Also what about the so called rebuttal to criticism about the book (in the link that I gave).What is your question?
Also what about the so called rebuttal to criticism about the book (in the link that I gave).What is your question? That most questions can be just dismissed by saying its ego. Seems kind of meh to me. It also doesn't explain the feeling I got from the first few pages. I think it went like "I can't live with myself anymore. Then I thought about it. I cannot life with my self. Am I one or two. There is me and the self I cannot live with. Maybe only one is real." After that a feelings came over like my mind felt calm and good but in my chest it felt like a small turmoil. I felt a little wired, and nervous, and oddly good. It wasn't that pleasant. But I have never got that reach from a book before. Even to this day I'm not sure how to resolve it.
Even to this day I'm not sure how to resolve it.Read another book. Any book about human psychology, or mind, or whatever you want to call it should reference other material. Sometimes, pretty often, I look up the quotes or references and find they got them wrong, or at least cherry picked the author's works. I don't think Tolle referenced much, which is bad. Google something like, "what Tolle got wrong", or "a different perspective for Tolle".
You know them, you see them, and there always seems to be one around making the top seller. I tried to leaf through one of them "the power of now" by eckhart Tolle. It was hard to get through it with all the claims with no basis and just wanting you to accept them as true. As though some aspect of them is self evident. He likes to demonize the mind and thinking, saying we are slaves to the mind. But what irks me is how immune to criticism these people claim to be. As though any word against them is just the ego trying to defend itself, like this case http://themakelifebetterguy.com/the-power-of-now-criticism Do all these books do this? Try to wave off any challenge to their wisdom as just the ego defending itself? It doesn't seem right to me.I didn't read this because I heard him in an interview and could tell he had nothing to offer. His story is, he wrote the books to help him work through thoughts while he was depressed. It did help him, and others with similar issues say it's helped them. But so what? I can put a salve on a wound, but that doesn't make me a doctor. I can tell you everything is going to be okay, and it might make you happy for a moment, but that doesn't make me a psychiatrist. Words invoke feelings, why is that surprising? The questions are, what feelings? How long do those feelings last? Do the words provide anything lasting, anything constructive? The words invoke a feeling that apparently seems to be like the state they are trying to achieve in the book. I can't explain if it really was a taste of that state, but it happened, it was strong, and different than anything else I felt. But if the book has sold 5 million copies that has to mean something right? Also I know someone with over 32 years of clinical experience in psychology that apparently swears by the book. 5 million copies may just mean there are 5 million suckers. Bad books always outsell good ones. It's the lowest common denominator that buys all the crap. They should never have been taught to read.
Even to this day I'm not sure how to resolve it.Read another book. Any book about human psychology, or mind, or whatever you want to call it should reference other material. Sometimes, pretty often, I look up the quotes or references and find they got them wrong, or at least cherry picked the author's works. I don't think Tolle referenced much, which is bad. Google something like, "what Tolle got wrong", or "a different perspective for Tolle". I have been browsing, but I just can't seem to find much. Some people tell me it's Mystical, that you have a taste of awakening or something like that.
I have been browsing, but I just can't seem to find much. Some people tell me it's Mystical, that you have a taste of awakening or something like that.Run. You might be interested in the latest "Life After God" podcast. It's a woman who went to regular church as a child, but was starting to doubt it, it wasn't all that lively. Then her sister invited to this charismatic prophetess, and boy was it lively. She got all filled with the spirit. The woman had no religious grounding, she jumped from Judaism to paganism to whatever. What she was good at was controlling and manipulating people. I'm not saying all religion does that, I'm saying the idea of suspending your mental faculties to obtain knowledge makes you vulnerable to a person like that.
It’s just that all the protest against the book is mostly from Christians, which isn’t that helpful.
And the people I speak to on spirituality sites say is something like something you understand below conscious awareness, like its some kind of truth. But I just can’t find a reasoning behind it. That feeling was unlike anything I have known, and I’m not positive psychology can explain it.
Okay, so you are stuck on this feeling thing. Feelings are great. I like feelings. There is even neuroscience now something about how our feelings come first, then we rationalize them into thoughts, but that’s just my non-scientific explanation of that. In a lot of psychology, also Buddhism, and just common sense if you think about it, there are warnings to not get attached to some experience that felt good. Your attempt to recreate that will likely be frustrating. You’ve said you can’t explain it, well don’t. Why do you need to? You picked a book, you had an open mind, you had a feeling. Wouldn’t it make sense that you could go into a used book store, wonder around, and have the same thing happen again? But with a different book?
I heard a pastor explain it this way. People get a sign, they think it is from God, but instead of following it, they camp out at the sign. If you were driving to Nashville and saw a sign that said, “Nashville, 50 miles”, would you park there?
But what about all the reviews on Amazon about how it’s great, and he’s great, and how life changing it was for them?
Just because many people believe something does not make it true.
Just because many people believe something does not make it true. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populumI'm referring to the people who have read the book and left those reviews.
So was I.
So was I.But isn't that technically evidence? I mean these people read the book and had a reaction
No, that is not evidence. Evidence is a set of observable data, not various people’s opinions.
No, that is not evidence. Evidence is a set of observable data, not various people's opinions.Even if it's people who read this book and said that it had the effect it did on them?
No, that is not evidence. Evidence is a set of observable data, not various people's opinions.Even if it's people who read this book and said that it had the effect it did on them? Anecdotes proves nothing.
No, that is not evidence. Evidence is a set of observable data, not various people's opinions.Even if it's people who read this book and said that it had the effect it did on them? Anecdotes proves nothing. So all those five star reviews people left from reading the book mean nothing?
Netflix has the “ratings for you”, where they take what ratings you gave to other movies and try to guess how you would rate a movie you haven’t seen. A 5 to you, might be a 1 to me.
When reading amazon reviews, I read a couple 5’s, and if they don’t include good reasons, I read a couple 1’s. Often I find the more reasonable people in the 1’s.
Here’s and interesting 3 star one. This guy also said Tolled doesn’t mention that his ideas aren’t new, aren’t his own. He doesn’t reference the practices from India that he talks about.
Also, Tolle has this really terrible habit of making simple mindfulness much more mystical than it actually is. It's a little misleading. And he makes the mind sound Evil with a capital "E." He should have emphasized more strongly that it is not our thoughts and emotions, but our relationship to them that is the problem. There is no "pain body," only bad habits learned over a lifetime. Why the need to make is so mysterious and magical?Here's a 1 star
The Power of Now offers nothing new. Anyone who has done even a minor amount of research on spirtuality and wellness knows the values of living in the moment, not dwelling on the past or the future. Focusing and being totally aware of what is going on all around you, enjoying nature, etc, etc, its all been written about before. What people are really looking for is how to get there, how do you do it? This book instead focuses almost exclusively on what it is like. The author repeatedly states the importance of letting go of your ego and yet also repeatedly mentions how very few are enlightened (LIKE HIM!).My guess is, the 5 star ratings are coming from people who haven't read much else.
I guess you have a point.
But there’s someone I know with a Ph.D in psychology with 32 years of clinical experience who swears by him. Said that he used the model of the “pain body” with his work. What about that?