Customer Reviews

Disinfect Your Mind: Defend Yourself with Memetics Against Mass Media, Politicians, Corporate Management, Your Aunt's Advice, and Other Mind Viruses

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This is a really nice, straight-to-the-point breakdown of what memes are, how they are used, how they affect you, and how to use them. I've been experimenting with trance states, meditation, nlp, and classical hypnosis for a few years and this short book has done more for me than anything else I've read. I've been fed up with long-winded nonsense and this book was the answer to my prayers. There was a small amount of biblical reference I could have done without, though, it they were relevant examples, I guess. Bottom line, this book is pure substance, No fluff.

I like books of this author. They are fun to read, but this one also was an eye opener. I never thought about a human mind as sort of a computer, programmable with what we see, hear or read, but once I read the book, it makes a lot of sense.

For example, We all know that hamburgers and french fries are bad for us. But imagine that you read first time in your life some good book, which describes what a hamburger does to your body with all this glycemic index, insulin resistance and turning your genes into a store-fat mode? That's sort of what _this_ book shows you about watching TV. For a couple of weeks after reading this book I could not help but count hooks, which the authors used in every political show or commercial ad I saw. And it's more than that. I really tried to use techniques from this book at work, and in a couple of months my idea was adopted and the way to go for the whole team. Something that does not normally happen unless you are a boss or an architect.

On a minus side, some examples closer to the end are somewhat hard to follow, but overall it's a very good read. A must-read, if you want ot keep you head bugs-free (and use bugs in the heads of others instead of being annoyed like hell with them).

Whevever I see a book on memetics I have to read it. There aren't many of them...
This one offers a clear and accurate definition of memes, avoids confusion of memes and words and explains the matter in simple and undestandable language.
It seems fun and easy reading, especially at first, but don't let this deceive you. It discusses serious things and does it well.

I got this as I have always been interested in the notion of Memes since reading Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene" years ago. If anyone else has an interest in the subject I suggest getting something else, perhaps "The Meme Machine" by Susan Blackmore. This book here is an attempt to show certain meme strings and discuss the problems they have or the corruptive properties inhernet in them, but it does a poor job, the style is very boring, the subject treatment is barely adequate and the topics it runs through are fairly half rate. There is a similar book on mental cleaning by Jamie Whyte called "Crimes Against Logic" which is a far better treatment of logic problems found in society written by some one that knows the subject quite well. Pass this by and get one of the others.