jrossi@jato.jpl.nasa.gov (Nobody) (01/04/90)
Recently, a young christian girl friend of mine gave a copy of a book put out by a christian press for christians to help themselves be happy. The book is called "Telling Yourself the Truth" and is about what the authors dub "Misbelief Therapy." More or less, its a buddhist manual for christians, however it does have the right number of Biblical references to help support its teachings. Another book that many may be familiar is Handbook to Higher Consciousness, which I feel is the one of the most straighforward paths offered by the new age, and is very similar in many respects to "Telling Yourself the Truth." only, of course, it has much fewer Biblical quotes. Still both books do quite an adequate job of teaching people how to effectively change the way they act, think, and behave. From the back cover of "Telling Yourself the Truth." : It is based upon the Bible, not on psychological inventions or pyschiatric speculations. While they can support their book with the Bible, and embed it with with all sorts of cultural and religious images that christians are comfortable with, the fact that this book is employing methods and techniques more common to new age and eastern thought suggests a certain amount of blending is going on. And this is a good thing. Whats interesting is the book tactfully avoids giving any credit to Eastern thinkers, religion or philosophies. Of course these methods and ideas are in the Bible, just like they are the type of things one finds in all religions. The fact that people are finding peace, love and bliss in other religions demonstrates that these methods work. It seems what some christian psychologists have done, is noticed this and realized that they could direct their patients towards happiness using these methods. They had to then concentrate on the parts of the Bible that suppport their teachings, so their patients could accept the methods as "christian." All in all its quite good, I suppose because if you told them it was partly derivative of Eastern culture, they'd high tail it out of there screaming Satan! Satan! So they think its christian; they help themselves; by helping themselves they help everyone. amen. -- -jrossi@jato.jpl.nasa.gov ...the love shack is a little 'ol place -ames!elroy!jato!jrossi where we can G E T T O G E T H E R. **********************STANDARD DISCLAIMER******************************
pmd@asr1.att.com (Paul M Dubuc) (01/07/90)
In article <Jan.4.03.22.02.1990.14008@athos.rutgers.edu> (Nobody) writes: } }Recently, a young christian girl friend of mine gave a copy of a book }put out by a christian press for christians to help themselves be }happy. The book is called "Telling Yourself the Truth" and is about }what the authors dub "Misbelief Therapy." More or less, its a }buddhist manual for christians, however it does have the right number }of Biblical references to help support its teachings. ... I started to read this book a few years ago when it was loaned to me by a friend. My wife liked it pretty well, but I thought it was rather overdone. The book is based on a very simple idea of not letting youself accept what you think to be "lies" about yourself. I think there is some merit in the idea, as many people suffer from hurtful an unjust beliefs about themselves. But to draw out a whole method of "therapy" from this simple idea is a bit much. This particular book would have been just as effective had it been a quarter of its length. As it is, the constant reapplication of this principle to situations that don't differ significantly is tedious. (I confess that I didn't make it all the way through the book.) The author(s) didn't stop at one book though. The idea has been repackaged in 2 or 3 other books like "Telling the Truth to Others", "Helping Others Tell Themselves the Truth" (I can't remember exactly). Whether or not this idea lies at the heart of buddhism, I don't much care. I think the principle is insufficient in itself. I agree with the criticism of the author's use of Scripture quotations to support their idea in the book. This is not to say that the idea is counter to biblical teaching, or whatever, but it's hard to develop "misbelief therapy" out of the Bible. The Bible has been used as a support (and probably misused for that in many places) where the book seemed to try and give the impression that the Bible was the source. But, then again, many Christians seem to require their psychology baptized in this way before they will accpept it. One self-help type book that I've read recently and do reccommend is one called "Your Hidden Half" by a Christian psychologist named Mark McMinn. I think he makes good use of the Bible and other sources in his attempt to help Christians manage the conflict between the "dark" and "glossy" sides of personality. -- Paul Dubuc | "To consider persons and events and att!asr1!pmd | situations only in the light of their | effect upon myself is to live on the | doorstep of hell" Thomas Merton