Book Description
Reinterpreting the Lord's Prayer and the Beatitudes from the vantage of Middle Eastern mysticism, Douglas–Klotz offers a radical new translation of the words of Jesus Christ that reveals a mystical, feminist, cosmic Christ.
Customer Reviews:
How this book has been a gift to me.......2007-09-22
I have found that the poetic stanzas based on modern Aramaic to be a wonderful meditation tool that touches my heart and opens my mind. I do not actually use the "Body Prayers" in the book as I practice Kripalu Hatha Yoga as part of my health and spiritual practice.
Please note that I also read Taoist poetry,the "Cloud of Unknowing", the New Testament and have a Centering Prayer practice a.k.a. Christian meditation.
So Bless you all on your individual path. I love the book. You might not.
Depth spiritual work by a scholar.......2007-09-17
Careful translation of the original Aramaic "Lord's Prayer." Excellent depth and balance. Includes guides for meditation.
A Spiritual panacea for the Soul.......2007-01-06
There are a few books that contain such dazzling Spiritual Light. The depth of Divine Love and Wisdom in
this book is beyond measure. It will touch your Soul, transform your mind and heal your heart. One of the
best books I have ever read in my life! Friends don't let friends go into the Light, without reading this one!
Vaishali, Naples, FL
Get to know the historical Jesus.......2006-03-14
I feel blessed to have purchased this book. For most of my life I have been a member of a conservative Protestant church where Jesus was so high above me, I seemed unable to feel a connection. However, about five years ago, I began to read scholarly books and attend lectures about the man Jesus and have gotten a much clearer picture of him and his life. This little book by Neil Douglas Klotz is a great follow up and one I think anyone could understand. Klotz shows how important it is to know the language the historical Jesus spoke and gives a rich and highly spiritual translation of the Lord's Prayer, the Beautitudes, and a few other sayings of Jesus from the Aramaic, which was the native language that this native Jewish rabbi spoke.
An Exploration of the Aramaic Roots of The Words of Jesus.......2006-03-06
The book is a brilliant exploration into the spiritual depths of the Words of Jesus as contained in the New Testament. It uses the Aramaic roots of Jesus' sayings and in doing so leads to a spiritual depth of meaning that the Greek and English translations of his statements are not able to give.
The translations from the Aramaic are then used to develop meditations that give the user an opportunity to explore the words and their depth in a mediated and gradual process.
Douglas-Klotz has obviously developed a wealth of scholarship in this area and made it available in this small and accessible book.
Book Description
What is the ultimate destiny of our universe? That is the striking question addressed by James Gardner in The Intelligent Universe.
Traditionally, scientists (and Robert Frost) have offered two bleak answers to this profound issue: fire or ice.
The cosmos might end in fire—a cataclysmic Big Crunch in which galaxies, planets, and life forms are consumed in a raging inferno as the universe contracts in a kind of Big Bang in reverse.
Or the universe might end in ice—a ceaseless expansion of the fabric of space-time in which matter and energy are eternally diluted and cooled; stars wither and die, , and the cosmos simply fades into quiet and endless oblivion.
In The Intelligent Universe, James Gardner envisions a third dramatic alternative—a final state of the cosmos in which a highly evolved form of group intelligence engineers a cosmic renewal, the birth of a new universe.
Gardner's vision is that life and intelligence are at the very heart of the elegant machinery of the universe. It is a viewpoint that has won outspoken praise from an array of leading scientists, including Sir Martin Rees, Britain's Astronomer Royal, and Templeton Prize winner Paul Davies.
The Intelligent Universe is both a look into the past and a road map for the future of the universe. It explores the mysteries of the universe and of consciousness, and provides a frank and fascinating look at where our minds are taking us.
Customer Reviews:
Evolution debacle.......2007-08-10
The cosmos seems to be intelligent and friendly to life. Intelligent in the sense there exists many biological patterns that are self-similar. Friendly, in the sense of the existence of the elements of carbon, hydrogen, gravity, water, super novas, the organization of universes, and the diversity of DNA. Evolution fails to explain this intelligence in life. All evidence points to God, as the creator. The cosmo self-organizing algorithms seem to be low order simple programs with highly condensed information. Intelligence seems to be everywhere in time, space, and matter.
Richard Dawkins work seems exciting. Dawkins looks to overthrow the Drawin doctrines that have kept science in the dark for hundreds of years. Dawkins biological algorithms suggest intelligent design rather than random mutation as the process of organization.
Celluar Automata Genius, Wolfram, author of "A New Kind of Science" is search for "The Algorithm of Everything", a sort of genius program, once started would generate all patterns in the universe, says, Wolfram, "the entire cosmos, from quantum particles to the formation of galaxies, was a perpetual runtime flowing from simple rules. Complexity arises from simple rules. The universe can be understood by running computer simulations of these rules. The algorithm is more powerful than fragmentational stitching of equations. Extraterrestial might be communicating with us in messages we can't perceive. Drawian natural selection is overrated. Maximum levels of complexity are equivalent from human thought to rain hitting pavement, "Wolfram's Law". The only way to discover the consequences of complex processes is too let things proceed naturally. Computational equivalence means that computer programs can do all the stuff that happens in nature. Does this mean "Thinking Machines"? The Kurzeil prediction, "Singularity", 2050.
