Printer Friendlier VersionPsychology Bibliography
NLP and other Psychology Internet Resources (in no particular order)
Psychology Videos, Books and Audio Tapes Reviewed
A Course in Miracles
The Impersonal Life
Unlock Reality
David R. Hawkins
The Secret (and The History of Personal Development)
Psychology Bibliography:
Richard Bandler, John Grinder (1979). Frogs into Princes: Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
Gavin De Becker (2000). The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence.
Eric Berne (1970, 1996). Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships.
David D. Burns, M.D. (2000). The Feeling Good Handbook.
Dale Carnegie (2006). How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Rick Carson (2003). Taming Your Gremlin: A Suprisingly Simple Method for Getting Out of Your Own Way.
Steven Covey (2004). 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Dr Wayne W. Dyer (2004). The Secrets of the Power of Intention (6 CD Set).
Dr Wayne W. Dyer (2002). Getting in the Gap: Making Conscious Contact With God Through Meditation (book and meditation CD).
Foundation for Inner Peace (1997). A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume: Text, Workbook for Students and Manual for Teachers (Arkana).
Paul Gilroy (1993). The Black Atlantic : Modernity and Double-Consciousness.
William Glasser (1999). Choice Theory. A New Psychology of Personal Freedom.
John Gray (2002). Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want in Relationships .
Taylor Hartman (1999). The Color Code: a New Way to See Yourself, Your Relationships, and Life.
Paul McKenna (2005). Change Your Life in 7 Days.
Abraham Maslow (1998). Toward a Psychology of Being.
Abraham Maslow (1989). Motivation and Personality.
Judith Orloff (2009). Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life.
Allan Pease, Barbara Pease (2006). The Definitive Book of Body Language.
Anthony Robbins (2001). Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Life.
Robin Skynner & John Cleese (1983) Families and How To Survive Them.
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NLP and other Psychology Internet Resources (in no particular order):
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). At the Gary Craig's World Center for EFT web site (www.emofree.com), you can download the EFT manual in pdf format for free. You can also locate an EFT practitioner in your country and area from this web site.
www.emofree.com/downloadeftmanual.asp
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Paul McKenna is a personal coach and runs also his own TV series on weight loss and overcoming phobias or debilitating psychological or physical conditions. His web site is shown below. A free mp3 on self-hypnosis and positive suggestion is available at the second link below. This mp3 is an accompanying mp3 to his book 'Change Your Life in 5 Days'.
www.paulmckenna.com
www.paulmckenna.com/file/116/trance.html
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Salad Ltd are supplier of NLP products. Their web site has an archive section with some useful NLP tips. Go to the Previous Tips section.
www.saladltd.co.uk/archive.htm
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Dr Sulo's Crash Course in NLP can be downloaded from the link below. Right click on the link and save target as and specific location.
Dr Sulo's Crash Course in NLP
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Steve Trivett is a personal NLP coach, and his web site changezone.co.uk contains a number of useful PDF publications and documents. Please see the link below.
www.changezone.co.uk/STEVE/publications.html
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Achieving Excellence web site contains an articles page on NLP. There are numerous articles here, including an NLP Glossary.
www.achievingexcellence.com/c-NLP-Art.html
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NLP Excellence web site contains an NLP Glossary.
www.free-nlp.co.uk/NLP%20Resouces.htm
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Transform Your Mind's web site contains an articles page containing over 40,000 brief articles, which can be viewed at the link below.
www.trans4mind.com/explore
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NLP MP3's web site can be visited at the link below.
www.nlpmp3.com
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Richard Bandler's web site is shown below.
www.richardbandler.com
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Tranceforming NLP, Nick Kemp's web site, contains a number of different tools, including articles and MP3s.
www.tranceformingnlp.com
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Dr Wayne W Dyer's web site is shown below.
www.drwaynedyer.com
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Anthony Robbins' web site is shown below. He promotes Neuro-Associative Conditioning, which is his own brand of NLP.
www.anthonyrobbins.com
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Inspiritive's web site contains a public resources page with articles and mp3s.
www.inspiritive.com.au/public_resources.htm
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The Journey is Brandon Bays web site about mind body healing.
www.thejourney.com/about.htm
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Dr John Gray's web site can be found below.
www.marsvenus.com
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Dr Taylor Hartman's web site can be found below. It includes a free personality type profiler.
www.thecolorcode.com
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Dr Gavin DeBecker's web site can be found below.
www.gavindebecker.com/home.cfm
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A web site dedicated to Dr Eric Berne can be found at the link below.
www.ericberne.com
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Marshall B. Rosenberg's book Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life can be read for free on google book search (i.e. http://books.google.co.uk) at the link below.
Click here
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Eckhart Tolle's web site can be found below. His audio tape/paperback book 'A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose' can be found here too.
www.eckharttolle.com
www.eckharttolle.com/a_new_earth
It can be downloaded along with other audio books for free by registering with www.audible.com (for a 2 week / 2 free book trial).
