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How Your Mind Can Keep You Well

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I have degrees in Psychology and Philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and have studied mainstream religious thought, psychological works of Freud, Jung, Maslow, Adler, Skinner, Rogers, etc, and many non-mainstream thinkers and self-help systems such as NLP, Robbins, Reich, Chopra, Gurdjieff, etc. For over ten years I have been conducting a professional and personal research investigation into the fields of psychology, philosophy, self-help fields and so on.

It is my opinion that Roy Masters is one of the greatest psychologists alive today, and ranks with the greatest thinkers on the nature of man who have ever existed. I have found that his books, tapes, and radio program contain some of the most practical and effective information available anywhere, and I strongly urge anyone who yearns for deeper meaning and happiness to listen to what he has to say.

This may sound overly dramatic or full of exaggeration. Yet, for better or worse the modern world is saturated with a flood of self-help gurus, psychological theories, life-improvement systems, methods of enlightenment and so forth, which can be extremely confusing to say the least, overwhelming, disillusioning and dangerous at worst.

Finding Roy Masters was a huge, incredible sigh of relief. Finally - a scientific, practical, and common-sense message that stands out like a beacon of light, with clear and obvious sanity in a confusing world.

I began studying his books and tapes over about eighteen months ago, and have been practicing his meditation exercise for almost as long. Since that time my own life has been transformed. And I am not the only one by far - hundreds of thousands, some of whom I have met personally, have been helped by this message, the teaching, and simple method - heroin addicts who have been cured, alcoholics who have become dry, survivors of severe childhood traumas who have become healthy again, all the way to people who for some unknown reason just feel vaguely unsatisfied with their lives.

Having explored more teachers and systems than I would like to admit, I know for a fact that this system "works," that the results are real, and the changes are permanent. I know many teachers get endorsements, but I have thoroughly investigated many of these teachers and moved on.

At the same time, Mr. Masters is one of the most misunderstood thinkers on the planet - and in all fairness, the message is easily misunderstood. He is a thinker, not a writer, and his books tend to be rambling, stream-of-consciousness, and a lot to swallow. His speaking style (from his audio tapes and radio shows), while extremely eloquent and articulate, pulls no punches - he speaks plainly and really "tells it like it is." So of course, many are offended by his message - he has been called everything from a "woman-hater" to a "racist" to a "Bible-thumper," all of which, I know, are simply not true. He gives no respect to sacred cows, and sacred cows are numerous.

I do not have space here to explain Mr. Masters' system to any degree of justice, but here is a thumbnail sketch:

Normal Freudian/psychoanalytic and modern psychological systems are designed to "cure" people of mental afflictions; it takes people who are "sick" and makes them "normal" again.

The system of Masters does this, but also more: it does not stop with the goal of "normal," or ordinary psychological health - it aims higher, to a state of clear, objective awareness, (dare I say "self-actualization"?) a state of being which is free of anxiety, guilt, fear, confusion, tension, and so forth. This is no "mystical" state of consciousness in the ordinary sense, but more a state of deep confidence, honest joy and love, and clear common sense. It is nothing far removed or exotic - this is our natural state - the state that children have until their parents and societal influences drum it out of them.

So, how is this state "attained?" Well, if you were to pursue psychoanalysis, teachings of Jung and the individuation process, or even traditional therapy, it would cost hundreds and thousands of dollars to see a therapist, which depending on the therapist (and the client), may or may not be effective.

The system of Masters is one of self-knowledge. The "technique" he recommends requires a total investment of a few minutes a day and around twenty dollars. That's all. No other person - Masters himself or any kind of doctor or psychologist - needs to get involved or provide additional instruction - but if elaboration is desired, he is personally available through his talk-radio program for FREE (what other psychologist that you know will do this?) or through additional tapes and books.

I would recommend starting with "How Your Mind Can Keep You Well," and the accompanying tape "The Classic," which outlines the basics of his system. These are really all you need to know. His additional books go into more detail still: "How To Conquer Negative motions" and "Understanding Sexuality" are more in-depth aspects of his teaching; there is also "The Hypnosis Of Life"for coping with everyday stress and pressure; "Eat No Evil" foreating disorders, their causes and cure; "The Adam and Eve Sindrome" for probably the most incisive exposition of the male/female relationship I have ever read; "How To Conquer Suffering Without Doctors" for emotional roots of physical illnesses - and several other books as well.

Again, if you really want to get his message, don't get put off by the writing style or dismiss him as a ranting moralist, traditional preacher, etc. It will take some open-mindedness and a sincere desire to understand in order to hear what he is saying. His teachings are wholly original and self-generated; although it is rooted in spiritual traditions they are unlike any other body of thought I have come across at all. Which is strange to say, because in retrospect it all seems like common sense.

I have read this book, and I came to the conclusion that this is not an easy book to read. It IS, however, one of the deepest books I have come across. Masters goes much, much further than psychology does, because he also discusses the spiritual aspect of human beings. I have read some of the other reviews on this site, and I could not help noticing that the review that were most negative did not present any argument against Masters' message, they only resort to name-calling (really...) or stating that the book is hard to read. I quite agree with the latter comment, but if you are willing to put some effort in it, don't try to read the book at once, read one chapter or a couple of pages at a time and think about it, you will discover that the effort yields a great reward, it is like digging for a treasure hidden very deep into the ground. Masters is a very original and intelligent thinker, I have listened to some of his radio programs and I must say that he is an absolute delight to listen to.
If you have many questions about life and if you want to find out the answer to many whys, check out this book. If I could I would give it a six star rating.

I've listened to Roy on radio, and read a few of his books. This book is simply trying to reach into our psyches and give us the news flash: what we think, see, and believe about this world may not be true. There is a special way of becoming receptive and responsive to our spiritual nature, and that can come about via meditation and contemplation. Our minds can keep us well, if we can overcome all the chitter-chatter that's continually going on inside of those minds. This book explains the way to disconnect from mindless blather, and reconnect to the Creative Spirit within us all. And to those who believe that Roy is attempting to brainwash and hypnotize them, that's untrue. He continually states that his goal is simply to awaken our sleeping spirits to the Truth which will set us free. Once we're awakened, he wants nothing more to do with us. We're on our own. I think that's his primary goal in this world - to set people free from their conditioning, their false beliefs, and their childhood traumas.

I used to search for God in religion and ideas. Sadly, in the process, I lost sight of what was most important: the Christian life. I became a compulsive slave to sin, and despite my constantly talking to God, I did not see His presence, nor did I bear the fruit as evidence of true faith. I was sincere, but misled.

I am still a Christian, and believe firmly in the traditional Christian doctrines that the apostolic Catholic Church handed down to us. Given this, I must thank Roy Masters for re-introducing us to the way of stillness and truly prayerful meditation in his CD and this corresponding book.

Ancient monks had discovered the connection between thoughts and compulsive sin. Well intentioned as they are, many Christians (and even entire Churches) have forgotten the ever-relevant way of contact with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ.

No matter where you are intellectually, morally, religiously, or socially right now, this book is a jewel and a must. Roy continues in the tradition of St. Augustine and C.S. Lewis by making honest and insightful observations about the human condition. As such, this book cannot help but be a help to anyone who is searching for the way, the truth, and the life, and to have a perfect and obedient relationship with Him.

I've read much of this book and touched base with Roy's radio show for decades. Before commenting on Roy, I want to say for the record that I'd never want to completely discount any method which saves lives. One could point to certain cult-like qualities that are part of the trappings of AA, but hey, Alcoholics Anonymous saves many untold lives from self-destruction through its own system of intervention.

My sense is that Roy's Alpha personality IS the intervention here. Getting fetched up in Roy is largely based on a very primal instinct to be set right by one who has no cracks in his own self-confidence. It's not just his assertively-placed words, but a confident presence that is felt in an animal way. That uber-father archetype is no less God to the human psyche. And yes, Roy absolutely has challenging and truthful things to say that one would have a difficult time finding anywhere else. He's quite an original thinker for sure. So those with very serious problems can be helped by Roy's surrogate Father role. He'll lift you up by the scruff of the neck and make you go limp like a docile kitten. His books and lectures are filled with the words "You-You-You" in constant succession. It's as though he's freely presuming to be running around in your head, toppling things over and predicting what'll happen when you take any turn in the road of life, or if you don't. This usually gives way to the notion that you are hopeless to do anything to help yourself. Only to surrender the ego, give up all resentment. Following this brand of Psychology/Eastern/ Judeo/Christian mix can be dizzying and it catches those new to Roy off-guard, because they're trying to figure out what to make of all his highly compressed circular line of "reason". It's not so much a discussion, as being talked AT in a stream-of-thought sort of way.

