Customer Reviews

Poker Without Cards: A Consciousness Thriller

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Poker Without Cards" kicks like a jackass to Willie's left shinbone!

I was safe... as long as I was asleep. Now I'm f**king awake. After the first read it dawned on me that I'm an addict... addicted to higher authorities... addicted to those who know.

Ben Mack released my chains.

Reading "Poker Without Cards" I learned about:

1. The Voight Comm Test.

2. When God speaks to preachers, nobody ever really freaks out and questions their sanity. Shouldn't the fact that God spoke to them be on CNN? Either God is speaking to them and we have a modern day prophet and the newfound words of God should be published everywhere, or they are criminals for swindling their donations. Or, are they insane?

3. Relying too heavily on intelligence is a sign of immaturity. Young people are eager to show off. They flaunt what they know and what they think. They can't resist. Character is the greater part of knowledge. Knowledge is the application of character and intelligence.

4. Consenus breeds reality. Garnering and stewarding consenus is powerful. The Catholic Church was the first organization to recognize that garnering consensus was an effective path to ruling people.

5. Poker is an inquiry into the structure of power. The goal of poker is sustainable increases in money. Money is power. The structure of poker is betting with incomplete information. Poker includes playing on emotions and social motivators usually discounted in other inquiries into power or disciplines.

6. IQ tests have been revealed to test acclimation to dominant white culture.

7. The Finnegans are waking.

I'm now fighting for my mind. Praying that I won't fall prey... again. Fighting for my freedom... ending my hunt for subservient slaves to bring to my elite master. They may hold and control the empire... but not the empire of my mind.

"Poker Without Cards" is the handle of a multipurpose tool... buy it... read it... free yourself... free others. Whether you are willing to follow my advice or not...

Big brother is watching. Bow to the one you serve.

This is quite a good book. It will really open up your mind to new things, especially if you're not familiar with memes/memetics. This is a book that is really hard to put down, especially since the layout is easy on the eyes. Poker Without Cards is an extremely underrated book in my opinion and is a book you can easily read 2-3 times over and still discover new meaning.

Well, I'm not a kid--just an adult who can't remember my amazon account password... Anyway, Poker without Cards is a thought provoking novel of ideas. It will get the reader thinking about advertising, culture, mental health, and more.

The reader who says PWC was boring is probably just not ready for it. It's not an action thriller, but rather a consciousness thriller. Anyone looking to exercise his/her brain should enjoy it.

There's a couple layers here. There's interesting material (a lot cribbed from other sources, but still interesting). There's an extraordinarily self-conscious branding attempt. There are a couple different pseudonyms such that the author's identity is pretty confused. There's an effort to get readers to think about a lot of things that are worth thinking about.

It's a fun read. Just don't take it as seriously as it wants you to. And if you've read a lot of Robert Anton Wilson or Buckminster Fuller, it's probably not worth your time. Basically, I'm not sure to what extent this is an attempt to capitalize on the work of authors writing in a certain niche and build a brand around it, and to what extent this is interesting, original material.

I first read this book at a time in my life (a year ago, ha) when I would spend hours at a time talking to some very intelligent and very alive friends of mine--and we would talk about the beautiful structure of language (see Richard Bandler, et al), trance within trance, this thing called "magick," and all sorts of other crazy stuff that driven, creative, imaginitive kids come up with. We would go on hypnotizing each other just for fun, like we were playing a high level game of word chess. Was going into a deep trance now the prize or the penalty? We're just regular kids though, in our 20s. Our minds hadn't and (haven't) been beaten down yet with the necessity to be right all the time.

My revelation point came the night after my friend reccomended the book and I read the first 20 pages or so. I went to talk to him and asked, "Is this real or fiction???" and he just grinned at me, like I had made him proud of how easily I was getting into the whole thing.

Any true intellectual explorer, including those who like Robert Anton Wilson, or Christopher Hyatt, or Buckminster Fuller ... should enjoy this book immensely. In fact I think R.A.W. gave an awesome review of this. It's one of the many books that I reccomend to people who are being changed into something ALIVE. It's a keeper.

Stay up late at night, bypass your critical factor, and read this text. You too will become a Ben Mack fan.

This is a strange book. I didn't find it mindblowing as others have, but I feel like this is because I'm more knowledgeable about the effects of mass media and other forms of influence (due to my profession). I can see that the book would be more exciting for some other people who don't think about these issues as often. The nice thing about it is there are a lot of references to interesting books and movies. However, I still think one would do better to read one of those books, than this book itself. For instance, pick up Robert Cialdini's Influence. Or a good book on memes.

For those of you who think I'm stalking Howard Campbell and that I'm doing him wrong, just read this email I got this morning:

"I'm still recovering from reading the greatest book I have read this year! This book should come with a warning that you shouldn't read it and operate heavy machinery. I read Poker Without Cards straight through in under four hours and when I was done, I went back to the beginning because I couldn't believe it was all there in front of me. This is a head trip within a head trip within a head trip. If you want to understand how media really works read this book. But be warned: You will never see the world the same again. Howard Campbell came out from under the media circus tent to let us alllook underneath and see what really goes into making The Greatest Show on Earth. Thank goodness you transcribed these tapes and Joseph was willing to publish them."

See, some people are grateful. I gave Joseph the transcriptions to be published. I wasn't expecting him to publish my glossary. I also told him to use less space between paragraphs so the book didn't need to waste so many trees--he won't listen to me or reply to my emails.

Also recommended reading: Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Ideas and concepts not tied to emotions are easily forgotten. The ideas contained in Ben Macks transcription of the events between Howard Campbell and Psychiatrist Dr.William Fink can not be forgotten. The conversation will assault your senses with a world of events that you may never recover from.

Warning!: These ideas are communicable, once you enter you can not leave, your unconscious will not let you.

Warning!: Poker Without Cards contains powerful ideas that the powerful would rather you not know about.

I've heard some theories about where Ben's transcription originated from, but have yet to pin it down to one or another.

Some say that Poker Without Cards is a staged illusion by Robert Anton Wilson, who's writing under the pen name Ben Mack. I personally suspect somebody has Multiple Personality Order here. Either way, the source doesn't matter, it's the ideas that matter, and these ideas matter.

In a time and country where important matters consume us most,
this book serves not only as an effective tool kit but truly interesting ride.
It would be a daunting task to try and unpack the thought structures surrounding current events, but to so from within an interesting story written in an unconventional way should interest us all.
When the truth is delivered well, it remains timeless.
Current events reach back to the past and also remain personal to those wound into this TWISP.
I went to Bennington, I still cant decide if I remember Howard as bat squat crazy, or brilliant. Either way this book hits one out of the park.

I came across this book online actualy and read the majority of it in one afternoon, which is really saying something for me since I usually take a month to read books since I am slow reader and get distracted quite easily.

Can not say the precise reason why it is so good, just that at the time and place which I came across this book it hit me strong and hard and I just adored the book.

I have now read it a couple more times and each time I am able to pull something new from it. I am glad I have it in my library and I would strongly suggest it to anyone.