"Yet despite all our learning, human beings have missed the point of it all, because of the elusive nature of complexity." Considering the big bang theory, as singularity, almost instantly, matter begin to form, in an amazing dimension of plasma, high energy particles, and light. Considering the emense region of the cosmos, 13 billion light years of increasingly expanding matter and homogeneous distribution, the event seems intelligent by design.
The authors deduce that there must be other worlds that support life. The authors also theorize that life on those planets would not differ too much from life on earth. Similar patterns for plants, animals, and humans would exist on those planets. The intelligence of the cosmos would not create structures that were nonfunctional.
I found Kauffman discoveries interesting, but he spends too much time attributing life diversity to "evolution". Kauffman did not demostrate evolution could create the tree of life in his book, "Self-Organization and Complex System". However, Kauffman does support the idea that intelligent design can be discovery by applying physics equations to biology. Kauffman in his book, "At Home in the Universe" does not demonstrate adequately 1. how life emerged from the elements 2. how protein strains emerged into multi-cell life 3. the lineage links too a single original parent celluar structure.
The author conclude that the universe is becoming more intelligent. Life is become better adapted, more resourceful, and the universe will serve the purpose of man. Man himself is thought to be the source from which the new emerging reality is being created. Science can not explain all truth.
There are two truthes evolution does not explain: why does man need God? What does God want for man? The purpose of man is too find joy, an emotion. Emotion is required to act and without emotion man becomes a "flesh and bones machine". Man is moves contrary to the second law of thermodynamics because he exercises free will.
stimulating speculation about the underlying nature of the cosmos.......2007-05-11
Having read Gardner's earlier work Biocosm: The New Scientific Theory of Evolution: Intelligent Life Is the Architect of the Universe, I was prepared for "The Intelligent Universe" to be the work of a visionary thinker who is not afraid to speculate about the cosmological principles underlying our universe. I cherish the work of authors who are not afraid to think big. Gardner does not disappoint in the grandeur of his vision. If you think there is nothing new under the sun, I encourage you to read "The Intelligent Universe". One can't help but find enlightening material in the book. Oliver Wendell Holmes said "Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." This sentiment certainly applies to my reading of Gardner's book.
Gardner's book is, however, not without flaws. One criticism I won't make of the book is that the ideas are hopelessly speculative. The book employs the kind of theoretical flights of fancy that John Horgan dismisses as "ironic science" in his book The End of Science (Helix Books), a book which says that science is asymptotically approaching a point at which there won't be any major new scientific theories, not because of science's failures but because science has been so successful. I mention Horgan because the scope of Gardner's vision encourages me to believe that we haven't even begun to exhaust our potential to develop breathtaking scientific theories of the cosmos. I came away from The Intelligent Universe with an excitement about the power of large-scale thinking about the universe.
Having said that, while Gardner presents an original "story", weaving together the work of numerous cosmologists and other scientists, perhaps paradoxically, the book often reads as a rehashing of the ideas of numerous big-picture thinkers. Maybe both perspectives can be accurate: Gardner summarizes the work of many while putting together the pieces in a unique way. There is nothing wrong with synthesizing the views of one's peers. However, the book too often lapses into a series of synopses of the big ideas of other scientific thinkers, brilliant though these thinkers may be.
To give you an idea of Gardner's method I reproduce the train of thought found in a few early chapters. Gardner uses extended paragraph-long quotations to run through the following thinkers (not all of which Gardner ultimately endorses):
Fred Hoyle on the fine-tunedness of physical constants, Francis Crick on directed pansperma (the idea that extraterrestrials seeded the biosphere with the first life forms on Earth), Stephen Wolfram and Ed Fredkin on cellular automata principles underlying physics, Seth Lloyd on the cosmos as quantum computer, Erwin Schrodinger on quantum physics underlying life, John Wheeler's on the "participatory anthropic principle" (the idea that only with conscious life does the universe summon itself into being), John Koza on genetic programming, Roger Penrose on the quantum physical underpinnings of consciousness, (leading to a gloss on the implications of combining quantum computing and genetic programming). Then Gardner begins the next chapter with Mark Bedau on artificial life, with an interlude about the perils of nanotechnology run amok, alluding to Michael Crichton's techno-thriller Prey. After that, we move on to topic of the technological singularity, where Ray Kurzweil plays a prominent role, both for his vision of smarter-than-human artificial intelligence and his optimism about the prospects for immortality. In the same chapter Gardner describes how Vernor Vinge forsees the arrival of super-human intelligence as more likely to result from intelligence amplification (at least at first) than from artificial intelligence.
Many of the later chapters work in a similar fashion, cycling through the big ideas of major thinkers. If a book is going to run through thinkers as this one does I guess what I would wish for is a book with the kind of comprehensiveness of The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (Oxford Paperbacks). Instead, too often there is only a superficial treatment of one thinker before we move on to another superficial treatment of the big idea of the next thinker. Such a technique is particularly unsatisfying for someone who is already familiar with many of the thinkers presented. I would relish a deeper engagement with the work of many of the thinkers treated. So one problem that I have with the book is simply that it is not in-depth enough. The body of the text takes up 196 pages, with an additional 46 pages comprising reprints of three articles from the International Journal of Astrobiology and Complexity magazine (2 articles).