So, for those who seek unity with their own intellect when investigating spiritual matters ( Roy does tend to talk of the intellect pejoratively ) and aren't disabled by depression or dysfunction, you might have a harder time piecing the Master's puzzle together without lots of cognitive dissonance.

It's too bad that Roy lives in such a castle unto himself. There might have been some real insights to be gained by a fair exchange with the man. That's to say, discussions which are more of a talking across to, rather than up and down to. It's great to help people in life, but never coming down from the paternal role is a form of escape of its own. As it is though, he's got something which is placed as an inscrutable gift, which is how people tend to think of a Mystic. And to my mind, it builds an unfortunate wall of distance and yet, with a twist, brings down other interpersonal boundaries of the sort which tends to screws with peoples' heads too much. Note how the Mystic (Roy) is loose and spontaneous, even unpredictable. The followers watch their step and tend to be doctrinaire, thick and rigid.

We're supposed to be getting more objective, not more invested in mimicking charismatic people and magical thinking.

Unfortunately too, he tends to drift into a paranoid "Roy vs. the world" thing that gets tiring. It's as though, if you disagree with him, you must be some velvet-tongued agent of the devil. This stance feels to me like a developmentally-stuck, grossly self-serving defense mechanism. Why not just teach and/or express yourself, let the chips fall, without so much anticipated drama and chest beating? It doesn't have to be a wrestling ring death match between two galactic forces. Who says that we must regard ourselves with so much seriousness when discussing matters of spirituality?

Actually, I suppose there are very practical reasons why delivering a message such as Roys cannot be done in a more conventional manner. In the world of commerce, you have to make concessions to the radio medium when marketing something as nebulous as personal metaphysics. You have to create some sort of unique identity. And inserting drama when describing those who allegedly want to bring you down helps here, very much in the same mold as how TV preachers will ask for money and declare "You're not going to let Satan beat us this time ARE YOU?!!!" Just enough Drama gets passive ears focused. The listener gets hooked and wants to know, "What's this odd character going to say next?" . 'Can't resist tuning in.

And when you're telling the world that no one has ever challenged you for 46 years, that's just some line. For starters, it would never be a properly moderated debate. He's got the finger on the button. It's a ridiculous claim on the face of it.

But what's worse is that over time, the host gets daily personal reinforcement in what is really a very unnatural exchange with people and gradually starts to believe his own lofty PR. Success here can mean being more out of touch with the outside world. "I'm seen as weird and I'm persecuted, therefore I must be doing everything RIGHT!"

Yet, this book might save your life.

This book claims to rediscover the ancient art of meditation. That may be true for Roy Masters personally, but hardly for the world. His meditation technique is basically a form of mindfulness. Mindfulness is taught in Buddhism, and psychology as therapy. Almost any complete book on meditation will include it in its basic form of being aware of your breath. You can extend this to the whole body, including thoughts. The advantage of Mr. Master's book is that it is put in a semi-Christian context. I recommend the book for those new to meditation, and for those who need a religious context for their meditation practice other than one of the eastern religions. I wish that someone like Herbert Benson would create a non-religious scientific context for meditation practice!

roy masters.....i love and respect you so much.....the meditation excercise has changed my life ....and i cant thank god enough .

Roy Masters writes and speaks about rational ideas. These include giving up resentment and finding God. The concept and practice of meditation is certainly not new. By increasing one's objectivity toward their emotional state one can disengage the habits of self destructive thinking and activity. That may be simply put but it is a very powerful concept. Roy Masters can, nevertheless, be a confusing person to make sense of. I believe that this is because there exists a giant gap of information in mainstream western medicine; that of the dramatic mind-body connection. There is a heavy mental resistance to the idea that the sensations which tend to fall under the heading of faith are actually born out of neurological and biochemical instinct. There are researchers attempting to remedy this. They work in under-appreciated disciplines such as psychoneuroimmunology and emotional endocrinology.

