Review of Choices and Illusions by Eldon Taylor

Relief, freedom, deliverance. Here is what I felt as soon as I finished reading "Choices and Illusions", the inspirational book written by New York Times bestselling author Eldon Taylor. Before browsing the book on my tablet, I didn’t believe to feel what I wrote above. This book is indeed focused on an important topic, namely change what we believe to be and be really ourselves. I started reading the work with a doubt: Will it be the usual inspirational book written by a skilled doctor? After reading, I absolutely reply: No, this is not the usual inspirational book, but a well deepened dissertation about the most recent findings on mind programming, hypnosis, subliminal messages and personal growth.

Topic

Even though the author seems to put too many topics all together into a unique work, they all aim in a unique direction: our wellness. To reach this important outcome, the author enriched the book with quotes by philosophers and scientists, practical examples, laboratory experiences, tests and images. Thanks to this well arranged material, this book manages to prove that the human mind is daily conditioned by negative messages, beliefs and thoughts. Although every day many books about the positive thought are released, we are daily besieged by messages coming from a unique, gloomy and dark force: the negative thought. This thought has been secretly injected into our mind without noticing it, namely with subliminal messages launched from media, advertising and even from our friends, parents and relatives, who are, in turn, programmed by similar subliminal messages. According to Eldon Taylor and his very helpful and interesting book, human beings are programmed to believe and think differently from what they really are. To support this theory, the author started the first chapter of the book with the story of the eagle raised in a chicken coop. After some years, the eagle learnt to behave as a chicken because its fellows made it believe in being a chicken. Through this simple story, I realized that it is very easy to lead people toward a particular behavior. Unfortunately, many times, the programmed behavior is self-destructive. Because of the negative thoughts or beliefs instilled in the human mind, people have been accustomed to believe they don’t deserve nothing from life, that they will fail and that their deeds will always be unsuccessful. Why all this happens? It is always the book to provide us with an answer, because the human mind is as a sponge prone to absorb any thought that arrives inside it. To prove this further concept, the author shown another example, in his book, namely some images to look carefully for a few minutes. I did this experiment while I was reading the book and surprisingly, I noticed that mind showed me these images even though I was watching the wall. If innocuous images have the power to cause this, think what can happen with other very impressive images or messages coming from malevolent sources.

Opinion

Fortunately, the book has not been written to prove that we are all frustrated from our negative thoughts and beliefs, but to defeat the self-limiting beliefs and replace them with more positive ones that match with who we really are. Going forward to read, I was also pleasantly enthralled by very gripping chapters about practical hypnosis, personal growth, spiritual life, subliminal marketing, trance, life after death, artificial intelligence, collective thought, difference between mind and brain and very useful concepts such as learning to give more and take less to have a fulfilled life, search for a good purpose in life, not fear to achieve dreams and so on. In the light of all this, I consider this book very spiritual without being religious, inspirational because founded on the principle that love has the power to change the world and the human beings, effective because, as Wayne Dyer said, Mankind is “a God experience walking” and can manifest miracles.

Writing style

Every written chapter was built to drive us to a new mindfulness and to realize that our unconscious beliefs can influence our conscience, but that with the right strategies we can learn to dominate negative emotions and start a journey of wellness and happiness. All this has been written with a very effective and persuasive writing style, just because Eldon Taylor is a psychologist and psychotherapist who has lifelong studied the human mind.

Rating

Four stars. I could give five stars, but this prediction would have been too obvious!

Suitable for translation into Italian?

Yes, Choices and Illusions is very suitable for translation into Italian. The useful concepts of the book could save many Italian readers from despair and low self – esteem caused by the Economic crisis of the eurozone.