I don't mean to dismiss Gardner's writing style. The value of his approach was demonstrated to me by his discussion of Beatriz Gato-Rivera's proposed solution to the Fermi Paradox. I had never heard of Gato-Rivera but Gardner's treatment of her position in The Intelligent Universe provided a nice jumping off point to her work. It is easy to see how the book could function as a window into a lot of other scientific topics. I was wondering how Gardner would reconcile the Fermi Paradox with Gardner's view that the universe is "hard-wired" to produce intelligent life, and Gato-Rivera's work figures prominently in his proposed resolution to the conundrum, although, characteristically, there is no attempt made to contradict this hypothesis or to pronounce on the merits of any alternative explanations.
"The Intelligent Universe" ultimately attempts to answer what Brian Greene has called the biggest of the big questions: Why is the universe life-friendly? Gardner, bold and original thinker that he is, thinks he knows the answer. His solution is the Selfish-Biocosm Hypothesis. The central claim of his Selfish-Biocosm Hypothesis is "that the ongoing process of biological and technological emergence, governed by still largely unknown laws of complexity, could function as a von Neumann controller, and that a cosmologically extended biosphere could serve as a von Neumann duplicating machine in a conjectured process of cosmological replication." In other words, the universe comes to life and then reproduces itself through the creation of other universes. This comes right out of Gardner's first book Biocosm. In this picture, human beings (or other intelligent life forms) might be thought of as the mitochondria of the cells that make up the universe as organism. The Intelligent Universe can be seen as the exploration of this basic storyline, and this includes dealing with the religious implications of the radically new perspective afforded by the Selfish-Biocosm Hypothesis. All in all, the story is well worth reading.
Interesting, but speculative.......2007-03-24
I read this as a follow-up to Kurzweil's "The Singularity Is Near" and found it interesting. However, it seems a bit overly speculative on the ultimate origin of the universe(s) (which I suppose is the point). I found the use of closed timelike curves to imply that the universe created itself too much of a stretch. Ultimately the question of what started it all was never answered to my satisfaction.
Excellent Read.......2007-03-22
Anyone with a slight interest in cosmology will find this a wonderful reading experience. With my programming background I found the chapter on The Software of Everything particularly inviting but it is written for readers with no programming experience. Obviously Mr. Gardner has close contact with some very intelligent people at prestigious universities and he develops their complex ideas and efforts into something the everyday reader can appreciate and enjoy. He has spent a great deal of effort making cosmology a very interesting subject. I personally believe the concept of Biocosm will shortly be proven to be on the right track.
Life, the Universe and Everything.......2007-03-03
This book takes you through the thinking of the foremost scientists about the universe and the development of intelligence. The theory of the universe growing in intelligence, backed by the numerous quotes and examples, is apt to rock the common paradigm for all time. The author in his book "Biocosm" lays a firm foundation for his argument and in this book explores the idea further. As proposed in his books "the purpose of the universe" is startling. Two things, in particular, I liked about this book: The summation of the current thinking in Cosmology and the mind-blowing conclusion of the purpose and origin of the universe. The author is very brave to tackle these subjects and he does so masterfully
Average customer rating:
- A mind expanding book-Top notch!
- Worthwhile read, but flawed conclusions.
- Enemies? Or Friends?
- Shamanism vs. The Flying Saucers
- I wish it were true
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Passport to the Cosmos : Human Transformation and Alien Encounters
John E. Mack
Manufacturer: Crown
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Similar Items:
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Abduction: Human Encounters With Aliens
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Witnessed; The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions
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Secret Life: Firsthand, Documented Accounts of UFO Abductions
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Sight Unseen: Science, UFO Invisibility and Transgenic Beings
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The THREAT: Revealing the Secret Alien Agenda
ASIN: 0517705680
Release Date: 1999-10-26 |
Book Description
In his groundbreaking follow-up to the best-selling Abduction, Pulitzer Prize-winner John E. Mack, M.D., powerfully demonstrates how the alien abduction phenomenon calls for a revolutionary new way of examining the nature of reality and our place in the cosmos.
Harvard professor John E. Mack stunned the world when he first published in Abduction the astonishing results of his extensive research involving clients who reported they had had encounters with alien life-forms. In Passport to the Cosmos, Mack, who has done additional research with abductees in the United States and around the world, provocatively asserts that this phenomenon is part of a new era in human consciousness, a time in which we must be willing to embrace the idea that alien visitation is real on some level.
For Mack, the alien abduction phenomenon is nothing short of a cosmic wake-up call to humans that we do indeed live in a world filled with spirits and beings who can cross the barrier we have thrown up between the material and immaterial worlds. Drawing on the rich tradition of non-Western and indigenous cultures, which more readily accept that we live in a multidimensional universe, Mack persuasively shows that by broadening our definition of "what is real," we can begin to explore a phenomenon that has deep and lasting implications for humanity.
