Recommended Books: Discussion

[Psalehesost]

A book that has been recommended as a must-read, and which will be added to the next version of the list, is When the Body Says No by Gabor Mate. (Amazon.) As discussed in the thread (which includes a video by the author on the subject), it deals with how emotional and interpersonal issues relate to chronic stress, which in turn evetually results in chronic illnesses.

In short, when we don't say no (in all manner of ways and contexts where we should, for the sake of both psychological and physical health), then the body eventually says no. And the way that the body says no, perhaps sooner or perhaps after many years, can often end up deadly - though unless it has already happened and the issues have progressed too far, there is still hope (for prevention and for recovery), if we learn to consciously say no and make our lives psychologically and interpersonally healthier.

Check the thread for more info - the above is just a rough summary. Laura strongly urges that it go on top on the list for everyone.

The one really important thing that this book misses in relation to stress and illness is the dietary information, so in regards to health, the diet info also remains top priority. Sorting out one's diet (see Health and Diet info and links in the Guide) can help reduce stress, increase ability to handle stress, help with a variety of health problems, and can have psychological benefits as well. But neither is a substitute for the other; the two approaches go hand in hand, and if you're unfamiliar with one or both of them, looking into them is strongly recommended.

 

[MK Scarlett]

A book that has been recommended as a must-read, and which will be added to the next version of the list, is When the Body Says No by Gabor Mate. (Amazon.) As discussed in the thread (which includes a video by the author on the subject), it deals with how emotional and interpersonal issues relate to chronic stress, which in turn evetually results in chronic illnesses.

In short, when we don't say no (in all manner of ways and contexts where we should, for the sake of both psychological and physical health), then the body eventually says no. And the way that the body says no, perhaps sooner or perhaps after many years, can often end up deadly - though unless it has already happened and the issues have progressed too far, there is still hope (for prevention and for recovery), if we learn to consciously say no and make our lives psychologically and interpersonally healthier.

Check the thread for more info - the above is just a rough summary. Laura strongly urges that it go on top on the list for everyone.

The one really important thing that this book misses in relation to stress and illness is the dietary information, so in regards to health, the diet info also remains top priority. Sorting out one's diet (see Health and Diet info and links in the Guide) can help reduce stress, increase ability to handle stress, help with a variety of health problems, and can have psychological benefits as well. But neither is a substitute for the other; the two approaches go hand in hand, and if you're unfamiliar with one or both of them, looking into them is strongly recommended.

Thank you Psalehesost for the recommandation, I've just ordered the Gabor's book, as I think (between else) that it might fit with a recent one I read from Dr John E. Sarno: Healing Back Pain - The Mind-Body Connection, as it was highly recommended to me in this thread about lumbago.

Dr Sarno does not talk about diet either, except one/two sentences about vegetarism as a possible way to recover the back pain. This book was the first time published in 1991, but I found many answers to my questions, and more than that (and I am not the only one, see the thread above) it works for me!
Except this lack, this book looks pretty valuable and I'm wondering if it could be included in the Recommended Books List, as it is not inside. Just a thought.

 

[Altair]

I have a question: did anybody read "Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff" by Olga and Thomas de Hartmann and "The Reality of Being: The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff " by Jeanne de Salzmann. Are they worth reading?

The Reality of Being discussion can be found here:

https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,18689.0.html

I have yet read the other book.

Thanks, I will check the thread. Another question: what was the original language of Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson? I thought it was Russian, but in all the Russian versions I've found there was a remark: translated from english
Is it realistic to found the original russian unedited scripts of Gurdjieff's books?

As far as I know, Gurdjieff wrote it in Russian and Armenian, which was then translated into English. Gurdjieff worked on the English translation intensively with Orage, which became the definitive version. This article might be helpful: _http://www.gurdjieff-internet.com/article_details.php?ID=69&W=12

Thanks, Approaching Infinity :)

Would you recommend to read Orage's Commentary on Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson: New York Talks 1926-1930 ?

 

[Approaching Infinity]

Thanks, Approaching Infinity :)

Would you recommend to read Orage's Commentary on Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson: New York Talks 1926-1930 ?

Haven't read it. But if you liked Orage's commentary in C.S. Nott's book, I'd definitely check it out. That commentary used these talks as its basis.

 

[BorisDans]

Great list!

The book I reading now is Being Happy by Andrew Matthews. I enjoy it

 

[Zadius Sky]

Hello BorisDans,

Seeing that this is your first post today, so I want to welcome you to the forum. We ask that new forum members introduce themselves in the Newbies section. Nothing personal, just a little bit about yourself and how you found the forum. If you are unsure of what to write, take a look at how others on the board have done it.

:)

 

[Psalehesost]

Thank you Psalehesost for the recommandation, I've just ordered the Gabor's book, as I think (between else) that it might fit with a recent one I read from Dr John E. Sarno: Healing Back Pain - The Mind-Body Connection, as it was highly recommended to me in this thread about lumbago.

