The Magic of Believing

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Summary: Inspirational words from the past which still do the job!
Review: Claude Bristol's "classic" inspirational/psychology book is a quick read which will you to reinforce your personal power of positive thinking. A lot of is dated, but his tips & tricks are well presented, easy to emulate and time tested. Definitely worth a read and even a re-read when you are pursuing your life goals or desiring to shake up your world for the better.

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Summary: Bristol's message sticks with you!
Review: Claude Bristol's amazing message of the "magic of believing" sticks with you long after you've closed the last page of the book! This book will help positively change the way you look at situations in your life. I highly recommend it.

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Summary: My own long-term experiment with this book
Review: Hello. I'm a 37-year-old Korean and live in south Korea. At first I read this Magic of Believing in 1978. It was translated into Korean. I found it by chance on the desk of my father's. At that time the book did not give any impression to me. But I started to read it seriously in Aug, 1984, when I was in the 3rd year student of Seoul National University of Korea, because I began to worry about my future. Before that I believed in Christian religion, but I couldn't find any answer from that religion. On the contrary this book written by Claude M. Bristol seemed to ansewer perfectly to my question about my future job, girl friend, way of life, millitary service, etc. Since then I have read it sincerly again and again as christian read the Bible, and practiced the rules that the author taught to me. Until now I have read that book more than 100 times as long as about 17 years. I have read English version of that book foreworded by Nido Qubein since about 8 years before. Now this book became a part of my thought, my way of life with the author's another book, TNT- the power within you. Now I can't live without this book. I have achieved many things like my job, career, educational achivement, etc. with my own hard work and these books. I really, really recommend you read and reread this book as Bristol says. Now I want to say my hearty wish. I want to know the personal life of Claude M. Bristol, like his history of life, his family, his career that is not appeared in this book. I want to visit his hometown and see his house. I want to have his biography. And I want to discuss with the people who have the same idea as I have. My e-mail is [e-mail].

Thank you for reading my review even with my poor English.

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Summary: Looking for more
Review: I don't regret buying this book. It is motivational for sure. I was just dissapointed that it didn't give more details or steps on how to attain such powerful thinking. It is filled with LOTS of stories to prove that positive thinking works. It just doesn't tell you very clearly how to do it yourself.

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Summary: Absolutely Wonderful!
Review: I find myself wondering if the reviewer below me and I read the same book! Antiquated nonsense? No way. When you stop and consider that everything around you at this moment was first the "thought" of you or someone else you begin to see the amazing power of thought and belief. Even the natural world and all its splendor was first the thought of a Higher Power or Force. So you can see how powerful this thing called belief is. As a matter of fact, there is NOTHING that you do that is not preceded by a thought of some kind.

When this book is applied to your own life you will find powerful changes that your belief effected. The "mirror technique" is particularly potent as are the exercises for auto-suggestion. It seems to me that the Creator gave us complete power over but one thing and that is our own minds. People who run this book down or make sarcastic statements about it show that they don't know the force and power of their own minds. Every single day of your life you get up and then go to sleep. In both of those activities and the countless ones in between, you are conciously using the power of belief in all that you say and do. Trouble is, people get "lulled in" to accepting the bare minimum of life and after years of familial, educational, societal, and personal programming, they forget that they literally have a gold mine between their ears. If you doubt this, then try and think of one case of anyone achieving success without even the most rudimentary use of the power of belief. This book helps you learn not only how to use your own inherent power, but learn to use it wisely. This book, in my opinion is the best book of its kind to ever be published. Everything that followed in this genre of self-help were take-offs on this.

Claude Bristol reveals the supreme secret of the ages to anyone who is truly ready to receive it.