By sharing the vivid and dramatic encounters of experiencers, Mack illuminates a phenomenon that has shattered the worldviews of the people who have experienced it. Time and time again, experiencers from all cultures say their lives have been radically altered by their encounters with aliens in ways that are both traumatic and transformative. This transformation seems to be an intrinsic part of the alien abduction phenomenon, which is marked by a variety of elements that go beyond the physical manifestation of alien visitation.
In Passport to the Cosmos, John Mack further solidifies his reputation as a brave pioneer on the forefront of the science of human experience, an authoritative voice that will take us into the twenty-first century.
Customer Reviews:
A mind expanding book-Top notch!.......2006-05-02
Dr. Mack is brilliant in this book! He is most interested in how a person's life changes as a result of their anomolous experiences, mainly encounters with other worldly beings. These "experiencers" seem to have a jump start on the rest of us mortals, in terms of understanding the vastness of which we come from, and which we will return. An excellent book for anyone seeking to get closer to the TRUTH.
Worthwhile read, but flawed conclusions........2005-06-26
Mack's done an overall good job pretaining to the UFO/abduction phenomena. I take exception however to his take home message that most if not all of the abduction experience is actually directly related to alien abduction and moreover that the aliens are benevolent and have our best interests at heart.
I do think that aliens are visiting the earth. I base this on the fact that many people report the same similiar experiences. What adds credence to this, is that I know of people who've recounted these kinds of stories having happened to them or love ones as early as the early 60's--long before the trite description of the "Greys" became so popularized.
Having heard these stories and the clearly advanced technology that these aliens possess, it is clear that they are not benevolent. Some are clearly and undeniably sinister. It even looks as if some are simply playing with us like fodder for entertainment. The movies the Mothman Prophecies and the movie Forgotten have taken a departure of the good-feel ET alien movie message and played on the notion that we're essentially lab rats in comparison to these alien intelligences.
Personally, if ET came knocking on my door, I'd slap his silly duff on an autopsy table and find out what makes him/her/it tick and find a way to kill them off en masse. I hope our government has such a method or is rapidly working toward developing such a means.
Enemies? Or Friends?.......2004-06-02
These many reviews are interesting. It seems that the negative reviewers are offended at the idea - the very idea! - that aliens might actually be helping humanity. No, such reviewers seem more comfortable with the idea that aliens are out to destroy humanity, no doubt about it.
To me, these reviews offer a window into the psychology of each reviewer: Those who feel that the unknown MUST be our enemy, and those who feel that the unknown CAN be our friend.
For those of the former, THE THREAT is obviously the book for you. For those of the latter, PASSPORT will offer elucidation and comfort.
It's been suggested that we each make our own reality...
Shamanism vs. The Flying Saucers.......2003-05-20
This follows a disturbing phenomenon in anomalous research of whatever ilk, whenever empiricial answers do not hold adequate allure- break out the indigenous shaman routine to cast "illumination" on the discussion. The new agers probably "understand" the explainations provided from 3rd world wise men & women of crop circles, abuctions, and other intrusions into the lives of certain fantasy prone individuals. But I am left wondering: "what the hell are they talking about?" Dr. Mack's first book still had enough healthy scepticism to make for solid reading. This book makes me want to cheer the academic committee's attempt to reel Dr. Mack back into the fold. With this work, John E. has wandered too far into make-believe-land to have much credibility. Jacques Vallee made a more reasonable sojourn into the folklore/UFO connection some years ago with his "Passport to Magonia". This "Passport to the Cosmos" has been stamped invalid.
I wish it were true.......2002-12-31
This is a book on abductions with the same "new-ageish" and prophetic tone as communion. The author here believes the aliens are "spiritual beings" or "gods" from a different dimension. The 'experiencers' are specially chosen people to learn and be enlightened.They are here, he says to help us, and to teach us important messages. In it, he talks with native peoples and shamans of the world to try to find out the meaning of the abduction phenomenon.
I agree with the author that the abduction phenomenon is real and that it isn't made up or imagined. However, he seems to automatically assume
that the alien beings are kindly, benevolent, interdimensional messengers. He doesn't have much evidence to back up his theory and his view ot the aliens doesn't seem to explain the traumatic and humiliating procedures that abductees experience. It also doesn't explain their secrecy. If they are benevolent and want to give us important messages, why do they make it so that the abductee can't remember the experience. There are so many unanswered questions that his view brings up, and it ultimately doesn't hold much water. He seems to have been influenced greatly by the 'contactees' of the 50's and the new age movement. Mack is a great psychiatrist but unfortunately is more interested in helping his abductee/patients and in helping them cope with the abductions than he is at getting to the bottom of the whole phenomenon.
If you want to look at the facts and evidence logically and rationally, get the book "The Threat" by David Jacobs (It actually explains the whole abduction phenomenon, is based on actual evidence, and makes much more sense) or perhaps the book "UFOs and abductions: challenging the borders of knowledge". If you want to hear about a new age/spiritual/religious-oriented explanation based on wishful thinking and interviews with native shamans that doesn't make very much sense, but that makes you feel good about the whole thing, get this book.
