5 comments about Quantum Wellness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Health and Happiness.

1. Nothing new here, and not much actual content, just a lot of fluff. A truly terrible book! I'm sorry I wasted the money.



2. This book is a great tool for incorporating many aspects of health in a simple, go-at-your-own-pace sort of way. I appreciate the many ideas that are presented regarding easing into meditation and the nutritional information that is provided.
   
   My one problem with this book, is that although Kathy urges a vegan/gluten free lifestyle, few of the recipes are actually gluten free. I am already a gluten free vegan, and it is always a relief when you can find some great recipes. I was really hoping to do so with this book. However, alot of the recipes contain gluten and other substances I thought she felt were 'toxic'. I'm not sure WHY this happened, but it leaves the reader feeling like she's a little lax, or simply not concerned about finding real recipes that represent her point of view. For me, that was disappointing. If you have celiac disease or need to be wheat/gluten free for any reason, you are going to need to make your own substitutions here. If you are not any of those, but hoping to follow the guidelines from her book, you are being misled by thinking that these recipes ARE in fact incorporating all the ideas she presented in earlier chapters. I'm left confused. I gave it a 3 star rating however, b/c the majority of the book is NOT recipes, and provides some very good advice and makes for a joyful read.



3. I just finished the "Quantum Cleanse", one component of this book, last Friday. I heard about the book from both Oprah and Dooce. I really liked it, but in different ways than either Oprah or Dooce. The cleanse is really one small part of balancing your life and becoming more spiritual and happy. (Although I did lose 6 lbs! WOOHOO!)
   
   And in the more eastern tradition, this is NOT a step by step "how to" process in self-improvement. It's a suggestion about how to find the right path for you to develop into what you should be. There is scant real information on how to do the cleanse and more suggestions on figuring it out for yourself. (for example, some of the vegan meals and recipes cited in the back are NOT cleanse appropriate).
   
   Still, I like the holistic yet slow focus on getting on the right path for you. Seriously, it's an inspirational book on getting healthier, happier and making yourself whole.



4. Multi-dimensional information on body, mind and spirit. I saw this recommended on Oprah and I would also recommend it.



5. I wanted to respond to those reviewrs who have criticized vegan diets and think they are unhealthy. Here is a recent statement made by Dr. McDougall who has supported a plant based diet for years.
   
   Plants--the Original Sources of Protein and Amino Acids
   
   Proteins are made from chains of 20 different amino acids that connect together in varying sequences--similar to how all the words in a dictionary are made from the same 26 letters. Plants (and microorganisms) can synthesize all of the individual amino acids that are used to build proteins, but animals cannot. There are 8 amino acids that people cannot make and thus, these must be obtained from our diets--they are referred to as "essential."
   
   After we eat our foods, stomach acids and intestinal enzymes digest the proteins into individual amino acids. These components are then absorbed through the intestinal walls into the bloodstream. After entering the body's cells, these amino acids are reassembled into proteins. Proteins function as structural materials which build the scaffoldings that maintain cell shapes, enzymes which catalyze biochemical reactions, and hormones which signal messages between cells--to name only a few of their vital roles.
   
   Since plants are made up of structurally sound cells with enzymes and hormones, they are by nature rich sources of proteins. In fact, so rich are plants that they can meet the protein needs of the earth's largest animals: elephants, hippopotamuses, giraffes, and cows. You would be correct to deduce that the protein needs of relatively small humans can easily be met by plants.
   
   In regards to buying your meat from farms and ranches that treat animals humanely do so if you can, but realize that most meat is coming from large operations. The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report on how "the U.S. livestock industry has been undergoing a drastic change over the past several decade. Huge CAFO's (confined animal feeding operations) have become the predominant method of raising livestock, and the crowded conditions in these facilities have increased water and air pollution and other types of harm to public health and rural communities.
   
   "A groundbreaking 2006 United Nations report found that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. Luckily, we can help fix this problem by changing our diet. According to a 2006 study done by researchers at the University of Chicago, most Americans can reduce more greenhouse gas emissions by becoming a vegan than they can by switching to a hybrid electric car. They found that eating a vegan diet prevents the equivalent of 1.5 tons of CO2 emissions every year, more than the 1 ton of CO2 emissions prevented by switching from a typical large sedan to a Toyota Prius."
   
