Being the Solution

The book opens with reader testimonials: Delores, broke for two years, lands a songwriting contract a week after using the Power Stance; Sherry is freed from a year of migraines; Maria grows her massage business by a third in a month. The author adds at once that these aren't miracles, just the natural result of choosing a new «state of being». None of these stories can be verified, and all of the book's «evidence» is of this kind.

Chapter one's thesis is in its title: poverty reflects your inner state, not your income. Rutherford describes years of believing «nobody loves me» until a change of perspective made it possible to accept love, and from this draws a general rule: whatever is missing from your life, you have «rejected». The text includes lines like «the rich attract money as a magnet attracts metal» and «the poor have a negative polarity that pushes money away». It is a worldview that ignores structural causes — unemployment, illness, discrimination — entirely.

Chapter two tells the author's own story: about three months after reading Hill, Rutherford decided becoming a millionaire was a choice, then forgot the goal, and on checking two years later was «halfway to my second million». The conclusion: «becoming a millionaire is simply a matter of choice» and «the only difference between you and me is that I chose to be rich and you didn't». Being busy growing a business is mentioned in passing, but the book consistently downplays effort, markets and luck.

The Power Stance is a three-step, roughly three-minute practice: go to a peaceful place in your mind, picture your life with the problem solved and feel those emotions, then thank God or your «higher self». As relaxation and positive visualisation under stress, the method itself is harmless. The problem is that the author calls it «a very simple solution to all problems».

The most troubling part is the health chapter. It opens with the story of a dental hygienist said to have recovered from brain cancer and paralysis by «deciding not to die». The author writes that «being healthy is a matter of choice» and sets out to show that «diseases called incurable can be cured if the person decides». In another example the author asks an employee preparing for a bone marrow transplant, «Why do you need bone marrow cancer?» This approach blames patients and is dangerous. No thinking exercise can replace medical treatment in serious illness.

There is a potentially useful layer: questioning the victim role, writing down what you want, taking responsibility in relationships. But these ideas exist with evidence and in safer form elsewhere — in books on cognitive behavioural therapy, for example. The translation is heavy too, with capitalised terms like «STATE OF BEING» making the text tiring.

• Plain language and many worksheets
• Summaries and questions at the end of chapters
• A motivational layer of reader stories