About the author
Rhonda Byrne is an Australian TV writer and producer. She is popular worldwide for her New Thought books. Her motto is to spread joy to billions. She started her journey with The Secret, which is a worldwide bestseller and also has a movie by the same name. She has authored four other books that deal with the different aspects of the Law of Attraction.
Review
“There is a supreme power and ruling force which pervades and rules the boundless universe. You are a part of this power.”
The Power is a self-help book written by Rhonda Byrne. The book contains a series of explanations of the different aspects of life and how the Law of Attraction and the power of love, imagination and creation can be used to affect those aspects.
The book is a sequel to The Secret, a 2006 blockbuster book and movie, and is the second in a series of four books. In this book, Rhonda provides us with a list of to-do tasks in order to experience the power of the Law of Attraction and benefit from it. The hardcover has two hundred and fifty pages and is divided into twelve chapters that deal with the power of thoughts and how they influence our feelings, finances, health, relationships and life as a whole. Each chapter has a quick recap at the end, titled Points of Power. Going through these points can help the reader grasp the gist of the chapter. The pages have a soft and glossy texture, which ensures that book doesn’t just read well, but also feels well. The attractive images and pictorial depictions of the concepts further enhance the reading experience. Powerful quotations by some popular scientists, politicians and authors are used at relevant places to emphasize the point at hand.
The author starts the book with an explanation of the power of love. She uses real-life examples to explain how one can fulfill his/her desires by using the power of attraction and love. She also talks about the potency of positive thoughts and how they help manifest the power of attraction. Readers can learn how to identify bad or negative thoughts and transform them into positive ones by consciously discarding the negative ideas. In the chapter titled The Power and Creation, the author explains that the process of creating something new or changing something is all the same; one just needs to imagine it, feel it and receive it. The author also stresses the importance of doing away with negative feelings like envy and jealousy. She contends that we get what we give and it is, therefore, important to think well for others.
That being said, there is nothing new or path-breaking in the book. The concepts put forth by the author are the same as propounded by the (many) other twenty-first century self-help gurus. The author becomes repetitive in some chapters as she keeps talking about the same concepts of positive and negative thoughts again and again. Some of the real-life examples given in the book are too hard to believe. For example, in the previously mentioned chapter, she talks about a man who imagines every little detail about his dream job and eventually manages to get it! These stories are not substantiated by any credible evidences. Furthermore, the author fails to furnish any reference to the research her book is (or, as she claims it to be) based on. She just states that the stories are experiences shared by the readers of her first book, The Secret.
Though the author says that one is not required to read The Secret in order to practice the principles enunciated in this book, we do recommend the readers to start with the first book to familiarize themselves better with the pseudoscientific concept of the Law of Attraction. This book does not contain much explanations; it just provides the guidelines on how to activate the Power of Attraction and thus reap its benefits.
The Power is a gem for all the self-help book lovers out there. It is written in simple, conversational English and is generally easy to follow. We suggest you to buy this book if you have already read its prequel and believe in the power of the Law of Attraction (or if you would like to enhance your understanding thereof).