Oprah Winfrey's web site features a free on line class (Monday nights) for 'A New Earth'.
www.oprah.com/obc_classic/webcast/ane_marketing.html
Lester Levensen's Release Technique is described on the web site below. Lester Levensen comes from a background in physics. The Release Technique is a technique used to release psychological stress, tension and negativity. It is presented in conjunction with Eckhart Tolle.
www.releasetechnique.com
Videos showing clips from Oprah Winfrey's show denying the need for Jesus can be viewed below. This is listed as many Oprah fans are probably under the impression that she was a Christian.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA&feature=related
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Katie Byron has a seminar and on-line course called The Work. It is a self-development resource referred to as a process of enquiry for identifying the questions that cause one's stress, suffering and ill health.
http://thework.com/thework.asp
www.coachinginteractive.com/TheWork/bk2.asp
Free mp3s of Katie Byron's talks and lectures can be downloaded at the link below.
http://everypathis.org
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Dr Robert Beckford is a Reader in Black Theology and Culture at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and is the author of a number of books in the field of religion, popular culture and politics, and television documentaries for Channel 4 on the same subjects. His most recent documentaries explored the 'true' origins of the Bible and also how Christianity has been influenced and shares many ideas with other religions. His web site is shown below.
http://robertbeckford.co.uk
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Reverand Peter Owen-Jones featured in the documentary series on BBC2, Extreme Pilgrim, and has authored a number of books on Chistianity and faith.
www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/misc/extremepilgrim.shtml
www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/tvfactual/peter_owen_jones.shtml
www.sussexlife.co.uk/main-menu-sussex-features-man-on-a-mission--17491
A essay of his can be found at the link below.
www.spaceforideas.uk.com/RVEfb0d06d07fd94beca2b8fafabed90ca5,,.aspx
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The British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies web site can be found below.
www.babcp.com
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Computer-based cognitive behavioural therapy in the form of a free self-help course can be found at the link below.
www.livinglifetothefull.com
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The National Phobic's Society (soon to be rebranded Anxiety UK) web site can be found below.
www.phobics-society.org.uk
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'Fringe Knowledge for Beginners' by Montalk is a general metaphysical book. The Belief page on this site draws from chapter 16, 'Battle of Opposites'. Some parts of this book may be a little 'New Age' for some.
www.montalk.net/files/fringeknowledgeWEB.pdf
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Links to Binaural Beats CDs and tools, used for brain wave entrainment and left-brain to right-brain synchronisation, and aids to deeper states of meditation, can be found on the Health Links page.
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Integral Eye Movement Therapy is a type of psychotherapy treatment that involves an evolution of the eye accessing cues of NLP.
www.integraleyemovementtherapy.com
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Horizon Research Foundation are concerned with researching Near Death Experiences (NDEs) and other mind and brain issues.
www.horizonresearch.org
http://www.horizonresearch.org/recommended-reading.html
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Psychology Videos, Books and Audio Tapes Reviewed:
A Course in Miracles:
A Course in Miracles (a.k.a. ACIM) is a public domain book that is a free on line self-development course/workbook. It consists of a book (the main text); special messages, which are an addendum to the main text; the book's main text condensed into a structured student workbook with daily exercises/lessons; and a teacher's manual.
Although it is worth reading the main text, it is the workbook which has been designed as the most efficient training tool. It comprises of a specific thought for the day, which is a mental exercise to apply to situations or objects around you three or four times a day for about a minute each. How hard can that be to include in your daily routine? Unlike reading psychology books and taking in thousands of ideas and not applying any of them, this book provides a convenient framework of directly applying the thoughts and concepts. It works to uncondition limiting thoughts and beliefs and meaning ascribed to situations and things, and gradually applying more empowering, positive meanings to them. Various web sites can email the thought of the day to you, but the on line book is more useful as it contains explanation and application tips for each thought or concept for the day. The whole course is 365 days long. You may choose to stick to one concept for a couple of days. Results are obtained way before the year is up!
A Course in Miracles is Christian-based, but is generically worded and can be adopted and used by anyone of any religious or atheistic persuasion. References in the 2003 Re-Print to being the spoken words of Jesus may be taken with a pinch of salt, literally meaning just that (i.e. nearly 2000 year old spoken words not recorded anywhere else in this form) or being written in the 1960s by the authors guided by the spirit of Jesus (much as the Bible is 'the word of God' but 'written by various authors inspired by the spirit of God' and compiled and edited by the Catholic Church). Some might argue that ACIM is slightly gnostic or New Thought in approach as there is some common material between it and some of the Nag Hamadi Dead Sea Scrolls. You decide for yourself! The currently available edition (same as printed hard copy) can be read below on the ACIM web site.
http://acim.home.att.net/index.html
A hardcopy of the book can also be purchased (see above).
The original transcripts of A Course in Miracles, sometimes referred to as 'urtext' can be downloaded at the links below. They are in pdf format and require Adobe Acrobat (freedownload) to open. found at the web site below. 'URTEXT' varies very slightly from the final published version.
ACIM Opening
ACIM Special Messages
ACIM Text Pages 1-250
ACIM Text Pages 251-500
ACIM Text Pages 501-750
ACIM Text Pages 751-1049
ACIM Workbook Pages 1-300
ACIM Workbook Pages 301-617
ACIM Teacher's Manual
Re-Printed Part of Original ACIM Text (first 500+ pages) plus part of Special Messages.
A web site describing the actual differences and the background to the published works can be found below. The original title was Jesus.
http://www.circleofa.org//articles/EarlierVersions.php
http://jcim.net/faq.htm
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The Impersonal Life:
The Impersonal Life was written in around 1914 by Jospeh S. Brenner (published as 'Anonymous' at the time). It is a self-help book based broadly on Biblical teaching, but can be used by anyone of any faith. It is arguably a little 'gnostic' in presentation. Elvis Presley credited his success to this book. It is described by Amazon below:
'A Manual of Spiritual Teaching and Discipline. THE IMPERSONAL LIFE is the book that Elvis "had been looking for all his life." Why? Because as ALL Elvis biographers tell us, it spoke to him in such a clear understanding voice. It was so dear to Elvis that he began sharing it with the world by giving copies away by the case. It was ground zero for his self-explorationa and spiritual awareness. Here, Elvis found food for his soul, and he devoured it. We aptly call this the Graceland Edition of The Impersonal life "The Little Book in which Elvis Found the Light." Students of spirituality continue to find it so.'
