The Paradox of Magic

Okay, perhaps not really a paradox but still. Here goes: it is a common knowledge that candles, rituals, spells, sigils, etc. are just techniques for focusing your mind. If you are not able to focus your mind no amount of candles burnt is going to help you. I agree. But then… if it is all in the mind, why on earth do you need candles and other paraphernalia? Anyway, to me it’s a paradox. I think that one must be able to focus without paraphernalia. But then it might help the majority, I don’t know. I certainly don’t seem to fit into any category that is designed for majority.

That is why I was always attracted to techniques that involve pure mind power. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy burning candles and performing some spells, but deep down… I don’t believe. I try to treat it as a fun game though, as I know you should. Maybe that’s why my spells failed… so far.

I experimented with pranic healing a little bit and I achieved some results. I think practice is the key here.

I also practice some yoga, especially raja-yoga that is pure mind-power. They don’t need any accessories.

I find lots of parallels between raja-yoga and magic. I think the key to mastering magic proper (magic of results vs. ceremonial magic) is to practice certain techniques of concentration. Concentration and focus seem to be the key.

More stuff

So that was just a quick list that I composed on the fly. I am sure there were more books that I just don’t remember. But that does not mean this is the end of discussion. Like I mentioned earlier, this New-Age “mind-stuff” is now a full grown internet market and it’s hard to pass a month without bumping by accident in one of these self-improvement stuff.

There are even sites that would sell you a loadfull of this kind of crap (like 200 books). One might to wonder if you have to read that many books how can they possibly help?Seems like one or two should be enough.

I just got through my files and got a bit confused. I cannot find copies on my computers meaning that I just typed them directly into the wordpress. But anyway.

I used to subscribe to a lot of stuff on self-improvement and I even bought a couple of books or whatever. None of them was particularly good. But I’ll keep it for another post. Or not. We’ll see.

The Secret

And now, ladies and gentlemen, what you’ve been waiting for. The Secret.

I assume you know what this book and movie are about. If not, let be briefly sum it up. The so-called secret is the law of attraction which states that you attract what you most focus on.

So why did the book become so famous? Well, several reasons, actually. It’s written and marketed in a style that especially appeals to the masses, it is a veritable McDonalds of self-improvement theme. The profound ideas presented in a very crude form to the extent that the author herself becomes confused and explains global disasters by reasoning that people must somehow attracted those. Then, she is not even able to distinguish a cause from reason. The so-called “teachers” are all famous self-improvement “gurus” (I hate this word) who are making money by selling gullible audience their stuff.

The Secret beget the whole industry of New Age self-improvement market. Same stuff served with different flavours and presented as overpriced hype. My advice is to stay away from those. The testimonials are most likely faked, heck, I will write a testimonial if they pay me enough. Not here on this blog though.

The List Continued

Ok, I remembered a few more books.

Claude M. Bristol. The Magic of Believing. It’s so-and-so book. Like you might read it once and forget about it. It contains the usual techniques (once you are familiar with them, it’s harder to find something you like) an lots of “miracle” stories that I don’t care much about anymore. It’s okay but there are much better books on the subject.

Charles F. Haanel.The Master Key System. Arhhh, I was browsing through Amazon.com and saw this piece of crap and it reminded me… ‘thanks to The Secret (review for THIS is coming later, don’t worry). I actually read the whole darn thing and tried to practice the meditations. Needless to say, they didn’t work. The language and style are atrocious (I really don’t think it’s just old-fashioned, I can allow for that but I think it’s just plain bad writing). Avoid it like the plague, don’t let the title fool you. It is the master key to how NOT to write self-improvement books.

Wallace D. Wattles. The Science of Getting Rich. Another worthless piece of junk that i wasted my time trying to understand. Now I know of course that if you don’t like the book from the beginning, don’t bother to read the rest. Anyway the title is presumptuous and does not live to its promise: there is no science to getting rich. The basic idea is the same: imagine yourself rich and you will be. And if you are not, than “you did not believe enough” or some such rubbish. I am always surprised how crap like this gets sush raving reviews.

So by now we hopefully lost all the fans of Wattles and his ilk and if you are still reading it means that you tastes are at least somewhat similar to mine. Other this or you like my style. So to continue

Genevieve Behrend. Your Invisible Power. Here is the example of old-fashioned but at least it is written by somebody who tried. It’s now funny how I thought these book might be better than the modern versions. They are not. Well, at least this one is not so irritating as others. It is, like other, a one-time read if you are patient and curious.

While we are having fun with this I will mention

The List of Books

I was not sure whether to write a separate post for each book or just make a single list. I decided for the latter as it’s been a while since i read most of these books and i don;t remember lots of details.

Shakti Gawain. Creative Visualization. My first (I think) book on the subject. It gives you very basic ideas what it’s all about. There are also some basic but good techniques. As you probably know by now the idea behind creative visualization is to imagine stuff that you want to happen as it has already happen. Of course it’s easier said than done so that’s why there is a whole industry exists all based around this concept.

Ophiel. Creative Visualization. Another good book that gives you solid basics. I’d actually recommend Ophiel over Gawain as an intro to the subject but that is my preference. It explains a little bit more in detail the elements of a successful visualization. Ophiel’s style is a bit unusual, very conversational but I like it. For example he is the one to recognize that it the middle-class people rather than the poor that have most trouble with visualization.

Jason Augustus Newcomb. The New Hermetics. Well, this one has a magical spin on the subject. Personally, I did not like it and I did not care for his style. The book is written like some step by step manual rather than explaining the basic principles. The steps are all repetitive and are based on traditional ceremonial magic of Crowley and his ilk. He just changed the names and trappings of the basic rituals. There are no stories to keep you interested. B-o-r-i-n-g!

Well, that’s all I could think of for today. Stay tunes as I am going to share more recommendations and reviews. I’ve got lots of ideas for this blog.

Visualization

I became interested in different mind techniques of which self-improvement is a big branch. It’s not that much different from magic, common principle being that they both use the power of the mind.

Well, the repeating theme in all the books and teachings seems to be the use of creative visualization. The power of imagination. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Most people had their ability to imagine things (or should we say, to imagine deliberately?) in the very early age as a result of subconscious social programming. The irony of course is that these are the people who are interested in this stuff (or at least should be;)

So there are many things on the market trying to sell you what I call “New-Age spirituality”. They all basically say the same thing so my advice is do not give them your money. It’s not going to help. If you must spend your money, get some paper book, I found that they usually give a better quality information and are much more reasonably priced. The internet products are mainly just a paper books rip-off overpriced hype. later on I am going to give you my recommendations but bear in mind that everyone is different and different styles appeal to different people. I can give you my personal preferences.

So let’s get started. I hope I whetted your appetite enough to be eager to hear my suggestions. So I am just going to give you some books that I have read with a brief review.