Book Description
Origins of Life on the Earth and in the Cosmos, Second Edition, suggests answers to the age-old questions of how life arose in the universe and how it might arise elsewhere. This thorough revision of a very successful text describes key events in the evolution of living systems, starting with the creation of an environment suitable for the origins of life. Whereas one may never be able to reconstruct the precise pathway that led to the origin of life on earth, one can certainly make some plausible reconstructions of it. Such discussions have greatly expanded our understanding of the principles of chemical evolution and how they compare and contrast with the principles of biological evolution. The text is strong on biochemistry and its recent applications to origins' research.
* Provides an excellent review of basic biochemistry an evolution
* Written in a clear, concise style for scientists, students, and readers interested in a scientific inquiry into the origins of life
* Written by an authority in the field, and brought fully up-to-date in light of new research
* Pulls together valuable information not found in a single source
* Organized and presented in a manner conductive for use in a college course
* Heavily illustrated to make difficult concepts concrete
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic book.......2005-06-29
I used this textbook for an Origins of Life course taught by the author himself, Dr. Geoffrey Zubay. The book is fantastic, as it takes a field that has the potential to be very dry and makes it easily accessible to any student with a minimum of science background. Zubay's laboratory works on many of the prebiotic pathways that he discusses in the book, especially with regards to nucleotides. He also knows many of the other experts whose studies are described in the text personally. He also wrote a fantastic biochemistry textbook, Principles of Biochemistry, parts of which you will find interspersed throughout the chapters to put the prebiotic material in better perspective in comparison to the pathways as we know them today. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone taking a cours eon the topic and even to people who are just curious and want to learn on their own
Book Description
Provides the foundations of a genuine unified field theory.
Customer Reviews:
Stunning!.......2006-12-21
Not only is the book stunning; so is the fact that only 2 other souls have been moved to submit reactions. Laszlo's effort to integrate what is known about the spectrum of existence ... from the subquantum to quantum to living systems to conscious levels ... is beyond expectation or even imagining! Unlike too many other authors these days, Laszlo doesn't blithely claim that "science" has "proved" his ideas or something on which his thesis depends, he admits it is, as yet, an untested hypothesis. But what an hypothesis! How thoroughly explicated! How thoroughly examined his building blocks! If I hadn't read this 2003 publication, I might have dusted off his 2005 publication, Science and the Akashic Field, as inadequately founded in fact. Happily, I had read it and I'm convinced that Laszlo has come closer than anyone else who has recently tried it to at least approach a "theory of everything." Right after finishing this one, I read John Lamb Lash's Not in HIS Image, which explains the folly of politically-motivated salvationist religion and how it has eventuated in the ecodisaster we see before us. Here's what I think we need to do. Lock these two geniuses in a room and tell them to figure out what's happening and tell us what to do to survive the mess we've made before we let them out. If some object to this idea as being somehow unethical, we could at least plead that they write a book together, pooling their incredible wisdom and intuition, because between the two of them, they just might be able to help us make the needed corrections in cultural behavior.
The connectivity hypothesis........2006-11-10
Interesting for those who already have done some reading about the Akashic Field or Zero Point Field.
Astounding synthesis.......2006-06-30
This book is mind-boggling in its scope and erudition. I can't speak to the eventual consensus validity of its proposals, but I can say it's a very pleasing tour of huge swathes of cutting edge science and beats me to the page on many big ideas connecting biology, physics, and consciousness research. If you're interested in the "new physics," evolutionary theory and or consciousness studies, or all three as I am, you'll love this book.
Book Description
From our viewing platform on Earth, the night sky changes throughout the year. Autumn and spring are best for observing galaxies, winter is ideal for sighting nebulae and star clusters, and summer is the season of the Milky Way. A Year in the Life of the Universe, published in collaboration with Sky Telescope magazine, takes you on an intimate seasonal tour of these ever-changing heavens. Stellar photographs by renowned astrophotographer Robert Gendler help identify more than 120 deep-sky objects that stand out by virtue of their beauty, visual impact, and scientific interest, presenting the celestial objects in the order in which they appear through the seasons. This is not only a beautiful photo bookit is also a practical, hands-on guidebook for astronomy buffs at all levels, with coordinates, detailed captions, and wide-field sky charts to help stargazers young and old navigate the night sky.
Customer Reviews:
Stunningly Beautiful.......2007-04-02
When you look at such a spectacular set of photographs you have to be struck by the beauty of our universe. As the author says in the Preface, this book showcases the sky's most beautiful objects. Arranged in a way that the casual reader will enjoy. This is an assembledge of significant images of objects visible from from the Eat throughout the year. Many, perhaps even most of the images are from observations taken of items within the Milky Way. But there are also brilliant images of our local galaxy group and some more of galaxies and galaxy groups from much further away.
No less than the photographs are the explanations. While brief, here are matter of fact comments about our local group. There in a description of galaxy NGC 3079 (60 million light years away) there is a pair of dots labeled Q0957+562, a gravitationally lensed quasar ever discovered - 9.1 BILLION light years away.
I've taken a lot of pictures, but nothing like these. Dr. Gendler but in a different class than most of us, including a 20 inch telescope installed at an inky-dark, high-altitude site in New Mexico, and controlled over the Internet. But that's just the equipment. To go with it is a lifetime of skill.
