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This is the recommendations page. Here I will disclose the best and the most useful of resources for personal development among other things. I may miss a few things here and there,  but rest assured that these here are tried and tested by me and/or my trusted few. Most of these are books, both electronic and paperback, and even some comic books. These are for you to choose and read at your own pace and by your own preferences.

It is my due request, please do not attempt to read them all one by one. It is an intensely frustrating process, and it often confuses you with contradictions.

I urge you to choose one or two from each category, anything that catches your eye or piques your interest. Read it, believe it, apply it and if it suits you, embody it. I have  kept the titles and the topics as diverse as possible. In fact, it could be a great homework for you. You could read them and then write in the comments the name of each book and the central message you learned in a sentence next to it. It’ll be fun.

PHILOSOPHY

The most powerful characteristic of a true human being is their view and grasp of reality. Without your own version of these life-doctrines, you are not your own person but merely a lukewarm follower, a fan of someone who is. These precepts allow the greatest manipulation of one’s world view, by far, any other school of thought, religion community, social conditioning  or even religions and professionals scammers could imagine. These are what help  make each of our decisions and thus our lives.

Do not let anyone tell you that philosophy is useless in real life.  These are the words of the ignorant and enslaved. You have a better understanding of how life and ideologies work. You are way closer to wisdom than they are.

• The Portable Nietzche: A treatise by one of the “Darker” philosophers on humanity and its nature.
• Tao of Jeet Kune Do: A martial arts themed treatise upon the concepts of life, energy, and consciousness by the greatest legends of wuxia history.
• Mein Kempf: The banned and boycotted autobiography of a Man who became a symbol of evil all over. To read this is to understand the nature of evil, and how good intentions pushed too far turn people into monsters.
• A Separate Reality: A much controversial book of the seventies that was considered a precursor to the “hippie culture” that is still visible in many parts of the world.
• Man into superman: The 1973 book that expanded on the concept of transhumanism world view. It puts in perspective the ever-changing nature of the world.
• The Life changing Magic of tidying up: The Japanese art of decluttering and organizing:  I see some people mocking the notion that “inanimate” objects have feelings. In Japan, these things are not considered “inanimate.” You’ll see signs asking that you not walk on the grass because it will hurt the grass’ feelings, or not to dispose of cigarette butts in the street for the same reason.
• Tao-te-ching: an illustrated journey: This is a Spring of Immortal Wisdom and Divine Elixir. This book has in it the core of all religions or spiritual paths – be them Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Taoist or whatever: letting go of all, we are ready to embrace all.
• Meditations: There is no reason to feel unhappy, unfulfilled, or unappreciated, and Meditations by Marcus Aurelius offers advice to anyone who is looking for self-help, self-love, and a rational way of directing life.
• The Power of Now: Ekhart Tolle’s message is simple: living in the now is the truest path to happiness and enlightenment

EMPOWERMENT

If Power indeed corrupts, what would  God be? Could you imagine angels, heroes, legends and myths without it? Anything that inspired you in your childhood did not do so by appearing meek and at the mercy of everything but themselves. Power is a drug. It can harm you or it can heal you. It can go straight to your head if you overindulge it. Use it too much and you cannot do without it. As soon as you have it, it enhances your innermost self. Nice guys act nicer, Assholes act more rude and criminals are suddenly bolder.

Power reveals who you really are. If you aren’t afraid to show it, you should not be afraid of power in whatever form it presents itself. You should acknowledge it, embrace it and treat it with respect and vigilance. After all, Power and its use are indeed one of he fundamental parts of being human.

