Customer Reviews

Undoing Yourself with Energized Meditation and Other Devices

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

No book on meditation does any good, of course, unless you do the meditations themselves. I've never seen any other book on meditation, though, where the exercises were so plainly and clearly laid out. Also, the meditation style is radically different from more passive and less effective forms of meditation such as the transcendental variety, and I suspect that is due to the author's background in Reichian psychology with its emphasis on "muscular armoring." Essentially, instead of working on your brain first, the "Energized Meditation" in this book seeks to get at the mind/body connection by working on your body. Negative thought manifests itself by creating muscular blocks to the flow of energy in your body, and the exercises in this book help undo those blocks. Thus, the exercises in this book are exactly that: exercises. The combination of breathing and movement are extremely simple and easy to follow, yet the effects are so profound that you must experience them to believe them. If you've ever heard the concept "your mind can achieve the same effects as drugs without the drugs" and wondered if that was hyperbole, just try out this book and see. This book will change your life if you let it. I guess I should mention the changes--more energy, increased sense of optimism, reduction of worry freedom from neurotic attachment to dogma, and possibly a sense of humor about the human condition. As for the book itself, don't let the pages of bizarre "Discordian" and counter culture humor designed to test your addiction to dogmas put you off. The book itself may not be for everyone, but the exercises truly are. Additionally, the introduction by Robert Anton Wilson is alone worth the price of this book--its one of the best essay's of his career, and one of the best summary's of the delusion of Western thought in regards to Free Will I've ever read. Buy this mind altering book, but don't let the DEA know--they may kick in your skull and confiscate your brain: as it turns out, your mind is the greatest mind altering substance of all.

Undoing Yourself is a frolicking and at times penetrating look into the traps of mind that keep people repressed and constrained. Unlike typical "self-help" books that rely on traditional methods to gradually attempt to move you toward a greater level of psychological health, Undoing sets up a crafty, experiential web of mind tricks that seem designed and effective at tripping you into better understanding. Akin to Zen koans, these are modern powers of suggestion at times powerfully disarming and highly amusing.

Falcon preserves the original essence of the earlier editions and includes updated pages by Hyatt and peers. These updated pages, which include commentary on such recent events as 9/11, somehow flow seamlessly from their predecessors and also lend variety by including the voices of others.

Some do not realize that in addition to excelling in the realms of psychology and literary ventures, Hyatt is an extremely talented visual artist who uses this ability to give flesh to the ideas in this book. There are many pages of captivating images that help elucidate the points in humorous and McLuhan-esque ways.

On the practical side, for under twenty bucks you really get a lot of pages of beautiful madness. This book should rattle your cage, force your nervous system into heavy-duty self-analysis, and quite possibly create the most beneficial intellectual upheaval possible - one that empowers you to really start being yourself and enjoying life!

Things you should know:

1)This is not some new age technique; there are NO feel-good meditations to be found here. This book is intended to drag you, kicking and screaming, to your own destruction. You will not enjoy many of the techniques; change is painful.

2)It helps to be familiar with a system of magick (namely Golden Dawn or Thelema). It HELPS, it is not necessary. The book will not encourage you in any way to be a part of any order or group.

3)You don't have to believe everything in this book. In fact, if you do you've probably missed the point entirely.

4)You are wasting your time reading these reviews. It is irrelevant to you whether myself or others felt liberated or disgusted (or both) by this book. If you think it sounds interesting: buy it. Find out for yourself.

