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Can meditation really help you achieve optimum physical and psychological health? Can you really get in touch with a spirit guide who will help you make the right decisions in life? Can wishful thinking really make you better looking, richer, and cure your acne? Is self-delusion the key rather than an obstacle to happiness?

Summary

Title: Healing Yourself with Wishful Thinking
Author: Arthur Bloch
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
ISBN: 9781580084406


Pro:
•  Great price - only $9.95
•  Very insightful as to the ideas and methods of many self-help techniques
•  Extremely funny

Con:
•  Arguments against too-credulous acceptance of science fall flat

Description:
•  Parody of self-help books that offer mystical or supernatural solutions to problems
•  Step-by-step instructions on how you can use wishful thinking to overcome anything

Book Review

Such are the ideas explored in the (mostly) parody written by Arthur Bloch, Healing Yourself with Wishful Thinking. There is a tremendous number of books out there which purport to offer us just those sorts of solutions to all of our problems, but generally without any rational, logical, or empirical basis for their claims. As a result, they appear to be little more than exercises in wishful thinking.

Thus, the title of Bloch's book - and he goes through an entire litany of common pieces of advice often found in books and on various web sites, but with a self-consciously humorous twist. Readers are advised to meditate in order to open their minds to a higher power ("Allow your mind to go away.

Do not try to follow"), to practice never-minding ("denial lite"), to cultivate a relationship with a spirit guide ("Ask for references. ...It's...nice to have someone new to blame when things fail to go as planned"), and to practice visualization:

Affirmations:
I am all-powerful.
I can do anything I set my mind to.
I will ignore all evidence to the contrary.

There are even quotes from people who have been helped by "Wishful Thinking":

Just when I thought nothing would ever go right in my life, along came your "Wishful Thinking" book. Now everything is rosy. I think they will let me out soon. -R.T., Napa, CA

When my girlfriend left me, I tried every recovery technique I could find. Nothing worked until I tried your step-by-step 'blame-fixing' method. Thank you. -B.L., Las Vegas, NV

What's the purpose of this penetrating, satirical account of so many New Age beliefs?

[This book is] about how far from reality we can stray in service of our search for meaning. It's about the cockamamy things we can convince ourselves of when we hang out with others of like mind. It's about the things people will do and say to make a buck, to make a book, to gain acceptance, to gain control, or to set themselves apart from the rest of the ignorant masses. But mostly, it's about not taking ourselves too seriously.

It's not all fun and games, though. At the end, Bloch argues that people often have too much "credulous, unexamined faith" in the authority of science. Perhaps that is true, but not for the reasons he cites. It's not true that science is "beside the point" when it comes to the most important things in life. Science provides the methods and means of treating a myriad of diseases that used to kill people young and/or cause debilitating injuries. Science helps us live longer, live healthier, and live better.

Bloch also argues that Carl Sagan is a person who "raises Missing the Point to the status of religion" when he said "We're really only just molecules." But it is Bloch who is really "missing the point" because such reductionism is not meant to take away from the mystery and wonder of existence; on the contrary, it adds to the mystery and wonder to think that "only just molecules" can create and appreciate art, experience love and sadness, and so much more. To further quote Sagan:

Is there nothing in here but molecules? Some people find this idea ...demeaning to human dignity. For myself, I find it elevating that our universe permits the evolution of molecular machines as intricate and subtle as we are.

Such problems, however, only appear at the end of the book - they do not affect how entertaining and funny the rest of it is. I found myself laughing out loud on numerous occasions and often wanted to share passages with someone else in order to also share the enjoyment. This is the sort of book that you'll not only enjoy on your own, but also that you'll want to share with friends and family - I can think of several people who might enjoy it as a gift. Even believers (with a sense of humor) should enjoy Bloch's ability to point out the silly side of so many things.