Customer Reviews

Powers of Mind

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One of the best non-fiction books to come out of the mid-1970s was this wonderful tongue-in-cheek exploration of a whole raft of different mind-expansion techniques by the best-selling author Adam Smith. From Rolfing to EST, Smith includes us in his often humorous attempts to gain genuine insight into how the human mind works, and how we can each individually overcome the limitations, liabilities, and lamentations associated with living with our minds. And, as Smith tells us again and again, your mind is not necessarily your friend.

Although he writes in a self-deprecating and quite comedic way, often he uses his wry and laser-sharp mind to show us things well worth knowing. Indeed, this book is not a throwaway effort, but is a very helpful and essential guide to a plethora of different philosophies, techniques, and modalities dealing with different ways of gaining further self-awareness. Smith asks himself if he really could, as is claimed by some adherents, learn to control his blood pressure, stifle headaches, or learn to pop himself into an alpha state? And by the way, he asks, what is an alpha state, and why do we want to achieve it? How useful is meditation, and what can it really do for us?

In reality, this is aground-breaking effort to introduce the field of consciousness psychology, of the whole field surrounding questions of the mind-body connection and how to approach getting involved. What makes sense and what doesn't become more apparent as we accompany Smith through adventures in Arica, or Transcendental Meditation, or what Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard refers to as the post-relaxation response. In an aside, Smith begins to question his own ideas about what is real and what is not, and the ways in which our own so-called reality paradigm predisposes us to seeing, interpreting, and experiencing the world around us in a particular way.

I found myself particularly astounded by his own experiences in a sensory deprivation tank, and how he seemed to experience out-of-body experiences associated with these excursions to the far reaches of consciousness exploration. I lost my only copy of the book in a fire last year, and just recently re-acquired another copy through the Amazon out-of-print book service. It is an unqualified joy to be re-reading it again after all this time. Do yourself a favor a get yourself a copy too. I know you will love reading it too. Enjoy!

Powers of Mind is brain candy. It is intuitive, original, and fascinating. One of the most informative and interesting books on the subject that I have read. The author lightens up normally dry reading with humor, sarcasm, and other literary devices. If you are interested in the extended issues of psychology, and parapsychology, then this book is a must read. Everything from LSD and "mind opening" experiences to ancient perspectives and interesting historical fact.s

I was amazed at the effects that this book had on my Bird-brain. Our mind is only limited by our beliefs. The author backs up all of his assertions with facts and real life examples. Several mind-expanding accounts of people all over the world who are not limited by a "confined consensual reality". Changes your beliefs and your experiences will follow. I highly recommend reading this book.

5.5 stars

You will NEVER find a better deal on this site than Powers Of Mind for a penny.

This is one of the most underrated and unfairly forgotten books I can think of. When I found it in my Dad's library and read it at age 12, it changed the way I saw life and my mind and why I am on this planet.

Reading it 30 years later, it's just as powerful and enjoyable.

Smith is really George Goodman, a brilliant mind who wrote some of the best books on money and Wall St, including Paper Money and The Money Game. Here he turns his brilliant brain to the various modalities of consciousness expansion around in the mid-70s, the peak of such pursuits. From yoga to acid, biofeedback to tennis, sensory deprivation tanks to EST, and on and on, he checks it all out. What makes this book so enthralling and loveable is the author's constant awareness of multiple perspectives and his willingness to be deeply curious, wrong, and in awe, often all at once.

Smith calls it exactly as he sees it; if he thinks something or someone is a fraud, he gently points that out. If there is more to something or someone than meets the eye (a major theme), he evokes the mystery while never judging or discounting the "impossible". It's tough to write about the nebulous, but Smith does it in such an elegant way that you feel both smarter and happier every time you put down this book. He's also funny as hell at many points; imagine the 200-IQ uncle/grandfather/best friend you always wanted, and here he is.

Great writing can be like a drug in your brain, expanding and enlightening your basic take on the world as you read. This is just such a book.

I can not recommend this book highly enough. At a penny for a beautifully bound hardcover first edition, this is well beyond the no-brainer category. It's a full-brainer, and it'll be even fuller and happier once it's encountered this book.

God bless you, Mr, Goodman, wherever you are.
You've made my life a lot more fun.

And thanks for being a truly well-rounded reader, Dad, and for exposing me to ideas that may not have always jibed with your own. You were right: "The older I get, the smarter my old man becomes."

ADAM SMITH (PSEUDONYM) DOES WHAT FEW WRITERS ON NEW AGE TOPICS DO. HE HAD THE TIME, AND TOOK IT, TO ACTUALLY PARTICIPATE IN THESE PROCESSES. HIS WRITING STYLE IS EXCELLENT, WITH NONE OF THE SPECIAL, ESOTERIC-SOUNDING, LANGUAGE YOU GET FROM MANY AUTHORS ON SUCH TOPICS. HIS CHAPTER "ZEN AND THE CROSS COURT BACKHAND" IS PARTICULARLY GOOD. HIS SELF-DEPRECATING HUMOR IS CHARMING AND MAKES HIS CONCLUSIONS HAVE THE RING OF AUTHENTICITY AND COMMON SENSE.
HARVARD OKIE