Customer Reviews

Mind Manipulation: Ancient and Modern Ninja Techniques

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DO NOT BUY BLACK SCIENCE
it is the same book with a different publisher and title but it has the same information
I tried to return it because amazon has been posting Mind Manipulation and Black Science as a package
they are trying to charge me for the cost of returning Black Science
buyer beware GET THIS BOOK it is awsome but do not get Black Scince

I love the book but got ripped off when Amazon.com's site suggested I buy this book and "Black Science: Ancient and modern techniques of ninja mind manipulation" together. They are the SAME BOOK! Somebody at Amazon.com should pay A LOT MORE ATTENTION to their site. They should not be tricking us into buying the SAME book, with just different titles. This is a great book, but just get this one. Don't buy BLACK SCIENCE also, or you will find out that you just waisted your money!

I was recently browsing through books at a bookstore looking for books that deal with Ninja philosophy - I became intriqued after watching a movie called Ghost Dog. I picked this book up and proceeded to thumb through it. 30 minutes later I bought it. It is amazing to know that the field of psychology was being developed thousands of years ago in a different culture than German. Get this book and learn the "two ways", "the five weaknesses", how birth order effects a persons general attitude. Then go out and control other people's minds.

The topic of this book is the various ways in which others purposefully and maybe sometimes not so purposefully use psychological tactics to alter our behavior.

In that way, this book deals with important, critical issues yet unfortunately it does so in much too facile a way. In this way, the reader -- upon completing it -- can wrongly assume themselves informed on a series of topics that genuinely command much greater attention.

In no particular order of importance, this book examines the various ways in which others can affect our behavior with reference to the following issues:

1) What does an examination of our body language tell them. From the 1970s forward this topic alone has commanded book length treatments. One such treatment can be found in Darrick Bickerton's excellent Language and Species which shows the connection between spoken and unspoken languages (and thereby somewhat erases the divide between at least human and primate "language").

2) What does our language usage and word choice say about the way in which we process information. Again, for a (much) better treatment of this issue I would recommend the great Lakoff and Johnson book Language and Metaphor as well as Lakoff's later follow up entries, Philosophy in the Flesh and Where Mathematics Comes From.

3) What are our genetic imperatives. While the authors of this book remain rooted in the 70s by quoting for example the famous Maslow table (among other dated sources including B.F. Skinner), more recent reading would better focus on the neuorscientific approaches found for example in Harvard's Steven Pinker's How the Mind Works.

4) For an examination of sex based differences in behavior, one would again much better look to other authors as opposed to this book in learning more. Here I would recommend the excellent Red Queen by the geneticist Matt Ridley.

5) For better treatments of the game theory issues alluded to (but not explored in any serious way) I would suggest William Poundstone's The Prisoner's Dilema as well as Robert Axelrod's The Evolution of Cooperation.

6) For a much, much better treatment of polygraphs, read Terror in the Blood, a book length treatment of the history, limitations and abuses of the polygraph.

7) For treatments relating to group suggestability I obviously would suggest that you go the primary sources including Stanley Milgram's very accessible Obediance to Authority as well as Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect (which detailed the history and findings related to his 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment).

Aside from the foregoing concerns I also found several things about this book disjunctive:

1) They used terms they created such as "mind slayers" and "mind castles" as a means of attempting to encapsulate issues that rightfully deserve more thoroughgoing and deliberative treatments. I understand that popular books sometimes need to engage in this activity but frankly terms chosen by the authors additionally impressed me as being juvenile and stupid sounding as well.

2) They vacillated back and forth as to whether they admired or feared the activity of "mind slaying" (a term which -- as it suggests -- invovles using mind control techniques to alter others' behavior). This may have been a product of differences in opinion between the two authors but perhaps a better way of resolving their ambivelance over this issue may have been to periodically break for "one on one" sections where the two authors could openly assert their differences (and maybe even their reasons for them).

3) They periodically engaged in odd speculation like where they quoted an anonymous source to suggest that JFK settled the Cuban missile crisis by disclosing to Soviets the specifics about the alien landing at Roswell New Mexico. I litterally laughed out loud when I read this notice which interrupted the flow of the supposedly serious points the authors were then trying to make.