This book is an absolutely delightful read for any amateur astronomer, or want to be.
A grand photographic reference.......2007-01-10
Beautifully done by a world class imager. During any season of the year the deep sky offers wonderous objects of beauty and wonder. Dr. Rob Gendler has captured the beauty of galaxies and nebula in a spectacular display of color and accompanies each image with useful descriptions.
Super Book by a Top Amateur Astronomer.......2007-01-10
This book, by Robert Gendler, one of the best known and most prolific amateur astrophotographers, is assembled mainly from his own images and incorporates some by other astrophotographers. It is a milestone in amateur astronomy. Many of us didn't know we were waiting for such a book, but when it appeared, I ordered it without hesitation. I'm not disappointed. Among other places, Gendler's images have appeared in Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, and on the Astronomy Picture of the Day web site. It's great to have them in book form both to enjoy personally as well as to share with those who are interested in the visible universe. [....]
Incredible!!!!.......2006-11-27
After I received this book, I downloaded quite a few of the author's images from [...] and had them framed for my home. I can't imagine anything as beautiful as our universe! Rob Gendler's incredible efforts are bringing an awesome appreciation of the universe to our planet. I'm ordering 6 now, and probably a lot more, as holiday gifts.
SEGMD
Book Description
1910. Contents: The Constitution of the Human Being; Reembodiment of the Spirit and Destiny; The Three Worlds; The Path of Knowledge.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent book.......2007-01-03
The title is potentially a little misleading, since beyond superficial similarities it really has very little to do with the Theosophy of Blavatsky and Besant. Steiner really forges his own path, and a quite interesting one at that. This is really the book to start with if you want to understand Steiner's thought and worldview.
Real Truth.......2006-08-31
I find Steiner's work invigorating. Theosophy requires you to THINK, unlike much of the New Age drivel on the bookshelves today. Steiner was obviously a man with a great gift of sight and I feel blessed that he has shared so much with us through his writing.
This is a must read for anyone serious about delving deeper into spiritual truth and wisdom. Not only does Steiner share his vision of the Spiritual world, he tells how we can all gain access to that world IF we are willing to devote ourselves to the work with sincerity and dedication.
Steiner's succienct work stinks.......2006-02-16
There was found to be no original thought put into this writing. Copied from many other authors and in his 'succienct' writtings, he misses out on the One true picture. While covering such a broad subject, one can only draw to the conclusion that plagerism on such a matter as this one could only have been hoped for!
Incredibly profound!.......2005-10-25
In this rich and fascinating study, the tenets of Theosophy are explained in a way that enhances and enriches what you think you already know about the subject. Steiner takes the mind on an incredible journey - one that leads directly to your soul!
Much Needed Wisdom for American Culture.......2004-07-04
The wisdom in this book is exactly what is needed in America today. In this book, Steiner takes care to scientifically explain his knowledge of human spiritual existence, as he himself has observed it. It is a great help in bridging the gap, so prominent in our culture, between science and spirituality. It is a little difficult to get through in terms of its ease of readability, but don't let that hinder you. The book is written that way on purpose so that as you work through it (re-reading sentences sometimes more than twice) it expands your mind to allow it to accept more complex concepts. I recommend it for everyone.
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Clocks and the cosmos: Time in Western life and thought
Samuel L Macey
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Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Leave it to an accomplished science writer like Hannah Holmes to unearth so much about so little. Zooming in on one of the great, often unnoticed constants of life on earth--dust, in all its myriad forms--Holmes traverses biology, astronomy, climatology, pathology, and host of other fields to dig up the serious dirt. Because while dust might be vital to life on our planet (and may, in fact, even be responsible for it), this "heartless little brute" could also be responsible for the deaths of millions. And she's not talking about dinosaurs. (Or at least not just yet.)
Tackling her topic roughly by the different roles that dust plays, Holmes alternately devotes chapters to specks of space dust ("They're everywhere," gushes one scientist she interviews, "[y]ou eat them all the time. Any carpet would have 'em"), Oviraptor-burying desert dust, particles of dust that go up instead of down (like sea salt and soot), and foreign pollution that heeds no borders (apparently, "Beijing fog" can be bad enough to cause traffic accidents). She saves the best for last with a couple of chapters on "unsavory characters" and "microscopic monsters," finding danger in the obvious (cigarettes and vermiculite mines) and the not so obvious (hot tubs and humidifiers). And you don't even want to know what's in pig dust.
We're swimming in it, we're covered with it, we might very well have come from it, and--surely, eventually--we'll become it. So we really don't have an excuse for not knowing more about it. Thankfully, Holmes is there, in the field and in the lab, with wide-eyed curiosity and a scientific eye for detail. And, "perhaps by tuning in to the news bulletins issued by some of the planet's smallest reporters," we can all have "a better sense of how things are going for the whole." --Paul Hughes
Book Description
Hannah Holmes A mesmerizing expedition around our dusty world
Some see dust as dull and useless stuff. But in the hands of author Hannah Holmes, it becomes a dazzling and mysterious force; Dust, we discover, built the planet we walk upon. And it tinkers with the weather and spices the air we breathe. Billions of tons of it rise annually into the air--the dust of deserts and forgotten kings mixing with volcanic ash, sea salt, leaf fragments, scales from butterfly wings, shreds of T-shirts, and fireplace soot. Eventually, though, all this dust must settle.