   If you can stomach to really see how the meat on your table is handled while it is still living visit this site: http://www.chooseveg.com/animal-cruelty.asp
   
   How about this fact: Cows have a natural lifespan of about 25 years and can produce milk for eight or nine years, but the stress caused by factory farm conditions leads to disease, lameness, and reproductive problems that render cows worthless to the dairy industry by the time they are four or five years old, at which time they are sent to the slaughterhouse. Cows would naturally make only enough milk to meet the needs of their calves (around 16 pounds a day), genetic manipulation, antibiotics, and hormones are used to force each cow to produce more than 18,000 pounds of milk a year (an average of 50 pounds a day). "
   
   Few consumers realize that veal is a direct by-product of the dairy industry. In order for dairy cows to produce milk, they must be impregnated. While female calves are slaughtered or added to the dairy herd, many male calves are taken from their mothers when they are as young as one day old and chained in tiny stalls to be raised for veal. The confinement is so extreme that they cannot even turn around or lie down comfortably. As author John Robbins notes, "The veal calf would actually have more space if, instead of chaining him in such a stall, you stuffed him into the trunk of a subcompact car and kept him there for his entire life."
   
   Choosing to go vegetarian wasn't that difficult for me. Choosing to go vegan was a lot harder. It isn't convenient but I do believe I eat a better and healthier diet than before. These two quotes along with the video I linked to above really helped push me over the edge in making a change in my diet.
   
   ?Choosing to go vegetarian is simply a matter of living according to the values so many of us hold dear, such as being fair and kind to others. Most people would never dream of cramming up to 11 egg-laying hens into a file drawer-sized cage, ripping the testicles out of a screaming baby piglet, or cutting the throat of a cow as she stares back at you with her big brown eyes. How then, as compassionate individuals, can we justify paying others to carry out these atrocities on our behalf?"
   
   "The average vegetarian saves the lives of approximately 95 animals each year. That adds up to thousands during a lifetime. Every time we eat, we are making a powerful choice that has profound consequences on the lives of animals. At each meal, we make a decision between supporting cruelty or living compassionately."
   
   Lastly my husband and I have a wonderful collection of vegan cookbooks. There are a lot of resources that make such a diet very practical.

5 comments about The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life.

1. I have been in the personal development field for over forty years. This is THE best book I have ever read in the field. It is life-transforming.The authors guide us with clear information and tools that anyone can use to guarantee success.
   It's an instant classic on the level of Think and Grow Rich, the all-time best-selling self-help book.
   
   Bruce Tredinnick



2. This is not only a very good read, it is also a excellent source of helpful guidance. A modern day combination of The Power of Positive Thinking, and so many other self help books of the past, this one adds a few new wrinkles that will make the purchase price a mere pitance when compared to the benefits derived from reading this book.



3. Before I get into discussing this book I would like to tell a bit of a personal story relating to this book. It is a story that hopefully might even make the book even more interesting to prospective readers. To relate this story to you will make my review a good bit longer than normal, but please bear with me because this story really does have to do with what's in this book...
   
   Last year I watched the international phenomenon, The Secret, which has swept the globe with its message: "Everything that you have, make or do happens because of your thoughts. Everything that happens to you, whether you wanted it to happen or not, was attracted to you by your subconscious mind. This is known as the Law of Attraction. If you want to have a better life, use the Law of Attraction to your benefit."
   
   What The Secret was putting out there was that we are responsible for our own conditions but we need to align what we want in life with our subconscious before we can truly change.
   
   I took this in as positive thinking, as a "philosophy", so to speak but I decided to give the Law of Attraction a try. But after putting a small amount of effort into its practice by trying to manifest some small things - a second trip to Egypt in the same year, an interview in a newspaper, etc., I found the Law of Attraction to be rather true in my life. Thus with no more guidance than the information in that film I started experimenting with one of my businesses last year, a business that hadn't been faring too well in the recent past. To my joy this business turned around and doubled in size within ten months. I then used the same principles to find my sweetheart and in a matter of weeks I found a wonderful girl, just as I had imagined her to be even before I knew her. And after that I turned my attention to a second business I had in December of 2007 and now it is double the size that it was when I started using these principles.
   
   In the course of all of this I moved to Bangkok, Thailand, from Saigon, Vietnam. In Bangkok I have met many new and very interesting people. One day I was called out of the blue by a friend I hadn't seen in a while. She asked me to come to a showing of The Secret which was being held by a Belgian man named Guy, who was interested in the Law of Attraction. I dropped everything I was doing that Sunday and came to the showing. I came not so much to see the movie again, although that was a side benefit, but I really was interested to meet people who were using these principles in their lives so that I could compare notes and see how this was working in their lives. I was there to offer my experiences and to gain from others. Guy and I with another Belgian, Chris, formed our own monthly meeting group.
   
