A useful examination of the principle that physical clutter indicates a cluttered mind.
In this New Age self-help volume, first-time author, teacher and space-clearing practitioner Vogt shows how cleaning the living room can help clear the mind.
Vogt connects esoteric laws and meditation with the practice of clearing clutter from the house. Emphasizing the process of clearing rather than focusing on the end result, the author guides readers through systematic but supportive procedures with the dual goals of learning about the self and creating an energetic living space. The content is divided into theory and practice, with each short chapter zeroing in on one facet of decluttering, often accompanied by a suggested meditation, assignment or exercise. Near the end of the book, after discussing the various forms of clutter and how it acts as an indicator of other life issues, Vogt moves on to some practical advice about cleaning up. The approach the author recommends uses small steps and honors emotions which may pop up during space clearing work. Taking the process slowly acts to assuage the mind’s natural defense system–the gradual progress will not trigger the “fight or flight” response that more aggressive interventions might cause. In this way, real growth can take place in a peaceful, balanced fashion. Vogt advocates creating lightness and cohesion in one’s home and office as a way to create a “spacious self.” The author references many well-known alternative thinkers and notes their contributions to the field of space clearing, giving interested readers references for further study. While the spiritual subtext adds context and substance without detracting from the main message, readers who are unfamiliar with this kind of metaphysical approach may need some time to adjust to linking unwanted junk with mind, body and spirit. Still, readers do not have to endorse the entire New Age belief system to use the book’s ideas and practices.
A useful examination of the principle that physical clutter indicates a cluttered mind.Pub Date: May 15, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-595-41868-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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