This book is full of encouragement, insights, and guidance, to help us see the truth about our lives. Guy shows us how to work at seeing the timeless truth, that in order to change our outer life, we must first understand our inner life. Once we are able to understand that what we choose in any moment, provides us with the content of the next moment, we will start to want to be aware of what we are choosing. Only then, can we start to make right choices, that will truly change our lives. All of Guy's books are wonderful. If you like these ideas, you may also like books by Vernon Howard, J. Krishnamurti, Maurice Nicoll and James Allen.

This book not only can change your way of thinking but can change your life! Finley is one of the most under rated spiritual writers of our time. For those which are in tune with Wayne Dyer or Deepak Chorpa, you will find that Finley rates right up at the top with these writers. The book is an "easy" read and you will learn MUCH! Finley makes us understand what life is all about and does it in a manner that allows you to retain all of the information. WONDERFUL GUIDE TO FREEING THE SPIRIT!

Freedom from the Ties that Bind has taught me a new, clearer, more uplifting way of thinking. Guy Finley teaches in this book what everyone should learn growing up. The book is filled with insightful instructions that can be utilized everyday to truly change the way you view the world and live your life. As a sponsor in a twelve step program, I've given this book to my sponsees so they "can learn a new way of thinking".

Everyone I want you to know this book changed my whole life! It helped me look through my problems and to change how I saw things so that I could be more aware and take my inner strength not make the same old mistakes I have been making time and time again! It showed me the inner personal power I had and I turned my whole life around! I live in a nice house now with a pool. I am involved and married to a great person. And I finally have a stock market account with a great job nice house good relationships with family and friends. I am honestly finally happy.

Finally,skillfully woven information clearly stating the "how to" steps required to reach understanding and freedom from negativity. It works. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever suffered.

This short and simple book provides eleven exercises which will direct you to the "Royal Road" - the life you are meant to lead. The steps are obvious after you read them, and the exercises help you achieve in real life where other books don't. I highly recommend this book

I can not explain completely but this book changed my life. After reading the book fully and then rereading it to apply to my life it changed how I viewed many things in my life. It allowed me to see things differently and then to react to things differently and find more successful ways in dealing with people events etc in my life. I stopped blaming everything on everyone else and took responsibility for how I look and reacted to things. That gave me strength to deal proactive and stop being a martyr to everything. I became an active maker in my life instead of letting everything else effect me. It was the right thing to come into my life at the right time. How I found it in the wrong section of the book store and how I happen to pick it up I will never know. But I am still very grateful.

Everyone who has ever had difficulty I have given them a copy of this book. And it has blown them all away when they were ready to see it.

Whenever I feel the need for some additional inspiration, I pick up this book and randomly select any page or chapter and begin to read. Just like magic, whatever I read turns out to be just what I needed at that point in time. This is one of the most beautifully written and inspiring books I have ever read. If you want to see magic happen, get this book.

I enjoyed this book very much and learned a lot from it. It's easy to read, but I recommend reading it slowly as I did. I read a chapter or two and then sat quietly, trying to practice what the book teaches.
Guy Finley isn't the best writer, but this book will still touch your heart. It has a simple beauty to it.

It is very hard to focus on the now but when I have accomplished it strange things have happened. Once I saw a blue meteor go across the sky and another time I noticed a tiny bird perched on a tree limb staring at me it was a perfectly gorgeous little bird ordinarily I neverr would have seen it.

Self-development expert Guy Finley and psychologist Ellen Dickstein teamed up to write The Intimate Enemy: Winning the War Within Yourself. Their book is intended for people who are tired of struggling and wish to "sign a peace treaty with life."

Finley and Dickstein explain that "we each have, and operate from, a false nature that is a jumble of our memories, conditioning, and some tempermental qualities." That false self responds to everything that happens to us, and its response is usually negative or defensive. We then find "ourselves caught up in the same kinds of situations again and again, and nothing ever seems to be resolved in a new way."

They call the false self an intimate enemy and say that we are our own worst enemies when it comes to finding true happiness.

Their book devoted to learning how to recognize the intimate enemy and "discover how to rise above our own present psychology."

Our false selves blame events outside ourselves for our unhappiness or see neutral events as threats, with the result that we are contantly battling to control external circumstances. Only when we become aware of the "True Self" within do we learn we are a part of a world of truth and light where all battles are non-existent.