   But something had always bothered me about The Secret: It wasn't enough. I felt like the information in The Secret was more of an advertisement than a practical way of doing things. I decided to focus on finding a guide, a teacher who could take me further into the nitty gritty of how we should use these principles to improve our lives on a day-to-day basis. I decided to "intend" a teacher to come into my life - a teacher who could show me both a much deeper understanding of what I was doing as well as how to use these principles in a practical way.
   
   Two days after I made the intention of finding my teacher came the e-mail from Norm Goldman of BookPleasures.com. The public relations firm representing John Assaraf and Murray Smith was requesting a review of their new book, The Answer.
   
   Recognizing John Assaraf's name from The Secret immediately, I jumped at the chance to review this book.
   
   Coincidence? Stay with me. My story about this book doesn't end there.
   
   I remembered John Assaraf's name especially for two reasons: First, one of the most poignant scenes in The Secret is when his six year old son finds a five year old vision board in a corrugated moving carton. In explaining to his son the purpose of this vision board John realized that the perfect home he'd wished for five years earlier was exactly the home he was living in at that time! (This amazing and thought provoking story is well covered in both the film and book versions of The Secret as well as in John's book The Answer, so I won't go into great detail about the matter).
   
   The second reason I remembered John Assaraf's name is because it reminded me of a friend who I was trying to reach and had decided some time ago to find out about. At university I had a friend named Marc Assaraf. So the day the advance reading copy of The Answer arrived in my office in Bangkok I checked John and Murray's website for their One Coach business and I e-mailed John asking him whether he would be interested in helping me with any questions I had about the book (he responded that he would). But at the end of the e-mail I asked whether, just by chance, he had ever heard of someone named Marc Assaraf. It turned out that Marc Assaraf was John's own brother!
   
   From my point of view, I could take this situation for a very, very wild coincidence, or I could take it that my receiving John's and Murray's book was a convergence of two intentions that I had clearly stated and wanted the manifestation of. Both answer could not be true.
   
   To make matters even more "coincidental", the very day that I finished reading The Answer I received an e-mail from Chet Holmes inviting me to a conference call with none other than John Assaraf. I opened this e-mail less than one hour after finishing the last page of this amazing book!
   
   Needless to say, this was a conference call that I participated in and gained much from.
   
   The Answer is a well written book that explains exactly how such a "coincidence" occurs. At least in the first half of the book it does.
   
   In the first chapters John Assaraf explains scientifically how your mind and mine are connected to the world through our subconscious and how we can change the poor results we have been getting, whether it be relationships, financial, professional, etc. I really have to admit that when I first opened the book I felt a bit strange reading all about the science behind this. What I was looking for was the quick, practical tips that would help me to better use the principles of the Law of Attraction. (John Assaraf prefers to use "Law of Resonance"). By the middle of the book all of John's painstaking research that he shared made sense - John put all of his findings in so that we'd know exactly the whys of the how to make the changes in our lives. Don't get me wrong, I was not saying that the first part of the book was not interesting. Just the contrary, it was extremely interesting. I didn't see its necessity until later in the book when it all came together and then it all came clear.
   
   John's long-time friend and business partner Murray Smith took the latter part of the book where he gave advice on how to determine where you might be in your business and where you want to go (some of this was covered in John's section of the book, though the two authors were coming from slightly different angles). Murray then gave some excellent tools for both entrepreneurs as well as people who worked for others to be able to use in order to turn their businesses around and to guide the reader on how reach their goals. Both Murray Smith and John Assaraf gave many examples of how their clients had discovered where they had been going wrong and turned their businesses and organizations around. There are also plenty of practical resources in this book for the reader to use immediately.
   
   Trust me. If you want to enrich your life or change something in your business in any meaningful way then read this book. Devour it. Digest it. Once you have read The Answer of course you can draw your own conclusions on what these guys are saying. But I am willing to bet that if you follow their advice you will feel like magic has come into the way you do things. Planning becomes fun and effortless. You will see doors opening for you that before were not just only closed - some of the doors weren't even there! Take it from me: You have nothing to lose and so much to gain by using Murray's and John's advice. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know how to get more out of their life.



