Product Description

Human beings are selfish, small-minded, violence-prone savages, civilization is a blight on the earth, and the rising tide of chaos ensures that everything's going to fall apart any day now. Right? Wrong, says Rob Brezsny. In Pronoia Is the Antidote to Paranoia, he declares evil is boring, the universe is friendly, and life is a sublime gift created for our amusement and illumination. This buoyant perspective is not rooted in denial. On the contrary, Brezsny builds a case for a "cagey optimism" that does not require a repression of difficulty, but rather, seeks a vigorous engagement with it. The best way to attract the blessings that the world is conspiring to give us, he insists, is to dive into the most challenging mysteries. This witty, inspiring how-to shows how any reader can become "a wildly disciplined, fiercely tender . . . lustfully compassionate Master of Rowdy Bliss."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30112 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-03
• Released on: 2005-05-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

Review
"I have seen the future of American literature and its name is Rob Brezsny." -- —Tom Robbins, author of Still Life with Woodpecker, Jitterbug Perfume, Another Roadside Attraction, and Skinny Legs and All

"This irreverent manifesto puts the 'pro' in 'protest' ... insightful and puzzling as a Zen koan ... I Ching on Ecstasy...." -- Frances Lefkowitz, Body + Soul

Review
"I've seen the future of American literature and its name is Rob Brezsny."
- Tom Robbins, author of Another Roadside Attraction, Jitterbug Perfume, and Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

"Brilliant! Absorbing! Wildly useful! Rob Brezsny gets my nomination for best prophet in a starring role. He's a script doctor for the soul."
-Marisa Tomei, Academy Award-winning actress

"I am deeply inspired by the illuminated words of Rob Brezsny. He is a word wizard for the soul."
-SARK, bestselling author of Succulent Wild Woman and many other books

"What's amazing is how Brezsny's prose remains invigorating in the transition from weekly astrology to larger scope writing. The prose is still poetic, circular, almost dancing, combining the narrative voices of Anais Nin, Tom Robbins, David Ignatow, and a host of ancient mystics."
-Rain Taxi

"Brezsny holds his own place next to other cultural shamans such as Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, Reverend Ivan Stang, William S. Burroughs, and Ken Kesey."
-PopMatters

"Like a mutant love-child of Jack Kerouac and Anais Nin, Rob Brezsny writes with devilish humor, spiritual audacity, and erotic intensity. The Televisionary Oracle is a kick-ass gnostic tale. Prepare to be astonished."
-Jay Kinney, author of Hidden Wisdom

"A book so weird it might drive you stark raving sane."
-Robert Anton Wilson

About the Author
Rob Brezsny writes "Free Will Astrology," a syndicated weekly column that reaches nine million readers in over 100 publications, including the Village Voice, where it has appeared every week since January 1999. It is also published on his website, www.freewillastrology.com, and is distributed through a weekly email newsletter with 26,500+ subscribers.

When Utne Reader named Brezsny a "Culture Hero," it observed: "With a blend of spontaneous poetry, feisty politics, and fanciful put-on, Brezsny breathes new life into the tabloid mummy of zodiac advice columns."

In its profile of Brezsny, The New York Times quoted a reader who compared his writing to that of Tom Robbins. The horoscopes "are like little valentines, buoyant and spilling over with mischievousness. They're a soul prognosis."

Before his other book, The Televisionary Oracle, Brezsny's enduring artistic artifacts were music albums, one created as a solo artist and three with the band World Entertainment War, which recorded for MCA. World Entertainment War's albums was nominated for a "Bammie," California's version of the Grammies, and benefited from the promotional wizardry of rock's top impresario, Bill Graham, who managed World Entertainment War until his death.

Customer Reviews

Unique Book to be Experienced, not merely read!
*****
I don't think I've ever come across a book anything like Pronoia before. It is large, chock full of information of the positive sort (as opposed to of the negative sort). This is because "pronoia" is the opposite of "paranoid" (when you think everyone is out to get you)---you think every is out to shower you with blessings! The book is written to celebrate pronoia is a variety of ways, all of which make you feel good.

The author, Rob Brezskny, writes in a lyrical, irreverant, wildly unconventional and beautiful style. I've never seen anyone else write like that---he is unique. The book sort of reminds me in a way of Ram Dass' "Be Here Now", a cult classic, and an amazing consciousness book of the time that is still in print today. I think that Pronoia will be as popular as that classic book.

Pronoia is an experience, not just a book. And you can GET the experience from just reading the book! It can be read linearly, or bit by bit from time to time, with equally good results. There are many interactive sections, provocative questions, exercises to try, ideas for journalling, etc. throughout the book. These interactive things aren't traditional exercises you'd find in a "normal" book, though. They are wild, wacky, and wonderful---just like the book!

The book is quite irreverent, yet it beautifully captures the God I worship in its pages---not the God of any one religion, but of all of us. He thinks up interesting new names for this supreme being like "the Divine Wow"...and you experience the love of this higher power throughout the book, not in ways you'd expect. There is much humor throughout too---it is a laugh-out loud kind of book.

If you are open, even just a little bit, to the experience that the whole world COULD be conspiring to shower you with love and blessing---or if you'd LIKE to be open to this possibility---then this is a book, and an experience for you. If you are a negative, pessimistic person, or if you are depressed, or if you are just searching for more meaning and happiness in your life---AND---you read this entire book, I will bet that you will be much more ready, if not entirely ready, to live your life quite differently in various ways.

Pronoia is a great value too---lots of book, lots of experience---for a really great price. If you're wondering if you should get it, the answer is yes! I know it looks odd and is different, but take the chance and you won't be sorry! I am buying 5 more copies to give to my closest friends...one of the best and most life-changing books I've read.
*****

This book soaks into you like a sunbeam
It's like dreaming in a sunbeam being bombarded with visions that soak into you and change your outlook for the better. I've been reading it for days now and always finding new things. It's not necessary to read it in a linear fashion. Get this book, it's refreshing and good.

Irreverent, and sometimes a little vulgar, but still Uplifting!
The premise of this book is to look at your interactions with the world from a different perspective than what most people exercise. Rather than thinking that the whole world is out to get you, the author suggests the idea that maybe the universe is working in a vast conspiracy to help you. When you get right down to it, the thought is both liberating and uplifting. As someone who is still trying to shake off the prudishness of 20 years in the Lutheran Church, portions of the book concerning sexuality were a little disturbing, but not so much as to sour the whole experience. This is an innovative piece that isn't really easy to characterize. Sometimes it rambles a little, but it still ranks highly as a uniquely exhilarating book. If you are weary of news of war and destruction, this is the antidote.