The story of restless dust begins among exploding stars, then treks through the dinosaur beds of the Gobi Desert, drills into Antarctic glaciers, filters living dusts from the wind, and probes the dark underbelly of the living-room couch. Along the way, Holmes introduces a delightful cast of characters--the scientists who study dust. Some investigate its dark side: how it killed off dinosaurs and how its industrial descendents are killing us today. Others sample the shower of Saharan dust that nourishes Caribbean jungles, or venture into the microscopic jungle of the bedroom carpet. Like The Secret Life of Dust, however, all of them unveil the mayhem and magic wrought by little things.
Hannah Holmes (Portland, ME) is a science and natural history writer for the Discovery Channel Online. Her freelance work has been widely published, appearing in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Sierra, National Geographic Traveler, and Escape. Her broadcast work has been featured on Living on Earth and the Discovery Channel Online's Science Live.
Customer Reviews:
Should I breath?.......2006-02-26
Makes you think about all of the things you are breathing into your body on a daily basis and what havoc or benefit these things may have for you. It is a very interesting book and made me a bit of a clean freak, of course, cleaning doesn't do too much good and seems only to cause all of the dust particles to dislodge for me to inhale. But, what can you do? I highly recommend the book.
some interesting bits, not compelling overall.......2005-11-07
Dust. There's a lot of it. We don't know much about it. If you want to hear that repeated for a couple hundred pages, buy this book. There's a lot of airy speculation and to be fair, there are a few interesting pieces of trivia thrown in... but for the most part, this book drags.
There are some writers who can make any topic interesting, like Bill Bryson. I don't think Hannah Holmes is one of them. I gave up on the book about 3/4 of the way through. After the intro, it just felt like she was saying the same thing, over and over. Space dust? We don't know much about it! Desert dust? It's a mystery! Smoke? That's dust, too, and we also know very little about it! And on, and on...
'Dust' is an interesting choice for the title. I might call what Holmes is writting about 'matter', not 'dust'. She's not talking about the stuff you clean up with Pledge; she's talking about anything that ever gets broken down into little pieces, which is pretty much everything. That's not a plus or minus for the book; it's just meant to set your expectations better than I think her title does.
If her writing were more interesting, I would have added a couple more stars. If she could have provided more information, I might have gone up to 5 stars. But as it stands, the book gets 2 stars from me because it's not horrible and it has some interesting trivia, but I wouldn't go any higher. It's not at all compelling. I can't think of anyone I would recommend this to.
Take a deep breath . . . .......2005-11-04
Even in the "cleanest" house, your own "personal cloud" would have provided millions of invisible particles to inhale. Much of that fog will be your own cast off skin flakes. Your nose might filtre out the big ones. Others will have travelled along your bronchial tubes a way, to be picked up for delivery to your stomach. Yet others will elude the body's natural traps to drift into your lungs. Some will take up residence there, perhaps for good. And if your house is actually among those "cleanest" ones, it may not be good for your children.
In this compelling presentation, Hannah Holmes traces the origins of the dust around us. She explains how a distant star, exploding with immeasurable fury, sent a shock wave through our region of the galaxy. Adding its own burden of particles to a dust cloud already present, it disturbed whatever structure that cloud possessed. In time, the cloud coalesced into a star, with the leftovers becoming our solar system. Among the planets emerging in that system, was the one we call "Earth". The sun's and planets' formation, while removing much of the previous dust, left enough remains for the Earth to sweep up every day. Thus, dust from space adds to the multitude of dusts our living planet produces. More dusts, produced by one of the primate species on this world, provides further contribution to your "personal cloud".
As ubiquitous as dust is, Holmes' title is hardly misleading. Although we're surrounded by billions of tiny, microscopic particles, information about what they are, where they originated and how far they've travelled is usually an enigma. Volcanoes make them. Trees and plants shed them [we'll pass over the household pets]. Birds, cows and fleeting deer add to the envelope of dust around us. Even micro-organisms make a contribution by eating rocks and attacking living things. When they haven't settled somewhere and turned themselves into spores. Yet, discoveries about dust are only now coming to light. Dust crossing the Atlantic from the Sahara, while observed long ago, was only recently verified. Vast clouds rise from Asia to drift across the Pacific Ocean to sprinkle over North America. What do those particles carry as burden?
The author demonstrates vividly why we should know more about dust. Nearly a chapter is dedicated to the problems of asthma alone. For starters, it's not clear what causes asthma and how it works. What is clear is that in the industrialised nations the number of asthma sufferers is on the upswing. After her description of coal-burning housewives in China, why are nations with insulated houses and hydro for heating and cooking suffering bronchial problems? Part of the answer lies in who is suffering. It's the children. Partly because "superclean" houses have deprived children of the means to develop their immune systems to deal with their own "personal cloud". Another [wait for it!] is the sedentary life of school, TV and video games. Keeping the children indoors and relatively still makes that situation worse. More outdoor activity keeps the body active and helps flush the lungs and bronchial passages of invading particles.
