Albert Amao Soria
Awaken the Power Within: In Defense of Self-Help
TarcherPerigee, New York, NY 2018
Awaken the Power Within: In Defense of Self-Help
TarcherPerigee, New York, NY 2018
Self-help is an eleven-billion
dollar industry. What a task it is to sift through the plethora of books and
programs in trying discern what’s helpful. Sociologist Albert Amao Soria is
sympathetic to the needs of the dedicated self-help seeker as he himself is
one. In Awaken the Power Within, he brings his experience as a student of the
mystical, metaphysical and occult to evaluate both esoteric and conventional
self-help. Authentic self-help is actually just listening to the guidance of
the inner voice of the higher self. Some of the most helpful and effective
self-help practices come from traditional esoteric thought. Many of these old
teachings are repackaged and commercialized to gain profit; still other
programs make false and overreaching claims, and Soria’s names them. He tells
of his disillusionment following the hype of the video “The Secret,” which he
watched in someone’s home, paying seven dollars admission, along with twenty
others eager to learn the newly discovered secret occult knowledge that even
Oprah promoted with fanfare. But there was nothing new; the secret was simply
The Law of Attraction, a concept that’s been part of the American New Thought
philosophy for over a century, and one that was widely disseminated by Esther
and Jerry Hicks through the nonphysical being Abraham. Further, “The Secret’s”
Law of Attraction manifests nothing unless it’s combined with the Law of
Deliberate Creation and the Law of Allowing.
Amao’s is also critical of the
work of Eckhart Tolle, having attended a weekend workshop knowing nothing about
Tolle beforehand and finding the workshop both simplistic and boring. In
addition, Tolle’s talks and writings completely dismiss the power of the
subconscious mind. The subconscious mind can be our greatest healer, both
physically and mentally, yet it also allows pseudo-gurus to convince people
they lack the power to change unless they purchase solutions in the form of
books and seminars. The subconscious mind uses deductive reasoning, so what we
say we want needs to be in congruence with our actions and beliefs. If a person
wants health but doesn’t eat healthy food or exercise or breathe properly, that
person is instilling negative suggestions into the subconscious mind. The
subconscious mind takes its conclusion from whatever premise we give it. This
is how placebos work, through the powerful subconscious. When people believe
medicine will heal them, even if they receive a placebo, it’s the belief in the
healing that cures them. Almost all people credit something or someone else
when they are healed. Robert Park, a university physics professor points out,
“We recover from most of the injuries and illnesses that afflict us without
either prayers or medicine. Like all animals, we have built-in repair
mechanisms… Modern medicine can often intervene to assist nature in the healing
process. But if the patient then recovers, how do we know the medicine was
responsible?” Medicine, placebo, prayers, miraculous or spontaneous recovery?
As Dr. Bernie Siegel says, “All healing is self-induced.”
http://www.spiritofchange.org/Fall-2018/Fall-Winter-2018-Book-Reviews/
