TITLE: You Too, Can Be Prosperous
Author: Robert A. Russell
Reviewer: Michael Reckord
Publisher: DeVross Publications
BOOKS ON prosperity are plentiful, with most of the authors showing the reader how to increase his or her financial wealth. Russell's book is different. It tackles the subject at the fundamental level, the spiritual one.
To the author prosperity is not measured in terms of money or material possessions. It is, instead, a "state of well-being" which "implies a free and easy access to all that is good and desirable, and connotes a free, complete, and satisfying life."
NEGATIVE THOUGHTS
The first step towards prosperity, advises Russell, is to rid oneself of negative thoughts - thoughts of debt, life's hardships, disease, fear and discord. These thoughts must be replaced by "a new state of consciousness" in which one first becomes aware that that the supply of prosperity is inexhaustible, then gains a capacity for accepting more. The chief causes of failure, he believes, are limited capacity and feeble expectations. Most people just do not think big.
How does one rid oneself of the negative thoughts? By adopting "new basic thoughts that will crystallise themselves into more productive convictions" - thoughts of faith, self-confidence, courage, determination, success, achievement and power.
Russell's theory is that in the universe there is 'One Power-One Substance' which is universal energy and this energy 'condenses' into what we want as a result of our consciousness.
SELF AFFIRMATION
Russell advises the reader to set out on the road to prosperity with the affirmation 'I am prosperity.' In a book in which there are a number if assignments, the first is: for seven days the reader is to work deliberately and persistently with that idea and "to try to think of nothing else and to feel nothing else for that period of time ... If negative or contradictory thoughts creep in, catch yourself and refuse to entertain them."
That first assignment opens the door "to the source of all achievement, wealth, power, success, discovery, invention and material gain." The fundamental source of prosperity, writes Russell, is God.
According to Russell, when we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," we are not asking for what belongs to another, but accepting what is already ours, "part of our inheritance" from God.
The author points out that universal "substance" or energy "does not fluctuate with the stock market. It does not decrease with hard times nor increase with good times. It never runs out; it never becomes scarce. It is always the same - constant, generous, abundant, and free-flowing."
In this easy-to-read, practical book, the author gives lots of advice on how to develop the requisite consciousness for prosperity. The book has 162 pages and eight chapters.
