43 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great system, that requires group participation, December 5, 2008
This review is from: Meta-Magick: The Book of ATEM: Achieving New States of Consciousness Through NLP, Neuroscience and Ritual (Paperback)
From the Product Description above and the other three reviews provided here (thus far), I made an assumption that this book was written in a way that one could simply read it, follow the exercises, and enjoy the process of working with "Atem," without any further requirements.
I was disappointed to discover that in order to make use of the majority this book, one must find at least 2 other people who are ready, willing, and able to spend a portion of 36 consecutive days practicing the various Atem exercises as a group.
Each of the 36 exercises are presented using only brief instructions and minimal detail, ending with "discuss your experiences with your partner(s)," so of course, reading through them without actually practicing them, is less than exhilarating.
Once this section of the book is completed, the reader is then repeatedly informed that the "36 Days of Atem" exercises are a prerequisite for all of the remaining exercises contained in the book, thus rendering everything past page 57 effectively useless until such time as the reader has gathered a group of interested parties together for practice.
Seeing as I have yet to practice the "36 Days of Atem," I can only comment on my experiences from the first section of the book, which contains well over a dozen exercises that are designed for solo practice, as an introduction to working with Atem. In short, Philip Farber deconstructs classic occult magickal rituals into effective and innovative NLP exercises that will easily fit into any belief system (or lack there of). As an NLP enthusiast, I found them to be both useful and entertaining. As a practitioner of Chaos Magick, I found his approach inspiring. The concept of Atem itself, is simply brilliant and well-supported. His writing style is clear and concise. The only thing I found lacking was a phonetic spelling of Atem, which would be helpful since many of the rituals require speaking the name aloud.
Otherwise, I suspect the rest of the material is just as fun and effective as the exercises from the first section. I only wish Farber had made it more accessible to solo practitioners (he certainly seems capable), or at least to have made it more clear that the system requires group practice.
Aside from that, this is a great read for both occult and NLP practitioners alike.
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16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Explorations in modern magick, September 8, 2008
This review is from: Meta-Magick: The Book of ATEM: Achieving New States of Consciousness Through NLP, Neuroscience and Ritual (Paperback)
Phillip Farber has called on his expertise in NLP, hypnosis, neuroscience and extensive experience in ceremonial magicks to create a textbook detailing an systems type approach to a complete system of magick. The beauty of this is that the system of magick that you develop using Meta-Magick is attuned to you as you are the moment you do the exercises. By deriving a magickal system from your own reflexes, innate responses, patterns of thought and socialization the system becomes immediately potent and effective without having to learn and internalize complex correspondences, godnames, rituals, etcetera. I have attended a number of Mr Farber's workshops over the past ten years or so and am overjoyed to have this material collected and organized into a complete system. I recommend this book to anyone who wants magick without the proprietary trappings that move it into the realm of religion.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good exploration of contemporary science and magic, December 21, 2008
This review is from: Meta-Magick: The Book of ATEM: Achieving New States of Consciousness Through NLP, Neuroscience and Ritual (Paperback)
Meta-Magick is an intriguing book which presents readers with an opportunity to create not one entity, but actually a number of entities based off of principles such as attention, passion, trance, language, making, and Fitting. Additionally Farber provides 36 exercises which can be used by people to learn how to integrate these principles into their lives.
Farber also focuses on eight powers: Communication, neuroplasticity, transformation, transmission, beauty, understanding, balance, and opening. The book doesn't overtly focus on these powers much...instead the focus is more subtle. You will experience them through doing the exercises in the book, which is what the author intended.
Meta-magick definitely is not intended to be something intellectually read, so much as it is intended to be experienced and worked with. You will get a lot of leverage out of this book if you do the exercises in them. It's an excellent book to introduce people to magic, but is also good for intermediate to advanced practitioners.
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