( 4 reviews )
-
( 3 of 3 found this review helpful ) Posted: Oct 25 2006
"The core practice here, akin to the alchemical distillation of gold, is known as "manifestation," bringing the deepest, purist expression of your life into visible form." ~Rick Jarow, Ph.D. Rick Jarow, Ph.D. teaches an opening to the realm of inner vision in order to manifest abundance in the outer world. He believes that what we focus on creates our life, thought by thought. The book chapters include: What is Abundance? Gateways to the Temple of Beauty Challenges to the Alchemy of Abundance Creating a Lifestyle of Abundance The Mandala of Manifestation Creating an Abundant Society The guided meditations are comforting and infused with beautiful music which makes them even more appealing. Rick Jarow opens up an inner world where you literally can enjoy inner landscapes that lead you on a visual journey. The CD includes sessions about your body, money, machines, home, creativity, organization, other, depth, journey, vocation, vision, dissolution and return. You can either go through the entire CD all at once and spend about 80 minutes on an inner voyage or spend about 5-6 minutes on each section. This is perfect if you enjoy a daily meditation session or you could use this a refocusing moment any time of the day. A journal is recommended to write down any ideas or thought that appear spontaneously. Rick Jarow shows a beautiful depth of creativity and awakens the inner child who enjoys imagining. It is amazing what appears as you listen and visualize. Guided meditations have never been this fun. You truly do receive guidance from your soul throughout this beautiful gift. Some of the things Rick says are actually pretty funny and I'm working on "imagining what I could do with too much money if I had too much money." That was a fun thought. The "Body" section was interesting. When you enter the realms in your mind, you see a word on a door. When you do through the door, you imagine all sorts of things inside the room and then when you leave, guides (you imagine two people)give you something. My guides gave me a exercise bike, which must have meant I need to ride the bike more and work on that aspect of my exercise routine. You never know what the guides are going to give you, but something spontaneously appears. When I left the realm of machines, the guides gave me what I thought was a book, then it started spinning and turned into a clock face with fast spinning hands. Now that was interesting and must have some deeper meaning. During the home section, I envisioned steam and aromas lifting off a stovetop and then at the end was handed a boiling pot, but instead of steam, coins were rising and falling out into a mist. In creativity I envisioned a river of book pages and words and at the end, the guides gave me a swimsuit that looked like it had the shimmering scales of a fish on the fabric. I assume that meant: "Do something creative where you feel like a fish in water or feel comfortable." During the organization section I imagined a dining room table and then a spinning lotus flower that lifted off the table and into the hands of the guides and then they handed it to me as it turned from a flower into a spinning pottery candlestick that turned into a gorgeous gold candelabra with beautiful burning flames on the top of each candle. In the realm of depth, I was given a ring with a live butterfly sitting as the "gem" on the ring and throughout there were all these images of butterflies moving through a metamorphosis and emerging from cocoons. "Journey" had stunning imagery of mountains and retreat locations with the guides giving me a book of music notes that flew up into the sky and turned into doves. By this time, I couldn't wait to figure out what I would see next. "Vocation" and "Vision" were equally intriguing. I had to light a candle in the room of vocation because at first it was mysteriously dark like I had walked into a nightscape with a forest, but soon I walked through the forest and noticed a sunrise in the distance. The guides were floating above me and poured sparkling water into my mouth as I was looking up at the sky. In the last section, I was handed a basket of whole-wheat rolls. What I found most intriguing within the entire session was the heart I was handed in one section that was gold and on a necklace and there were little tears (or raindrops?) dropping out of an invisible center. "Dissolution" was the most fun with an underwater world where I was a mermaid one minute and a bird soaring above the ocean the next, but the bird was like my real self with wings. Not only are you enjoying an imaginative journey, you also can use this meditative space to breathe more deeply. I emerged happy and delighted by this experience and the book is more of a companion to the CD and I think the CD is the experience! I loved this for the brilliant level of creativity. 100 stars! You have to try this to awaken the answers to questions that could change your life. If you enjoy archetypes or mythology, this makes you feel like you have become a mythical being living in your own imaginary world. Writers and poets may find this especially healing and it could inspire poetry or even imaginative novels. ~The Rebecca Review
-
( 6 of 9 found this review helpful ) Posted: Oct 24 2006
Ummm... this book doesn't make a clear point about anything. It is an attractive book with a bonus cd. It seemed interesting at first... after finishing the book; however, I wondered what exactly was the point of this book. There is very little content. The author shares a few nice, somewhat original thoughts about manifestation, but not enough to redeem the purchase. The rest of the book just explains the exercise (the "Mandala of Manifestation") contained on the cd. The "Mandala of Manifestation" is a visualization meditation where you focus on 12 aspects of life that most people would like to create more abundance in (career, relationships, money,life purpose, etc.). The cd is divided into these 12 segments. In these segments you visualize a temple/building where each room contains an aspect of the mandala and try to receive guidance or insight into this part of your life. At the end of each segment, you are instructed to stop the cd and record any insight you received onto your Mandala (that you have drawn on a piece of paper). This meditation visualization was o.k. but did not resonate with me. It felt too much like a kindergarten program on manifestation, meaning that it seemed dumbed down and low on content. It is also a lot of work to do and I did not gain much insight. There is no actual guidance on manifestation techniques in this program. It focuses instead on receiving guidance from yourself/higher self in different areas of your life. You don't really need a book or cd to tell you to close your eyes and ask yourself for guidance in an area of your life since you can easily do that without this book/cd. The new age/ spiritual book market has some very wise and informative books; unfortunately, it seems that too many people decide they want to write a spiritual book and have very little original or new to share. So, I am always looking for the gems among the many books filled with fluff. In my opinion, this is not one of the gems....
-
( 4 of 24 found this review helpful ) Posted: Jan 31 2006
This book will not help you very much. Just about anyone can write a book like this one. A real loss of time and money. Plus the title is really insulting the word "Alchemy", using it for marketing purposes. I feel robbed with this kind of books. A masterpiece in mediocrity.
