I feel that before I can talk about anything, there's one issue I must bring up. I have three tiers as to why you should question anything in this book, aside from being a rational person.1.) This book's constant aversion to criticism as a whole - It's hard to say anything remotely negative about a book when early on, and repeatedly, it tells you that people who criticize others and their work are no doubt unsatisfied individuals themselves and will only bring about more misery and criticism unto themselves. While the latter may be true, for the wrong reasons, the former is a dodge. It's denying anyone with an opposing viewpoint, making this whole book sound like brainwashing material. And what's funny is that, on that front, the book even admits it. In the chapter "Health, Youth, Beauty", Venice writes "It is said that if you say anything long enough and often enough, folks will believe it. I may be accused of repetition in this book, but I want my readers to learn the truth, and I have told it in every chapter herein." Venice admits to using a cheap trick and explains her reasoning as "I'm being honest", without anyway of verifying what she has said. So what she says is true, all criticism is petty misdirection, and you'd be wise to listen to her as she repeats the same lessons over and over throughout the course of this short book.2.) Among ridiculous claims, there is some solid, though obvious, advice - In the ridiculous claims department, Venice has this habit of stating something as scientific fact, following it up with something that cannot be proven factual, citing the previous example as its proof. At one point, she said that years ago people believed the world was flat, but science has proven that it's round (Although today, some people are still hesitant to even believe that). Citing this, she makes the case that since people believed their observational senses, they believed a falsehood, and with that your senses are unreliable and will not always tell you the truth. The truth being that God and the Universal Mind are everywhere. She goes from flat Earth/round Earth to God in a paragraph. She also starts the book by saying this isn't about theistic realizations of God, that God is more of a spiritual energy that commands nature, yet she keeps bringing up theistic texts under the pretense that we've misunderstood the meaning, down to Jesus being the Son of God.Which brings me to another claim she makes that is WILDLY false. This book is mostly about the Laws of Attraction. While I've not read much more on the subject, from what I've gathered in this book, it seems to be about the power of positive thinking, setting goals for yourself, and acting on those goals as your one desire until you've accomplished them. That right there, honestly, I can't argue with. Having a positive outlook, focusing on what makes you happy will, in turn, make you happy. She takes it a bit further than that. She goes on to say that since science has discovered that all matter is made up of the same atoms, then positive thinking can bring these atoms to you to make up what you truly want, and that's how Jesus was able to conjure fishes and loaves. He was able to do so because he believed in his ability to do it.All else there is to say about this book is how much it repeats itself. And then how not only does it keep repeating but seems to get lazy near the end with chapters running shorter and shorter, until one chapter is 6 or 7 pages long but is mostly reproduced magazine articles by different voices chanting the same viewpoint. Articles saying one thing actually helpful to weight loss - convincing yourself that after you've eaten a single portion that you need not have any more, mentally controlling your self from overeating - and then others saying all you have to do is look in the mirror, tell your "spirit" that you want those fat rolls gone, and then eat whatever you want and your metabolism will do the rest. Which is insane. All you might do is give yourself anorexia or some other mental eating disorder.3.) What happened to Venice J. Bloodworth? - So the copy of this book that I read contained a brief biography and memoriam, and if your copy doesn't, you can find it online as I've seen it pasted on the Good Reads website, some other site selling her books, as well as a site about her gravestone. The strangest thing is that this is all the information I can find about her anywhere. The only other info I've found was a really old photograph that looks like it was clipped from a newspaper, stored in someone's wallet for three years and then scanned back into a computer, and the day she was born. Finding out the date she was born makes me heavily distrust everything she has to say though.This book was originally published in 1952. Venice died in 1956, four years after it was published. She was born in 1907. Venice J. Bloodworth died at the ripe old age of 49. Now, this was the fifties, so maybe she had complications with something that would've been easily treated today, but that's besides the point. One of the points she hammers home in this book is that sickness, illness, disease - all of that can be treated by telling yourself that you are healthy until your subconscious sets your immune system in action to heal you. If you think that's me reading too deeply into what she actually meant, as she does advocate using thought WITH doctors as well, she says in one chapter that she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and within two months managed to cure herself without taking any medicine but by the power of thought ALONE. That this was published in '52, and she died '56, I would very much like to know what killed her, as my suspicions would say complications due to tuberculosis. That's never addressed in the memoriam or biography though - all they say is that she was chosen to go onto another plane of existence. Even though she can't really be chosen unless she herself chooses as that's the whole lesson taught in this book.Then her biography flat-out lies with claims that nobody can back up and can even be proven false. From the biography: "When Dr. Bloodworth was around thirty years of age, she decided that this was 'such a nice age to be' that she resolved to retain her youthful appearance, by remaining as she was then. This she did most successfully. In fact, when she was beyond fifty, she was continually taken for a woman as young as the age she had named for herself." I've already proven this wrong, because she didn't even live to see 50. She died at 49. Who told her she looked thirty in her fifties, her coroner? After also dropping that tremendous lie, there's a paragraph immediately after that stating that "Upon three different occasions this petite, lovely, and gracious lady was offered roles in motion pictures, which she did not accept. She preferred to help the sick and frustrated regain health and happiness, and those who had lost their way to become rehabilitated and useful citizens." Social work aside, this is not something I expect to read in the biography of a doctor. This sounds like something you tell someone so that they become jealous or envious of their accomplishments, and you follow it up by saying if you want the same results, you must buy her book and find out all her secrets. I honestly pity any of you who have wasted your money on these snake oil merchants.The saddest part is that I was recommended this book by a friend who keeps swearing by it. He says it has helped him in so many ways, that he lives by it, that he occasionally rereads a chapter from when he's feeling down. The problem is though that, unlike the book's promise, he's still miserable. He has several health issues which he has seen doctors for and, if he's following the book's advice as he says he has, thought to heal himself for. He blames his misery on others, his ex-wife who divorced him, his friends who have all "changed", his family for not being there when he needs them. But that's what this book is - advice from people who can't use it themselves. Maybe it's full of lies, maybe they're just not believing in it as strongly as they should. Either way, it's proven pretty ineffective for both him and the author.Truth is though that the only people who are going to read this book are the people who already believe it. And I'll no doubt be dismissed as just a bitter cynic who will never have all the happiness in my life that you will. I'm not judging anyone for wanting to believe something that sounds so good to be true, and I understand why you want it to be that way. But it's not. If you want to be happy, you need to look on the positive side of every opportunity. If you want money, you need to work for it and let nothing stop you from getting it. If you want material objects, you need to be on a straight path to get them with no detours and plan your life around fulfilling your desires. These bits of advice are true. If you're waiting for a spiritual entity around you to give you the greatest gifts you've ever dreamed of, you're on a path to disappointment. Nothing comes to those who wait. You need to go out and take it. As is true no doubt with my review, the world at large doesn't care about what you think unless they can find it useful to them.