• The Master key system: Written by one of the “new thought” writers of the early 20th century. It is a workbook that details the process and results of creative visualization and autosuggestions.
• The Virtue of selfishness: An unbridled supporter of a capitalistic society, Ayn rands uses her flair as an essayist to convey her opinions as logically as possible. This one celebrates survival and individualistic strength.
• Hagakure: The Secret wisdom of the Samurai: A 300-year-old Samurai manual. It expands on the way and lifestyle of the BUSHIDO. Most recently, the meditation techniques in the book were taught to special forces for battlefield stress disorder treatment.
• The Art of War: Nothing spells strategy like Sun Tzu. The Age old Chinese War strategy manual that finds relevance to situations of politics, law and order, business, organization, management, administration and more to this day.
• Think and grow rich: The “new thought” book  that works on the individual concept of wealth and one’s attitude towards money as a commodity. It introduces terms like obsession and commitment, putting a money making as a task on a warlike footing.
• The Power of Myth: Campbell’s  knowledge of the many ideas, subtexts and similarities inherent in the world’s treasure trove of mythology is daunting to say the least. His approach is designed to have it all make sense to the modern human’s heart.
• Unlimited Power:  NLP (neuro linguistic programming) teaches us how to communicate success to ourselves. One of the best ways to do this is to model ourselves on people who are successful: Think, act, and speak like a success and you are on the way to being one.
• POWER VS. FORCE: For those who are not familiar with the basis of Kinesiology, the basic theory is that all living things have an energy field. This energy field is connected to all other energy fields in some way or another. In short, we are all connected to each other in some way.
• The Way of the Superior Man: A book that explains the heart and soul of a woman to men. This book will offend and infuriate some, inspire and test others, but challenge virtually everybody.

MIND GAMES

As quickly as your judgment lashed out when you saw the name, it really a better thing than what you have been brought up to believe. You learn people skills to formally address formal people on formal occasions. But little do you learn to understand the workings inside the minds of your own species. A crowd is but a herd, and like a herd it can be led, misled, penetrated, fooled. trained, killed or protected. Understanding this opens avenues to surprising possibilities. If people were not addicted to self-display online, would snap chat or Instagram exist? If people didn’t want to get rich soon, would they be fooled by Ponzi schemes? If people were not busy with their thoughts, would a magician ever be able to amaze them?

These are but tools and techniques, not inherently evil or selfish though they are sly and underhanded. One must understand them to wield enough power in social situations for their own or for someone else’s betterment. It is also the best defense against similar tactics being used against you.

• The Essential writings of Machiavelli: The collection of essays that describe the essence of the Machiavellian school of thought. Not a very pretty concept for those with delicate reading sensibilities. High amounts of Power hungry and pessimistic view of society.
• MindWar:  Michael paints a highly illustrative and plausible re-imagining of Warfare as we know it highlighting emerging dangerous realms of power and influence that can be used against us as techniques to control us and whole populaces.
• The Silva mind control method: The Silva Method is based on a simple philosophy that you become what you think you are. If you have a negative self-image, then you become that person in the real world. If you want to change who you are in the real world, you need to change who you are in your mind. And he tells you how to do it.
• Unbeatable mind: There are no secrets in the book, rather a takes a combination of best practices. The book shows you how to apply them.
• The Prince: A quite interesting book to understand our behavior as a civilization with an unsettling appetite for power and dominance. Most of its concepts, although quite old, are and will be applicable to many aspects of our lives as individuals and as a civilization
• The 48 Laws of Power: At the risk of sounding melodramatic and trite, I say that most of the Laws covered in this book can be used for great evil or for great good. It depends on the reader. There is really nothing wrong with most of the Laws per se.
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition: The intent of the book is to show how we can understand and defend against pervasive non-rational influences on our decision-making.
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values:  As in Zen, the trick is to become one with the activity, to engage in it fully, to see and appreciate all details–be it hiking in the woods, penning an essay, or tightening the chain on a motorcycle
• How to Win Friends & Influence People: Dale Carnegie explains that by appealing to the other person’s highest ideals, remembering the other person’s name, letting the other person do most of the talking, speaking in terms of the other person’s interests, allowing the other to save face, by “throwing down a challenge,” etc., you can make a friend out of just about anyone.