4. This is a phenomenal once-in-a lifetime read that will positively impact your life's trajectory, lending you the tools, resources, and tips you need to become a mega-successful entrepreneur.



5. The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life A well balanced and crafted book. I have read books now by most the participants of the Secret and I believe that this one is the best. I say this becasue it carries you all the way through without dropping you. It is clear practical and spiritual but not in a flaky way. Buy and enjoy, it has the ingredients to 'do what it says on the tin'. Good information from and by guys who have succeeded and continue to succceed.
   
   Dublin Ireland

5 comments about Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life.

1. This book was recommended to my from my Real Estate Office. Being in a business that see's change frequently this book really provides a birds eye view of the thought process in dealing with change. It does not tell you how to do things or specify in any fields but rather sparks the notes neccessary on how to relate this to your own life! I hope my wife reads this too!



2. A short easy listen giving great insight on what happens if you fight change. I for one had difficulty accepting changes that I didn't want, this book presented a new perspective and insight.



3. The book is a quick read and reread. A good reminder of how we MUST flow with change in our lives.



4. I am grateful to all the reviewers that tried to save money and anxiety and anger for other people or potential readers of this book, by advising against buying it. I find all such comments are very interesting and very inspiring, which are elements you would never find in this book. In particular, I am grateful to the review entitled Show Me the Cheese by Bruce Silveman. It is such a wonderful review which should be published by major newspapers like New York Times and Washington Post. And we can read here for free! This book is an attempt to trash our culture, to put everything valuable we inherited from the past in a dumpster and sell some real garbage as the latest invention of once in a life time. This book and many other books such as the Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Shack, and the book insults God which I don't want to mention here, are all part of effort to show that man can be better off by themselves without the divine guidance of Jesus. Everything in the Western society in the last two hundred years are part of the development of that ideology. Just wait, you will read things worse than this!



5. Forget the little red book by Mao, We have a new mind numbing, thought control written device out there pushed among the working class. As it has been stated before..it truly is sobering that an American of any socio-economic status, level of wealth or educational background would be INSPIRED by this corporate tripe. Here's a thought for the cheese heads out there, has it occurred to you to move the " cheese provider " out of the picture and therefore the total dependence maze?..make your own cheese on further discovery out from the maze that was made specifically to control you? OR...perish the thought...maybe have more choices in your actual consumption other than cheese?
   
   I understand that the book only addresses the need for accepting change but doesn't one's thoughts automatically leap to then who is the change maker?? Part of my offense to this little book is it's simplistic approach to life modifying decisions by OTHERS. Stepping back however, this book speaks volumes for the contempt corporate America has for redefining intelligent thought, decent & breaking linear either/or thinking, coupled with a current generation that turns out more votes for some lounge singer element on TV than in some civic elections in this nation. Unbelievable

5 comments about Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.

1. Mr. Gladwell is very talented. He certainly did his homework on this one. At the end of the book though I was left wondering, "Okay...so what is the conclusion?" The book came to a rather abrupt ending and I couldn't tell if the author was for or against snap judgments.
   
   My biggest disappointment is that there was no warning regarding explicit language. I was listening to this work on CD with my young daughters in the car when all of a sudden he starts using profane words in an effort to quote others. Was it necessary to include such language?



2. one of he cd ()no 2
   was dameged and in no shape for playing
   its ashame i am not pleased at all
   
   DR mishali moshe



3. Gladwell is a writer for the New Yorker so it's not surprising that this entire book could have been summed up in an article. Gladwell basically says we should follow our instinct and concludes at the end that we shouldn't be judgemental at the same time. Wow, what insight! He gives some interesting examples which are what I enjoyed. It's a quick read though so you won't waste too much time even though the book is a little drawn out.



4. Like the reviewer who posted just before me, I also thought the book could have made an excellent article. You can certainly skip around in this book and get the point of it. I forced myself to read the whole book even though I lost interest maybe halfway or 2/3 of the way through because the author seemed to be just supporting his main idea with more and more examples. I thought I should force myself to read the whole book in case I missed some amazing new insights, but there was nothing new in it. I enjoyed the examples though, which is why I give this book 3 stars. All in all it was truly mediocre at best.



