Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great book on applied positive thinking, May 2, 2009
I first became interested in mind/body power when I was attending the US Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. I started my training in early October of 1962. Shortly after I entered the school The Cuban Missile Crisis broke out. All of us in the infantry school were transitioned to intensified training under the U.S. Army Rangers to prepare us for the possible conflict. That is where I first came across the "you are a mind with a body" concept. Later I graduated from the U.S.Army Intellignce School at Fort Holabird, Maryland and upon graduation was assigned to the 112th Intelligence Corps group. While I was assigned to the 112th President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas,Texas which was located in the 112th's area of command. All of us in the 112th military district were thrown into the investigation of that tragic event. My military service was where my interest in mind/body training originated. That interest continued when I was later introduced to the mind training techniques of Napoleon Hill and W.Clement Stone and my interest continued thoughout my business career. More recently my interest led too the training methods of John Peterson of Bronze Bow publishing who through his Transformetrics training system of DVR [Dynamic Visualized Resistance] has demystified the internal power principles of yoga and the martial arts and applied them to modern life in western society. He is thus perpetuating the training principles of the 19th century creator of "Conscious Evolution" Alois P. Swoboda.
Tom Muzuila has taken mind/body power principle to a new height in "Mental Karate." As Alois P. Swoboda first proved in the 19th century; these principles can be successfully applied to attaining success in our ever changing and highly competitive western society as he had among his students leaders from all parts of society during that era including Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, two supreme court justices including Charles Evens Hughes, famous magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, and bodybuilding legend Charles Atlas.
Alois P.Swoboda's "Conscious Evolution" Course was what inspired Charles Atlas and introduced him too the self tensing exercises that he would later refer too as Dynamic Tension. Charles Atlas' later said, "Everything that I know I learned from A.P. Swoboda."
Bob Hoffman, is the Father Of World Weightlifting, Former US Olympic Weightlifting Coach and Founder Of the York Barbell Company. Bob Hoffman's father was a Swoboda student. Hoffman says, "So often I have said that my father had more muscles than I have seen since and we must remember that I am in the muscle business and that I have seen thousands of extraordinary physical specimens. He exercised incessantly and he could make most of any muscle group in his body feel like blocks of wood. I always believed that his exercises verged more on the tension type, rather than Functional Isometric Contraction,but there was a close similarity"
Mental Karate is a terrific book that shows you how to develop your mental, physical, and emotional strength and apply them to the challenges in your everyday life. You won't be leaving your strength in the gym as so many people do. I have never practiced Karate,but have always been interested in extracting the power principles from it. Let this book be your perfect teacher and guide.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The mind is the most powerful weapon for warriors., June 12, 2009
Unfortunately, I have never had the pleasure of meeting Tom Muzila, but being a life time student of Shotokan karate, I had heard of his many accomplishments. One of the many things I love about this book is how he gives so much credit to his teachers, most especially Master Tsutomu Ohshima. I also love his book dedication to "all the warriors in human history." The author is no "arm chair warrior." Throughout his life he has constantly tested himself to do extreme things. He has lived by the philosophy of "the mind is the most powerful weapon for warriors." There are so many lessons to learn in this fantastic book that this short review cannot do it justice. You will just have to get your own copy and read it. It is a book to read and refer to many times for inspiration and advice. I rarely give a book 5 stars, but this volume deserves the highest rating. This is a book for anyone who is truly serious about his or her martial arts training and living the life of a warrior. Joseph J. Truncale
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this one hard., December 2, 2007
(This parenthetical is an addendum to my much earlier review, below. First, I note the words from the Preface: "This book is not concerned with learning and remembering information. It is focused on experiencing and remembering yourself... " In this regard, I find that I sometimes keep this book by my bed and re-read a part before sleep. I have also read portions before meditation. Certainly, the experience of the book goes beyond the information itself. That the connections to be made in this book are partly intuitive is suggested in the Preface, and that does indeed seem to be my experience. Again, my suggestion would be to "read it hard". The original review is below.)
I initially saw Tom Muzila back in the early 1970's. He was still in the armed forces and had recently returned to Fort Campbell, KY from covert combat op's somewhere outside the US.
I was pretty green, but I could see well enough to notice that even among a group of talented black belts, Tom Muzila's quiet solidity projected a certain intense strength. As things went on, people got the idea that what he did was very authentic.
I trained with him for a while at that time. There was more to it than could be explained here. When I left the area a couple of years later, the training went with me, and I continued along in the direction he had taught. I have not had the chance to train with him personally very much since then; now, not in a long time.
It sticks, though. Through the years, I have had more of life's successes than my young self ever thought I could; and, of course, there was a bit of failure here and there to balance it out.
In my finest moments, it is not unusual to notice that something that was generated from Mr. Muzila's training has carried me more easily along the path to get here. In darker times, it was not unusual that something that began with Tom's training helped me keep everything in perspective.
Mr. Muzila is one of a very few examples of the "paradox resolved", the warrior-gentleman, the soldier-philosopher, who brought it through and put it into practice in regular life.
Unlike many who talk a lot these days, what Tom says he says out of living it. In a lull in the middle of jungle warfare, he could appreciate the beauty and delicacy of a butterfly that drifted by, and in the next moment do well the job he had to do. This tranquility and humanity in the midst of conflict was a Samurai ideal.
This is real, and it's available to us for regular daily life.
Get this book. Read it hard.
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