ARCANE

Populism always dictates our life. Today people say mysticism and occult practices are unscientific hogwash, a few centuries earlier, they said flying vehicles and electric wagons was a heretic’s blasphemy. One must never forget that before human civilization was organized into classes and religions, we were all but animals. It was the rituals that gave our lives a meaning. We meditated, prayed, danced, sang but most of all we believed. And if anything I have learned through history and human nature, there are never really rules, laws, rituals, royal decrees, edicts or even advice without a reason behind them. Those who reject the mystic completely lose the hidden benefit and those who blindly accept it never find it either.

To find the real wisdom, the benefit, the truth one has to understand what lies before them. To clean it, even chisel away some parts of it. Thus to find the gems of ancient wisdom, one must understand the old mysteries too. Meditation was one such mystery, so were astrology, acupuncture, naturopathy, hypnotherapy, intuition and even body language analysis. Why invent something that was already invented? Is it not easier to rediscover something beautiful?

I have endeavored to bring together wisdom  from sources as diverse as possible. I do not believe them completely, nor do I reject it all. But understanding the topic that interests you could only enrich you with experience. If you think you’ll lose something, put nothing on stake. But don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.

• Shadow warrior: Secrets of Invisibility, Mind reading and thought control: A very strong point of this book is that it doesn’t rely on spiritual “intuition” of sorts. A lot of ninjitsu books emphasize the spiritual aspect of defense and invisibility. However, I appreciate that Shadow Warrior calls on powers observation and deductive reasoning over black magic.
• The Dark Arts of Immortality: Transformation through War, Sex and Magic: This book doesn’t bother assisting you with yet one more convenient label to stick on yourself for the narrow-minded purpose of self-gratification. It tells you to get off your ass, think for yourself, DO for yourself and change yourself to that elevated True state of being that we should all be at and, yet, most of us are not.
• The Lucifer principle: A scientific expedition into the forces of history: This is selective but often chillingly familiar guided tour through human history. Bloom cleverly and casually crosses fields of study, sometimes metaphorically and sometimes making literal comparisons, and often being unclear as to which he intends. The result is an intriguing mixture of science, historical interpretation, and science fiction.
• The Occult: Wilson defines the fundamental proposition of magic or occultism as, there is “a kind of ‘psychic ether’ that carries mental vibrations as the ‘luminiferous ether’ is supposed to carry light.” (p.52) If this is so then we are already affected by these vibrations unconsciously (as many other types of animals clearly demonstrate), but can also become conscious of them, and work with them
• The Yoga of Power: Tantra, Shakti, and the secret way: Julius Evola is an elitist. Having experienced both the First and Second World Wars, Evola firmly believed that we are in the Hindu Age of Darkness or the Kali Yuga, and that enlightenment would only come to those who sought it out and achieved it through power of their will.
• The Satanic Bible: *This* is supposedly the most dangerous book ever written?! You gotta be kidding. And, of course, Anton Szandor LaVey *is* kidding. His Church of Satan isn’t really Satanist at all and uses the designation mostly to provoke people, Christians in particular.
• The Third eye: The author’s writing style is warm and humorous, interweaving the lessons with stories from his fascinating life experience.
• Supernormal: Science, yoga and the evidence of extraordinary psychic abilities: Radin then gives us a tour de force survey of Patanjali’s views on yoga and the manner in which contemplative practices have been known for several millennia to produce psi abilities in those who are disciplined enough to undergo them.
• Metaphysics of War: This book is one of many Evola wrote on the magical and Traditional ways of ancient cultures and how their forgotten knowledge can be applied today.
• Opening the Dragon Gate: Making of a Modern day Taoist wizard: The book follows his initial training including stints in a hole in the ground and under a large cast-iron kettle. It then follows his journey with his masters into the mountains just as the Cultural Revolution began to sweep across China. Along the way, many lessons are imparted including some interesting methods of cultivating with trees.
• The Morning of the Magicians: The book goes on to show how some famous inventions had been discovered centuries ago, such as gas lamps, which could have emerged in the 17th century (or earlier, I forget the exact date), if only scientists had paid more attention to ancient books.