Dr Sarno does not talk about diet either, except one/two sentences about vegetarism as a possible way to recover the back pain. This book was the first time published in 1991, but I found many answers to my questions, and more than that (and I am not the only one, see the thread above) it works for me!
Except this lack, this book looks pretty valuable and I'm wondering if it could be included in the Recommended Books List, as it is not inside. Just a thought.

It's a good suggestion. The main difficulty in evaluating the book for the list - and this goes for many potential suggestions - is that most people who discuss how to change the list haven't read it, and so don't know enough to really be able to decide on its priority.

One thing that could be helpful is, once you've read When the Body Says No, you could compare the two and post about it, either in the WtBSN thread, or in a new thread for Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection. Then you could give some perspective on how each book helps, and what each book brings that the other doesn't.

Without knowing much more than that Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection has been very helpful to some, it sounds like a candidate for the Optional section. (That's the conservative option in adding a book - a list of things that may be useful for some readers according to the individual situation, but not generally considered a "must-read".) Though with more input, perhaps that'll change, or not.


On a different note, another book that I think will probably be included in the next version of the list is Brain Changer: How Harnessing Your Brain's Power to Adapt Can Change Your Life (thread).


Finally, I'd like to make a general call for people to discuss books (even) more across the forum - especially any interesting books, and/or things brought up in books, that either have not been discussed before or which we have learned more about. Some books on the list don't have any dedicated discussion threads, and getting that started may end up fruitful for many. It helps people both to learn some things without reading an entire book, and also to see which books are most important at the moment for them to read. The same goes for books not on the list or under Optional - writing about them brings attention to them and any information discussed. And then there's the networking effect, where one thing leads to another and we all learn more in unexpected ways.

Apart from this wider significance of discussions, they also contribute to the list, in two ways. Firstly, discussions lead to the kind of consensus that eventually determines what goes on the list. Secondly, discussions are (through the consensus they bring) in large part the basis for the text of the Guide, as well as linked to for anyone interested in more information on books.

 

[hlat]

Can someone point me to the location of the full essay that is excerpted in the appendix of 911: The Ultimate Truth?

Also, in 911: The Ultimate Truth, should I skip the section that discusses political ponerology (assuming that I can figure out where it ends), and instead just get the book Political Ponerology?

 

[Mal7]

Can someone point me to the location of the full essay that is excerpted in the appendix of 911: The Ultimate Truth?

The full essay is copied into the first two posts of a thread which begins by discussing the essay here:

https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,1868.msg10359.html#msg10359

The indymedia link for the essay posted in that thread is not still active, but the Wayback Machine still shows a truncated version of the essay at that page captured in 2007 here:

_http://web.archive.org/web/20070528103358/http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?1596S

 

[Psalehesost]

Another, long-delayed update has been made. This is a moderately-sized update, covering the changes that were most important to make, and some extras - but there's a whole lot more stuff remaining for future versions. While the update is intended to be a fairly short-term one, given the importance of some of the changes, this new version is well-worth a read.

The most important changes are probably those to the 'Health and Diet' section. In short, the paleo diet is now obsolete - because we've learned enough to make it possible for people to adapt to the ketogenic diet straight away, which we now recommend. An important resource is Maria Emmerich's book Keto-Adapted, now added to the list. It is a quick and very good primer on the ketogenic diet, and covers common issues people have and how to solve them. Reading it can even save you the time needed to read the huge thread we have on the ketogenic diet. And, as you'll read in the Guide, there's also further resources now in the making!

Then there are some important additions mentioned earlier in this thread, particularly When the Body Says No (Health and Diet), and Brain Changer (Neuroscience and Fourth Way). And some important ones not discussed in this thread, e.g. Manufactured Terror and the latest Secret History book, Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection.

There's also further changes to the Guide, both revising text and correcting broken links. Here's a changelog since the previous version:

Corrections:
* Fixed a broken link to the E-E website
* The 'Health and Diet' list section was incorrectly referred to in some places as 'Diet and Health'
* 'Neuroscience' is section #4, but in two places it was still referred to as #3 (as was the case in an earlier version).
* Broken links to Enpsychopedia (which is down) removed for now. These were in the leading text for the 'Psychopathy' (#5) section. (Laura's psychopathy article near the top, and a general link near the bottom.)
* Replaced broken Cassiopedia links with Esoteric Glossary links for now. (But the one to "Strategic enclosure" is still broken, since the Esoteric Glossary doesn't have that entry. This will be fixed ASAP.)

