A book that demands to be digested slowly and not devoured. Truly profound. If you're looking for something to rewire your brain completely, this it is. ( )

The Science of Mind

Don't be fooled by the title - I was, but only until the third paragraph. I don't remember how it got on my list, but once started, I felt I had to train wreck through it. I've read a number of real mind science books in the last couple of years and this this is a simply a largely Christian religious text with a few scientific mentions in it. There is a bit of pseudoscience, but Holmes clearly doesn't think so.

It's unfair to ding Holmes for a 1920s perspective, and it's unfair to pick on the non-science as this is clearly religious. Any reader without a critical eye can be taken in by the wrong definitions/examples. His examples of something as simple as inductive and deductive reasoning are wrong, but sound convincing.

I made a lot of notes, but after a while it became comical, so I decided to give up. Some of the gems is this one:

Take electricity as an example; we know that there is such a thing as electricity; we have never seen it, but we know that it exists because we can use it;... That logic evades me - we can make predictions about electricity, and test those predictions...but the simpler answer wasting scientists's time is because "we can use it".

It is known that certain people can read our thoughts, even when we are not aware of the fact... Um, wow.

The conscious mind controls the subconscious; and in its turn, the subconscious controls the body. No. Really no.

...as we have found that man is threefold in his nature, so we must also deduce that God is threefold in His Nature... "must"? Dude, there is no "must"...save in your manufactured very odd world. Non sequitur.

Psycho-analysis is a system of analyzing the soul, or the subjective mentality. It is a mental process of diagnosis which seems to be technically perfect when used by those who understand it. Right. Because psycho-analysis is an absolute science.

Strange as it may seem, we do not have the same physical bodies that we had a few months ago; they have completely changed; new particles have taken the place of the old; and the only reason why they have taken the same form is, that Instinctive Man has provided the same mold. Huh. No comment necessary.

So, I was a bit surprised to learn that the mythical (Biblical?) flood was caused by psychic confusion. Never heard/read that ever. I was also unaware that "very few diseases are inherited". I'll chalk that up to a 1926 understanding of genetics.

I think I should qualify this review...I looked up comments on other editions and learned that this may have been an abridged version. I can't imagine plowing through anything longer. This is a tortuous read. Holmes is all over the map here and doubles back on himself throughout. He obviously believed he was coherent. He wasn't.

I didn't like this, but not enough to rate it one-star. ( )

Hard to understand and slow reading, but an interesting point of view. ( )

A powerful way to change your life for the better. ( )