VISION

If you have noticed how easily reading this page takes you from easy-to-believe to hard to accept topics, you’ll find this part a lot easier. You can have your own brand of philosophy, be empowered, be impervious to mind games and even have some arcane tricks up your sleeve, And yet it fails to impress me. It happens because life is nothing without a dream. A destiny for which you were born. A goal to which walking every path brings you happiness. As soon as you turn away from it, no amount of money, respect, acceptance or power can make you feel whole again. But then that is the difference between an agenda and a Vision. A vision is huge, and it exists to help everyone.

To exercise your dreaming muscles, you need to see and believe amazing feats. Achievements of such astonishing proportions that leave you speechless. You need to dream big and believe it to be possible at your hands. You might see things in video games and movies, but that is not a healthy medium to boost your creativity. It halts your brain’s frontal lobes.

Reading  is much better. Reading fiction is much easier. You’ll discover within yourself your own path in life, the accomplishment that is your birthright. Fulfillment is about pursuing and accomplishing your destiny. With the tools mentioned above you can do so.

• Star Wars: Darth bane three book set: Unlike his peers, Bane forges his own path to the Dark Side, which makes him all the more interesting. Like Vader, Bane wasn’t irredeemably evil, yet his transformation is both complete and chilling. After suffering many setbacks and traumas, Bane adopts a Darwinian philosophy proclaiming that only the strongest should rule.
• Dune: What especially makes “Dune” great is the complexity of ideas. Herbert has created not just a story, but a memorable world conveying an elaborate philosophy of ideas. It has to be read carefully to fully understand and appreciate it. HBO has already put in motion the production of a series based on the same.
• The Millenial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in eight easy steps: If the title of this book didn’t clue you in, this guy thinks BIG. Astronomically huge, Gigantic, Immense! Mr. Savage presents a complete program of technical innovation, starting with colonies at sea and then in orbit, and proceeding to a giant, galaxy-spanning human civilization.
• Milestones: I urge you to read this with an open mind. It is a valuable insight into the mind of Muslim extremists. At least partially due to Qutb’s experience living in the United States, he developed an anti-western anti-modernization attitude. While in The United States, Qutb was horrified to witness such lewd events as Church sock-hops, where a female could look a male in the eye and talk to him without fear of having a male relative automatically assume the worst and cut her throat.  For anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of what motivates relatively well-educated, affluent and presumably sane young men to fly passenger jets into skyscrapers there is no better place to begin than here.
• Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step: It is intriguing to hear someone dissect the creative process in a cold, calculating, scientific sort of way, and de Bono does this job quite well without coming off as too fatuous (a common fate in that endeavor it seems).
• Foundation: Asimov had an active and brilliant imagination – truly, a scientist writing fiction. This series is science fiction on a grand scale. When you keep in mind that this story originated in 1951, it is easy to see how much Star Trek, Star Wars and yes even Heinlein’s & Clarke’s later works borrowed from these ideas.
• The Overview effect: Space exploration and Human evolution: White explains how going into Space will change us, and make us better. The process starts with the Overview Effect that turns the entire Earth into our neighborhood. It continues from the Moon when a single gloved thumb at arms length can cover everything we’ve ever known. This view is the Copernican Perspective, and it exposes our insignificance and vulnerability
• Star Maker: The narrator takes the reader on a journey through the universe and through time, starting on a hill near his home, and ultimately finding the creator of the universe, i.e. the Star Maker. He witnesses the entire life of the universe and joins with many other minds from other civilizations throughout the galaxy.
• The fellowship of the Ring: One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. Enough said.

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For any suggestions, queries and outbursts, you are welcome to use my comments section. Needless to say anything untoward or unwelcome will be trashed. Try being a gentleman, it feels better.