Manette, Danne
2005:Ultimate Betrayal: Recognizing, Uncovering, and Dealing with Infidelity. Garden City Park, NY: Square One Publishers.
In some ways, this book was very similar to the Susan Forward book reviewed above, except this one was much shorter and devoted solely to affairs. Also like that book, the author wrote it to women, since only men have affairs and no woman in history has ever had an affair. One of her themes was the idea that looking for the scoop on the affair should be done in order to make you aware and the book also was very good at recognizing the victim’s agony. The chapter “Self-Reflection” was a wise move because like in any other matter, self reflection is a good idea. Manette did have more concrete applications and specific suggestions for you to follow while getting the scoop on your partner. Although the tone of the book was sexist, men surely can also use the information.
Morton, Tom
1992:The Survivor’s Guide to Unemployment. Colorado Springs, CO: Pinion Press.
I read this after a bout of unemployment was fortunately over with, though this work would have hit the spot when I was unemployed. Morton comforts those who need it.
Sachs, Robert
2002:Passionate Buddha: Wisdom on Intimacy and Enduring Love. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions.
I think one of the best applications of Buddhism is for relationships. I wouldn’t want to apply pure Buddhism to every aspect of life, but relationship wise it is a good move. This book is in some ways similar to Charlotte Kasl’s books on Buddhist approaches to relationships and some ways different. It was great that the author made a distinction between “wrath and anger”. Beautiful and thoughtful words throughout. This book is more philosophical than practical and it gives plenty of food for thought and good moral frameworks to consider.
Safron, Jeremy
2005:The Fasting Handbook: Dining from an Empty Bowl. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts.
I have read a few fasting books, and this book is one of the most innovative of the bunch. The subtitle of the book, Dining from an Empty Bowl, is clever. Safron is a raw foods enthusiast and he provides new facts such as the water from coconut is analogous to our blood. His “Fasting from” section included not only food but other consumables such as “speech”. Although I have not personally done a speech fast, I have known others who have done so. I certainly applaud his recommendation for a “media fast”, which I have been on for a long time. I’m not sure a “sight fast” would be a good idea since it could be very hard to exposure one’s eyes to light again. For me, it’s bad enough waking up in the morning after sleeping the previous evening. He coined a new term “innerstanding” which is also clever. His suggestion for cleaning the lymph system is way out there. It sounds too crazy for me to buy it. On page 45, he actually suggests that we “swallow cloth” to help our stomach clean itself. I don’t plan on trying that ridiculous solution any time soon. But besides a couple oddball ideas, the book was full of wisdom. He did say there are other ways to remove toxins than just by fasting. He used the term “shot” to describe small quantities of healthy juices, which is interesting since the term “shot” brings to mind a very unhealthy drink, alcohol. On page 48, he says, “TV is one of the most toxic visual substances”. Criticism of television is something I dig. This book is rare and special in how it devotes just about equal attention to physical, mental, emotional, and, to a lesser extent, spiritual fasts. The closest any other book came was Fasting Your Way to Health, which described the health benefits of fasting along with the Christian rationale for fasting. On page 51, he says “Cleanse the mind before the body.” This reminds me of Wayne Dyer’s emphasis on purity of mind in the previously reviewed book. On page 53, he discusses the phenomena of while fasting dreaming about what you are fasting from. Especially in the latter days of my long fasts, I dreamt of food. In my case, it was scary because the dreams were about eating in the middle of fast, hence breaking the fast too early, I was relieved to wake up and find out I was dreaming thus had not broke the fast early. In the Acknowledgements, Safron acknowledges Herbert M. Shelton, who I also admire much. One of the approaches to this book would seem to contradict one of Shelton’s teaching. Shelton taught that it is misguided to think particular foods are good for particular organs, since good food is supposedly good for every part of the body. Because of this, Shelton taught general nutrition instead of focusing on specific areas. Safron, on the other hand, suggests that we should fast for certain parts of the body and certain foods or beverages are good for these parts of the body. At the end of the book, he offers a detailed critique of your health for as little as 20 dollars. The questionnaire is extensive and the results would be interesting and possibly useful if the fee was less. The fee may be reasonable but it is still way too high for me. There is so much else to spend the money on. Like food.
Weiss, Brian
2004:Same Soul, Many Bodies: Discover the Healing Power of Future Lives Through Progression Therapy. New York, NY: Free Press.
I didn’t look closely enough at the title, since I thought the book was going to be about regression therapy, but instead the book is centered on progression therapy though there is plenty on regression therapy. His other book Many Lives, Many Masters is much acclaimed and I have seen it several times on the shelf and through searches, but it never appealed to me enough to get down to reading it. This book changed my mind about getting down to reading that book, since after reading this one, I now want to read his other one.
