Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
simple tools to change yourself, 11 Nov 2000
By A Customer
An excellent book, one which will do many a service. Presents a very straightforward route to two kinds of meditation - first the one which you can use to change your bad habits, to engage more rewardingly with your job and other people - even alter medical conditions. There are loads of books claiming to do this, and they're all variations on visualisation techniques. KAMPF knows them all, has been there, and saves us the trouble of doing the same. His is the best. Second, the classical mediation of the East, which he cleverly allows you to access as a simple extension of the one-minute 'active meditation' technique. The thing that makes the book worth buying is how accessible KAMPF makes these important techniques to the western educated, spiritually sceptical individual (like me, an Oxford educated scientist).The key thing you'll find is that KAMPF's non pushy manner allows you to read further than you might a more evangelical text, and that once you have done so his steps for entering a meditative state are so simple you'll feel like it's worth trying even if you're sceptical about the outcome, as it takes so little time. And then you'll see oh yeah, that seems to have worked a bit; and then you'll be back for more. Final word - what the technique is actually doing is allowing you personal, and personally directable, access to the powers you hand over to a hypnotiser in a hypnosis session. Your mind is a powerful resource.
|
|
|
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An unassuming and valuable contribution, 2 Mar 2002
This is a short guide to the alpha brainwave state sometimes called meditation, how to achieve that state, and what to do once you are there.
There are many books teaching the virtues of creative visualisation for the achievement of one's goals. The main premise of this book is that creative visualisation is only effective when exercised in the alpha state, that is a restful state of mind and body when the brain waves cease their normal feverish activity.
In a sense, the book offers very little that is new on this subject. It has been covered admirably by Jose Silva in The Silva Method, and Jack Black in Mindstore and Mindstore for Personal Development. If you are looking for something that will seriously help to plan your goals and provide the techniques and motivation to follow them through, then I would recommend Jack Black's books rather than this one.
This is not to say that Harold Kampf has copied the ideas of others. All writers on this field are agreed that they offer nothing that hasn't been available for generations before. Each writer adds his own twist. In Harold Kampf's case, he adds two easy methods for entry into the alpha state. I have tried them both and found them both to be effective. Even though coming to this subject with some experience, I was able to modify and add to my existing practices. Harold Kampf does give a good general introduction to the uses to which dynamic meditation, as he calls it, can be put. Examples include speaking to the subconscious, tackling bad habits, losing weight and dealing with health problems.
The author is entirely realistic, and does not present visualisation as a quick fix. On the contrary he advises an honest self-appraisal of one's faults and the problems they cause. Without this knowledge of where we are starting from, there is no basis to formulate the changes we wish to bring about. There are touching and encouraging examples of this process in action.
Harold Kampf does go further than other writers in this area in that he moves on from dynamic meditation to speak of and describe the benefits of passive meditation. His methods also provide an easy route into this state, and he conveys, through the writings of other great thinkers, an easy understanding of what the meditator seeks to achieve and may expect from the practice.
I have seen other reviewers criticise Harold Kampf for straying into religious and philosophical theorising in the course of his explanations. It is my own view that one who has experienced first-hand the benefits of meditation is unlikely to find his or her sensibilities so easily challenged by these passages. The fact that Harold Kampf steers a course between apology and arrogance, managing to avoid both, shows that his aim and intent is true, namely to encourage the benefits of meditation, dynamic and passive, to all who care to listen.
Whether you have read other books on this subject or come to it fresh, I would recommend this book as an enjoyable read and a useful guide.
|
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very clear and practical, 6 April 2001
By A Customer
This is one of the best guides to meditation I've read. It's extremely clear without emphasising unnecessary details. And,it seems to work. My only reservation is that it has slightly too much of a religious/spiritual slant for my liking. This is by no means an essential part of it, though.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Shakti Gawain
by Shakti Gawain
![The Secret (Extended Edition) [DVD] [2006]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/414-MJvf9vL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Sophie Angelle; John Assaraf; Anthony Baron; Dr. Reverend Michael Beckwith; Lee Brower
by Robert Collier
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Amazon Home