This book was quite a ride. The main point of the book is to teach you to embrace the Now through “no mind”. I actually find the concept to be interesting and helpful. However, the author goes way too spiritual on the whole idea. Flat out, it seems like he’s trying to start a cult.
Let’s start off with the good. The concept of No Mind is a good one. No Mind is about turning off the conscious stream of thought. You may have experienced it if you’ve tried meditation or if you’ve felt like you’re “in the Zone”. The author argues that the active stream of consciousness (my words) should be reserved for specific tasks, but most people use it almost everywhere. Shut it down and let something else take over.
The key is to observe that conscious stream of thought. When you start to observe your own stream of thoughts, you might realize that the thoughts aren’t “you” or else how could you be observing them? At least, that’s the argument in the book. I would simply say that they’re a part of you, but not the whole you. Your brain is more than the stream of thoughts. You also have a subconscious that is quite powerful. I saw this concept touched on slightly in another book where a well accredited author recommended giving a name to the negative voice when you are having negative self-talk.
I started calling mine Chip. Hahaha. It’s that little voice in my head that tries to tear me down by chipping away. By personifying that negative voice and making it something external to “me”, I do think I experienced significantly less negative self-talk and when it does happen, I can quickly shut it down by simply saying to myself, “hello Chip.” Overall, it has created a nice improvement in my life. However, The Power of Now takes it to an extreme and claims that no part of the inner voice is you at all. And this is where the author loses me.
He claims that the real you is the spirit (oh, and that spirit is part of God, congrats). He claims that people who live in the stream of thought are “unconscious” and that only by learning to turn off that voice will you become “conscious” and that makes you part of God or something like that.
Oh right, Namaste publishing. Yikes.
Whatever good points the book started off with, it wasted them on the hippy dippy airy fairy nonsense that followed. The vast majority of the book is set up as a series of questions and answers where the author stands up his straw men and then tries to knock them down. Even then, his knock downs seem very dubious. Dying of hunger? Don’t worry about it. Just become part of God.
Okay, that’s my own straw man, but it’s not far from what he wrote. Yeah, no thanks. I don’t want to be a part of your religion just because you stumbled on one interesting piece of knowledge. The author also makes wild claims with no proof, like that practicing “no mind” will make you look younger and be healthier. Want proof? Try it and see for yourself says the author. Yeah, that’s not evidence.
He really goes off the deep end by the end of the book and it was hard to get through. If I didn’t plan to do this review, I probably would have dropped it and I almost never drop a book partway through. I wish a different author would take a shot at “no mind” and the power of now with a more practical approach. I feel like there is something there to be explored by someone a bit more competent and a lot less cultish.
The author himself doesn’t seem like a bad guy, but if he was serving cool-aid at a party, I’d have to pass.
Scoring The Power of Now as a 2 out of 5 purely because of the “no mind” concept early on that I have never seen well explored anywhere else. Otherwise it’d be straight to the rubbish bin.