Roy Masters' writing are about 30% rational eastern philosophy and 70% clinical paranoia. By necessity he finds himself incessantly at odds with the world, in particular, the bulk of the medical establishment (until confronted with his own medical emergencies). Further, he has to try to cultivate disciples of this paranoia. Roy Master's philosophy is that the world is rotten to the core and if people would only listen to him, everything would be great. This masks his own deep, flagrant hostility and, therefore, non-objectivity toward the human condition. By shrouding his own hypocrisies and neuroses behind the process of giving advice to other people, he effectively shields himself from direct criticism: Anybody criticizing him is simply rejecting "the truth".

I suffered from a severe case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Roy refers to this clinical condition as "cowardice". In searching for answers, I fell into listening to Masters. I found a great deal of what he had to say to be intriguing. However, I could not engage much of what he was preaching, beyond a certain point. Years later, I would like to offer some personal comments:

Roy Masters would write that hatred is wrong and that you need to become objective toward your problems. This made sense but I simply found the task to be too overwhelming. After years of suffering the "pain of conscience", I found that I did not see a heavy moral indictment hanging over my head, but instead, I just saw tension. At that time, by fate or luck, I came across the fields of psychiatry and psychotherapy. Like Roy, I held a stereotypical view of these fields; that doctors didn't care about such lofty issues as the human soul. I found, however, that competent physicians, unlike Roy, represent actual non-judgement. Further, they understand that while emotional problems affect the physical state of one's general health, it also happens that the reverse is true; that by treating the physical problem, and reestablishing the organic balance in one's mind and body, that you become restored to a normal, balanced life, in which you actually enjoy being alive. You find that when you finally start to recover from trauma, a natural morality starts to come through you wherein you have an understanding of, and empathy for, others.

Masters has repeatedly said that he doesn't understand why people don't get his message. He's right. He doesn't. He does not understand that hatred becomes a physiological habit and that it can require medical intervention to become released from ones body and psyche. If many of the people who fall into reading his writings or listening to him were to get medical treatment (e. g., antidepressants and electro-accupuncture), they would release tension and hatred, and get into a normal, functioning mode wherein life is an enjoyable experience.

The nature of human emotional trauma is a biochemical imbalance that occurs in a person when they are jarred off center too heavily or at too young an age. In many cases, this trauma can be maintained indefinitely. In clinical depression, for example, people generally lose the ability to transmit a sufficient amount of a neurotransmitter called, "seratonin", to their nerve endings. In this state, the advice, "Give up resentment." doesn't have any meaning. The ability for the person suffering to engage such homeostatic capabilities as the letting go of hostility, which they do need to do, has become disabled. Roy Masters takes people away from the tangibility and blatancy of human emotional trauma and recovery. He very amateurishly dismisses medicine as a means through which people simply wind up "living wronger longer". He is simply wrong. The lynch pin to Masters' hook on people is his tapping into one's sense of self-condemnation and using it to create a false sense of conscience, and, since he is bringing you to that sense, the idea that he must be a divinely-inspired being.

Competent science addresses objective reality and therefore the subject of truth. Masters has said that "knowledge is the enemy of faith". He believes that because he wears his ignorance like a badge of honor. It is in a judgmental and egotistical definition of faith that much of the science versus religion tug-of-war lies. It can be well argued that faith was simply the word used to describe the sense of proper conduct and the process of emotional/physiological healing, prior to the development of scientific knowledge. What was called faith can now be called neurochemical and hormonal instinct for homeostasis (much less glamorous).

To better gage Masters' warped mentality, consider some of his comments: He preaches against judgement, yet he is exceedingly judgmental. He rationalizes this by saying that he's "a good judge". He said that if Bill Clinton got away with the Monica Lewinski matter that within six months there would be "civil war". He claims that his writings and meditation exercise will bring you to the "peace of mind and joy for which you have been searching all of your life". Yet on the radio he recently said, "There's no such thing as happiness in this life. There's only being persecuted for the right reasons.".

This book holds the key to nothing less than life itself. Roy Masters has found a beautifully simple technique to solve lifes answers ; a special meditation. This words in this book will come alive as your understand how to live your life from the inside out. You will learn how to conquer lifes problems without effort. As you become objective with the meditation, you will experience a content joy with the world around you. You will see the self imposed prisons you created for yourself,let them melt away, and your life will never be the same. Then you will learn how to let your creator lead you to peace. Very highly recommended!

Roy Masters changed my life 22 years ago, and I've never been the same since. If you want to improve your mind, become free of all negative emotions, and realize your full potential, give this man a chance!