It is no longer copyrighted so can be downloaded and distributed for free, although it can of course be purchased as a hard copy if so desired. A pdf version can be downloaded at the link below (right click on this link and save target as - specify location).
PDF File - The Impersonal Life
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Unlock Reality:
Unlock Reality (UR) is an e-book that is only available over the internet. It is essentially a summary of Gnostic approach to Christianity, combining Christianity with elements of Buddhism, reinterpreting and rewriting the teachings of Jesus. It is packaged as something new and totally unique. The concept is all about becoming one's own personal 'God' or a part of 'God' and about co-operation and sharing; and incorporating concepts of the Law of Attraction as described by The Secret. A rather critical review of the book can be found at the third link below. BlackSpy has yet to read this book but will comment further once he has done so. BlackSpy has a old friend who is a keen proponent of this book.
www.unlockreality.org
www.readunlockreality.com
www.tpylus.com/?p=115
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David R. Hawkins:
David R. Hawkins has published a number of books through Veritas Publishing, including Power vs Force and Live Your Life Like a Prayer. He has also released various CD sets, for example, 'Giving Up Illness through A Course in Miracles'and also 'The Highest Level of Enlightenment'. His publisher is Veritas. Veritas' web site is listed below. Also listed below is a brief summary on kinesiology from his book 'Power vs Force' (from Cancer Remission's web site), and a fan site about David R. Hawkins' ideas. Beyond The Ordinary's web site contains a number of radio interviews with David R Hawkins in mp3 audio. Life Coach Mary's web site contains an hour long interview with David R. Hawkins in AudioAcrobat.
www.veritaspub.com
www.cancerremission.com/TestingDetails.html
www.level-of-consciousness.org
www.beyondtheordinary.net/drhawkins.shtml
www.lifecoachmary.com/drhawkinsinterview921.htm
David R. Hawkins works as uses a method of calibrating different levels of consciousness in his teachings. He uses mathematical principles and terminology to define these. He uses mathematical concepts of 'exponential', 'logarithmic' and 'critical point' and mixes these with philosophical concepts, interpretations and applications. Unfortunately, the mathematics used is incorrect and contradictory in nature. David R. Hawkins does not really explain in his works how he arrived at a calibration for a historical figure or for a society, and what factors contributed to his understanding of the calibration. Given the contradictory nature of this area, it would have been nice if Hawkins had explained it more fully and/or kept the spiritual concepts and interrelationships of the levels of consciousness whilst retaining the spiritual reasoning and logic and removing the mathematical terminology and arbitrary calibration figures, to retain more credibility in the scientific community. This is why many regard Hawkins work as pseudo-science and nonsense, and it serves to detract from the rest of his philosophical thoughts and ideas with certain people.
In addition, whilst the different levels of consciousness and their relative energy levels and trappings may indeed be correct, it would probably be wrong to ascribe an arbitrary figure or level to any one individual, as depending on their thoughts they may vary between levels of consciousness (for example, level of conditional or unconditional love, level of reasoning, level of desire, level of revenge etc. depending on the situation and exact thoughts or background influences. When does a person who considers himself to be rational and scientific ever apply this scientific and rationalism to his personal life in its entirety? Not very often! Behaving rationally in a work or academic environment is very different to applying it in one's personal life and relationships. Levels of consciousness are therefore often very much compartmentalised. Indeed, some individuals may remain on one level of consciousness all the time, and remain completely illogical in their work and personal life, and remain on the lower levels of fear, desire and jealousy. Or remain in the world of academia and logic and be completely unemotional and assexual. Whether calibration figures ascribed in Hawkins' work are absolute, fixed values or an average (mean) values is not clear. It is clear that ascribing a value to a society as a whole is even more flawed than ascribing a value to an individual because of the diversity of people in a society and the way a person may switch between levels any number of times during a given day etc. However, in very general terms it may have some value.
In Hawkins' audio programmes, he does laugh at his own jokes quite often, which some may like or find annoying. He is not the only one who does this, and Wayne Dyer also laughs at his own jokes all the time. Whether this is ego or just harmless fun for the listener is up to the listener to decide of course; or just plain irritating!
Those of you who do not believe in reincarnation may find his stories about his past lives rather embarrassing. However, for those of you who do, you may find it very interesting. It is clear that his work draws very heavily on Buddhism, but reframed into a non-dualistic, monotheistic context; including other concepts of using which beliefs are useful at any particular point in time; and concepts of stripping away the non-essential as it detracts from mental clarity and peace. Perhaps it is rather Gnostic or Baha'i in approach. David Hawkins promotes kinesiology heavily also, incorporating these concepts and relating them to the other philosophical concepts.
One might argue that he draws on concepts from Rosicrucianism (see the Cults page for more information about Rosicrucianism and related occult subjects in the Freemasonry section), and their concept of rebirth (reincarnation, eventually culminating in an escape of the cycle of life and death, becoming a 'higher being'). He makes a passing reference to 'we found that one should not cremate a body immediately after death to give the soul a chance to properly leave the body...' This is perhaps based on the Rosicrucian concept of the preservation period of 84 hours after death in the event of a 'natural' death (not traumatic). Whether 'we found that' through 'scientific study' (!) or he read it in a Rusicrucian text is another matter! He does not cite some of his sources of 'research' and is in the habit of making big claims and sourcing ideas from other religions and cults but does not always divulge and perhaps implies he ascertained this information by himself.
