Review by Brievel -- Happy Healing by Dominique Bourlet

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Brievel
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Latest Review: Happy Healing by Dominique Bourlet

Review by Brievel -- Happy Healing by Dominique Bourlet

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[Following is a volunteer review of "Happy Healing" by Dominique Bourlet.]
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1 out of 4 stars
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The book – and method described therein – can be summarized thus: be calm, be happy, commune with your body as a friend and ally, not an enemy, and your pain and affliction will drop or cease. The title – Happy Healing – is misleading, as it’s not actually for healing, per se, but more a reduction of pain and increase in general well-being. You would not want to substitute the method for, say, cancer treatments, should that be your illness. It can be used in conjunction with more mainstream treatments, to increase the effectiveness of said treatments, and for small difficulties such as headaches or backaches it may work, but to treat life-threatening diseases with only Happy Healing sounds rather suicidal. To be fair, the author, Dominique Bourlet, does not assert that the Happy Healing method should be solely used to treat life-threatening diseases, but the patient needs to be aware that they will not actually be made whole by the method.

I cannot say I was impressed by any one particular aspect of the book. If the reader can slog through the disjointed oddness of the first half of the book, the second half is mildly informative and entertaining. However, the first half (or so) of the book is entirely description of the method and resultant successes, sometimes rather fanciful description – the author uses a great deal of imagery to convey his meaning, at times to the point where the original meaning is lost in purple prose. It can be be very frustrating, even annoying, to have endless description and vague directions of a method that has yet to be explained. Indeed the whole book seems to be out-of-order, at least to an English speaker. Too, the rather foreign-sounding turns of phrase may seem awkward to a native English speaker. In his defense, the author notes in his Acknowledgments that the book was difficult to write in English “for me, a Frenchman living in Germany.” The book itself is understandable, if a bit disorienting and requiring a certain amount of concentration.

What I found most annoying through the whole thing was the fact that, as previously mentioned, the entire first part of the book was devoted to praise of, and examples from, the healing method without ever actually walking the reader through the method. It wasn’t until Chapter 14 (of 17) that Mr. Bourlet actually expounds on his method. Once he does actually get around to describing the method itself, it only takes three chapters – most of the book is actually extraneous. A longish pamphlet could serve just as well. (Or perhaps that’s my fast-paced American mindset speaking and it’s done differently elsewhere.)

Nor can I say I was impressed by the method. The basics seem relatively sound, to anyone who acknowledges healing energies, but the entirety of the execution is as fanciful as the analogies of it. Perhaps to a mind entirely free of cynicism, to one who has a child-like trust, it would be possible, but to the modern American, at least, it all seems rather ridiculous. (For example: “riding the magic carpet of [metaphorical] heart opening,” and “astral clapping – gently clapping, to thank the Cosmos, in a state of light emotional trance,” among others.) Perhaps certain aspects can be taken to be used by those minor skeptics willing to give the method a try, without all the extra trappings, but the effectiveness is doubtful. The author clearly believes wholeheartedly in his method, and if all the examples he gives are true, it has helped several people, but perhaps the Western mind-set is too closed.

Nor do I believe that any strict or orthodox religious person would be entirely comfortable with the book, or method as described. Mr. Bourlet bases his method heavily on Buddhism. While not offensive in and of itself, the result relies too heavily on a vague “Cosmos” as a God-figure, and too much on a “Higher Self” which also sounds suspiciously like the Judeo-Christian God, for any strict religious observer to quite like. He pays lip service to conforming the method to other major religions but it is apparent that it was not developed with a God-based religion.

It is not as bad as some books I’ve read, but I still cannot give Happy Healing: 8 Magical Steps to Relieving Physical Pain and Discomfort more than 1 out of 4 stars. It was simply too awkwardly written and espoused too odd of ideas to receive more, at least from me. I’m sure Mr. Domonique Bourlet did his best, but I would suggest he stick to in-person classes or at least practice writing some more before attempting to publish another book.

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Happy Healing
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Chikari
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Post by Chikari »

I had a similar opinion of this book. Thank you for sharing honestly.
**Always happy to go on a new adventure!**
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