I don’t necessarily believe in rebirth, though I am not ruling it out and I think that rebirth is a fascinating answer to the question of the purpose of life. I am skeptical so I cannot accept past lives as true right away. Weiss was too gullible or too full of wishful thinking believing what happened with his patients to be evidence of rebirth, as some critics say people like him believe anything that supports what they want to believe.
To me, this work, although at least partially is nonfiction, is a good fantasy work. Under Weiss’s thinking and other models of reincarnation, the purpose of a life is learn or establish karmic balance, which concerns me a little. Some say that after some people achieve enlightenment, they are on earth primarily to help others in big ways. I would prefer not that I am on earth now because in the past I was bad, but I would like it if I am here as a bodhisattva, which would be to make the world a better place, rather than just deal with past baggage.
On page 33, he says, “It is rare that a person will master more than one lesson in one lifetime”. Although I might concede there may be a major underlying theme to each existence, I’d hate to think I am just learning one lesson. I know over just my less than 30 years, I have learned many lessons, sure, some more powerfully stick out and some are more central.
On page 54, he claims that each person probably at some time in the past was evil and cruel. This would suck because I would hate to think that I would do anything so bad. He even describes a client who feels exactly the why I would. I know I have done wrong, but I don’t care how young my soul would be, I would not want to be evil in any major way.
On page 58 and 59, he describes a so called past life of his that sounds remarkably similar to one of the scenes in All Quiet on the Western Front, though in his case it involved Russia and in the book it involved Germany and France.
He did a good job of answering questions that I have wondered about reincarnation. I can’t say whether his answers are really good or not, but at least he was thoughtful enough to conceive them and try to answer them. Sometimes, I think reincarnation may be a phenomenal idea, but the current models of it aren’t quite right. With reincarnation, as the Buddha said “life is suffering”, thus you want to avoid it, but I think good can come from life, so it would rock if you came back not because you need to alleviate your errors, but instead to experience the glorious good of life, to enjoy life and make the most of it. It might be cool to come back
during another era or have lived in a previous era, most of all, if such was done with a bodhisattva like mindset.
Catfish
Volume 43
Andrew Bushard
Reviews
Audio
Alessandra, Tony, Ph.D. and Michael J. O’Conner, Ph.D.: read by Tony Alessandra; also featuring Carrie Gordon and Jude Prest.
1996:The Platinum Rule: Do Until Others As They’d Like Done to Them (abridged). New York, NY: Time Warner Audiobooks.
This book bills itself as an improvement of the old golden rule because it says not everyone wants to be treated just like us. I really admire this rule and this book has inspired me to practice it more. I already embraced some very similar if not exactly the same principles which I heard about from other sources, thus this gives me an extra boost. I have also heard of the silver rule and the iron rule and I do think this is the best of the lot, which makes sense because platinum is the top of the bunch.
Brown, Les
1997:It’s Not Over Until You Win (abridged). New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, Inc.
The title reminds me of a Carl Klang song called “It’s Not Over Until We Win”. This tape is very inspirational, combining both abstract principles which are more realistic than many motivational tapes, and personal anecdotes.
Chopra, Deepak, M.D.
1993:Ageless Body, Timeless Mind (abridged). New York, NY: Random House, Inc.
The addition of George Harrison’s singing was a nice touch, and it broke it up. Deepak’s tape was alright. It seemed to be just like other eastern thinkers, and offering little above that.
Dyer, Wayne
1992:How to Be a No Limit Person. Chicago, IL: Nightingale Conant.
I would say Wayne Dyer is one of the best of the whole lot of motivational speakers. His content is great and it is accompanied by an eclectic spirituality.
Dyer says “No Limit” people don’t feel a need to justify their doings and even avoid situations where they are cornered into justifying. That works for me because I don’t like justifying myself to others as I too like what I am doing and don’t care to have to explain it to people. In fact, I resent it.
Although in Dyer’s other works he talked about running, I did not realize how dedicateda runner he is. Here he discusses running about double digit miles daily. As a long distance runner myself, I really relate to that and think it’s awesome he does that. In fact, part of his discussion about “no limit people” not having to justify themselves involved discussion of his running. I run even in weather I hate because like Dyer says it occurs to him that “it is something he is going to do” or something to that effect.
When describing sickness and health, he talks about a spectrum which sounds similar to Herbert M. Shelton’s maxim “health and disease are a continuum”.
Dyer does make naïve statements from time to time. For example he said “Who wants to be around people who want to always be approved of?” Actually, Wayne, a lot of people do. Like many other motivational speakers Dyer naively suggests that good people always succeed and bad people always fail.
I was talking about how Wayne Dyer’s views align with some of the sentiments of homeschoolers. On his lecture The Secrets of the Power of the Intention, he discusses the virtue of allowing children to become who they are destined to be rather than forcing something on them. In this lecture, he directly criticizes the school system and in doing so does it more charitably and sensibly than many homeschoolers do, while at the same time persuasively arguing his wonderful point.