The unemotional and rational reader however should not let inconsistencies in an arbitrary calibration chart of consciousness nor the limited way the principles of levels of consciousness are presented interfer with the absorption of all the sound psychological principles and ideas in his work about the nature of the ego and the nature of consciousness; that one can take on board and adapt to one's own framework of understanding. One may however choose to literally accept everything he says about his calibration, or to take the spirit of what he is saying and how the relative levels of consciousness interrelate, apply it how one sees fit, and ignore arbitrary numbers, scales and mathematical notation (as it is unlikely that one can direct apply the calibration oneself if it is not actually explained properly). These calibrations are likely to be highly subjective in any case. As with many authors and speakers in the area of personal development and spiritual advancement, one rarely agrees with everything that is said, but should take what is useful and ignore what isn't. This is no reason to dismiss the whole of personal development. Perhaps it is a good reason why you should write and publish your own book! For example, Tony Robbins has his own page dedicated to him on this web site, which tries to objectively review the good and bad points about his seminars. There are of course exceptions, and you will no doubt find an author or authors who you feel 100% comfortable with and with whom you agree with 100% of what they say. BlackSpy personally find such congruence with authors such as Paul McKenna.
Some reviews on the internet of David R. Hawkins' books can be found by an internet search or at the links below. BlackSpy encourages the reader of this site to study a wide range of books and material, including Hawkins' and make up his or her own mind up.
www.amazon.ca/Power-Vs-Force-David-Hawkins/dp/1561709336
www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Versus-Force-Consciousness-Determinants/dp/0964326108
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The Secret (and the History of Personal Development):
'The Secret' is an Australian internet sales only film about the law of attraction released in 2006; or to put it another way the power of focus and of visualising what you want (and getting it) rather what you don't want (and getting it); thus motivating yourself to achieve what you want but also to positively influence situations and people around you to give you what you expect and focus on, rather than negatively, which is what we often routinely do without thinking about it. It was produced by Rhonda Byrne, who features at the start and end of the movie, presenting it like a story of how she discovered the secret and how it changed her life. It is a useful psychology tool, especially as it uses many visual references, but take the claims about conspiracies and secrets with a pinch of salt!! It is the what that is important, rather than the how it works, mystical or otherwise.
Many people have criticised The Secret for being a con, a fantasy for the simple minded with no real value whatsoever. Whilst one may not subscribe to all the concepts in the movie, for example, the universe responding to a thought with a literal delivery, it is clear that focussing on and visualising what you really want helps to motivate you to actually perform those actions to the degree that you will create either that result or a set of circumstances that makes the result more likely. In addition, positive beliefs and visualisation affect your very being, your body language, your tone of voice, your attitudes, your facial expression and people will respond to you differently, so in a sense, visualisation and really feeling the goal does affect people around you - to what extent varies of course on the situation.
The majority of the population tends to fail to achieve what they really want (deep down). This is often on account on negative reinforcement and the tendency to focus on what they want to avoid rather than what they want (i.e. negative thoughts, self criticism, undermining positive self-image all undermining one's performance and potential). There is always an element of negative cultural backlash with self-development, as people feel empowered by being free to be as negative or cynical as they want and resent anything or anything that questions this perceived 'freedom'. It is clear there are principles in The Secret that can be used for your benefit. Whether you subscribe to all the ideas is another matter, but this shouldn't detract from the value of the ideas that do ring true with you. Below is the main Secret web site and a UK distributor.
www.thesecret.tv
www.mindbodyspiritdirect.co.uk
Some of the chapters of the movie can be previewed on www.video.google.com, if you search on 'the secret chapter', a list of available chapters should show up as a list. If you do like the movie, it is worth watching it via thesecret.tv web site or even better actually purchasing the DVD.
Because the idea of The Secret Movie is to tell the truth about 'The Secret' to the world, it really ought to be more explicit about the actual origins of 'The Secret' rather than implying that it is the first attempt to publicise this information. BlackSpy has attempted to record the origins of the concept of the law of attraction below and highlight some of the spiritual/mystical belief systems that have attached to the earlier proponents. BlackSpy would like to iterate that many of the excellent ideas from both the movie 'The Secret' and also Wayne W. Dyer's 'The Secret of The Power of Intention' have been interpreted and incorporated in the Focus, Belief and Physiology and Gratitude pages in this Psychology Section. These pages also draw heavily on Tony Robbins' Unleash The Power Within seminar programme.
The movie 'The Secret' draws heavily on the works by Esther Hicks and Jerry Hicks on the law of attraction, in particular, 'Ask and It is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires'. This book was published in 2004 and summarises the Abraham-Hicks teachings since 1986. The book is published through Hay House, which also publishes books by other authors such as Wayne W. Dyer. An forward from Wayne W. Dyer also appears in this book. Esther and Jerry Hicks claim to be channels for 'Abraham, the collective consciousness of cosmic entities that have communicated great knowledge to them.' Whether this has any connection to or inspiration from the 'God of Abraham' is not clear. Esther Hicks was originally filmed for inclusion in the film but was subsequently edited out and is no longer involved with the project, on account of differences over the aggressive marketing of the movie. Wayne W. Dyer's work includes The Secret of the Power of Intention and Getting in the Gap, and draws heavily on Carlos Castenada's interpretation of Meso-American Shamanism but combined with Christianity and elements of Buddhism, Hinduism, and the teachings of Mother Meera, producing a universal concept of 'God' or 'Intention', and playing down Jesus to prophet status so as not to rock the boat or overall concept, even though his base is clearly Christian.
