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The Power of Flow: Practical Ways to Transform Your Life with Meaningful Coincidence
Imagine feeling as though the world is working with you, not against you. Imagine a day in which you make every green light and slip effortlessly into a parking spot in the most crowded part of town. You make a To Do list, and the people on it call you first. You turn on the radio just in time to hear the exact information you need. These meaningful coincidences, called synchronicity, are sure signs you are "in the flow."Based on new, groundbreaking research, The Power of Flow goes beyond other books on synchronicity to provide you with sixteen easy-to-understand techniques that allow you to access this magical state of flow and create a richer, more satisfying life.
306 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 21, 1998
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432 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 20, 2024
Despite its sub-title, I did not buy this book as a "how-to" guide. Instead, I bought it to read more about what Carl Jung described in the 1920s. Ten decades have passed, and judging from what "Flow" has to say about the topic, it seems little to no progress has been made regarding the study of intuition and synchronicity.
The premise of this book is that we can radically alter our lives by relying more consistently on intuition and remaining receptive to possibilities. The authors argue that nearly all events in our lives 'broadcast' themselves to us before their actual occurrence, and we can thus be prepared to either meet or capitalize on the challenges and presumably minimize or even avoid catastrophic events altogether. The name "Flow" is a misnomer due to kits desultory layout. It is loosely organized into three sections.
While the notion is appealing, and there is something to be said regarding the value of intuition, the authors offer no scientific methods to quantify their hypotheses. Instead, they dedicate the first third of the book relating what I can only describe as 'post-data,' consisting of anecdotal recitations by people who ascertained events that indeed happened to them and presented signs which, in retrospect, seemed to foreshadow or even forewarn of an upcoming event.
As a groundbreaker, the authors offered a 'quiz' of sorts to pique the reader's interest. The questions determined the reader's potential to 'read' the signs, as it were. Anyone with the highest score is said to be a 'Flowmaster'—someone with highly developed intuitive skills.
The book's next section focused on helping the reader become more intuitive by attenuating receptive qualities common to Flowmasters. The last portion moved in the same direction, focusing on developing/maintaining mindfulness to enhance intuitive abilities further.
I remain convinced that synchronicity is a genuine phenomenon - and I rely on intuition quite a bit. However, I came away from this book thoroughly unconvinced that the authors had any more clue than any other garden-variety person about how to tap into it. Their philosophy could have been more practical at best. For example, at one point, at the beginning of the book, they were dismissive of religion. It was a bold stance that I expected them to reinforce with research... or something. But that never happened. Instead, they described events that people identified as intuition-related explainable - the basis of their religious beliefs. I found my skepticism building with each subsequent story cited by the authors because their recurrent approach seemed to take on an air of begging the question - almost as though they would present some weird phenomenon and then ask, 'Has this ever happened to you? - much like the Flowmaster 'quiz' early on in the book.
As it progressed, it took on the tone reminiscent of Jeff Foxworthy's invocation, ‘You may be a redneck if...' If it weren't for the fifteen bucks plus tax I dropped on this book, I probably would have laughed. but3 with every story, it seemed like the underlying theme was evolving in this 'scholarly' how-to book on refining intuition was simply a matter of substituting 'redneck' with ’Flowmaster.'
Some of the stories were believable, but they became less and hokier until they lost traction. The one that failed me was a story of a woman who had a 'premonition' of sorts as she was waiting to undergo an abortion when, all of a sudden, the thought of her young niece popped into her mind. Fast forward 13 years, and that very niece was having an abortion, and the preceding abortion experience prepared or qualified the aunt (presumably a best-fit practice?) to help her niece go through the trying experience of having an abortion.
The authors cite numerous other stories, which can also be explained as people searching for the underlying meaning of events that may or may not be related. The need to explain something provides the perfect ground for retrofitting the past by causal analysis in a way that involves making the precursor events fit the 'resultant' incident.
In chemistry, stoichiometry is a practice where the end product is reverse synthesized, and the parts can be determined by tracing a reverse chemical process. It is challenging to master, but it can be done. This is what the authors were setting out to do. They did nothing of the sort. Because their approach completely lacked any scientific methodology and because they rely so heavily on anecdotal references, the entire book comes off as a pastiche of the scientific method, which they seem to be alluding to in their methodology.
Save your time with this book. It is just modern-day snake oil in print. It doesn't even deserve one star. The funny thing is, my intuition warned me about this book. Now, isn't that ironic?
The premise of this book is that we can radically alter our lives by relying more consistently on intuition and remaining receptive to possibilities. The authors argue that nearly all events in our lives 'broadcast' themselves to us before their actual occurrence, and we can thus be prepared to either meet or capitalize on the challenges and presumably minimize or even avoid catastrophic events altogether. The name "Flow" is a misnomer due to kits desultory layout. It is loosely organized into three sections.
While the notion is appealing, and there is something to be said regarding the value of intuition, the authors offer no scientific methods to quantify their hypotheses. Instead, they dedicate the first third of the book relating what I can only describe as 'post-data,' consisting of anecdotal recitations by people who ascertained events that indeed happened to them and presented signs which, in retrospect, seemed to foreshadow or even forewarn of an upcoming event.
As a groundbreaker, the authors offered a 'quiz' of sorts to pique the reader's interest. The questions determined the reader's potential to 'read' the signs, as it were. Anyone with the highest score is said to be a 'Flowmaster'—someone with highly developed intuitive skills.
The book's next section focused on helping the reader become more intuitive by attenuating receptive qualities common to Flowmasters. The last portion moved in the same direction, focusing on developing/maintaining mindfulness to enhance intuitive abilities further.
