Writer Paul Damien says in the preface of his Help!: Debunking the Outrageous Claims of Self-help Gurus that the aim of Help! His purpose is to evaluate critically what he calls a gloomy class of up-to-the-minute accounts that have a tendency to rear an unpleasant head from time to time.

 Having read the preface; I set out to examine the balance of the book itself.

 Chapter 0 is The Pustulates; in which the author presents his view regarding theories upon which Deepak Chopra bases his manuscript Ageless Body, Timeless Mind in addition to the theories as the focus for many of his later works.

 Chapter – 1 titled: The Negation in which author Damien is convinced that data used is often aimed at mass consumers in the US and are an attempt to disparage us.   Additionally, Chapter 1 offers Readers information for Writing (Dirty) Secrets.

 I found the chapter to be jam-packed with a touch of the quirky as the writer presented a succession of words to commit to memory but not to automatically understand with the intention Readers can create what he calls - guru type sentences - to ‘grab the reader’s attention by sounding as though a great, mystical concept is being put forth that could change the reader’s life’.

 Damien declares in order to become a guru; authors will need to grow an anthology of words to use. Whether the writer understands them is not imperative, however.  Writer Damien even offers some recommendations for writing self-help books including a note that credentials for doing so are in fact; none.

 Reading through Help!, it became evident that Author Damien has found a volume offered by Australian author and film producer Rhonda Byrne, to be especially disquieting. Damien states frankly that Byrne and Chopra are his main targets. Chopra because in the notion of Damien he is an unification of Dr Scott Peck and Dr Fritjof Capra.

 Damien says where suitable, connections to Byrne’s works are suggested.

 Other chapter titles include 2 Insect Nation, 3 Damien’s Laws to combat the Seven Choprasin Laws and 4 The Three Tenors. Chapter 5 entitled The Guru talks of the Placebo Effect, and Originality, while Chapter 6 touches on Deadened Buyers. Chapter 7 wraps up the work with Final Thoughts before listing appendices, along with a listing of a collection of notes prior to the bibliography.

 I’m not certain how much seriousness Writer Damien envisioned Readers would inculcate while reading his book Help: Debunking the Outrageous Claims of Self-help Gurus. His text is skillful, sharp and laced with humor.

 Damien notes that Self-Help gurus make lots of money by ostensibly edifying the public on the subject of the great secrets of the world.  Gurus, according to Damien, tell the rest of us how to live and what to believe on the pages of their books.

 Writer Paul Damien uses a combination of acerbic cleverness and penetrating sarcasm to take on Deepak Chopra as well as others of the various gurus. Damien indicates that the enigmas they advance will aid us all toward becoming a little more accepting of others.

 He says that to be a guru, it is vital to engender an impression of writing with passion. To do so, per Damien, the successful guru apparently jazzes up unimportant sentences with Eastern claptrap.

 At times Paul Damien presents an almost intense blend of wit, satirizing, and practicality, to reveal the obscurity, characterless, and full absurdity that he feels incorporates the so-called work of a good many, well-known, self-help authors.

 Interesting read, interesting premise, worth the reading whatever Reader understanding or acceptance of self-help may be. 

   Happy to commend for those who may not be at all certain they agree or perhaps disagree with gurus.   

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Reviewed by Molly Reviews BOOKS     molly martin

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