The authors use short stories and examples to show how people misunderstand the world around them. They explain how to become aware of the fallacies the false self continually attempts to foist off as truth, and how to determine what is real and what is deceit. They say that "understanding that we are a multiplicity of selves is critical to recognizing, and ultimately defeating, the intimate enemy."

They emphasize self-study as the primary way of overcoming the false self. Self-study involves rousing ourselves from "psychic slumber" and becoming aware of our thoughts and internal actions. They offer specific tips for achieving greater self-awareness.

The Intimate Enemy is for anyone who wants more from life than a daily battle against unseen enemies.

After studying the principles Guy, Ellen and others have shown me for a few years, there is a joy that wells up inside me on a regular basis. The Truth shall set you free, and this particular effort by these two individuals left me with new insights that struck chords deep within me that recognized them as the Truth each time I turned the page. They explain why our outer and inner worlds are filled with so much proverbial darkness and outlines ways individuals can help to move them toward the Light mostly within themselves.

Are you aware that you are constantly praying? According to Guy Finley, the author of THE LOST SECRETS OF PRAYER: Practices for Self-Awakening, expectancy is a form of prayer, and our minds are forever in a state of expectancy, desiring one thing after another or hoping that certain events will or will not occur. We even verbalize these expectancies in our formal prayers, and this kind of prayer, Finley believes, is the least effective. So, if you do not like what you see when you look out on the world you have created through all your expectations, then change the way you pray.

It is Finley's contention that true prayer is not an appeal for what you think you want or what you hope will happen. Rather, it is to bring you to a point where you are no longer blocked from seeing that all you need is already in your life. All you need to feel happy and fulfilled is present within you this very moment. The problem is that daily life, by its very nature, often draws us into a world of possessions and pleasure and away from our inner nature and any kind of relationship with our Higher Awareness. Instead of praying to be inwardly connected, we pray for what seems to be outwardly lacking. This sets us up for even more disappointment as our prayers or expectancies are not answered or they only bring us a fleeting, momentary pleasure.

Finley states: "Prayer is the study of truth...No man, no woman ever prayed heartily without learning something. To know ourselves is to know the need for prayer, and the heart that knows this need, that longs to be released and renewed, is teacher, teaching and taught."

Anyone who is familiar with Finley's work or who has attended one of his lectures knows that he always stresses two vital points: letting go and realizing we already have all that we need to be content. This work is no different. Offering a variety of affirmations, exercises and sample prayers, Finley focuses on letting go of the desires that are driving us in circles as well as our fears, resentments and other emotional baggage. Rather than helping us acquire what we think we need to possess or accomplish, Finley's insights and prayer practices are supposed to aid us in reaching higher levels of self-awareness. Just how effective these practices are you will have to discover for yourself. Two things, however, are certain: Finley's methods are quick and varied - just in case you lead the hectic, fast-paced lifestyle that the author would like us all to avoid. In fact, THE LOST SECRETS OF PRAYER has to be the fast food smorgasborg of self-awareness practices. For example, Finley reduces one prayer down to a simple mantra, MOTLOM, ideal for the ceaseless repetition which Finley recommends. He also devotes a chapter to seven short silent prayers which are actually not prayers at all but seven rules that Finley would like people to live by such as "doing what you don't want to do when you don't want to do it." Do I hear an Amen out there?

Written in a discursive yet conversational manner that is somewhat reminiscient of J. Krishnamurti, THE LOST SECRETS OF PRAYER presents a very rudimentary yet thoughtful and congruent approach to self-awakening. Should your awakening require a jump start from inspirational quotations and aphorisms, you will find plenty of them here. Could I have another slice of Motlom, please, with some Ralph Waldo on the side?

From the editorial and some of cusotmer reviews, I had high expectations for this book. But this book didn't meet my expectations even half way. What Guy Finley wants to stress has been succenctly pointed out from time immemorial by quite a few authors: Ramana Maharshi, the anonyous authors of "the upanishads", the mystic poet Kabir, the brilliant Rjaneesh, and the erudite Englishman, Douglas Harding, etc.

The best prayer is total surrender, total surrender to God's will who has no will. If you want a transformation, turn around and turn inwards. Guy Finley strsses these in a very roundabout way. You will do well to read the brilliant book by Douglas E. Harding, "Look for Yorself". Doglas Harding writes with great clarity, and his English style is impeccable and captivating. I hope Guy Finlay reads this book; it will induce him to improve his writing skills

Love and best wishes.