It was interesting to hear that Dyer holds libertarian type views. He made some comments about not following the way government works as an inspiring model. He said “Anyone who wants to dismantle all this bureaucracy is going to get my vote”. In other places, he has passed off politics to be too concerned with selfishness, status and power, so it is very interesting to find out his actual political views.
Dyer here suggests something that is the opposite of what Dr. Laura has said. Dyer says “You are not what you do”. Dr. Laura emphatically says “You are what you do.” I think both of them may be right in certain ways.
The format alternated between a live lecture and Dyer being recorded in the studio. There were two musical melodies that also alternated. One of the melodies was ideal for the topic and I loved listening to it. It’s too bad I don’t know where to find a longer version of it.
Goleman, Daniel
1995:Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (abridged). Los Angeles, CA: Audio Renaissance Tapes.
The topic is so worthwhile, I almost with I would have gotten the full length book instead. Goleman makes a good point.
Lonestar
1999:Lonely Grill. New York, NY: BMG Entertainment.
I found the song “Somebody’s Someone” to be very touching and emotionally compelling. It is surely an excellent ballad. Since that song was so good, I decided to check out a Lonestar full length cd. Although the cd was alright, it did not live up the high expectations that a group which writes a song like that can achieve.
Little, Tony
1996:Conceive, Believe, Achieve: A Three Step Program for Personal Achievement and Financial Success. Los Angeles, CA: Audio Renaissance Tapes.
I don’t recall hearing about Tony Little before, but from what he says and what the packaging says, it sounds like he is well acclaimed, after all, like he points out and the package says he is “America’s Personal Trainer”.
His tale is a good one and he has some wise advice. He is good at being a motivator.
Millman, Dan
1998:Everyday Enlightenment (abridged). New York, NY: Time Warner, Inc.
The printed book version looked interesting, but it was very long. I checked it out without much hope of completing it, then a bit later, I found this audio version at a library. Some of it is similar to what I have heard before, but Millman is a bit better than many other Eastern thinkers. In one journal entry, I wrote, I discussed how conquering my mind seemed too tough and how it was tough enough to control my doings, which was one reason why meditation seemed so very difficult for me. Millman said something very similar here. I also liked how Millman suggested that trying to change emotions and mood was futile since he figures it takes too much work to do so, so one should just let them be and live life despite them. He suggested that it’s okay to have whatever emotions we have if we still get done what needs to be done.
Meyer, David
2001:One Word Sermon. Beaver Dam, WI: Last Trumpet Ministries.
David Meyer does fundamentalism right and I bet you thought that wasn’t possible. If one must be fundamentalist, one should do it Meyer’s way.
Meyer, David
2003:The Two Jerusalems. Beaver Dam, WI: Last Trumpet Ministries.
Even if you find fundamentalism abominable, there is a lot to like about Last Trumpet Ministries and Meyer’s work. I was impressed when he lauded fasting by suggesting that a woman with mercury poisoning found fasting to be the only solution. Meyer can really rock sometimes (He probably wouldn’t like the slang phrase “rock” though).
Simon, Neil.
2000:The Odd Couple. Los Angeles, CA: L.A. Theatre Works.
The introduction claims that Neil Simon “is America’s most prolific playwright”. I am skeptical of that statement. Perhaps, he is the most prolific well known playwright, but I would doubt even that. Who knows what some obscure playwright is composing? Some obscure playwright could be composing tons of plays and his or her output could far exceed Simon’s. I had heard of the work before since it is so popular, so I had an idea of what happened. There was too little dramatic buildup, since one could tell before they even got together, it would be a bad match. It would have been more dramatic if the bad match was a surprise. There was an inordinate amount of dialogue before they lived together and I think, an emphasis on after when they got together would have been better. Th
e ending was anti-climatic. Enjoyable even though it was disappointing in some ways.
Travis, Randy
1999:A Man Ain’t Made of Stone. Nashville, TN: Dreamworks Records Nashville.
“The Family Bible and the Farmer’s Almanac” sounded like a good song from just its title alone and I was right. “I’ll Be Right Here Loving You” sounded a little like a cross between Billy Joel’s “Storm Front” and INXS’s “Meditate” lyric wise, particularly the latter. Randy Travis looks pretty buff. He appears to lift weights.
Various Artists
2001:Singers and Songwriters: 1979. USA: Time Life, Inc.
I managed to listen to both of these not so thrilling compilation cds. About the only excitement was Dire Straits’s “Walk of Life” and Suzanne Vega’s “Luka”.
Weil, Andrew, M.D.
2002:Taking Care of Yourself: Strategies for Eating Well, Staying Fit, and Living in Balance. Boulder, CO: Sounds True.