www.abraham-hicks.com
The Secret also draws heavily on the movie What the Bleep Do We Know, which was first released in 2004.
www.whatthebleep.com
However, similar ideas on the law of attraction were written by Godfre Ray King (real name Guy W. Ballard) in his book Unveiled Mysteries, first published in 1934. The material for this book, the 'I AM' Instruction, Guy Ballard claims to have received, whilst hiking in northern California in 1930, from a meeting with 'the Ascended Master Saint Germain on the side of Mount Shasta.' The Saint Germain Foundation claims that Saint Germain, who lived in 18th Century France, ascended to spirit without dieing and being resurrected, and became a member of the Divine Spiritual Hierarchy which rules life in the Universe. This Foundation could be considered a religious cult. Former members of this movement include Gerald B Bryan who wrote the book Psychic Dictatorship in America, which criticises the movement Guy Ballard. This book can be viewed as a pdf file at the link below:
www.flexi.net.au/~perovich/Ballards/PsyDict.pdf
Napoleon Hill, the famous American author and friend of Andrew Carnegie, wrote a number of books, including The Law of Success, in 1928. This described the law of attraction with respect to wealth building. Napoleon Hill interviewed many millionaires, including many successful inventors and businessmen. In his book Think and Grow Rich (1937), he describes 'The Carnegie Secret'. In his book Grow Rich! With Peace of Mind, published in 1967, he reveals that amongst his sources include 9 spirits of dead people including Emerson, Edison and Darwin, and in which he describes 'The Supreme Secret', 'the secret of the ages' and 'the magic power of belief'. Napoleon Hill has masonic connections and was heavily influenced by Charles F. Haanel.
www.naphill.org
The most famous early book on the law of attraction was written by Charles F. Haanel called The Master Key System and published in 1914. Charles F. Haanel was a successful businessman, a psychotherapist, a 32nd degree mason in the Keystone Lodge, a Shriner (Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine), and a member of the Society of Rosicrucians, a esoteric and occult order first documented in the 17th Century and probably dating back to the 14th Century. He originally released the book as a series of 24 weekly installments, the course priced at a huge $1500 per head. The MKS book, and other books by Charles F. Haanel, in pdf format, can be viewed at the link below:
www.cleaningoutthecloset.com/library.htm
The book in pdf format can also be downloaded for free by clicking here.
Charles Haanel is viewed by many as the founding father of modern self-development. Information relating to Charles Haanel can be found at the link below:
www.haanel.com
Wallace D. Wattles, an American author, wrote the book The Science of Getting Rich, which was first published in 1910. This book focusses heavily on the power of visualisation in creating wealth. It is considered to be part of the 'New Thought Movement' or 'New Thought Religion', which is a variation of panentheism, including a mixture of meditation, prayer, positive thinking and affirmation. Rhonda Byrne claims Wallace D. Wattles to be her initial source of inspiration for the project of the movie The Secret.
The New Thought Movement encompasses a set of religious developments that originated in the United States during the late 19th century, inspired by the philosophy of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby from Belfast, Maine. Although Dr. Quimby did not start any movement of his own, he is generally accepted and acknowledged as the founding father of the New Thought Movement. New Thought was a kind of pantheistic Christianity, in that it drew from both Western religious traditions, mainly Christianity, and also melded it with religions of the East, mainly Hinduism and Buddhism. It is one of the metaphysical movements in 19th Century America, distinct from Theosophy and Spiritualism. The difference between New Thought and New Age, is that New Age draws more on Theosophy and Hellenism, Tarot, Crystal Balls and other magical practices, whereas New Thought is a 'practical' form of Christianity, concerned with application to one's thoughts for one's psychological health, one's wellbeing, one's health and one's success in life. There is a large emphasis on healing in New Thought, both in literal terms, and also in psychological terms. New Thought is the pantheistic or panentheistic (known as Process New Thought) philosophy of being part of God (everything emanating from The One), and creation and creativity to do the will of the benevolent God (all creation stemming from God), as opposed to Theosophy, New Age and the Occult in general, which seeks to empower the individual through magic ritual to exact their own will. New Thought is often thought of by adherents as being the religion of Jesus rather than a religion about Jesus. Jesus is regarded in an 'adoptionist' manner as someone who became divine, or achieving the highest level of divinity possible, rather than having always been God and being part of the Trinity. Whether New Thought believes in the Virgin Birth, BlackSpy is not certain of at this time. Perhaps views vary on this matter. New Thought views itself as a form of 'primitive' or 'original' Christianity, or rather a recreationist attempt at such. There is some debate in New Thought to the extent that one's actions or healing is moderated by God or not. Most New Thought leaders believe in Reincarnation, although not all. Some are more biased towards Christianity whilst others more towards Hinduism. By its very nature it is a fluid philosophy, empty at the 'top end' for growth and evolution. Some Christians regard it as a 'cult' or as the ugly face of Hellenistic Hermeticism and Gnosticism being resurrected from the grave! It differs from Gnosticism which views creation of the physical world as 'bad' or at best 'an error' by a misguided God (Demiurge), not the true benevolent God (Monad). New Thought like Christianity, believes that the true, benevolent God is the creator. New Thought does away with the 'mumbo jumbo' of the dualistic polytheistic Gnostic cosmology and its archons. It is likely that many New Thought adherents do not literally believe in a devil or Satan (but more an absence of God and presence of the ego), but BlackSpy is yet to qualify this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Thought_Movement
www.websyte.com/alan/parl.htm
www.websyte.com/alan
From this movement, at least nine different religious denominations have emerged. The largest of which is Seicho No E; others include: Divine Science, Religious Science, the Universal Foundation for Better Living, and the Unity Church. Although Emma Curtis Hopkins, formerly associated with Christian Science, was considered the "teacher of teachers" of several key New Thought group founders, Christian Science developed in a different direction and is not considered a New Thought denomination. In addition, there is the Pagan New Thought religion of Huna popularized by Max Freedom Long (see; "New Thought Religion: A Philosophy for Health, Happiness, and prosperity" by Dr. Martin A. Larson, PhD.)
