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Rating: 
Summary: Best book on mind-control around! Entertaining, sad, & TRUE
Review: How do I know it's true? I used to be a member of this cult and I know most of the people he talks about. Even when he doesn't mention them by name, I know who he means because of their circumstances. So I wondered if it was my former involvement that made the book such an incredible page-turner for me. But I've since let others read it -- people who never heard of MSIA before -- and they felt the same way. It's non-fiction but reads like the most compelling of novels, all the while enlightening readers to the ways we are all prone to mental programming...from cults, religions, governments, advertisers... ..any person or institution that might seek to benefit from controlling the way we think. If you only read one book about mind control, READ THIS BOOK! It's worth every penny, no matter how much the used copies are selling for. You might be surprised to learn that your mind is not as free as you thought...
Rating:
Summary: essential for understanding the psychology of devotees
Review: Life 102 is something of a specialist's text. The average reader in search of juicy scandal might be overloaded with the level of detail in Mc Williams' book. Contrasted with Steven Pressman's expose of John Rosenberg who became Jack Frost who became Kurt Wilhelm Von Savage who became Werner Hans Erhard in the book _Outrageous Betrayal, The Dark Journey Of Werner Erhard From EST to Exile_, McWilliams' treatement of his subject is far more personal, nuanced, and interior. Both Pressman, a reporter who sought to unravel an objective fact pattern that existed behind the "Werner" persona, and McWilliams, a self help author, describe on an identifiable psychological type, the Narcisstic Charismatic. Sinclair Lewis' fictional creation, the preacher Elmer Gantry,
is in all probability the best extended meditation on the Narcisstic Charismatic. Life 102 often reads like a surreal retelling of Elmer Gantry with a dollop of Flannery O'Conner's _Wise Blood_, a goodly helping of Madame Blavatsky, some fringe science fiction, and a shot of daytime television game shows seen under the influence of mind altering substances. A very useful and compact work, _Hypnotic Leadership_ by Micha Popper, will be necessary reading for those who wish to have a better psychodynamic grasp of this subject. McWilliams appears to be in the last throes of ambivalence with Life 102, as he has neither Pressman's journalistic ability to tightly edit his thoughts, nor Popper's academic clarity, nor Sinclair Lewis' gifts as a storyteller. He does, however, offer an exceptionally detailed study of the thought processes which animate the Leader figure as well as those of the Followers. McWilliams has found himself in the unique position of being able to look both ways, how does the Leader impose his will on his group, and how the group enables and empowers the Leader. One soon detects the outline of a dialectical process of the Leader and the Follower creating and shaping one another in a stable, hermetic "reality maintenance contract". The major task before this field is that of shifting from the idea of the Leader as an alien force that captures unsuspecting souls in his tractor beams to that of appreciating that the Leader is more a creation of his Followers (who then willingly transfer their inner authority over to him) than the Followers are a creation of the Leader. The Narcissistic Charismatic appears to be a disturbed personality type who might otherwise be marginalized or ridiculed, but under certain social circumstances discovers the perfect fertile soil for his "gift" to bear fruit. Peter McWilliams has done an excellent (thorough to the point of tedium) job of capturing many salient details that other writers have glossed over as mere noise or simple too much effort to belabor. However, in paying close attention to these datails, much like examining a good specimen under a microscope, one can indeed fill out one's mental portrait of the Narcisstic Charismatic personality type, his tactics of "thought judo", his obsession with loyalty and betrayal, the gradual hardening of the personality, the wish to invent a parallel reality in which one is a deity or a superbeing, the gross discrepancies between the way the Followers perceive the Leader (his hygeine, his idiosyncracies, the meaning of his behavior and utterances) and a more objective, indifferent observer would. For these reasons Life 102 is highly recommended for all students of the Narcisstic Charismatic personality, not as great literature, but as a highly detailed blueprint of this style and how it operates.
Rating:
Summary: essential for understanding the psychology of devotees
Review: That MSIA now owns the copyright to "Life 102" is a telling admission that John-Roger wanted this embarrassing book killed and sent to hell. The book is an astonishing expose from Peter Mc Williams, a MSIA insider. While the book dishes the dirt on
J-R, the real untold story is still out there: How did MSIA get the copyright? Did Peter McWilliams sell the copyright because he is sick with cancer and needed the money? Did MSIA prevail in court in a legal fight? I have not been able to find out on the internet. Search engines are all linked to MSIA. This reeks of a MSIA tactic to control search engines -- something easy to do if you have enough of the faithful's tithes to spend on endarkenment. J-R is rotten to the core if we are to believe Mc Williams' story. Yet Mc Williams comes across as being no better than J-R when all is said and done. Mc Williams plays the victim and J-R the bully. The two deserved each as we read of their sick and twisted karmic drama being played out in the pages of Life 102.
I would like to see J-R write "Life 103: What To Do When Your Devotee Writes a Sensationalized Expose On You." The book is well worth reading and should belong in the library of anyone interested in the history of the New Age movement in America. Personally, the book did its job insofar as it convinced me to stay away from John-Roger and MSIA. I am of the opinion that MSIA has survived David McLane, the L.A. Times, and Mc WIlliams not because of its spirituality, but rather because of the power of its lawyers, a war chest full of money, a PR firm, and the ability to maintain a legal war against to grind its enemies to powder and outlast the interest of the critics.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommend
Review: This is a very entertaining, cautionary tale about a cult leader and his former devotee. Excellent reading, even if a bit too long. Poor McWilliams certainly got his share of bad Karma! This is the first book of his that I've read and it was worth every penny. Now I'm going to have to buy at least one more (must make sure it doesn't have J-R's name on it!).
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