Since I've been a fan of Wilson, Leary, and Crowley, I figured this would be a motherlode of tips and tricks for self-reprogramming, self-discipline, and efficacity. Instead, I get the usual palaver about how one should free one's self from "dogma", "morality", and "society", which restricts our access to sex and drugs. Having been a veteran of a) the Swinging Seventies orgy/promiscuity scene and b) a whole lot of drinking, pot-smoking, and cocaine, my access to sex and drugs are limited by factors not primarily societal. Instead, I feel as if I was pushed into a lot of sex that I didn't entirely enjoy at 19 and cut off from it at 47 (when I really like it) simply because men would rather have sex with a woman at peak fertility than with one whose hormones are beginning to falter. Freedom *is* a two-edged sword, and a life spent freely doesn't necessarily look like a beatnik's vacation in Mexico, in that town where the whores were clean and cheap, the booze went for next to nothing, and the Indians would sell you mushrooms that would make you forget that you were ever told in Sunday School not to play with your willy.

There are gems in here, as well as some great humor. There are also incessant plugs to buy the books that led me to this one. But I wish that the revisions would be a little more comprehensive and there was just a little more substance.

C. S. Hyatt's book, "Undoing Yourself with Energized Meditation and Other Devices," is an unusual and provocative work to say the least. But what is so very important about it, is that....it works! I used the techniques given in an earlier edition many years ago, to literally transforms several areas of my life. Those techniques were and are extremely effective, unlike so much of the reigning `New Age' pabulum that serves to bolster and justify one's self delusions, prejudices, personality disorders, and outright fears of life and personal growth. I was amazed by some of the reviewers' negative remarks here. But then, given the mass ignorance and `quick fix' mentality of the times, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

To the individual who truly seeks to confront his own `demons;' who has had enough of his or her own distortions and excuses for remaining the failure they are in their own eyes, I couldn't recommend a more hard-hitting, result-getting book than this. To the lazy, the cowardly, the weak that oh, so enjoy bemoaning their lives and yet seek a poisonous nourishment from their ongoing life-condition, I recommend all of the `New Age' tripe out there. Cheer up! You won't have far to look to fill your continuing needs of further self-destruction!

Being a great fan of Robert Anton Wilson, I bought this book expecting a modicum of lucidity along with my promised 'undoing'. While there are undoubtedly some gems of truth here, the majority of the book is a mish-mash of put-downs,incoherent gabble and disjointed raves reminiscent of an acid head who has completely lost the plot.

If making sculptures of your own excrement, strangulating your girlfriend to unconsciousness (and maybe death - but this is the risk that the 'brave' must take) or sodomizing your own high horse is your idea of enlightenment - then this may be the book for you. Of course - if you're not prepared to do whatever Mr Hyatt suggests, then you are obviously a brain-washed wimp.

Really, the only part of this book worth reading is the introduction by Robert Anton Wilson - but Robert, what on earth were you thinking??

DO NOT OVER LOOK THIS BOOK.
Contained within this 24 year old book you will find exercises, actual methods on how to free your body. These techniques are REAL secrets, movements you can perform to create something unique. The lineage of this book desrves some interest, and gives clues into the origins of some of the ideas. I have to rate this book 5 stars for the fact that hyatt reveals body manipulations that work!!!:)if you work:)The new publication from hyatt, RADICAL UNDOING should, imho be purchased with this book.
Reading and not doing will do zero to your life .As if words could (deeply)change your brain anyway! duh!

A great book full of exercises I have used to help break free from cultural binds and experience pure joy. Written with a lot of humor, this book really gets you going. Similar to Robert Anton Wilson in humor, with lots of *interesting* pictures. A great buy!

This laugh out loud text on how to break away from robot like process known as human existance can change the way you think and feel if you want to do so. This book is filled with exercises that are based on Yoga. I have only used one of them so far and plan to continue onward progressing through each exercise. Besides the funny presentation it is full of mind bending thoughts. The Aleister Crowley based cartoon at the end of the book is worth the price alone. A very interesting read to say the least.

Christopher Hyatt invades your ego and grows like a parasite. After a while, you fell your ego being eaten away, and realize it is not the author doing the eating, but yourself. If you are serious about attempting to gain control/release over oneself, please buy this book. Even the introduction by RAW is worth the cost. One thing is for certain, that you must do the exercises. You will see results.