Money, Heart and Mind: Financial Well-Being for People and Planet

by William Bloom

Explores the religious, historical, environmental, economic, and personal importance of money, arguing that wealth, social justice, and personal goals can be achieved by altering patterns of poverty and wealth conciousness

293 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1996

Reviews

[Robert Bagnall · Rating 3 out of 5]

One part wisdom - such as the need to take into account social and environmental externalities in the counting of costs, that is far more embedded now than when this was written - to three parts hokum - "Money is the most dense form of cosmic consciousness". Even as a non-economist, I sensed the dangers of Bloom's little bit of knowledge, such as arguing that the charging of interest necessitates an ever-expanding economy as people need to generate more money to pay off the debts (what about bad debt in the equation? interest-earning savings?). My total-bollocks-alert-system sounded quite a few times, such as when he suggested simply imagining the feeling of being rich as being equivalent to being rich: nobody ever got sunburn imagining themselves sunbathing. And the irony of charging £17 for a book making the case for giving away your wealth as a good thing for society isn't lost on me, either.

[Roger Buck]

No rating for I am unable to be objective about this book. For I met the author years ago, whilst living at Findhorn and he helped me in profound ways long after I left Findhorn ...

Let us simply say this book has innovative thinking regarding modern economics and real social compassion for those ravaged by modern economics. Yet it is underpinned by what I would call the Theosophical paradigm.

That paradigm no longer works for me - as I look at the world falling into the materialistic power Rudolf Steiner called "Ahriman". Rudolf Steiner and Valentin Tomberg helped me to leave my Findhorn-Theosophical world behind, but that does not mean I do not see the noble spirit in this author, nor in what he is trying to do to help the world.

More about this here: http://corjesusacratissimum.org/2013/...

For my part, the tragedy is that my old Findhorn-Theosophical paradigm - which I put 20 years of my life into - is actually obscuring, rather than pointing to, the central Mystery we most need as capitalism ravages the planet and the environment starts to burn.

God be with you, William ...