Guy Finley's new book, The Lost Secrets of Prayer: Practices for Self-Awakening, is one of those special books that will last a lifetime. Each rereading will yield new awareness and understanding of the nature of true prayer.

Finley explains that the suffering in our lives results from being "wrongly invested in some relationship . . . "; for mistaking something "as being permanent that was only temporary." He says the "essence of this book is about awakening within yourself to yourself . . .. "

His emphasis throughout the book is on turning within for understanding and awareness of the spiritual energy that resides in each of us.

Finley says that, although most of us don't realize it, we're all engaged in continual prayer. He maintains that hoping or expecting that something will, or will not, happen, is a form of prayer. Most of us "don't know how to request what we really need," often because we don't understand what our true needs are. The key, Finley says, is to ask God to give you what He knows you need. The basic prayer is "asking God to remove the veils from your eyes."

Each chapter of The Lost Secrets of Prayer ends with special lessons for self study. The final chapter presents more than 100 helpful maxims to aid in the journey to self-awakening, such as "Life is not asking you questions--it is giving you the answers!"

Finley is the founder of Life Learning Foundation and author of several international best sellers on self-development. He has guested on numerous radio and TV talk shows.

Readers won't find rote or one-size-fits-all prayers in The Lost Secrets of Prayer. Those seeking to awaken their souls, however, will find the spiritual guidance for which they've been searching.

This book is one of many I've read that is based on the Zen principle of seeing our attitudes and projections clearly. "Letting GO" does go on for far too long about the topics discussed. And it won't tell you how to change your life in ways that are objective...How to tell your boss you want a raise isn't covered, nor is how to know when to cut your romantic ties. What it does tell you is how to rest a lot easier in your own skin. The lengthy approah allows for a bit of introspection to take place. This will frustrate the person who expects to be cured of their insecurities just by reading the pages and repeating their jargon to the right people. It is however more accessable for the average person who would rather contemplate a simple fable than a Zen Koan. Buy the book and read it slowly. Living each chapter is harder than it looks but an intriguing exercise in observing how you really live your life. If you like the book's basic premise but would like to move up to something that engages the intellect a little more, try Pema Chodron's "When Things Fall Apart".

I thought this was an amazing book. Here we are running around this planet looking to satisfy some kind of constant disatisfaction that we all have and Guy shows us how to instantly dissolve all of our inner discontent. He shows us to the path of instant peace. Most other self-help materials try this round-about approach to happiness but it's just more confusing and frustrating. Guy's techniques are very straight-forward and instantly usable through his no b.s. approach. If you're looking to finally get rid of that internal nagging that you should be doing something, you should be trying to get something, or that you're just plain miserable...Get this book and it will change everything...Instantly!

Guy Finley filled his book, The Secret of Letting Go, with examples and stories that illustrate his concepts of how to let go of all the emotional baggage that drags down our spirits and often makes life a painful journey.

Finley says that we "don't need strength to let go of something. What you really need is understanding; and that's how this book will help you accomplish your lifelong dreams of being truly strong and independent." He explains that our inner selves are like hot air balloons, always trying to soar, and we hold them down by not letting go of the "angry attitudes, wasteful wishes, [and] harmful habits" that offer false promises of strength.

The book includes nine chapters, with titles like "How to Defeat What's Defeating You" and "Dare to Let Go and Live As You Please." Finley starts most chapters with a story, then uses the story to help explain his general philosophy. Further explanations are offered in the form of specific questions and answers, some of which are drawn from workshops he has conducted. Each chapter contains a list "special insights" to help readers apply what they have learned to their own lives.

Readers are also given questions that will help them understand the messages their inner selves have for them.

In his forward to the book, Desi Arnaz, Jr. writes that "Guy Finley takes the Wisdom of the Ages and uses it to gently coach his readers to heal the places in their own minds where psychological problems originate." He adds that "It equips a human being with an entirely different set of qualities that transforms stress to serenity, anxiety to assurance, and doubt to decisiveness."

Finley emphasizes throughout the book that we are not what we think we are, that we are in reality someone far greater than we have so far imagined. The answers to what keeps us holding on to self-defeating attitudes lie within us. The Secret of Letting Go is for everyone interested in understanding how they can free themselves from all that keeps their lives tethered in unhappiness and defeat.