The Book of Afformations by Noah St. John

Self help books anyone?

I’ve got through many in my time and anyone who has read Eclipsed will understand why.

It seems to me that  all self-help books are based on the same central premise. That we are a factor of our own thoughts. What we think of ourselves is what will transpire in our lives – so all that we need to do is to think positively…

How many of us have tried this but quickly have become despondent at our outcomes – and stop reading or move on to another book.

Well – The Book of Afformations by Noah St. John is a self-help book in the classic mould – promising the reader that anything and everything is possible but with one important difference – by taking this thinking and adding a building block for success.

It is a very simple idea - that our outcomes are a factor of the questions we constantly pose to our conscious and sub–conscious mind.

So if we change the questions, then we change the outcomes?

What Noah explains in very easy to read text is that we need to ask the correct questions if we want desirable results. By asking questions that already assume a certain outcome, we are challenging our all-powerful sub-conscious mind to answer this question and bring the outcome to pass.

It is that simple… according to the author.

A crude example might be…

Why am I not as successful as I should be?

A question that can only elicit the negative outcome of being less successful.

But if this question is replaced by, say…

Why am I so much more successful than my peers? Or, why am I able to complete my work so successfully? Why does learning new tasks not bother me…

And our own brains – yes, our own brains will set off to bring us the answers and the desired outcome as well.

And that in a nut shell is it.

Noah makes the case that these questions and this technique can be applied right across our lives and for all people - from, Why am I so rich to why am I so lucky in my love life?

These are big and all-embracing claims. But I am afraid that simply jotting down a range of such questions are not the end of the story.

There is work to do and the outcomes are not guaranteed.

What Noah describes as a belief gap is the difference between our questions and our outcomes and this can only be bridged by taking action to achieve the goal of our new question.

You cannot ask a new question - and continue to do the same thing – and expect different results.

A cynic might consider this to be the author’s out. My techniques work and if they don’t then it’s your own fault, a feeling that I have felt many times with my experience of self-help books.

And I get this. I like the idea that we are what we think of ourselves and that all of us have the capacity to improve our lot and happiness. This is a book that I hope works and will therefore be a success.

When I spoke with Noah yesterday, I put it to him that to write such a book – it must follow that he himself must be rich, happy, in-love and wildly successful? Otherwise, isn’t his book and his technique redundant?

I did not pick up any cynicism from Noah St.John. It was useful being on Skype so that I could see his reaction. He didn’t disagree with me but he wasn’t claiming either that he was the finished article. That all his problems were behind him. And that he still had work to do.

Noah was keen to also explain that his system had worked for him. He had come from nothing, a poor family and was suicidal in his early adulthood – and had managed to turn his life around. And he was inspired by the prospect of helping others.

An issue with self-help books is that the readership is a vulnerable one. Bill Gates and Michael Jordan are unlikely to be readers. But poor and despairing people are. And it follows that Noah’s quest to help other people will also greatly help himself, not least financially. In this book, it is claimed a few times that there is nothing wrong with wanting to be rich, something I agree with. But it is not a claim that makes people feel comfortable and will often rankle. Russell Brand, our new self proclaimed comedic messiah said recently on Newsnight that profit is something to be ashamed of – whilst of course it is okay for Russell to profit from his films and other pursuits and he has a battery of agents, lawyers and accountants, presumably tasked with ensuring his profit is as high as possible.

But I do get the discomfort that we all feel towards the very wealthy – something exacerbated by the current recession. The Book of Afformations is shameless about promoting other products for sale by Noah St. John and some will find this off-putting and even distasteful. I put this to him and he responded by giving an impassioned plea for the probity of his methods and his hopes that others too can find similar success.

And I believed him. If he is successful, then others will be too – because if the book doesn’t work, then it will not sell.

And so to the crucial part of this review – does the book work – because I have been applying the theories for the last few weeks or so.

Well….

As yet nothing enormously tangible that I can put my finger on. My book sales have not spiked.

But I do feel better for the process. The book is overlong and somewhat repetitive – but I was excited at what it was explaining and I certainly felt motivated to give the techniques a go. And I have done some cracking gigs since and I am more hopeful moving forward. And should some alchemic question be chanced upon and my booty suddenly explodes, then rest assured I will shout from the roof-tops about this new method of success.

But for now, the jury is out – I will continue with the process and I encourage others to do the same.

As Noah said himself – if you can’t afford the book yourself – then go to your library – get successful and then tell your friends…

Can’t argue with that.