MIND MAGIC: Doorways into Higher Consciousness

by Bill Harvey

Mind Magic: Doorways into Higher Consciousness is a guide to discovering who you really are beneath all the influences of other people and things in your life. What do you really want to do with the rest of your life? What will make you most effective and bring out your creativity in meeting life’s challenges?
Reading Mind Magic is a unique experience. You glide along effortlessly, stimulated in light, sometimes humorous and often unexpected ways. It is designed to evoke your ideas, and get you thinking and acting in new ways.
There is no fixed formula for how to use Mind Magic. Some people enjoy opening it to random pages, finding they get just what they need at that moment. Others read it all the way through, going back to it again and again.
Over the years since its original publication in 1976, thousands of readers have written letters sharing their experience of Mind Magic.
"If everyone were to read just this one book, the improvement in social and personal consciousness would be astounding. It's a marvelous inspiration." —Lynn S., Indianapolis, IN

Genres: Psychology

290 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1976

About the author

About Bill Harvey

Bill first experienced the Zone, that space where innovative and successful ideas and actions flow out of you effortlessly, as a young child. The son of legendary orchestra leader/master of ceremonies Ned Harvey and former Ziegfield Follies showgirl Sandra Harvey, Bill started performing on stage at age four, dancing with showgirls and exchanging lines with comedic greats like Jack E. Leonard. He liked this feeling of being “on” and wanted to learn how to be “on” more often. And so began his lifelong quest to understand how to bring on higher states of consciousness and to help others do the same.

Along the way he anchored his dream with a degree in philosophy, the first school subject he had ever loved. He began to materialize the dream by founding the Human Effectiveness Institute, with the goal of sharing the techniques he had learned and developed as his own internal system for bringing himself to his highest level of creative effectiveness.

Bill’s ideas didn’t all come from the inside, as he was inspired by something that Milton Berle had told him: “Always steal from the best, kid.” He was turned on to Alan Watts, Buddhism, Zen, and hipness by his adopted older brother, the multitalented Bill Heyer, second trumpet in Ned’s band.

Unique and ahead of its time, Bill’s first book, Mind Magic: The Science of Microcosmology, met with rave reviews in the late 70s and was lauded by thousands of readers whose lives, they say, were changed by it. The book has been used at 34 universities including NYU, UCLA and West Point, and by numerous organizations. It is now available in its 6th edition, Mind Magic: Doorways into Higher Consciousness.

In You Are The Universe: Imagine That, Bill has expanded the frame of reference of his lifelong study of consciousness to focus more on the spiritual dimension of life.

With a brilliant mind for research, innovation and invention, Bill started his career in the media business with a dream of making one-way media into something that the audience co-creates. With his trailblazing vision, he accurately described today’s media reality with his MediaWorld 1990 report to the industry, and in his widely-read Media Science Newsletter. He invented many things arcane to the average person but talismans in the media field, including some now written into FCC regulations. He holds four issued US patents and has consulted for over 100 Fortune 500 companies. A leader in the field as media morphed into being more interactive, putting the viewer in charge, Bill’s peers recognized him with the Great Mind Award in 2008 to celebrate his achievements. In June 2014, Bill became the first recipient of the Advertising Research Foundation’s Erwin Ephron Demystification Award.

Bill is a popular speaker, the subject of numerous articles, and a prolific writer. He writes two weekly blogs, BillHarveyBlog.com (“Pebbles in the Pond”, now in its fourth year), and MediaBizBloggers.com/Bill-Harvey (“In Terms of ROI”). He is interviewed weekly on the digital videoseries RBDR, and is a frequent guest on WDST-FM’s Woodstock Roundtable with Doug Grunther.

Bill lives with his wife Lalita and their three cats in the beautiful Hudson Valley. He has a daughter Nicole, and with Lalita has four grandchildren.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bill Harvey's book does a wonderful job of explaining the concept of higher consciousness in everyday terms. Some part of this book will speak to you, some part of this book will give you that moment of clarity. By using computing metaphors and clear language the author has written in a way that speaks to almost everyone about how they can use higher consciousness in their everyday lives. It gave me a new way to look at things.

[Frances · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from Edelweiss for an honest review— and then it remained unread for several years. I started reading it to clean up my TBR list, but only read a few pages before putting it down. The concept? Interesting. This is just simply not my flavor of Kool-aid.

[Julie Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway. Thank You!

I will say that I'm probably not the best person to give this book to since I'm not a Yoga-doing, new-age, hippy-dippy type. Not trying to be offensive, just honest. I'm somewhat of a conservative Christian. At the same time, there were certainly bits of this book that I will take away with me as useful. It talks about all the noise outside of us, bombarding us all the time. No kidding! We need some quiet and silence just to reflect and think. Good point! Also, the power of positive thinking stuff was really good. When something "bad" happens, or you make a mistake, don't let that inner programmed voice beat you up and terrorize ya! Look at this as a "meant to be" thing that will lead to greater learning and discoveries. It's all part of "the plan." I would say it's part of God's plan, while the author says it's the Universe. That's okay. Another thing I learned is that we should take time to analyze our actions and our words before we say or do. Not a bad idea. Are we saying things and doing things because we have been told that's the "right" thing to do, or are we saying and doing because it's coming from the real us? Good stuff to ponder.

[Sandra Holladay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt there were some very good points, the need for quiet time (way too much noise pollution in our society) being one. I’m not sure about the thinking things through part, because at times it felt like the author was saying to not think but to observe an inner dialogue or conversation going on inside you and once that conversation was done then act. Felt like one could get stuck observing and not get anything done. Some of the exercises were good and worth the effort to make a part of our lives, reiterating what we hear so often about taking responsibility for our own health (mental and physical).

One thing I did not like was the formatting of the sentences. It was breaking up sentences into multiple lines (like a poem), but at times this made it awkward to understand what was being said and I had to read it a few times to catch what the author was saying. I think the line or paragraph breaks were in places that confused the thought (not natural feeling breaks).

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book through the goodreads, firstreads Giveaway. Unfortunately I chose not read this entire book. I kept forcing myself to read until about half way through and decided I did not want to finish it. I felt like I was reading personal notes written by someone on their thoughts on random topics. I did not see any meaningful direction or benefit to what I was reading and therefore stopped reading it. I'm sorry I cannot give this a favorable review, it simply did not make sense to me nor have a purpose in the writings.

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

In compliance with FTC guidelines, I have won this book through the Goodreads Giveaways.

My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.