Monday, June 18, 2018

Book cover: "Mind Cosmology"
[Holy hokum, Batman!]


  • Title: Mind Cosmology
  • Cover subtitle #1: The Secret Doctrine of Cosmic Energy Revealed!
  • Cover subtitle #2: How to translate your inner dreams into the outer reality your desire!
  • That's a two-exclamation-point cover: Indeed.
  • Author: Anthony Norvell (1908-1990). Much more on him below.
  • Designer of groovy cover: Unknown
  • Publisher: Parker Publishing Company, West Nyack, New York
  • Year: 1971
  • Original price: Unknown, as dust jacket is price-clipped
  • What I paid: $4, which is in line with the cheapest used copies on Amazon
  • Pages: 223
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Dust-jacket highlights:
    • "When you tune in on its cosmo-astral forces, brilliant new powers will be yours."
    • "Mind Cosmology traps the invisible wavelengths of lifegiving cosmic energy and raises your rate of physical vibration to protect you against most forms of sickness..."
    • "Astral projection — yours for the asking"
    • "You'll see how to speed up time and make events happen in the eternal now..."
  • That basically describes all the Marvel superheroes: Correct.
  • First sentence: "For centuries past, mystics, seers, holy men and prophets have taught a secret doctrine of tremendous mental and psychic powers that man may tap when he wishes to achieve astounding miracles in his life."
  • Last sentence: "How to use the soul's divine inspiration to be aware of the tremendous forces that are alive within the universe, and be inspired by the beauty in nature, by beautiful music and high levels of inspiring poetry, literature, and art."
  • Random sentence from middle: "Mentally take trips to foreign countries you want to visit."
  • Goodreads rating: 4.67 stars (out of 5)
  • Amazon rating: 4.0 stars (out of 5.0)
  • Excerpt from Amazon review: In July 2017, Matt. S. wrote: "In a nutshell is this, find what speaks to you, the rest let go if it doesn't."
  • About the author: Anthony Norvell — some sources claim his real name was Anthony Trupo — was quite the colorful character. One site amusingly and disparagingly refers to him as "the da Vinci of clap-trap." He knew Mary Pickford, lectured at Carnegie Hall, might have attempted to found his own religion and claimed to have an 85 percent accuracy rate on his psychic predictions. ... His other books (it appears there were more than 30) included How to Train Your Child's Subconscious Mind of Health, Wealth and Happiness; Meta-Physics: New Dimensions of the Mind; Norvell's Dynamic Mental Laws for Successful Living; and The Occult Sciences: How to Get What You Want Through Your Occult Powers. ... You can read more about his life at Cornerstone Books; a Medium essay titled "The Surprisingly Noble Path to Power" by Mitch Horowitz; and an entertaining (though disputed and contentious) 2011 post on HIL-GLE Wonderblog. Here are some excerpts from that Wonderblog piece:
    • "Norvell is undergoing something of a renaissance on the Internet. His writings are now available on dozens of self-help sites. ... In truth, Norvell's current non-obscurity may have more to do with the fact that his works seem to have fallen into the public domain then to their actual quality."
    • "Norvell had essentially the same career that Jeane Dixon later plied. During his day, Norvell was the only astrologer anyone could name. That is, when he was an astrologer — which he sometimes wasn’t. Norvell changed his stripes a few times over the years."
    • "Norvell never claimed to be a spiritualist. His mumbo jumbo claim was that he was essentially selectively telepathic. (Later branded as Tele-Cosmic.) Instead of showing up with a pack of assistants, he worked alone. As opposed to an act full of props for parlor tricks pulled in the dark, Norvell does his routine with the lights on where everyone can see his hands."
    • "Having tried and failed as a sideshow promoter, astrologer, gigolo, star nanny, lecturer and author, Norvell spent much of 1959 taking a turn at the religious cult racket. It appears to have been something of a closed end effort. Calling himself Doctor Anthony Norvell and acting as the Director of the Church of Religious Mind Sciences of Hollywood, he began taking out advertisements for a series of lectures he was giving in Long Beach."
    That's it. Check out the lengthy Wonderblog article (and delve into the comments afterward) to find out more about Norvell's eventful life.

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