Self-Help Review 6: As A Man Thinketh

Self-Help Review:
As A Man Thinketh
1902
By James Allen

In my last review I talked about a book who's message can be summed up in a turn of phrase that the author used in the introduction: "The mind is a terrible thing. Waste it." James Allen would beg to differ. "As A Man Thinketh" is a classic in a certain area of Self-Help which has always been in fashion, but to varying degrees. There's a whole area of Metaphysical Self-Help books which contain the message that our thoughts dictate our circumstances, and that we can get whatever the hell we want just by thinking about it long and hard enough. While the idea of "becoming your thoughts" is by no means a new one (there are instances of it in the Bible), it's popularity in Self-Help comes from it being taken away from being merely a spiritual idea to being a way to gain riches and create a happier life. Apparently Oprah's new Self-Help pet, Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret," continues in this tradition (I will be reading that one much later, as I have no intention of buying it and the number of requests from my library on that fucker extends to at least ten pages). In the course of doing research for these reviews I've stumbled across some fascinating books and authors, and it increasingly becomes clear that most modern Self-Help has just been a rewriting of older books, with the difference being the style it is written in and a taking into account current scientific discoveries to prove their validity.

James Allen didn't need science to prove he was right. All he needed was his Bible and a shitload of metaphors to deliver his message, over and over, in fifty pages. While he uses metaphor to help get his point across, he makes it very clear that a man is LITERALLY what he thinks about, and that every little thought that goes through your mind has a manifestation in your real world. If you think shitty thoughts, you will look shitty, have a shitty character, and be stuck in shitty circumstances. Even if you've somehow managed to attain wealth and be financially well-off, your shitty thoughts will come to life and destroy you. That's it. That's the book. I'm dead serious about this.

OK, so maybe there is more to the book, but not nearly enough that's worth going into here, at least not in great detail. Each chapter of this book offers a different aspect of where thought affects your life, and each chapter is too repetitive for my taste. If one metaphor will work to get his point across, Allen gives you five. Allen also happens to be very good as using metaphors, so you can forgive him for his indulgence, BUT...he promotes self-control as being a necessary virtue to become a better man, so his indulgence also shows that he is every bit as weak as the people he's giving advice to. Going over my notes I was shocked at how many times I wrote down a profound statement, only to find that they all said the same fucking thing, but in different shades. I had two pages of notes, but I could easily condense it down to a paragraph.

Lest you think I'm bashing the book, I want to state right now that I enjoyed this book and think that Allen was absolutely correct about thought and being. There's a story in the "Visions And Ideals" chapter which was so good that I read it twice, and it actually inspired my ass. Yes, it's cheesy, but it was also written in 1902, so go fuck yourself. It's about a guy working a shitty job who has dreams of refinement. His dream becomes so overwhelming that he can no longer stand the petty work he is doing, and his job "falls out of his life as a garment is cast aside." Later, because of how much he has immersed himself in his dream, it shines out of him, and he lives exactly the life he always wanted. Anyone who has known me for more than a month can understand completely why I love that story so much, and my synopsis does it no justice.

"The Power Of Positive Thinking" may be an idea that's far too Pollyannaish for modern readers, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Everything that goes on in our lives is open to interpretation, you can either see your circumstances as yet another instance of "The Man" keeping you down, or you can learn a lesson from it and use it to your advantage. I used to think that I was cursed because of certain situations I was in, but when I sit down and analyze it, they have ALL helped me grow up. Even my debts, a pain in my ass that I've regretted for five years now, have forced me to examine some bad habits that I have and change them. This might not have happened otherwise. If I would have continued thinking that life was shit and that everyone's an asshole, I'd probably still be writing off everything as fate. Now I know that you create your fate, and if you build it out of shit, then you get what you deserve. Plus, once you view everything in life as a test and every failure as "feedback," you really can't be all that depressed about life. You just need to think about the good shit and do more research. Is this the end of Bitter Roland???

James Allen didn't think that "As A Man Thinketh" was that great of a book, and it's success shocked him. Today it is still being read, but in modified versions. There are two fucking retarded attempts at changing it's gender-specificness, one called "As You Think" and another called "As A Woman Thinketh." I haven't read these and I'm not going to. They are transparent grabs for cash and it disgusts me. So if you have any desire to read this book, pick it up in it's original, and fuck the new versions. It's a quick read that you can do over a lunch break, so even the laziest sons-of-bitches might finish it. As for this area of Self-Help, I plan to read "Think And Grow Rich" and "The Master Key System," both of which continue in the "thoughts are things" vein. How can I balance this with what I learned from "Radical Honesty"? I have no idea, but I'm not going to think about that now.