and it is non-religious. I can't wait to get my hands on that. In the meanwhile I want to thank Doreen for what has become a familiar CD to me over the last few months.

Good, but...

I really enjoyed the first couple of chapters; they were well-written, informative and really quite interesting. Unfortunately, the rest of the book regurgitates the same information, making for a dull read. Still, I'd recommend this book (if you can get it for a good price) if only for the first couple of chapters.

Life Changing

For me this was definitely a life changing book and one that gave me great comfort and hope. Although small in size, it's an excellent starting point for anyone wanting to learn more about angels and the afterlife. It may be a bit too basic for those who have more knowledge on this subject. I have enjoyed reading other similar books but after reading 'How to Hear Your Angels' I just knew this one was special. I would not hesitate to recommend it, particularly to those who are seeking comfort after the loss of a loved one. However, this is not a book for those who do not truly believe in the presence of angels.

So simple it made me sit up and take action.

I highly successful business colleague gave me this book. Another book that contains principles so simple you want to slap yourself for dragging your feet and into sorting yourself out and having the rewarding life you want. This book is truly written with warmth and love that can be felt when reading.

Terrific Book on Manifestation

With all the hoopla surrounding the law of attraction these days, I just read Law of Attraction and think Michael Losier does an excellent job in conveying how to manifest your desires.<br /><br />I have been successfully practicing the laws of attraction (manifesting desires) for years and wrote how to do this in my book, Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify and Energize Your Life, Your Home and Your Planet.<br /><br />Losier explains that you attract what you give energy, focus and attention to. What could be simpler or more true! Most of us are bombarded with stuff every day. The reality is, as you walk or drive down a street, you see only a fraction of what is in front of you--you see what you are tuned into.<br /><br />For example, if there is a hawk in sight, I will see it, because I am tuned into them, whereas most people won't. (I asked the photographer to keep an eye peeled to the sky duing my wedding ceremony because I knew hawks would be about. As soon as the ceremony was over, three hawks were spotted flying above our wedding party.)<br /><br />Let's say you are in the market for a new dishwasher. Suddenly, dishwashers are everywhere! Or a particular car, or shoes or cute guys...You simply see what you are focused on.<br /><br />Mr. Losier discusses how positive and negative energies take a strong role in attracting what we do and don't want. Again, I completely concur.<br /><br />In fact, being around positive energy helps increase our own! (Keep this in mind when you begin your practice of attracting.) For example, Flowers improve our emotional health and help raise our positive energies. In a study done in 2000 at Rutgers State University,it was found that flowers trigger happy emotions and improve feelings of life satisfaction. Dr. Haviland, the lead scientist in the study said:"Flowers bring about positive emotional feelings in those who enter a room and they make the space more welcoming and create a sharing atmosphere."<br /><br />Mr. Losier discusses how we must allow those good things to come to us. Yes! Give yourself full permission to recieve! You deserve it!<br /><br />My successes at manifesting my desires--attracting what I want--have truly been the highlights of my life. I have gotten exactly the right jobs, I met my husband, published a book...<br /><br />In fact, I am so used to working the law of attraction, that"the little things" often don't faze me. For example, as a designer, I am often on the lookout for the perfect piece of furniture. Am I surprised when I find it? Not anymore.<br /><br />If you are ready to manifest your dreams, learn the laws of attraction. And for extra power, learn how to rid your home of negative energy and create a sanctuary that resonates with positive energy.<br /><br />Author of the award winning book, Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify and Energize Your Life, Your Home and Your Planet

Does Verify Quantum Science

"The Divine Matrix: Bridging Time, Space, Miracles and Belief" by Gregg Braden, is firstly about discovering the Divine Matrix and revealing the mystery that connects all life. Secondly, the book goes on to describe how the Divine Matrix works, and brings insight into bridging between imagination and reality. Finally The Divine Matrix explains how to successfully work with healing in Quantum Awareness, which includes insight and messages from the Divine Matrix.<br /><br />Also, the Divine Matrix is scientifically verifiable in terms of the latest findings in Quantum Science...and interestingly the hologram is a perfect analogy to ideas presented in this book.<br /><br />Most highly recommended.<br /><br />If you like Divine Matrix then you'll be fascinated with a recent New Age novel I've discovered that is also about connectedness, spirituality, and life transformation:<br /><br />Nexus: A Neo Novel

Avoids what I really dislike....

It is a common mistake amongst seekers to think that books on the non-dual are good books merely by reason of their content, or becuase of the imagined exhaulted state of their authors. This is not so. People in the non-dual state can write bad books just as easily as can those of us stuck in duality. Here are three common faults I have found with such books:-<br /><br />1. Saying a thousand true things, and saying nothing useful. When books like these are written they seek to do something very difficult - they seek to describe another state of conciousness, and this allows of the possibility of saying many true things about the other state, none of which are of any use, and which very often don't make any real sense, until tht state is reached i.e. until the point comes when they are supefluous. This is far worse than useless because it will create in the seeker a huge effort of the mind to try understand. With considerable intelligence this can in fact be done, but if it is achieved it will have been destructive, (a) becuase it will plunge the seeker into thought - exactly where he does not want to be and (b) because he will find himself in a the place that many ernest people find themselves, i.e. that of having good mental understanding of what is being said, but of being looped within the topic and therefore not being able to obtain the transformation. This is a bad place to be.<br /><br />2. Scaring the bejeebers out of the reader. There are many points at which this is done in the non-dual literature but perhaps the most common is that the transformation requires that the ego, your self, be undone. Some authors like to refer to this undoing as the"death" of the ego. This is is a terrifying metaphor and almost guranteed to put the ego into a survival mode - exactly the *wrong* mode to be able to hear the gentle truths that must be taken in if the transformation is to occur. If you find yourself being scared by a nondual book *sling it* and get another one.<br /><br />3. The author failing to remember the nature of the dual state. Many authors in the non-dual state have actually forgotten what the dual state is like. They have done so to such an extent that their ability to truly relate to the reader is gone. Instead they pronounce from a position which is ultimately innaccessible. <br /><br />OK but none of these errors occur in New Earth. Instead Eckhart gently rolls out the material, never once becoming scary or incomprehensible, and never once does he pronounce from a place of inaccessibility. By contrast, the book sweeps into you and over you like a gentle wave over warm sand. There is nothing to run from - just bathe in it. <br /><br />So the book is superb, it's as simple as that. Get it if you want to see through the illusion. <br /><br />Regards<br /><br />Adrian<br /><br />PS I reckon there are about 200 spelling errors in the book (yes I am serious) and that will quite possibly irritate you, but maybe that's a good thing - you'll see why.

Left me cold

I was surprised to be bought this book by a member of my close family. They thought it a book for people who have faith in supernatural explanations and for those who do not. I am the latter and an atheist.<br /><br />Religious believers may glean more useful"blessings" from the texts and prayers of their chosen faith.<br /><br />Setting beliefs aside, I find the book sentimental, and the language and style of the majority of the blessings on a par with the contents of the average greetings card.