5. Blink has changed the way I think about decision-making. From an early age we are discouraged from making "snap" decisions, we are not taught to develop our natural instincts. While some snap decisions can be mistakes, if we tune up our "gut" feelings, it may be possible to make excellent decisions based on limited information and time constraints. Gladwell calls this "thin-slicing" and make no mistake about it - it is a SKILL that must be cultivated.
   
   In a nutshell, thin-slicing is defined as "the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behaviors based on very narrow slices of experience." The most fascinating part to me is just that - as a human being, we do have this capability. If you're like me, you do a significant amount of second-guessing, and that is where the trouble starts. We have the instincts inside of us, our brains are powerful tools - more powerful than the most sophisticated computer, they tell us, right? So why do we not trust ourselves?
   
   To be honest, the book started out great with some fascinating examples of thin-slicing and adaptive unconscious (the part of the brain that leaps to conclusions and is capable of making very quick decisions based on very little information). Towards the end I felt like it was just the same information over and over again. I got the gist of it all in the first couple of chapters. Many reviewers here indicated that it could have been an article instead of a book, but I understand why it is a book: Books are taken seriously, are reviewed, are cited, and are easy to find after publication.
   
   Blink is worth the read, even if you only skim a few parts, if only to get you thinking differently about the way we make decisions.

No comments about Money, and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Wealth, Health, and Happiness.

5 comments about You Can Heal Your Life (Gift Edition).

1. I got this audio book very fast and it was in excellent condition. Thanks a lot.
   
   Take Care
   Have Fun
   B.L.Morgan



2. I just finished YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE by Louise Hay and would recommend that you
   get the print version, if just to see the beautiful work of artist
   Joan Perrin Falquet . . . it will increase you enjoyment of this
   bestselling self-help book that was written many years before
   THE SECRET became such a success.
   
   One other recommendation: Skim the book first . . . then read
   the chapter, toward the end, where Hay tells her life story . . . it
   will put things in perspective and show you that she really
   puts into practice what she writes about ; e.g., in this passage:
   
   * We need to choose to release the past and forgive everyone, ourselves
   included. We may not know how to forgive, and we may not want to forgive,
   but the very fact that we say we are willing to forgive begins the healing
   process. It is imperative for our own healing that "we" release the past
   and forgive everyone.
   
   I found myself reading and agreeing with just about everything
   the author wrote . . . but perhaps my favorite part was her list
   of ailments and the emotional causes for each, along with an
   affirmation to help overcome the illness . . . she recommends
   you follow this four-step approach whenever you have a physical
   problem:
   
   * 1. Look up the mental cause. See if this could be true for you. If not,
   sit quietly and ask yourself, "What could be the thoughts in me that
   created this?"
   
   2. Repeat to yourself, "I am willing to release the pattern in my
   consciousness that has created this condition."
   
   3. Repeat the new thought pattern to yourself several times.
   
   4. Assume that you are already in the process of healing.
   
   Whenever you think of the condition, repeat the steps.
   
   So, for instance, when it comes to multiple sclerosis:
   
   * The probable cause is "mental hardness, hard-heartedness,
   iron will, and inflexibility." The healing "thought pattern" would
   involve saying this aloud: "By choosing loving, joyous thoughts,
   I create a loving joyous world. I am safe and fee."
   
   The concept may seem far-fetched to some, yet if you are
   ready to accept what Louise Hay has to offer, it may well
   work for you. Do give it a try.



3. I obviously have a different view of Western Medicine than the major rebuttal against Ms. Hay's book. Several years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer and given less than six months to live. When I walked out the door of my Dr. office, I never looked back, nor did I ever return for further treatment. As I write these words several years after the fact (and in good health) my decision was to walk away from Western Medicine, and the hegemony it asserts over our lives.
   
   Afterword, I embarked on another journey by accepting responsibility for my own healing. I travelled to remote corners of the world and worked with indigenous healers, sages, and holy men and women; I began to explore the mystery of spiritual healing that Ms. Hay advocates on behalf of.
   
   At the point I walked away from the Western 'box' so common in our contemporary moment, I also walked away from my fear based belief system. Death will eventually come for all of us. None of us will escape it. It is also nothing to fear as we are eternal beings.
   
   The main rebuttal against this book is mired not only in the fear of death, but also of the fear of a fully embodied life. It fears responsibility for the underlying causes of disease. It fears change, and it fears transformational outcomes. Its primary belief is that health is the sole domain of medical science, and that our life choices do not contribute to our condition.
   
