Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia, Revised and Expanded: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I have seen the future of American literature and its name is Rob Brezsny." -- —Tom Robbins, author of Still Life with Woodpecker, Jitterbug Perfume, Another Roadside Attraction, and Skinny Legs and All

"This irreverent manifesto puts the 'pro' in 'protest' ... insightful and puzzling as a Zen koan ... I Ching on Ecstasy...." -- Frances Lefkowitz, Body + Soul --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

"I have seen the future of American literature and its name is Rob Brezsny."
—Tom Robbins, author of Still Life with Woodpecker, Jitterbug Perfume, and many more

"With this work—an instant pop classic—Rob Brezsny offers a positive, participatory, proactive vision of the workings of our inner and outer universe, which will only give us as much pleasure, love, and ecstasy as we are prepared to accept."
—Daniel Pinchbeck, author of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl

"This wild, wise, and subversive book is a must read for those who want to live a more imaginative and free life . . . Rob Brezsny is a Culture Hero."
—Utne Reader

"I dig Rob Brezsny for his powerful yet playful insights, his poetry, and his humor . . . I salute him for his dedication to inspiration."
—Jason Mraz, singer-songwriter

"Brezsny holds his own place next to other cultural shamans such as Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, Reverend Ivan Stang, William S. Burroughs, and Ken Kesey."
—PopMatters

"The verbally acrobatic, mystically literate Brezsny lets fly a thousand zingers, each with the feel of having been carved with poetic effort to express a hard reality instead of a platitude."
—San Francisco Chronicle

"Brilliant! Absorbing! Wildly useful! Rob Brezsny gets my nomination for best prophet in a starring role. He’s a script doctor for the soul."
—Marisa Tomei, actress

"With Pronoia, renegade wizard Rob Brezsny presents an irreverent manifesto, mixing activism and optimism. It reads like the I Ching on Ecstasy and is as insightful and puzzling as a Zen koan."
—Body + Soul

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books; Rev Exp edition (September 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556438184
• ISBN-13: 978-1556438189
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,246 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

241 of 250 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique Book to be Experienced, not merely read!, July 13, 2005

By	O. Brown "Ms. O. Khannah-Brown" (Twopeas, WA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings (Paperback)

*****
I don't think I've ever come across a book anything like Pronoia before. It is large, chock full of information of the positive sort (as opposed to of the negative sort). This is because "pronoia" is the opposite of "paranoid" (when you think everyone is out to get you)---you think every is out to shower you with blessings! The book is written to celebrate pronoia is a variety of ways, all of which make you feel good.

The author, Rob Brezskny, writes in a lyrical, irreverant, wildly unconventional and beautiful style. I've never seen anyone else write like that---he is unique. The book sort of reminds me in a way of Ram Dass' "Be Here Now", a cult classic, and an amazing consciousness book of the time that is still in print today. I think that Pronoia will be as popular as that classic book.

Pronoia is an experience, not just a book. And you can GET the experience from just reading the book! It can be read linearly, or bit by bit from time to time, with equally good results. There are many interactive sections, provocative questions, exercises to try, ideas for journalling, etc. throughout the book. These interactive things aren't traditional exercises you'd find in a "normal" book, though. They are wild, wacky, and wonderful---just like the book!

The book is quite irreverent, yet it beautifully captures the God I worship in its pages---not the God of any one religion, but of all of us. He thinks up interesting new names for this supreme being like "the Divine Wow"...and you experience the love of this higher power throughout the book, not in ways you'd expect. There is much humor throughout too---it is a laugh-out loud kind of book.

If you are open, even just a little bit, to the experience that the whole world COULD be conspiring to shower you with love and blessing---or if you'd LIKE to be open to this possibility---then this is a book, and an experience for you. If you are a negative, pessimistic person, or if you are depressed, or if you are just searching for more meaning and happiness in your life---AND---you read this entire book, I will bet that you will be much more ready, if not entirely ready, to live your life quite differently in various ways.

Pronoia is a great value too---lots of book, lots of experience---for a really great price. If you're wondering if you should get it, the answer is yes! I know it looks odd and is different, but take the chance and you won't be sorry! I am buying 5 more copies to give to my closest friends...one of the best and most life-changing books I've read.
*****

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Irreverent, and sometimes a little vulgar, but still Uplifting!, August 28, 2005

By	D. Buxman "A Seeker of Truth" (Pueblo, CO United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings (Paperback)

The premise of this book is to look at your interactions with the world from a different perspective than what most people exercise. Rather than thinking that the whole world is out to get you, the author suggests the idea that maybe the universe is working in a vast conspiracy to help you. When you get right down to it, the thought is both liberating and uplifting. As someone who is still trying to shake off the prudishness of 20 years in the Lutheran Church, portions of the book concerning sexuality were a little disturbing, but not so much as to sour the whole experience. This is an innovative piece that isn't really easy to characterize. Sometimes it rambles a little, but it still ranks highly as a uniquely exhilarating book. If you are weary of news of war and destruction, this is the antidote.

