If you want to change your life for the better here are very good and practical ways in doing so. You have to be dedicated in order to achieve success with this book.

Some of the reviews of this book are downright harsh. Someone even suggested it's "cult material". Anything, if improperly used can be considered cult fodder...I'm just waiting for someone to start a religion based on the Almighty Pickle.

I really didn't get into the book so much as I got into the CD that accompanied this book. The music is absolutely an incredible way to start the day. I always start the day with some light stretches and a brief 20 minute meditation just to get me grounded and centered and I really like doing my stretch routine with the CD that came with this book.

Someone once told me that everything contains some jewels of wisdom hidden within - we just have to be willing to look - and this book may not be your "cup of tea" but just enter into it with an open mind and you might find something that might be of great value.

Well, if you excuse me I need to put on my green robe and light a dill scented candle, it's time for me to worship the Great Claussen. Afterall, he is the One True Pickle.


:)

Peace and Blessings,
john, 'the Light Coach'

There are certain truths which resonate through time, certain utterances of wisdom that come down through the ages. These truths are lasting and evergreen, renewed by each generation as they hear and rediscover these gems of great wisdom.

The eternal truth which resonates throughout this book is: "There's a sucker born every minute."

The fact that this collection of watered-down Buddhism, badly adulterated Taoism, and just plain bunkum is proof of this great axiom, especially considering that this is allegedly a New York Times bestseller. If so, Joseph "Paper Collar Joe" Bessimer's utterance is a truth more profound than any found in this book.

Written in a simplistic, infantile style spattered with the occasional incomprehensibility, this book is the equivalent of baby food for the mind. It reveals nothing that has not been said before in every other New Age book on the shelves and contains a good amount of the same old same. Essentially it boils down to a poor rewrite of Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking" with a veneer of New Age "Asian Secret Teaching" stuff painted over the top of it.

The enclosed CD, "The Soul Song for Healing and Rejuvenation Of The Brain And Spinal Column," is the cherry on top of this sundae of hokum. It consists of little more than a soothing, babyish piano melody with someone singing, and I kid you not, "E-I-E-I-O" over the top of it, with the occasional "HO!" thrown in for inadvertently comic effect. It did have something of an effect on my spine because I was laughing so hard I couldn't even pay attention to my back pain any more.

Overall, this is yet another New Age bunkum book. Baloney is baloney; just because it's dressed up in "Mystic Eastern Master" garb is no reason to expect it to taste different. One star for the hilarious CD, which I can play at parties to provoke my guests into snorts of laughter.

I started to read this book starting with the preface and introduction and then on to the first chapter. Then I had to stop. It was the same thing repeated over and over and over.

So I gave it some time, read another book, and tried this one again. I got through the second chapter and unfortunately there was more of the same. Some additional info, such as the 'download' was added, but then again more of the same.

Normally I love books like this but apparently this one just isn't for me. And not for lack of trying. Others may find a lot of help in these pages, but I did not.

I would like to suggest possibly finding this one at the library before spending the money.

Thank you.
MEF

This book was definitely not what I expected. I've read many books on Buddhism, Philosophy, and even ones on New Age spirituality. Some were good and some were bad. This book is one of those books you should probably stay away from altogether. Sure, the ideals presented in the book are ok, but once you get through the long and repetitive intro (which sounds like a sales pitch) you soon realize that this is one of those books that offers very little real "wisdom" but instead promises to impart wisdom (magically) if you chant some secret words and are "open" to receive it. Apparently, you'll also be able to speak a secret universal language (I'm not kidding!) If you're still confused... I'll straighten it out for you: This book screams "cult, cult"!
If I'm totally and utterly wrong about this book... I apologize. Apparently I'm not enlightened enough to "get it"... but I'm still not going to drink that Kool-aid :) Consider yourself warned.

By the way, I practice meditation and Tai Chi regularly and those things have helped me immensely in my life. I do believe in spirituality and that wisdom can be acquired through meditation. I'm not being harsh on this book because I'm not "open" to the idea of going on a spiritual journey. I just think that there is nothing "practical" about this book... and that it is very misleading.