   Now, here is a secret the medical establishment wants kept under wraps, but with indigenous healers, and spiritual healers (or spiritual knowledge that leads to healing) is that healing is an inside job. Once a healing is introduced, the subject has to also change the life style choices that led to the health dysfunction; if the subject returns to the old habits, the condition will return too. Spiritual healing does not offer a magic bullet, it provides another chance to change. The change is up to the person undergoing the problem. If the courage to change is weakened, so to will the healing be reversed or rendered illegitimate.
   
   The aim of spiritual healing is to transform the underlying causes. And the only savior you will find in this process is oneself. This is the prime focus of Hay's work.
   
   In the final analysis, only you can decide which direction to go. No one can do it for you. The only one you can save is yourself!



4. Although I looked at this book from a skeptic perspective because of all the ideas of our thoughts creating our reality, etc, I could not help but be inspired by Louise. She seems to just basically live a simple life and find happiness within herself, and always emphasizes that we can also be like this, and everyone deserves to be loved for the person that they are. I am definitely going to try some of her tips.
   Some of the ideas about diseases being caused by negative thinking were a little hard to swallow. For instance, cancer and other ailments are supposed to be caused by all these pent up feelings and unforgiveness that we have bottled up...it is just a little hard for me to understand how a newborn could be born with a disease or a small child could get a disease. It's possible that there is more to it though than what is discussed in the book. I definitely think you should give some of her ideas a try, because just hearing Louise or reading her words and seeing what a difference she has made in people's lives is enough to show that she must be doing something right.



5. I am so glad to finally find something that resonates with me and what I have always believed in my being but did not have the words to convey. Thank you Louise for bringing this to the world.

5 comments about The Secret.

1. If you are the sort of person who thinks it rains because you are in a bad mood, and not the other way round, this book might be for you.
   
   If you are the sort of person who thinks the sun orbits the earth, this book might be for you.
   
   If you think the earth revolves around you, this book is probably for you.
   
   Thought experiment: I know the secret. You know the secret. We both want to win the race. Who gets it? If said whoever wanted it more, you probably already read this stupid, stupid book for stupid, stupid people.



2. The first step to your own personal evolution. The truth about who and what you are and how you can make the most of your present day position.



3. "The Secret" is fine for anyone who never read anything about this subject, or had a training or anything at all. It is basic. But didn't teach me anything new.



4. The title sums it all. 'The Secret' is revealed in the first few pages of the book and the rest of the book just elaborates on 'The Secret'.
   
   You become what you think so think positively, act positively, entertain positive emotions and curtail negative ones. If you want to live happily, think about being happy, if you want wealth think about it, if you want good health think about being healthy and the list goes on and on....The placebo effect is given utmost importance.
   
   If a storm or a natural calamity kills masses, it's because of their thinking which happened to be negative in some capacity, totally unknown to them - Give me a break!
   
   Abundance is the way to go. The book advocates 'Giving' but undermines 'Sacrifice'. Because, 'Giving' indicates prosperity and abundance and 'Sacrifice' indicates poverty. A tremendous let down to conventional religious patrons.
   
   The book might be helpful if you are in deep distress but fails to impress any sane rational thinker. The author tries to substantiate her holistic approach through some quantum mechanics etc but doesn't do a good a job. If you become what you think and you think positive about yourself and 10 others think negatively about yourself. What happens then? What if 100 or 1000 think negatively about yourself. Are the effects totally and utterly negated against you? If you don't want to think much and just want some 'feel good' philosophy, then this book is for you and you will probably enjoy it.



5. Loved this book... great life examples. Teaches you how to view life in an optimistic way and in turn get the things you really want. I highly recommend.

5 comments about The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.

1. There are no words that could describe this book! It's the most meaningful and the most important book for your soul/Being/life after the Bible! An absolute must for your awakening! Make sure you get and read the other books by Eckhart Tolle after this one, especially "The New Earth..." !!!!!!!



2. xcellent book,i bought this for my daughter after her baby was stillborn and she found it helpful



3. Words fail to describe what the time spent with The Power of Now has meant to me but I'll try. This book became my guide to a place that allowed me to tie together everything in my life and brought me to peace at a time of huge turmoil and really for the first time in my life. My spiritual beliefs also were brought into focus and made stronger. I have purchased copies of this book for some of my friends who were on their way to enlightenment and they too are finding a way peace that they have never had. You won't be sorry for the time you spend with this book.