Changes to the List:
* Added Keto-Adapted to 'Health and Diet'
* Added When the Body Says No to 'Health and Diet'
* Added Brain Changer to 'Neuroscience'
* Added Defense Against the Psychopath tp 'Psychopathy'
* Added The Crowd to 'Other Psychology'
* Added Life Is Religion to 'Fourth Way'
* Double-listed Brain Changer under 'Fourth Way'
* Added Manufactured Terror to 'Politics and Pathocracy'

Changes to the Guide:
* Added a short initial note to the guide.
* Rewrote the leading text for the 'Health and Diet' section (#1)
* Rewrote 'Health and Diet' footnote #1.1 - now for Primal Body, Primal Mind and Keto-Adapted
* Re-footnoted Life Without Bread and The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living (#1.2)
* Footnoted When the Body Says No (#1.3)
* Revised footnote for The Vegetarian Myth (#1.4) - mainly linking more SOTT articles
* Revised the leading text for the 'Narcissism "Big Five"' section (#2)
* Revised the leading text for the 'Cognitive and Social Science' section (#3)
* Rewrote footnote for What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite (#3.5)
* Rewrote the leading text for the 'Neuroscience' section (#4)
* Footnoted Brain Changer (#4.1)
* Revised footnote for In An Unspoken Voice (#4.2)
* Revised the leading text for 'Psychopathy' (#5) - listed a few SOTT Podcasts and SOTT Talk Radio Shows
* Footnoted Defense Against the Psychopath (#5.1)
* Revised footnote for Political Ponerology (#5.4) - mentioned and linked the SOTT Podcast and the SOTT interview with Lobaczewski; also added a short list of other books that go well along with PP
* Footnoted The Crowd (#7.12)
* Revised the leading text for the 'Fourth Way' section (#8)
* Footnoted Life Is Religion (#8.3)
* Revised the leading text for the 'Information Theory, Metaphysics and Evolution' section (#10) - added SOTT Talk Radio Show on information theory.
* Footnoted 911: The Ultimate Truth (#11.1)
* Revised footnote for JFK: The Assassination of America (#11.2) - listed SOTT Podcasts and SOTT Talk Radio Shows
* Footnoted Manufactured Terror (#11.3)
* Revised footnote for Secret History (#12.1) - added info on the new, third volume
* Revised the leading text for the 'Caesar' section (#14) - listed the two SOTT Talk Radio Shows so far

Other changes:
* Turned all HTTP links to forum threads and posts into HTTPS links
* Formatting: using proper lists instead of (1) ...; (2) ...; and so on
* Minor changes in wording in various places.
* Previously, any mentioned SOTT Talk Radio Shows were linked to the forum thread. Now, the main link goes to the Sott.net page when one exists, with "(transcript and recording)" added after within parentheses. An additional link to the forum thread is also included afterwards, for completeness.
* For clarity, all forum thread links which were previously named simply "thread" are now named "forum thread".

 

[Anthony]

To report a typo I spotted.

Darren Williams created the Pentago Strike video

 

[Beau]

To report a typo I spotted.

Where? Link?

 

[Psalehesost]

To report a typo I spotted.

Where? Link?

Searching the "List and Guide" thread using the browser (Ctrl + F), I found it in the third post.

 

[Beau]

To report a typo I spotted.

Where? Link?

Searching the "List and Guide" thread using the browser (Ctrl + F), I found it in the third post.

Thanks, fixed.

 

[Psalehesost]

A real quick update was made following the initial release of Diet research of the sott.net forum: A summary of the science background as a public Google Docs document.

At the time of this update, the book The Authoritarians had also been added to the upcoming version. It's a must-read on the issue of authoritarian followers, or 'RWA's, the kind of people who blindly follow pathological leaders. Many will have heard of it or even read it - it's been discussed here and there and is available as a free PDF from the author and researcher, Bob Altemeyer. So this addition also went into the update.

A few other books are slated to be added as well, in the near future - those are (with one exception) not at all new to this forum, they just hadn't been added before. The exception is Gurdjieff's Early Talks 1914-1931 (mentioned here), which is like Views from the Real World, but containing twice as much material and with less editing. Both are good "Optional" books for additional Gurdjieff material, though the new Gurdjieff's Early Talks 1914-1931, in being more extensive and less edited, seems the better option.

Here's the changelog:

Corrections:
* Fixed one typo. ("Pentago Strike" -> "Pentagon Strike")

Changes to the List:
* Added Diet research of the sott.net forum: A summary of the science background to 'Health and Diet'
* Some reordering of the diet books under 'Health and Diet'.
* Added The Authoritarians to 'Psychopathy'

Changes to the Guide:
* Reworked the 'Health and Diet' footnotes for the initial books on diet. Diet research of the sott.net forum: A summary of the science background is now #1.1, Keto-Adapted is #1.2, and three books are now semi-optional under #1.3.
* Footnoted The Authoritarians (#5.5)
* Revised footnote for Political Ponerology (#5.4) - mentioned The Authoritarians

Other changes:
* A minor formatting improvement: since when ending a list, the forum software inserts an extra newline, there were often two blank lines after the end of a list. Now there's only one.