The Science of Mind

Rating:
Summary: Contrived Christian Science "wannabe"
Review: While reading "Science of Mind" I could never get past the feeling that the author was creating a product that he thought he could market rather than a work of spirituality that came from his heart and deepest experience. There is nothing original here. If you have read any of the New Thought texts written in the 50 years prior to the publishing of this volume, you will recognize all of the usual themes. This is a "lite" version of Christian Science without the dogmatism or the controlling "Mother Church" breathing down your neck to make sure you don't dare think for yourself. Worse, it isn't very moving as Holmes was no more than a merely competent writer. The prose here never rises above the "Reader's Digest" school of writing. When the author of a "spiritual" book borrows every one of his ideas from elsewhere (without any credit, I might add - Hmm, I wonder what Science of Mind says about stealing?) and then presents them in a flat prose style that adds nothing to them, I suspect that his motives have more to do with business than with enlightenment. This book will seem like news if you have never read any New Thought literature before. To the rest of us, it is simply a rehash.

Rating:
Summary: Good Intention clouded by too many big words
Review: While the nature of this book is pretty plausible the way it is written is horrible. The whole idea of this philosophy is that we are a spark of the divine possessing all the qualities of the Creator. Through the power of absolute certinaty we can accomplish anything.

The draw is that Mr. Holmes writes in an obscure way that doesn't make sense. He uses terms from our modern language and assigns new meanings to them, i.e. self-conscious suddnely means you're aware of yourself or something along those lines. Secondly the author's style of writing uses many big words to define something as if making it sound like a science text book. The intention was good but the way he tries to convey his message is surrounded by too much funfare and fireworks that are frankly, unnecessary.

And besides that point this book is a little too fluffy bunny and not realistic enough for me. Try any of the writings by the Kabbalah Centre.