4. Don't know what Oprah is thinking about the ability of the author's words to inspire. I found it practically unreadable but laced here and there with some truthful generalities. I'd say Eckhardt Tolle has found a self-help formula that chooses gibbberish words from columns A and B that sells books. I purchased the book to take on a trip. Unable to stay with it, I even tried moving forward and finally gave up.



5. Of Course Eckhart is my favorite, I just cannot read enough of his books. They have really helped me change my thinking and stop to enjoy life. This is a living 101 book all should read.

5 comments about The Last Lecture.

1. Although I had expected a print version of the Pausch live last lecture, this little book of uplifting life lessons was a surprise and equally inspiring. I have suggested it for my book club during a season when we are otherwise busy and need a quick read.



2. I am an eight year cancer survivor and was deeply moved by Randy Pausch's You Tube lecture, as well as this book. Randy gets personal and shares what I feel are invaluable life lessons that we all should live by, whether we are terminally ill or not. It is all about attitude and choices. All ages need to read. It puts your life in perspective. I believe that kids can really see what their future could be as workers, professionals, parents, etc. and what they can pass on to their kids.... I buy this book for friends that are graduating, retiring, etc. I plan on recommending to our school system to be required reading... My prayers are with Randy and his precious family, as I know what a cancer diagnosis can bring. My husband lost his first wife from cancer and his kids were 9 and 13 at the time. Life is a gift. Live in the present and use your gifts to the fullest.



3. Randy Pausch is so inspiring. I think everyone should read this book. If the world followed his philosophy what a great, positive and happier place the world would be. If I am ever faced with a terminal illness I hope I can be 1/10 as positive as he is.



4. Randy Pausch is an incredible human being. Most people faced with his diagnosis would sink into a big pit of self pity. He was amazing before he became infamous with his Last Lecture and even more so now. This book (and his actual lecture) will put your life in perspective. This book provides a little insight to one of the world's true role models. We should all strive to be like him. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. He'll have you laughing through your tears and leave you going WOW!



5. I tried very hard to like this little book. I instinctively appreciate Randy and feel sorrow for his plight. He gives the impression as being very much an honorable guy, a good father and the college professor I never had but always wanted. Nonetheless, the book seems to be written for the simple of mind. Perhaps a life with college students had given Randy a fondness for straightforward homilies. There was nothing in the book that is either fresh or profound. The insights presented are Hollywood superficial.
   
   The book's constant regressing to Disney, Star Wars, and Star Trek may be attractive to the college student. However, finding weighty insights from the ethos of a Jedi is an effort in futility. The book does give some comprehensible perceptions of the popular academic culture. Through analysis the book shows that the superficial and fallacies of concept of the Hollywood culture can be misconstrued as being full of deep and profound meaning. That being said, there are those that need such metaphors for a life's anchor and for those this book is ideally suited.
   
   I hope nothing but the best for Randy and his family. If the reader is looking for a light book that reads like a screen play and isn't too mentally tasking than this is the book for them. If on the other hand the desire is for a profound and penetrating analysis of life's lessons and the meaning of existence than the reader will be disappointed.

5 comments about A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61).

1. I avoided reading this book at first, thinking it would just be more of the same, on the heels of The Power of Now. Then clients in my therapy practice started quoting it. Eckhart's talk about the ego seems to help men, in particular, to find a language that is comfortable for them in grappling with life issues. Then the book was handed to me by a friend who was passing them out at a birthday dinner. I really loved reading it. I enjoyed reading a few pages a day, and letting it sink in. It has been critiqued as a repackaging of ancient wisdom which we've all heard already from other sources. I agree with that idea to a point. Another perspective I have is that it is ancient wisdom in a fresh package. It was quite a joy to read. It is a true gift, and I am glad that Oprah is promoting it.



2. If this book doesn't change your outlook on life, nothing will. I bought the book and the audiobook, but if you're deciding between the two, I recommend the audiobook. It's read by the author and his warm and friendly voice, tone, and inflection really helped me absorb his powerful lessons.



3. "A New Earth" offers unique insights into suffering and the way to peace. Much of the material relates to a Buddhist perspective but the message is universal. Unlike his previous book "The Power of Now," which was focused strictly on personal transformation, this book takes a broader perspective. This book is about transforming the self and the world.
   
   The message can be life-changing with insights on suffering, peace, beauty and social interaction. A must-read for a broad perspective on suffering and peace.
   
   Another book that you have to read is "Nexus: A Neo Novel." "Nexus" offers an experiential story of suffering, and finding love and peace.



4. In short: traditional Catholic spirituality rewritten in the current vocabulary. The evidence?
   Eckhart Tolle (pg.225): (1) non-resistance (2) non-judgment, (3) non-attachment
   Ignatian Banners of Christ (in the Spiritual Exercises) (1) vulnerability (2) humility (3) poverty
   Or take Eckart's sense of Presence and the Now. Here's a quote from "The Sacrament of the Present Moment" by Jean Pierre Caussade, a humble eighteenth century priest
   " And so we leave God to act in everything, reserving for ourselves only love and obedience to the present moment. For this is our eternal duty. This compelling love, steeped in silence, is required of every soul...Pure, simple and sure, it is a straight path along which souls walk with courage and faith, looking neither to the right nor to the left, unconcerned with everything else. "
   Or page 78 in "A New Earth" "This is why we call it Presence. The ultimate purpose of human existence, which is to say, your purpose, is to bring that power into this world." Isn't this a rephrasing of what it means to be in Christ? To be alive with the Holy Spirit in Christ? There are many such examples.
   What is strange is Eckhart's explicit anti-Catholicism. On page 70, for example, he draws a parallel between the Catholic Church, in the first paragraph, and Pol Pot, in the second. I didn't uncover any of his own opinions which seemed at odds with Catholic tradition, although there is much that is missing - and vital - a concern with social justice being chief here, or a respect for the discipline of communal life.
   I would say that the Catholic antidote to the ego is living in a web of relationships which we call community, where we learn to respond to God's love in the present moment. Eckhart Tolle's antidote to ego seems to be rather more solitary and less loving.



5. I said once in an essay that I've spent my life preparing for destiny and not much wading through the sands of it. I meant I'd spent all my energy searching and gobbling up hoards of incessant words and thoughts of someone I thought had more of an insight than I was capable of coming up with, gurus' books and self help outlines.
   Finally, jaded with definitions of ego and managing thought patterns, I find the books no longer hold my attention.
   I did read A New Earth, disregarding my 25 page rule (if a book doesn't do anything for you in the first 25 pages, discard it) because I didn't want to miss anything so highly advertised.
   I found a few nuggets. Something can be gleaned from almost all books, and this one does trigger an awareness of the present moment and being, even if all of it doesn't resonate.
   "The more shared past there is in a relationship, the more present you need to be; otherwise, you will be forced to relive the past again and again."
   "Being one with life you realize you don't live your life, life lives you. Life is the dancer, we are the dance."
   "When you shift from thinking to awareness, an intelligence begins to operate in your life."
   "Your personal history which is no more than a story, a bundle of thoughts and emotions, no longer forms the basis of your identity. You are being, an awareness that is prior to and deeper than thought and emotion."
   "The greater part of most people's thinking is involuntary, automatic, and repetitive... mental static. Thinking happens to you."
   "If you are content with being nobody in particular..., you align yourself with the power of the universe."
   "Non-resistance, non-judgment, and non-attachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living."
   "Nothing ever happened in the past that can prevent you from being present now; and if the past cannot prevent you from being present now, what power does it have?"
   The story of the math professor's surrender to severe limitation was touching and toward the end, Three Modalities made sense.
   But overall, I found the book complex and parts even offensive: the pain-body feeds on negative thoughts and awakens hungry when it is time to replenish, a psychic parasite.
   "The Return of the Pain-Body" chapter sounds like it was extracted from some old time religion evangelist's sermon about demons.
   Simply stating, you might say that what psychiatrists define as ego is just varying degrees of sensitivity. It seems that those suffering less from thoughts and emotions are those who are less conscious.
   Tolle says there are no random events, that causes are virtually infinite. How can anyone be sure of that?
   The book is alarmingly narcissist, as it deals only with the first person in lieu of what you can do for other people, which in my opinion, is the simple key to a healthy mind.
   By all means, give it a try, but you might take the author's own advice, "Don't seek the truth. Just cease to cherish opinions."
   When you delve into 300 pages of trying to treat the symptoms and not the cause, you start meeting yourself coming, start sounding contradictory.
   For every thousand words that mean nothing to us, are a few carefully chosen ones that through the writer's intelligence and skill inspire us to great heights. Recommend: The Thrill of Hope, Concepts to Ponder. Amazon.com
   The bottom line is that this is my opinion and response. Everyone has one.