Psycho-Cybernetics

Excellent read. Book arrived as advertised.

Dan Kennedy has done a brilliant job of giving Dr. Maltz's classic text a contemporary feel while remaining true to the original version. I still have my 1974 Pocket Book edition of Psycho-Cybernetics and its ideas and insights helped me a lot in understanding life and success and how I could control my own destiny. This updated version is even better! I especially liked the PRESCRIPTION and MENTAL TRAINING EXERCISE boxes that Mr. Kennedy has strategically placed throughout the book. They contain very clear suggestions and practical exercises for living an abundant and fulfilling life. For example, he prescribes keeping a "success diary" as a tool for building a stronger self-image. And on page 201, there is an powerful exercise for developing the all important habit of forgiveness. One of the insights Dr. Maltz gave me that helped clarify my own life journey was his understanding that our unconscious minds cannot distinguish between a real experience and the same experience vividly imagined. Years later I found confirmation for this idea in Quantum Physics. Nobel Prize winning Physicist Niels Bohr's Complementarity Principle shows us that the mental aspect of an imagined experience is complementary to its physical aspect. Both are equally 'real'. No wonder imagination and visualization are such valuable skills to master for anyone who wants to transform their dreams into physcial reality. I wonder if Dr. Maltz and Dr. Bohr ever had a conversation! Dan Kennedy has done a tremendous favor for anyone who wants knowledge and practical applications for being more successful. I applaud his efforts.

This is one of those few books that put forth a new idea that has not only stood the test of time but has been woven into the fabric of the entire self development industry. It's up there with "Think and Grow Rich" and " How to win friends and influence people". It starts slow and after 2 or 3 chapters I was beginning to question the purchase. "There is nothing to DO" I thought. Then after it got going I felt there was TOO MUCH to do. Lots of excersises. Of course, like so many things, the crux is in the application. Will you use it? I think the thing I liked best is that you can really hear Dr Maltzs' passion for humanity and sincere desire to help. He seems like a wonderful man. Also that he isn't in the pie-in-the-sky "anyone can do anything" camp. He teaches us to be truthful about our actual limitations, which do have limits, but are far above what most people do or even aspire to. I put this on a short Must Read list of a handful of classics and consider it a must for anyone pursuing their full potential. Buy it. Read it. Use it. You won't regret it.

Dr. Maltz, originally a face surgeon, came to recognize in his patients a need for a positive self image, which need transcended the physical characteristics that patients wanted improved. He compares the methodology of achieving a desired improvement in one's self image with that used in the design of modern physical automatic control systems (he uses the term "Cybernetics" to describe the servomechanism systems of his day, such as those used in military fire control systems). The concept is imaginative, and Dr. Maltz uses most of his book to describe various methods for helping change one's self image to the one that is desired, presumably by using negative feedback control to minimize the difference between one's current self image and one's desired self image, similar in concept to how military fire control systems operate. While the basic ideas presented by Dr. Maltz are intriguing the human brain is so much more complex than the design of a military fire control system that the basic concepts presented must be taken with this important limitation in mind. The fact that book is still in print after many decades and has sold many millions of copies, however, is a tribute to some validity of Dr. Maltz's basic concepts.

Facts: It rook me months to do a decent job to relax and use the techniques described in the book. More than one reading and reading into details were necessary for me to grasp the right way to visualize what I wanted. The essentials of the book probably could me summarized in one chapter but the book includes a lot of examples, typical of this type of books. I did not achieve much the first couple of months on my first goal of reach my ideal weight. Then, my wife got me into a weight loss program and now I am well on my way to reach my goal. I keep doing the relaxation and visualization of reaching my ideal weight. Opinion: I seek for a way to "program" the subconscious for a long time and this is the closest thing I have found. I started with a goal and the right tool just came along and I do not believe in coincidences. The weight loss program is making me loss weight. The techniques described in the book makes me follow the program with a very high level of discipline. The desire to reach my target weight is so high that I am able to sort almost all challenges I face to deviate from the weight loss program. I think that for the cost of the book is worth the try if you believe that you are a person of habit, that you behavior is ruled by your subconscious and you need to program that subconscious mind to change your behavior and achieve your goal

The original Psycho-Cybernetics had a massive impact on my life. From it, I learned that I could control my thoughts and substitute encouraging, strengthening, creativity-enhancing thinking habits ("programming") for the less than optimal habits I'd picked up from family, friends, school, work, society etc. HOW you think makes ALL the difference and there has never been a book that clarifies the mechanisms of productive thinking better than Psycho-Cybernetics. This new edition is, amazingly enough, even better than the original. It's clearer, easier to follow, and even more compelling. I'll always be grateful to the person who recommended this to me when I was 20 years old. Twenty two years later, I'm living a life most people only dream of. I owe it all to my outlook and this book was where I began to make the connection between outlook and happiness and results in life. Essential reading.

If you are considering purchasing this book and have not read it before, YOU ARE ONE LUCKY DOG ... Just put your doubts aside and BUY THIS BOOK today. Right now while you are thinking about it. The sooner you get it, the sooner you will benefit from its simple effective techniques. Whatever you do, don't put it off for tomorrow. You know you will just forget about it and then it will be a MAJOR OPPORTUNITY LOST. Just make the simple effort right now to order a copy and you will be buying a lotto ticket that is virtually certain to PAY OFF BIG for you. It costs [very little money] and if applied even a little bit, it is likely to change your life. How many other things that cost [this little] can you say that about. The original edition DID change MY life about 10 years ago and I know at least 5 other people who point to this book (and another classic-Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill) as major keys to their personal philosophy and success in life. This revised edition is even better than the original due to the care put into it by Dan Kennedy, who is keeping Dr. Maltz's work alive for the present generation with this timely update. I liked it so much I have bought 5 more copies for some great business associates as gifts. Put the techniques that have made many ordinary people appear to be extraordinary to work for you. You don't have to work harder, you just need to apply these amazing principals to your current methods and your will be so much more effective. I also highly recommended "Zero Resistance Selling" for sales persons as a companion to this book which specializes the same techniques to Sales careers.

Great lessons and advice, but the delivery is a little dry and repetitive. It also lost my interest because it goes on and on about the theory, but doesn't detail how to apply it in practical situations, at least not in the first several chapters.