www.excatholicsforchrist.com/articles.php?PageURL=Unity%20School%20of%20Christianity.htm
New Thought belies many of the principles behind masonry and several New Thought churches have become Masonic Temples, and services of many different branches of New Thought Religious churches are held at Masonic Temples today. It is likely that much of the New Thought philosophy derived from Gnostic teachings. Gnosticism is a 'cultish' offshoot of early Christianity. Gnostic texts include the Nag Hamadi library, Dead Sea Scrolls and other Codexes. The New Thought Movement is described by Wikipedia at the link below.
Some useful New Thought references include "Apologetics in the New Age" by Norman Geisler and David Clark, and "New Thought: A Practical American Spirituality" by Anderson & Whitehouse.
The New Thought movement is criticised by some comtemporary Christians as being Pantheistic. The New Thought movement drew on the philosophies of Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism, combining these with the Christian religion of the west.
www.judeministries.org/details.php?tableID=529&studyID=14
http://journals.aol.com/coollbreezz/biblegram/entries/2007/06/20/the-secret---the-truth-behind-the-secret/1739
www.tarotforum.net/archive/index.php/t-85439.html
"Christian Science" by Mark Twain, an attack on the Christian Science movement, can be read on line at the link below.
www.classicreader.com/booktoc.php/sid.2/bookid.1286
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_science
Mark Twain was himself a Freemason and a Master Mason of the Polar Star Lodge in St Louis. Below is an except from the 1985 animated movie The Adventures of Mark Twain, featuring a disturbing and 'scarey' character called Satan.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak3z2Pm7Iwg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Stranger
The New Thought movement and Christian Science is said to have heavily influenced the 1908 book on Hermetic Philosophy entitled 'The Kybalion', written by the lawyer William Walter Atkinson, under the pseudonym 'The Three Initiates'. Atkinson was an influential author in the New Thought movement, whose personal interest lay mainly in Yoga, Hindu mysticism and Hermeticism. The Kybalion is described in the Religion section on the Fringe Religions page under 'Hermeticism. He also authored the 1906 book 'Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World' which is also reputed to be a major influence on 'The Secret', the movie of which was released 100 years later (in 2006).
All of the famous historical figures quoted in the movie The Secret were 'coincidentally' masons or had masonic connections and it would have been interesting to hear the exact context in which these quotes were made. Of course, many people have also known and practiced its principles without really knowing it, and without other people really understanding how they got the results they did. And the concepts behind the law of attraction have been taught by Jesus and Buddha many thousands of years ago, recorded in books such as the New Testament, perhaps in not quite as punchy, vivid, accessible, clear and explicit terms, and in a slightly different context and different spirit of application.
Information and web links regarding Freemasonry can be found on the Cults page.
Perhaps the concepts of The Secret have existed intellectually even before the time of Jesus and Buddha, in the Hermetic tradition of ancient Greece. It would be interesting to know! So it is ironic that the teachings of the law of attraction have remained hidden away in occult and masonic circles and used and applied by the rich and powerful for the last few centures if not longer. One can appreciate that the producers of The Secret decided to omit any detail in this area to keep the film punchy, simple and to not detract from its purpose, and to appeal to the intellectual and non-intellectual alike. But BlackSpy thinks that it would be good for those who want to really research this area and how it relates to many of the religious and spiritual teachings of the past few millennia to have some more references if the producers of the film are hinting that they know! One can speculate as to whether the 'whole' of 'the Secret' has really being communicated.
This is a general criticism of the 'new age' or 'personal development' philosophical movement in general. It attempts to distil philosophy from a variety of religious and philosophical standpoints into a useable and simple form for the target audience, but it often fails to at least mention on a high level where these insights came from. This often ends up with people being spoon fed 'wisdoms' and techniques and not really having any historical perspective, appreciation of its sources and not really thinking for oneself or knowing where to look to research related areas - apart from more books by the same author/lecturer. Another byproduct of this approach is that the authors in question may in some cases end up taking credit for something that has existed for thousands of years! If the idea is to educate wisdom, then presumably education should be the key element here! In some cases, if one is passing on information from 'new' sources second or third hand, the origin and sources of these wisdoms, if known from the beginning, is for sure buried and lost! And only usually rediscovered by accident later by a few individuals. This is to an extent what has happened with this web site, and so BlackSpy has done his best to at least allude to some of the sources - for example in the Religion section of this web site.