I remain convinced that synchronicity is a genuine phenomenon - and I rely on intuition quite a bit. However, I came away from this book thoroughly unconvinced that the authors had any more clue than any other garden-variety person about how to tap into it. Their philosophy could have been more practical at best. For example, at one point, at the beginning of the book, they were dismissive of religion. It was a bold stance that I expected them to reinforce with research... or something. But that never happened. Instead, they described events that people identified as intuition-related explainable - the basis of their religious beliefs. I found my skepticism building with each subsequent story cited by the authors because their recurrent approach seemed to take on an air of begging the question - almost as though they would present some weird phenomenon and then ask, 'Has this ever happened to you? - much like the Flowmaster 'quiz' early on in the book.
As it progressed, it took on the tone reminiscent of Jeff Foxworthy's invocation, ‘You may be a redneck if...' If it weren't for the fifteen bucks plus tax I dropped on this book, I probably would have laughed. but3 with every story, it seemed like the underlying theme was evolving in this 'scholarly' how-to book on refining intuition was simply a matter of substituting 'redneck' with ’Flowmaster.'
Some of the stories were believable, but they became less and hokier until they lost traction. The one that failed me was a story of a woman who had a 'premonition' of sorts as she was waiting to undergo an abortion when, all of a sudden, the thought of her young niece popped into her mind. Fast forward 13 years, and that very niece was having an abortion, and the preceding abortion experience prepared or qualified the aunt (presumably a best-fit practice?) to help her niece go through the trying experience of having an abortion.
The authors cite numerous other stories, which can also be explained as people searching for the underlying meaning of events that may or may not be related. The need to explain something provides the perfect ground for retrofitting the past by causal analysis in a way that involves making the precursor events fit the 'resultant' incident.
In chemistry, stoichiometry is a practice where the end product is reverse synthesized, and the parts can be determined by tracing a reverse chemical process. It is challenging to master, but it can be done. This is what the authors were setting out to do. They did nothing of the sort. Because their approach completely lacked any scientific methodology and because they rely so heavily on anecdotal references, the entire book comes off as a pastiche of the scientific method, which they seem to be alluding to in their methodology.
Save your time with this book. It is just modern-day snake oil in print. It doesn't even deserve one star. The funny thing is, my intuition warned me about this book. Now, isn't that ironic?
May 31, 2011
The first part of this book talks about flow and gives lots of examples of people who live by flow. The second part is filled with lots of exercises for ways to increase flow. As soon as I finished reading it, I started it all over again. Very inspirational.
May 7, 2008
One of my earliest introductions to trusting intuition. Some excellent exercises to get the "flow" going.
January 26, 2018
My top takeaway: A peaceful mind is a more focused, productive mind.
Stars from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent)
Readability:4 - easy to read, layout of information lets you skip around, might be too "woo-woo" for people new to these ideas
Content vs fluff: 4 - lots of real-life examples to explain concepts and balanced by specific activities to learn and apply concepts
Who should read this: People who are new to the idea of meditation and intuition, and are looking for a less stressful approach to business, life, and decision making.
Related titles:make a suggestion
Stars from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent)
Readability:4 - easy to read, layout of information lets you skip around, might be too "woo-woo" for people new to these ideas
Content vs fluff: 4 - lots of real-life examples to explain concepts and balanced by specific activities to learn and apply concepts
Who should read this: People who are new to the idea of meditation and intuition, and are looking for a less stressful approach to business, life, and decision making.
Related titles:make a suggestion
October 14, 2025
I read this one slowly over the course of a year, and it offered gentle, meaningful reminders about how to invite more flow into everyday life. Some sections felt familiar, but the overall message was grounding — a nice balance of practical tips and spiritual perspective. A worthwhile read if you’re looking to realign with ease and synchronicity.
September 18, 2012
"Flow is the natural, effortless unfolding of life which moves us towards whole ness and harmony" as defined by Charlene Belitz. In this book, she shares techniques to cultivate flow. When we are connected, aware and accepting of the currents of the river of life our stress, struggles and uncertainty drop away, and our joy, peace, satisfaction and happiness increases.
Flow is marked by synchronicity and fortuitous events. Carl Jung's definition of synchronicity is the coming together of inner and outer events in a way that cannot be explained by cause and effect and that is meaningful to the observer. What we commonly know as coincidence is actually synchronicity at work.
Flow is marked by synchronicity and fortuitous events. Carl Jung's definition of synchronicity is the coming together of inner and outer events in a way that cannot be explained by cause and effect and that is meaningful to the observer. What we commonly know as coincidence is actually synchronicity at work.
February 7, 2008
A positive message of understanding, accepting and LOVING the life you live! Not trying to FORCE, CONTROL or PREDICT your LIFE, rather living in it the BEST you know how!
Read
October 16, 2008Great read, it is amazing what coincidences are really meant to be!
May 17, 2012
Love this book must read again when feeling out of the flow...
March 17, 2013
I liked this very much. Lots of food for thought.
December 8, 2017
Awesome book to read and it definitely gives you some perspective occurring in your own life.
February 12, 2015
While lots of their topics are good I didn't like the 'laws of attraction' mash onto 'flow' slant to this book.
See: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by M.
Csikszentmihalyi
See: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by M.
Csikszentmihalyi
April 18, 2016
Absolutely loved this book. I am very appreciative that this book introduced synchronicity to me. This book covers so much and can really be a great tool.
September 15, 2013
Not what I was expecting. Didn't delve into topics the way I was hoping
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews