Having read all of Rav Laitman's Kabbalah books, I have to say that, on the positive, I was able to read this whole book while waiting at a bus stop, and it did make me look at all the people on the bus completely differently once I got on (well, this is a Rav Laitman thing which I like about all his books, including this one--that he always talks about "you"--the "desire to receive"--the person reading the book, and you simply can't see things the same way afterwards)...HOWEVER, on the negative, in the span of having read all of his books, and considering that this was his first book...the explanations in this book are much more incomplete and less satisfying than any of his other books.
Actually, I'd have to go as far as saying that if I only read this book, I would simply categorize Laitman's teaching of Kabbalah as another one of many ways that we can look at the world and ourselves, with agreeable and disagreeable concepts, simply because that's the style that comes across, and the style and explanations aren't as "calculated" as they are in later books.
But I have to put the stick in here and say that this book is misleading as to the ever-increasing depth that Laitman gets into in his later books. For starters, I'd recommend anyone who's interested in buying this book, that you instead buy Laitman's 2006 beginners book "Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life." For one, it is a much better translation, it speaks to you much more, and it really hones in on what Kabbalah is and isn't. The uniqueness of the Kabbalah teaching is much more clarified and differentiated from other teachings in "Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life," it speaks a lot more to the English mentality, and presents a lot more information about Kabbalah, about how it relates to a person individually and to humanity as a whole, in a much more intriguing scientific manner.
The other book I'd recommend which is a MUCH better introduction to Kabbalah, and to Rav Laitman's teaching method, is "Awakening to Kabbalah: The Guiding Light of Spiritual Fulfillment." It is also written in much better English, and it really digs into new ways of perceiving things.
Basically, the main thing that I get from Laitman's Kabbalah books is that they change you, slowly, gradually, you start perceiving things differently and reacting to things differently, and you start "researching" the world completely differently. They really give you a wisdom that you take with you at every moment and that you use and experiment with at every moment. All it takes is some initial willingness to change your current perception of reality, and then, Laitman offers this life-changing process of how to keep changing it, continuously.