The law of attraction and NLP in general can be viewed from a number of different angles. It is supposed to taken on in the spirit of honesty and good nature. However, the extent to which it is used to simply serve one's own ends, be they financial or material, to satisfy one's ego or pleasure centres, is clearly down to the individual. These techniques are not complete philosophies per se, but leave major moral and spiritual questions up to the individual. They can be used for manipulative purposes, power over others, to get ahead on the corporate ladder, for selfish purposes, for purely financial gain, for political ascension, or to help others, for the greater good, to become a more relaxed or more rounded individual. It is relevant what the reason for one's interest in personal development is in the first place. It may well be purely financial, with a 'happy go lucky, superficially friendly' attitude being nurtured as a side effect. Focus on financial abundance and getting the material conditions and status symbols one wants, or anything else to satisfy one's ego, may be one's sole purpose for applying the law of attraction. This may well be the case for certain atheists and Satanists who want to gratify themselves as much as possible. There are numerous other reasons why people start a journey in personal development. Some may well be neurotic, depressed, miserable, have severe physical and psychological addictions, negative addictive patterns of behaviour, and simply want to break out of a cycle of negative behaviour and to be in control of their emotions and life, and fulfil their potential. Others may do so to succeed in business, to be in control of business meetings and interactions with colleagues. Others may become involved not only to help themselves feel happier, but also as they want to help others be happy and be free of negative addictive behaviours. One may well believe that personal development is good for all of these reasons. When it comes to influencing others behaviour, consciously using NLP techniques or visualisation, one has to be aware of what spirit one is entering into this activity in - it could be to help them get what they want, to help them do what you want them to do, or any number of other reasons. When it comes to matters such as this, one may be entering into 'questionable' territory, where NLP and the science of body language may become rather clinical, manipulative and too 'self-aware' in an ego sense. This area can be very dubious 'spiritually' if one is not careful. Equally the law of attraction and visualisation can be entered into many different spirits as described above, and excessive serving of the self can slowly erode away at one's 'soul'. One may choose to attract things from a wide variety of areas, from relationships, happy events, money, health, any manner of things, for oneself or others, or one may focus on certain areas more than others - it is when one engages in this latter type of visualisation, chiefly focussed on material gain, that one may regard this as excessive ego serving.
It is the self-awareness of being able to get what you want that some argue is fraught with moral questions, although in many cases they are processes which many individuals do without actually being aware of it or of what technique they are actually using. It can be an unconscious, effective way of simply achieving one's goals. Certain Christians may argue that NLP and the law of attraction have Satanic elements in them, in that they are tools to 'do what thou wilt' and simply to get what YOU want. Indeed they came out of the science of wealth generation, which was hardly a selfless activity. Clearly there are many different ideologies, and no economic system is without its drawbacks, and although money may allow you to do whatever you want to do, it will not make you happy per se. The law of attraction is one of the fundamental principles of occult practice and magic ritual, which is a practice in order to change one's surroundings to achieve a desired goal.
One may argue that concepts regarding belief in NLP are anti-Christian, but this is not necessarily the case. For example, the concept that nothing of itself has any meaning apart from that which we attribute to it is not anti-Christian per se, as we are talking about events that have passed, and how we ascribe meaning to them. Clearly when something 'bad' happens, for example, a painful experience, one can view it as an opportunity for growth or as motivation, or one can feel sorry for oneself. This concept is not about being glad someone has died and wishing death on them, for example! Equally, this concept says nothing about what one is going to do or what one wishes to do, as one's actions are dictated by one's core beliefs and values. There is nothing to say one can't act in accordance with one's religious or spiritual beliefs, but interpret any event in a positive manner. Whether one wishes to associate God in any way in the meaning to events that have passed is up to the individual of course.
The question is what an individual does with that self-awareness and to what extent it affects and interacts with his ego. Some may even argue that being so clinical about human relations (as in NLP and using body language and pre-framing techniques for example) is anally retentive and not conducive to being psychologically healthy. But it is no doubt down to the individual how it is applied and how it affects one's personality. There is no doubt that these techniques originate from esoteric and masonic sources and have perhaps been historically used for financial and power based objectives, which is perhaps where the ill feeling comes from. Self development has in many instances taken the place of religion and faith, as it is a source of self-power and self-empowerment. Certain Christians and Muslims may argue that self-empowerment, to attain God-like status is the basis of Satanism, as it is with much of personal development rather than attaining what one wants through trusting God and submitting to God. It of course depends on what areas of NLP and attraction one tends ot focus on, and how one applies them. Equally it is of importance to what extent one thinks of God and the spirit of God whilst engaging in NLP exercises and visualisation exercises. If one is religious, but allows one's psychology techniques to slowly replace one's faith, then clearly the activity is not compatible with your faith. This may be especially true if you use mirroring, body language and framing techniques and are constantly thinking about them, rationalising them and thinking in this self-aware and clinical manner, there is little place for one's sense of faith and spiritual awareness. To what extent is one to trust and feel God, and to what extent is one trying to manipulate tiny little things around one to make things slightly more the way one wants them? When brainstorming negative beliefs, and erasing them, and replacing them with positive beliefs, is this done with any view to your spiritual convictions or are these left aside. Clearly these are the types of questions one wants to be asking oneself, and are relevant to this debate. There is no simple 'yes it has evil qualities' or 'no it doesn't' answer. It is not just an issue for those of a religious belief, clearly anyone who spends too much time studying behaviour and psychology can become excessive neurotic and anally retentive about it, and lose their sense of spontaneity and fun. One may end up taking everything so seriously and having to do 'everything' the way one is supposed to do it, and lose one's sense of self. One may end up thinking about what one is doing all the time and using the ego and rationalisation capabilities of the brain, rather than trying to 'feel' what one is doing and what is around one in a 'zen' like, no mind, state, trusting one's instincts. The further one abstracts away from one's instincts, the harder they are to follow and the more out of synch we become with our bodies and our environment.
