Review: A guide for cult leaders on the best way to deliver propaganda
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 31, 2014
This book describes how people can focus their lives around obtaining their desires. But Beware the message may not be what you think it is.In some ways this book lures people into danger, but critical thinking will save you from falling into the trap. For instance when the author tells us there is no fear in love:"We have the choice. We can choose to live in fear or we can choose to live in love. Encouragement is about believing the best -- of ourselves, of others, of life."While no one should go around being afraid all the time, fear is an instinct that should not be ignored. If you are afraid there is a reason for the fear. Fear should make you flee the situation you are in. Many people have found themselves in dangerous situations because they "believed the best ..." about others, even when the best was not there.The author tells us: "To believe for the best is to choose to believe that God is good and that what He does is good."Excuse me but God creates bad and good and has given us free will to mediate reality. When someone tries to tell you everything is good, they are trying to manipulate you, and this is dangerous. Alarm bells and red flags should ring whenever anyone tells you what to think or how to react - because this means they are trying to program your responses and behaviors. The author states a lot of warm fuzzy truisms comparing Fear and Love, but it seems as if the author's intention is to lull readers into a trap by telling them not to listen to fear. Fear needs to be heard and dealt with before the trap closes.Protect yourself and your family. Read between the lines. Do not blindly believe. Doubt, analyze and think for yourself.  All the abundance books use the same formula: State some truisms that make people feel good, then state the brainwash you want people to believe, next quote famous brilliant people to support your arguments/positions. You don't have to believe me, read a couple books about abundance and analyze them for yourself.Next comes the section titled "Finding Serenity in Seasons of stress" where we are told serenity is a choice.  The author tells us that "Choices are the hinges of destiny." And other truisms that make us feel good.Next comes the chapter about "Wisdom of the body"  in which the author borrows quotes from the respected transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson and says some true things about the body's healing power.  After many winding, twisted paragraphs the author concludes with an untrustworthy manipulative statement:"The whole course of things goes to teach us faith. We need only obey. There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word."Obey who? Who is the author telling us to obey? An unnamed person, a cult leader, God, your controller? Obedience can be a dangerous thing if bad people are trying to get you to obey them. lowly listening? What is that? It's probably a keyword that was previously introduced by a cult leader. Lowley listening is humble listening. Cult leaders emphasize that you should be humble which can make you easier to control.Then follows a chapter on "Savoring every breath" which repeats what authorities have taught about the profound qualities of breath and the effect of breathing on our body mind and spirit.There are many more chapters that borrow the wisdom of other teachers and philosophies, transcendentalists, Buddhists, Hindus, Yogins, etc. This book may be worth reading for the introduction to many spiritual leaders, and scientists who are quoted, especially if you have never been exposed to them before.Throughout the book, we read feel good statements like:"Abundance is... a meadow full of wildflowers." I agree this is true abundance but then halfway through the book abundance changes to money : "Abundance is... money to cover the bills when you don't know where the money is coming from."Just as I feared when I read the title of this book, the author is suggesting that people lust after money. Who would do such a thing? Someone wants to enslave people through money and brainwash us into lusting for abundance.The real truth is: Desire is a trap. If you desire things, then desire will control your life. You will have to make money to get things, get credit cards and debt to obtain things. You will need more and more space to keep your things in. You will have to spend more and more time maintaining your things: moving, storing and cleaning things you thought you needed. Then you are trapped. Enslavement to possessions and debt is a trap. Then the lender can/will come to collect a debt/favor when you can't pay.Then the book switches back to "I say yes to life." And more feel good quotes from famous people. The author cleverly wraps the desire for a good life in desires for money and wealth, but having more things and more debt is really enslavement.  Some of the statements in this book are profound and enlightening, but some of the statements lead to enslavement=debt.Another enslaving/brainwashing quote is by Albert Schweitzer:"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."The operative/manipulative  phrase in the quote "the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve"Repeating and believing the Schweitzer quote above might be used to manipulate people into providing free labor. In fact I have personally heard a cult leader use such statements/manipulations to keep his followers busy to the point of daily exhaustion. (One sign of a cult is workers/followers who are constantly kept in a state of exhaustion.)The message is couched in some beautiful expressions, but desire is a dangerous, ugly trap we all should try to avoid. Read the table of contents to see the other warm fuzzy words used to disguise the real message of this book: abundance > greed > debt = enslavement. This book is well written propaganda.