MindWaves Review:

Reviewed by Simon Ware - March 2007
 
"This book has been around for the best part of a decade, but although I am something of a ‘self help junkie’, somehow I had missed ‘The Power Pause’ until recently when I was asked to review it.

The central claim for the “three minute, three step formula” described in the ebook is that following the formula will bring success in any chosen area of life, even if nothing seems to have worked before. Sadly I have seen a very large number of similar claims before, and most of the subjects of these claims are now gathering dust either literally, or figuratively on my hard drive.

The main Power Pause web site has a number of testimonials from well known names in the ‘self help’ field, but none from any ‘ordinary Joes’, which seems rather curious after many years on the market.

Anyway, I downloaded the package, which is quite large, mainly because it contains several audio recordings - the ebook read by the author, a recorded ‘FAQ’ session and the ‘official guide’ - an introduction and discussion of the Power Pause concept. As well as the Power Pause book itself there is a set of 4 other books by the author (they are a series), plus the ebook versions of the bonus MP3s and some various reports and transcribed interviews. A copy of Joe Vitale’s “The Greatest Money Making Secret in History” is also included (this is about the power of giving and is widely available for free).  

The ebook itself is not too long - a hundred pages or so, but with plenty of ‘white space’, so I set to it right away. The first thing that quickly became clear was that this is not a ‘how to’ book in the normal sense, but is written in the style of a short novel.

It starts slightly oddly with an introductory encounter between a rather extraneous fictional character called ‘Bill’, who has an uplifting encounter with the inspirational ‘John’ (the actual author) while the latter is on a promotional tour for one of his books. After engineering a meeting with John, Bill is given a draft manuscript, which is supposedly the source of the rest of the Power Pause book.

This whole introductory chapter is a rather odd device, and I did not really know what to make of it, even though it makes up about 20% of the book. The main purpose of this chapter seems to be to build the author up as a wise guru (he modestly describes himself as a ‘man of great wisdom and insight’ in this intro). I basically ignored it and read the rest of the book, as this introduction doesn’t seem to add to the content in any way.

The ‘story telling’ approach does not stop at the introduction and the book continues in novel format. The next twenty-odd pages tell of the author’s earlier life history and a trip back to his homeland (Guyana) to deal with his mother’s estate, and then take us up to an encounter with a rather mysterious former teacher who had deeply impressed the narrator as a young man.

It is during this encounter that the author engages in a philosophical discussion during a series of visits with the teacher, and finally learns the great secret that is the actual ‘Power Pause’ formula. This is embedded in the philosophical discussion but also summarised in several ways.

And then finally there is a twist in the story which pretty well makes it clear that the whole story is in fact fiction - although it is possible it contains real elements taken from the author’s life. There is no way to tell.

So what is this great formula? Well for obvious reasons I cannot directly reveal that here. But as the author himself admits early in the book, it is nothing new. The idea was perhaps not very widespread at the time the book was written, but it now forms the core of just about every ebook you read or audio you listen to on the subject of manifesting and the ‘Law of Attraction’.

The story is well written in novella style, and the author’s insights into the problems we will all encounter with the core idea are useful. But worth the hefty cover price? - not in my opinion. If I had bought this book for my own use, rather than for review purposes, I would have been tempted to invoke the 60 day guarantee and get a refund, mainly on the grounds that the useable content is very thin on the ground, but also because I like to know when I am reading fiction and when I am not.

However on a second reading I began to realise the value of the examination in story form of the negative feelings that prevent LOA material working for most people, so my overall opinion is actually rather mixed. I should also note that I seem to be rather alone in this less than fully enthusiastic review as there are many gushing opinions on The Power Pause out there on the web.

So I would have to conclude that if you are the kind of person for whom $97 is fairly small change, you might enjoy the story. Otherwise, these days you can find this material for free virtually anywhere on the Internet*, and sadly, for me this is just another candidate for a forgotten corner of my hard drive."