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Summary: "The Magic of Believing" Claude Bristol
Review: I first heard about "The Magic of Believing" in 1973,listening to Larry Glick's late-night talk show on WBZ Boston -- he was absolutely sold on it and kept bringing on celebrity guests who felt the same way, and I eventually bought a copy. I was skeptical going in, and for a while after - this was'nt the first self -help book I had read and not the most polished in style. But there was something about it -- the down-to-earth commonsense of the author I think (Bristol seems to have been above all a practical guy)-- that kept me reading it to the end. I started to do some of the mechanical things -- aids to visualization -- he suggested, figuring what the hell, what's to lose?. I decided the goal to set was to move up from my earnings at the time ($20k per year) to three times that amount -- virtually "impossible" where I was working. To cut to the chase. A year later I was making $80,000 per year, I kept doing better each year and I am still doing well. Things fell into place without any planning too many to relate. I gave up a salaried job I hated in order to free-lance but without any real prospects for doing well at it -- the idea was to tread water until I found something I liked better. But a first client appeared out of nowhere and referred me to another. Work kept coming in and did not stop. Every year I did better. I don't really know how it works, and I don't particularly care. I do know it worked for me -- and still does, and not just financially. So do I believe Bristol was on to something? You bet your life I do. I have also had a chance to observe other people for whom things seem to work out well, none of whom have read this book. They confirm one of its basic principles. People tend to get what they expect -- they fulfil their own prophecies. In general, optimists thrive, the pessimists don't. What this book shows is that these attitudes are not "givens" -- to an extent they can be self-generated.

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Summary: Disappointing
Review: I read by the same author his other book TNT - THE POWER WITHIN YOU, and I was so impressed with that particular book, that I didn't hesitate to order a copy of THE MAGIC OF BELIEVING.

However, I was very unimpressed with this book. It seems to be more of a collection of essays on the power of belief, rather that a practical how-to-do book. It also does seem quite repetitive in its message and approach.

Personally I found TNT - THE POWER WITHIN YOU to be a much more exciting and dynamic book. It has an abundance of varied information and advice, and also benefits massively from the writing style of co-author Harold Sherman.

My suggestion is don't bother with THE MAGIC OF BELIEVING. Go straight from TNT - THE POWER WITHIN YOU. This book covers everything that is in the first, but also a lot more.

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Summary: Interesting and a good read
Review: I read this book and found it to be both enjoyable and enlightening. Believing really does make a difference!!

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Summary: Relearning the Magic.
Review: I received a copy of "The Magic of Believing" 25 years ago as a birthday present from a very dear friend of mine. I read, underlined, notated and applied the magic with tremendous results. This book has always been in my possession but through the years I had forgotten much of what I learned and failed to apply the common sense magic within its pages. Most recently I was faced with a personal delema that may of destroyed me. By shear luck and determination, (something I received from my original reading of the book) I did in fact find it and re-read it from cover to cover, relearning and re-applying the insightful techniques it so profoundly conveys. Applying the concept of the "Power Within" has dramaticly helped me over come my personal delema and has made me a stronger and more determined person. I regained my strength, my confidence, my out look on life and am a better person as a direct result of the re-read.

I highly reccommend "The Magic of Believing" to anyone who has any doubts about them self and to those who have already read it, please read it again.

Sincerely and with thanks to Claude M. Bristol where ever you may be.

James Kay Toronto, Canada

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Summary: Practical application
Review: I strongly disagree with the writer of the previous review. It seems that the reviewer only selectively "believes" what he wants to "believe". This book is about changing your life and reality by using the natural powers of our subconscious minds. We all use these powers every second of our life. Basically, we become what we spend most of our time thinking about. That is obvious. This is a natural law like gravity etc. Here is a list of authors who think likewise: Hill, Wattles, Silva, Proctor, Boc, Ponder, Tracy, Chopra, Kehoe, Gawain, The Bible and on and on. The "secrets" to life are always so obvious, that they are overlooked by virtually all. Nobody has implied in anyway that you must not work hard etc., but swimming with your legs tied and 5 pound weights attached to your wrists is harder work than it should be. Using your mind correctly makes achievment simpler and easier. Does the previous writer really think that those that make 10 times the income he does, actually work 10 times as hard? I don't think so.