Customer Reviews

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

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*****

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.

*****

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.

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.

It's like dreaming in a sunbeam being bombarded with visions that soak into you and change your outlook for the better. I've been reading it for days now and always finding new things. It's not necessary to read it in a linear fashion. Get this book, it's refreshing and good.

Rarely am I inspired to jump in here and review a book. "PRONOIA" leaves me no choice. The book is amazing. Rob Brezsny has created a manifesto for those of us who have always doubted that we are doomed by Original Sin. "PRONOIA" affirms that the Universe is fundamentally friendly and conspiring to give you exactly what you need.

Rob Brezsny slays the cult of doom and replaces fear with joy.

There should be more books like "PRONOIA" published today, but so far there aren't: this is the only one.

You don't need The Church, A Savior, A Guru, Ayahuasca, DMT or Psilocybin Mushrooms to "break on through to the other side." Brezsny takes you there in the pages of "PRONOIA."

It's one of those books that you don't even have to read lineary at all: flip it open to any page and know that the Universe has directed you to this specific thought!

Bravo, Brezsny! You created something exceptional here.

"PRONOIA" is the best book I've read in the 21st Century!

Chris Duel

News-Talk 550 KTSA

San Antonio, Texas

Every time I pick up this book and start to read, my mood changes. These wise words pull me right out of any of the shadows that the world can send my way. I begin to feel lighter and less worried about the state of the world. I feel hope and maybe even start to hum a ditty. Even if the universe is not constantly sending blessings our way, it can be enough to consider the posibility. I have worked for the last twenty years with the criminally mentally ill. This book is a good anidote to that toxic environment. The expanded edition makes this tome worth another read. The author came upon many of his ideas through the experience of the event called Burning Man. If you can't make it there do the next best thing and read the book.

Is the World Spiraling Toward Eucatastrophe or is that just my Pronoia?

From Wikipedia:

Eucatastrophe is a term coined by J.R.R. Tolkien which refers to the sudden turn of events at the end of a story which result in the protagonist's well-being. He formed the word by affixing the Greek prefix eu, meaning good, to catastrophe, the word traditionally used in classically-inspired literary criticism to refer to the "unraveling" or conclusion of a drama's plot...It could be said that the ending of "The Lord of the Rings" is an Eucatastrophe. Though victory seems assured for Sauron, the One Ring is destroyed beyond all hope. Essentially a bad situation suddenly turning good.

Pronoia (from Rob Brezny's new book, Pronoia) ...coined in the mid-1970s by Grateful Dead lyricist and cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, John Perry Barlow, who defined it as the opposite of paranoia: "the suspicion that the universe is a conspiracy on your behalf."

Carl Jung's approach to most dreams was to see them as compensatory, as compensating for an imbalance in the waking attitude. If a compensatory Olympics were held today, Rob Brezny's new book Pronoia would probably win both the gold and silver medals, while Dick Cheney dreaming about being a Taoist vegan doing volunteer work in a solar powered quail sanctuary might only win the bronze.

Just think of how much less work it would be to write a book entitled Paranoia containing media samples that pointed toward a negative world view. That book could consist of a single sheet of transparent plastic and then you could rest it on your computer monitor, television screen or the pile of magazines and newspapers on you coffee table. It would be the supreme act of redundancy for that book to bother with any content whatsoever.

From the point of view of the perennial philosophy we should be at the cusp of a great age of darkness becoming a new golden age. But most media are giving us wall to wall coverage of the great age of darkness, while streaks of golden light starting to penetrate the dense cloud cover over Mordor go largely unreported. The once every three years, one in a hundred million school shooter is deemed more newsworthy than the dramatic drop in adolescent violence and all the unreported moments of unexpected empathy and insight happening amongst the young.

Especially living at the cusp, paranoia and pronoia are perceptual choices, one isn't right and the other wrong, some are conspiring against us, some are conspiring for us, and you have to decide which group you want to welcome into the doors of your perception. When optimists and pessimists were studied they found that pessimists were better at reality testing, but in every other measured parameter----health, wealth, relationships, etc. the optimists were better off. They train race car drivers that if they are heading toward the wall not to look at it, but to look in the direction they want to go. So stop looking at CNN long enough to read Pronoia.

But if disaster scenarios are your espresso, if you feed off of "if it bleeds it leads" coverage of the hottest terrorist story of the day like a subway rat on two day old extra cheese pizza, be prepared for some major withdrawal symptoms as you read Pronoia. Rob Brezny warns you right up front:

You will not find any references to harsh, buzzing fluorescent lights in a cheap hotel room where an Arab American heroin dealer plots to get revenge against the teachers at his old high school by releasing sarin gas into the teachers' lounge. There are no reports of Nazi skinheads obsessed with recreating the 14th-century Tartar's war strategy of catapulting plague-ridden corpses into an enemy's citadel. Completely absent from these pages are any stories about a psychotic CEO of a fortune 500 company who has intentionally disfigured his face to help the him elude the CIA, which wants to arrest him for the treasonous sale of his company's nanotech weapons technology to the Chinese.

But if you can deal with such serious omissions, you may find Pronoia to be more contagious than an aerosolized human variant of avian flu, and should therefore probably consult your doctor about whether this book might jeopardize the underlying perceptual choices that are crucial to your consumption of Serotonin Specific Re-Uptake Inhibitors and lead to uncontrollable outbreaks of wellness spreading like wild fire as your life spirals toward eucatastrophe.

Being emotionally open to what we care about, and passionately involved in realizing our dreams is one of the most courageous processes any of us can engage: This book provokes and nurtures that process over and over again. With silliness and fun, piercing insight and invitations to splatter our creative genius on any convenient surface, the Archmage of Contemporary Astrology gives us 1001 things to do on a rainy day or stormy night, to our endless amusement and the betterment of our souls. Part coloring book, part Esoteric Studies 101, this book is an absolute treasure.

I recommend looking at Rob's Prayer For You:[..]

If you feel inspired and uplifted by that, then this book is right for you. I don't always agree (or necessarily understand) every last suggestion in the book--some of it is really out there--but the more important thing is that it's all done in good spirits, and it sends you off thinking about what you can come up with on your own to make life a little bit better.

I would suggest approaching this with an open mind. If you suspect Rob of trying to convert you to a cult or something threatening like that, then you are missing the point. Pronoia isn't a religion, but it's more of a perspective you can choose.

You can spend a lot of time fixated on self-help books or books that want you to self-diagnose yourself as all manner of sick, but this really wants you to see that you're all right once you make an effort to see it yourself. I wouldn't say it's cheesy and overly optimistic--it isn't--because it wants you to tackle all the things you're afraid of, while knowing that there's a good reason you're afraid of them.

What a wonderful book. I have only read it in parts so far, using a haphazard approach, and have enjoyed every single moment of insanity. It isn't for everyone- it asks you to think outside the box, to be different, and some folks are not ready for that quite yet. They will jump in to the void when it is their time.

In the meantime, the rest of us can thank the Gods for Rob Brezsny and his ability to find hopeful vision in a world geared to the exact opposite. If you would like to be able to get out of bed happy for a change for all that life has offered you, read this book.

namaste!