SPIRIT OF CHANGE Magazine - Book Review BY GAIL LORD

Albert Amao Soria
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.”

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