It is probably the whole concept of self-awareness and reliance on oneself and one's own resources that people regard as being anti-Christian. Christianity in general has an emphasis on faith and believe in God and trust in God, rather than on spiritual self-awareness and contemplation like Gnosticism, the occult and to an extent NLP. However, NLP does not need to necessarily replace one's religious beliefs or one's complete trust or faith in God, but work along side them. Indeed, using one's faith and core religious beliefs as leverage in NLP often makes NLP much more effective as atheists have to work harder to really drum up the level of conviction or pain/pleasure association to really maintain motivation needed to keep up good habits in the long term. Clearly if one regards one's religion as 'worthless' and loses faith in God as a result of the practice of NLP, then in that context it could be considered 'anti-Christian'. If one relies only on oneself and trusts only in oneself, then one may well lose one's faith. It is a complex balance and up to the individual to maintain and manage!
It is clear that many Satanists view the law of attraction, wealth building and NLP as useful resources. For example, it may vary according to the individual on what they focus on in terms of visualisation, how they wish to influence others around them etc. NLP techniques for example may be a way to control one's focus in order to more greatly intensify one's sensual experiences and to satisfy one's sensory and sensual desires. When it comes to gratitude, they may elect not to bother feeling grateful for anything as it is a sign of weakness, or they may elect to be grateful to the prime CoS consciousness or whatever rather than to God as a Christian would be, thereby reinforcing their values and belief system. In general though, Satanists may be more focussed on the material gain, material abundance and wealth building philosophies and control in attaining the goal of 'Satan' and suppressing their weaker emotions, that other areas of personal development.
There are clearly many ways of controlling one's focus using NLP style techniques, and increasing one's awareness of one's surroundings and one's body, and many different spirits in which one can do this. This applies to meditation also. One can choose to enter into this to appreciate all the good and beautiful things around one. Or one can choose to enter into this in a Buddhist or Taoism sense of no mind, no thought, no ego, but just passively observing energy around one, with no judgement, and being aware of the tiny and minute. One may also choose to enter this in order to maximise one's sensual experience, and to observe all this detail from a point of view of satisfying the ego and helping to reinforce one's position of power. There are clearly many circumstances in which one may interrup one's habitual patterns of focus. One may choose to interrupt positive, soft, loving feelings and replace them and shift the focus to something more powerful, disassociated, cynical, hateful, perverse and/or ego-serving. One may conversely choose to interrupt negative addictive patterns of behaviour, such as anger, fear, jealousy or sadness associated with a certain stimulus or input, so that a positive focus and frame of reference can be maintained in future and not be lost at the expense of that negative state in the future.
When it comes to NLP style techniques and conditioning techniques for shaping one's core beliefs, one may use them to reinforce one's Christian or Muslim beliefs for example, about God being good, our gratitude to God and trust in God; or to reinforce one's balanced and positive self-image and self-confidence, and positive and empowering beliefs about relationships and one's environment; or one can use these techniques to boost one's own opinion of oneself to epic heights, to boost one's concepts of one's own power, rebelliousness and refusal to obey anyone, one's dark and one sided global beliefs about relationships with others and society as a whole and one's purpose in life, reinforce one's beliefs about pleasure seeking and sensual gratitification, suppress one's softer, emotional and loving side, and reinforce one's ego's dark opposition to positive, loving and loving concepts. Clearly these techniques can be applied in a number of ways!
It could conversely be argued that the techniques are merely rationalisations of things people are already unconsciously doing anyway, and that denying people control over their lives and emotions is counterproductive and 'slave-like'. It is really up to the individual how the 'tool' of self-development is used and how that 'self awareness' and 'awareness of influencing others' affects one's core beliefs and attitudes. If you are comfortable with that then carry on! BlackSpy personally believes that NLP, psychology and the law of attraction are tools, but are not really that powerful or useful without some kind of deep rooted philosophy and spiritual understanding to give them context and meaning. Without well grounded core beliefs and understanding of context, and simply using these techniques to get what one thinks one wants or one ought to be, to fulfil shallow whims, one may never really attain any deep sense of fulfillment or satisfaction and one may indeed totally miss the point of what life is about! NLP works quite well without any deep spiritual beliefs, but it works 10 times better if one has these beliefs as extra leverage. However this is all up to the individual to figure out.
Some arguments and debate about the validity of the law of attraction can be found at the link below.
www.lawofattractionsimplified.com/the-secret/the-secret-good-or-bad
A study conducted by the National Research Council (NRC), completed in 1988, and entitled Enhancing Human Performance, under the commission of the U.S. Army, examined the claims of the NLP. It was found that "The NRC researchers checked out other frontiers of human potential as well, including accelerated learning, biofeedback, and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). NLP which postulates connection between behavior and neurology and claims to train students to `read' others by noting their eye position and choice of language, was also dismissed as having a social rather than a neurological basis," (The Fringes of Reason, A Whole Earth Catalog: A Field Guide to New Age Frontiers, Unusual Beliefs & Eccentric Sciences, 1989 ed., p. 196).
Further discussion of personal development and the improvement of the Self and how it relates to Left-Hand and Right-Hand Paths can be found on the Gnostic Offshoots page in the Religion - Other section.
To read about BlackSpy's own views on spirituality and belief, please see the Spiritual Beliefs section on the Belief page (it is also worth reading the rest of this Focus and Belief pages!); and also the main body of text on the Mainstream Religions page, in particular the section on Christianity; and also the articles in the Religion - Other section, including the pages on Left-Hand and Right Hand Paths, Gnostic Luciferianism and the CoS.
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