Rosicrucian Manual Book

First off one important thing is the date of publication which was 1918. There are other copyrights noted but there is nothing about whether the book was updated or not and that's important as knowledge grows and later years could easily have caused a change in the contents of the book.

My first problem with the book is that it tries to cover too much. It starts out with basically listing things about the AMORC which is fine, but then it goes into detail about certain other things which should have been left to a separate publication.

Also, I noted that the book talked about people studying lessons which is fine. The problem arises for at least some people that they don't know any others in the AMORC and might not be anywhere near any of their centers so if they run into a problem with their studies they might not be able to figure things out. Since the AMORC program can take years to work on then this becomes even more of a problem for those trying to understand the later lessons.

I've had a personal (non AMORC) experience with such a problem. When I took Sociology in college the professor had us use a book but almost never addressed what was in the book. When it came time for a test, though, even minute details in the book could be found on the test.

He also wouldn't answer questions directly. If a student asked him something he would reply 'what do you think about it?' He eventually drove a girl to tears and I ended up organization a group of people taking the course. We would meet frequently and discuss among st ourselves what was in the book. I also made sure we talked about any personal examples in our lives of what was in the chapter. By this personal interaction all of us raised our grades in the class by doing something the teacher should have done.

It's like reading a book from the library about quantum mechanics and trying to figure out what it's saying when your own understanding is minimal. Talking to someone who knows the subject would help.

I do not know if they have any kind of system now where people can email questions which would help solve the problem but, at least as far as this book goes, there's a potential major problem for those studying on their own.

They spend some time talking about John Dalton. Then they somehow make a major mistake, writing at least twice that water has one atom of hydrogen and one of oxygen yet it's really two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen.

They devote some tame talking about Sir Francis Bacon and claim he wrote Shakespeare's plays. There's also a section by D. H. Spencer.

In another section they are talking about their lessons AND CONTINUE TO USE CAPS when they want to emphasize something which, to me, is annoying. Very annoying.

There's also a dictionary (which is a good idea) and a section answering some typical questions about the AMORC.

The one thing I really found good about the book was the Rosicrucian Code of Life which consisted of a bunch of concepts which, except for one, were really, really good. The only one I didn't like was one dealing with basically what I would consider evangelism which I don't like in any spiritual system .

Again, though, I'll point out that the book is very old and its contents could have been vastly redone and the objections I noted above addressed.