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Follow your rowdy bliss!, July 24, 2005

By	DivaLion - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings (Paperback)

Pronoia is a philosophy book of a most unusual stripe. It takes a lot of the ideas that Breszny has developed on the Free Will Astrology site and particularly that he included as themes in his amazing novel, The Televisionary Oracle, and expands on them, shaping them into a chaotically coherent philosophy of life. The style is undeniably Breszny-- quirky, irreverent, soulful, linguistically athletic, challenging, hopeful.

This is not your college Philosophy 101 class's philosophy book. It's structured rather freewheelingly, part creative workbook (including spaces for you to write your own thoughts and even your own chapter), part essay collection, part word art (noting the inclusion of "homeopathic medicine wheels" that cram negative information in a circular paragraph enclosed by healing symbols and words), part exuberant poetry slam, part instruction manual for the inner development of "rowdy bliss". Big and packed full of interesting information and musings, illustrated lavishly with quirky graphics and nifty fonts, it is the kind of book that you can either read straight through or flip around, seeing where the pages fall in a somewhat bibliomantic attempt to receive an eccentric oracle. One thing's for sure, one reading is not enough to completely absorb everything this book contains, but it will be a pleasure to go back and re-read many times in the future.

No doubt the less whimsically inclined would regard this book with a raised eyebrow and no little incredulity; Breszny's a holy fool, a sacred clown, and he can be downright outrageous and goofy even when he's at his most heartfelt and profound. Cynics may find his relentless optimism over the top.

But this is a smart man who's invested a tremendous amount of contemplation and personal experience into every idea he proposes. He is in no small measure radical, as he challenges the assumptions about the bleakness of the world that are so constantly fed to us. His optimism and faith are not at all blind nor are they syrupy or saccharine; he addresses the existence of sorrow and suffering in the world and encourages his readers to adopt the scientist's tools to test and evaluate our beliefs.

At the heart of his philosophy is that we all have the right to experience tremendous joy in our lives, the ability to shape the world around us, and the unceasing gifts of a benevolent universe that longs to help us and communicate with us. He takes the previously-little-explored concept of "pronoia" and expands it into a creative, active, loving, lusty way of life. Not for him is the traditional religion's dichotomy of material=bad vs. spirit=good; nor the "fluffy newage" optimism that shoves the shadow self into the closet and slams the door. He proscribes neither quivering submission to and timid requests of a scornful punisher deity, nor spartan rejection of the world in seeking a cold and lonely enlightenment. His ideas belong in the world, not apart from it; they go boldly into crowds creating beauty and weirdness, offering a hand to others, and proclaiming the dangerous notion that the world is a rich and beautiful place. He recruits "guerrilla prayer warriors" and sacred artists and tantric clowns with a charisma and dedication that is thrilling in its possibility and irresistible in its charm.

This is not a book to read if you are determined to be unhappy or if you don't want your world shaken up a bit. However, if you have the sneaking suspicion that leading a happy, fulfilled life might just not be a heresy, or you are tired of the status quo and eager for a truly unusual point of view, or if you need the kind of healing that makes you laugh and cry at the same time, or if you have already been crusading for beauty, truth, freedom, and love-- you need this book. It is hope and humor and beauty and love. Discordians and adherents of the Church of the Subgenius, both of which are mentioned favorably within, and tricksters of all stripes may particularly enjoy Breszny's antics.

One of my favorite parts of Pronoia was the "Anti-DSM-IV", which is a section that turns the DSM-IV, that manual of the mental health professions, on its head by describing a long list of different states of psychological and spiritual health and happiness. As someone who's long thought that the field of mental health seemed to focus far too heavily on the miserable without clearly defining what constitutes happiness and well-adjustment, I was thrilled to see this marvelous and insightful bit of writing.

I found Rob Breszny's writing at a time in my life when I had just begun to clearly articulate my growing beliefs in the inherent goodness of the world, the benevolence of the Divine Wow, and the human capacity for joy and love. Reading his work was a confirmation of those beliefs, an inspiration to take it even further, and an exciting realization that others were thinking along these lines and maybe even creating a bold new movement in a weary and discouraged world.

This book gets a huge thumbs-up from me. Even if you think it sounds corny or suspect, I recommend giving it a read-- there just might be something in there that surprises you.