I will no doubt receive many negative votes on this review. Such invariably is the case where people feel empowered by slender volume (this book just barely tops 170 pages) to say they know something.

The problem is that after reading this book no one can really say they know anything.

For serious students of this topic please read the books I've listed in this review. For those interested in a less serious one volume treatment of these issues, I would suggest Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate which is all about mind control but is actually a book where the topic is handled properly.

This book contains more useless history and religious education than viable techniques. Even most of the usable information themselves are dumbed down with ancient, irrelevent mystic ambiguoussness.

Perhaps this book would be more useful to a person with a keen interest in eastern religious values. To its benefit, it also contains some relevent basic psychiatry, predominantly when it describes how the human mind saves information, as well as the use of symbols.

Get [i]The 48 Laws of Power[/i] by Greene, [i]Influence, the pshychology of persuasion[/i] by Robert B. Cialdini and [i]Four Arguments For the Elimination of Television[/i] by Jerry Mander. The information provided in those three tomes are more precise, more in-depth, and more worth your time and money. Don't buy this travesty.

One of the great things about Amazon is the ability to order books that you might feel a bit red-faced about buying in the bookshop.
I'm sure there are worse examples, but I think this is one such book, a guilty pleasure of dubious value, but quite fun.
I have to say that this is by no means an authoritative work on mind-manipulation or influence, but it took me back to my teenage years when I read lots of books on martial arts and ninja training, much of it of doubtful value, others based on the actual martial disciplines of the ninja.
I did like the stories of ancient Japan featured in this book, of legendary warriors such as Miyamoto Musashi, but then the book has significant weaknesses, too, for example the light section on hypnotism.
It also has some apparently standard NLP techniques that I seem to have read in about five other books, and I could do without.
This is a very easy to read book, it took a couple of days to read, which is enjoyable but not of great value.
All-in-all quite fun, but by no means sensational.

It has some pratical technical techniques. But like all things you must practice them daily or this book will be of no use to you. There is a lot of hypnotism in here, if you believe in that I would reccomned it to you, if not then a lot of this book is a waste for you. In a real sense I would suggest another body language/mind control/dark ninja arts type of book to get.

Good book. It explains all the mind tricks played upon modern & ancient human beings; such hypnosis, peaceful persuasion, propaganda, politics, etc. It didn't really teach me how to manipulate the mind of others(which was what I was looking for) but it did give advice on how to be aware of the manipulative practices used on mankind. Good advice does lie within it.

First and foremost, I will warn that the book Black Science is the same exact book as Mind Manipulation with the exception of a different publisher. I made the mistake of ordering both, and the return fees aren't worth it. Amazon.com might need to take a re-look at their packaging deals . . .

Well, this is a book review, so I'll get into reviewing the book. I personally found that Mind Manipulation is an informative read with several excellent viewpoints given by the author. Haha Lung has a creative writing style that everyone can relate to, and the techniques and ideas he focuses on are very much valid. Whether or not these listed techniques were used by the ninja is subject to debate, there are those who argue for both sides. That is however beside the point. This book provides information that may "shed some light" on the motives and actions of the fellow human being, as well as letting us realize some truths about ourselves. It also warns of the regular psychological ploys others may use to take an advantage, and what we can do to watch for and counteract such subtle mental attacks.

Overall this book is very much worth the money, and I am very pleased I purchased it. Is the book 100% perfect? Well, of course not. No book is. A few of the techniques may be a little far-fetched, but this is a tiny percentage of the book, as most of the information is extremely informative and useful. If you're looking for more books on practical psychology that you can apply to your everyday life, I also would reccomend to you the book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie, as well as "A Book of Five Rings" by Miyamoto Musashi. If you're looking for more books that deal with ninjutsu history and training, both Grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi and Stephen K. Hayes have excellent books that cater to both the history of the art of Togakure Ryu Ninjutsu as well as its techniques and forms. I would also reccomend that those looking for a better understanding of the meld of psychology and fighting or military command in any form should read "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu.

I give this book two thumbs up. May it be as useful to you as it was me.

This book seeks to offer a quick ninjutsu solution to the uninformed. If you're looking for REAL ninjutsu(and I do wish to stress REAL) then search out any book written by Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi.