Let's make this the book review thread:

I just wanted to say that the layout for reading that online is fantastic.

My thoughts exactly!

I am leaning toward the holographic universe or the 3rd Jesus.

I think you'll find T.H.U. a very fast read.
And I do hope you feel inclined to discuss it here - warts and all - after you're done.

Has anyone else on the board read this book or tried Dunne's experiment? I have never spoken to anyone else who has and would really like to hear other people's opinions on it.

I would love to hear about other people's experiences, too.

As for myself, I do suffer from precognition - and/or telecognition, if you will - but not via dreams.
I never dream about my "daily life" or anything mimicking it.
As a matter of fact, my dreams are more often than not impossible to describe once I am awake.

reply to post by Vanitas


Well, it looks like my local Barnes and Noble has it so I think I will pick it up in the morning.

Another olden golden classic:

The Secret Life of Plants

It should be mandatory reading, if you ask me.
Then again, I would say the same about most of the books mentioned here...

P.S. Why is this thread in the POLITICS forum?









[edit on 26-6-2008 by Vanitas]

reply to post by Vanitas


Its not, its in the metaphysics Forum. Ignore what it says up there.

reply to post by Skyfloating


Oh... OK.
Sorry.

And, lest this post be an off-topic one-liner, let me ask about your (collective) opinion on Dean Radin's book The Conscious Universe.









[edit on 27-6-2008 by Vanitas]

reply to post by Vanitas


I havent read the book, just seen him on various DVDs when new agers need him to add a Ph.D. to their credentials. But if the book contains anything not already shown in other works, let us know (whoever read the book).

reply to post by Skyfloating


I have read it (I own it), but it's not an easy read, with all those statistics...

There is nothing "new" in it for those who are already convinced of the veracity of such phenomena (as I am).
But the main merit - and, I think, the main purpose - of the book was to confront so-called "skeptics" with "hard data".

Anyway, the link I included leads to Radin's website (rather than to a bookstore), with an excerpt from the book that gives a pretty good idea of what it's all about.

reply to post by Vanitas


Just wanted to say that I am about 1/2 way through it. It is a very good book. It fleshes out a lot of concepts that I am interested in. Hopefully, I can find the time to finish it this weekend.

Thank you for the reccomendation.

I really enjoyed

Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition
by Ed Regis
Concerning cryogenics, immortality and the future evolution of the human race.


AND

The Emperor´s New Mind
by Roger Penrose
Concerning the nature of minds and artificial intelligence.

reply to post by Karlhungis


Glad to hear that.
I hope you come back and tell your thoughts when you're finished.

Here is another "iffy" book (in the sense that it doesn't really belong to "metaphysics" or philosophy - or does it?), but I think many would enjoy as summer reading:

Erik Jan Hanussen: Hitler's Jewish Clairvoyant

(I am not crazy about the title, but there's nothing I can do about it.)

And if you haven't already, be sure to watch Istvan Szabo's excellent film (1981) about him. Or make it a double bill and watch Mephisto, too.

reply to post by Vanitas


In The Holographic Universe, the author makes several references to Carlos Castaneda. I thought that the general consensus was that Carlos was a fraud? I like his work, but I still have reservations. I feel like the references to him may hurt the credibility of the book.

What is your take on Castaneda?

I have a suggestion for a book:
The Holotropic Mind: The Three levels Of Human Consciousness and How They Shape Our Lives (1992) with Hal Zina Bennet.
The auteur is Stanislav Grof.
If any one has read this book then I will be interested to hear from them.
Kacou.

Fiction? Fiction that involves psychology, philosophy and metaphysics?

Try Time's Arrow, by my favourite author, Martin Amis. It's a novel in which time flows backwards, meaning that everything goes in reverse. For example, in New York, the narrator finds that

This business with the cabs, it surely looks like an unimprovable deal. They're always there when you need one, even in the rain or when the theatres are closing. They pay you up front, no questions asked. They always know where you're going. They're great. No wonder we stand there, for hours on end, waving goodbye, or saluting - saluting this fine service. The streets are full of people with their arms raised, drenched and weary, thanking the yellow cabs. Just the one hitch: they're always taking me places where I don't want to go.

- Time's Arrow

Amis has a rollicking good time with this conceit (just imagine his description of what happens in bathrooms), but as the story moves on we realize that there's a lot more substance - moral and philsophical substance - to it than appears at first glance. And as we move towards the end of the narrative, we realize that we are being prepared to take a close, searching look at one of the ultimate horrors of human history, and to be compelled to discover the humanity at the root of the horror. Making time run backwards, far from being a piece of literary showing-off, turns out to be the only possible way the author can achieve this.

I guarantee that, if you read this book, you will never, ever forget it.

[edit on 22-7-2008 by Astyanax]

Originally posted by Karlhungis
In The Holographic Universe, the author makes several references to Carlos Castaneda. I thought that the general consensus was that Carlos was a fraud? I like his work, but I still have reservations. I feel like the references to him may hurt the credibility of the book.

What is your take on Castaneda?

According to Castanedas ex-wife Amy Wallace in "The Sorcerers Apprentice" Castaneda is a complete fraud.

But having read that anti-castaneda book and also the anti-castaneda site www.sustainedaction.org, I must say I gained more from reading Castanedas books than from reading this anti stuff.

Maybe the message is more important than the messenger. Even if he was a fraud, he sure knew how to tell a good story.

reply to post by Skyfloating

Maybe the message is more important than the messenger. Even if he was a fraud, he sure knew how to tell a good story.

I agree with that.

Originally posted by Karlhungis
reply to post by Vanitas

 

In The Holographic Universe, the author makes several references to Carlos Castaneda. I thought that the general consensus was that Carlos was a fraud? I like his work, but I still have reservations. I feel like the references to him may hurt the credibility of the book.

What is your take on Castaneda?

I only read one book by Castaneda; and while it was very entertaining reading - AND full of insights that are probably spot-on - I never took his work to be anything else but fiction. I can honestly say I am constantly surprised that people take his purported experiences to be the gospel truth.

And yes, I definitely thought Talbot's references to Castaneda as if his experiences were a proven and indisputable fact hurt the credibility of his book. (And they were not the only weak point of the book.)

And yet... just as with Castaneda, I suspect, the gist of the message and many of the examples he uses to illustrate it are truthful and valuable enough for this to be one of my favourite books. I curse him all the time - but I keep rereading his book all the same.




[edit on 22-7-2008 by Vanitas]

Ill start out by recommending Robert Anton Wilson's :


Quantum Psychology



Prometheus Rising



Id also like to throw in Richard Bandler and John Grinder's :



Refram ing Neuro Linguistic Programming and the Transformation of Meaning