Holmes has interviewed many scientists and dust observers in the course of making this book. She explains her research path with a list of printed works and Web sites to see what she has seen and what is becoming visible [Note, however, that Web sites listed in books tend to be quickly outdated. This list is no exception]. She presents the material well, provoking our interest and giving us inspiration to follow where she leads. It isn't enough to say "This book is for everybody". Since we are all surrounded by dust, since we all contribute to the dust density, and since it is, after all, the final state of the body, it behooves us all to see what Holmes has seen. In some cases, you will need to act on what you've found. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Stardust, moondust, camels and motes - oh my!.......2005-10-02
I am still stagestruck by the idea that a river of dust undulates above me, but the chapter one image of dusty glasses of water did arrest me. Initially, I found myself wanting to have only bottled water! When you wend your way through this fascinating book, you find that you become friends with your inherent destiny and dust to dust seems comforting. I grew up knowing that my ancestors were either buried or their cremated dust was placed around a family stand of giant walnut trees in Indiana, and the size of the trees impressed me then and still does today -- there was a visual continuation to the loss of so many of my loved aunts, uncles -- even my father. This book is a great reminder that the universe is a small or as large as your definition allows. Highly recommended. This is not a fast read because you will ponder and wonder, but it is sobering, entertaining and delightful in its allure to watch and test the winds.
Often fascinating, sometimes dull........2003-06-01
Writing is excellent, although occasionally a certain "breathlessness" in tone becomes wearying. There are a number of unresolved scientific questions, such as the cause of asthma, and Holmes does a particularly good job with these. The material on dust and weather is fascinating. While Holmes' sympathies are clear, she remains objective. Despite Holmes' best efforts, however, the underlying material is not uniformly interesting. For example, there are some interesting and surprising causes of dust, and causes of ill health, but Holmes' comprehensive treatment also, necessarily, touches on the well known, amplifying with statistics and so on that just aren't that interesting.
Book Description
One Cosmos Under God takes the reader on an intellectual and spiritual journey through the whole of creation, describing the evolution of the cosmos from the big bang to the ultimate state of consciousness. It is a comprehensive, self-consistent account of our universe which draws out implications of the latest scientific knowledge and accessibly harmonizes material from a wide range of disciplines. The book also provides a "road map" for serious spiritual aspirants of all faiths who wish to establish an experiential relationship to the non-local dimension that is the ultimate source and destiny of our cosmos.
One Cosmos under God represents nothing less than a new religio-scientific "mythunderstanding" for our time, in which humans are cosmologically situated and revealed to be the key to fathoming the mystery of existence itself. Daring to venture where language cannot go, One Cosmos actually begins in the "mind of God" prior to creation, and culminates in the "mind of the saint" who has transcended the culturally conditioned ego, awakened from the nightmare of history, and merged with the divine mind.
Customer Reviews:
Wow... uh?... Yes!.......2007-08-16
I agree with the other reviewers here, this is a magnificent book that spans eons of time and numerous disciplines...
I picked up Robert Godwin's book after his intriguing interview in `What is Enlightenment' magazine...
It's not an easy book to read, but this is in no way a lack in Godwin's writing style which is engaging, clear and humorous... No the difficulty comes from the depth and breadth of the subject matter...
This is an Integral approach to what is basically the spiritual, psychological and corporeal history of the Cosmos no less... Whew...
By Integral I mean that along with other modern day thinkers such as Ken Wilber, Coombes and Beck, here is an attempt to pull together what may appear to be disparate threads of varied concepts, theoretical models and even religions that have spanned myriad times and places and integrate them into a `whole'...
There is no doubt in my mind that we are in a position now to re-evaluate science, spirituality and psychology and place it into a new modern context in view of the strides we have taken all these areas ...
This doesn't mean `cherry picking' ideas and making them `fit' our modern or should I say post-modern (get with it!) world view... But along with Wilber's `Integral Spirituality' (recommended book), there can be a reframe of where we are and where we are headed in view of what has gone before and the fact is, that zeitgeist can only be observed for past events...
So exploring the past, as Godwin does, from the perspective of all we know right now gives new `juice' to religion for example...
There are some books that you really should read, and this is one of them - and I am amazed that something so profound can be so much fun - this is one of the real strengths of the book... It is an emotional and intellectual roller coaster in places, for the reasons outlined above, but feeling your worldview change as you read is thrilling...
A tour de force...
Cosmic, Comic View of the Cosmos.......2007-08-02
A recent New Yorker cartoon showed a clown sitting in a bar, talking to another customer. The caption: "I tell the truth, and sometimes it's funny." Robert Godwin could make the same claim about "One Cosmos Under God."
The author presents four books within his book. The first considers matter, the field of physics. The subject of the second book, life (the field of biology), transcends and includes the first book. The third, mind (the field of psychology) transcends and includes the first two. Finally, the fourth book, Spirit (what Godwin terms cosmotheosis) transcends and includes the first three. For readers familiar with Ken Wilber's developmental and holarchical model of the Kosmos and integral approach to knowledge, this book provides a view that is intellectually rigorous, emotionally engaging, and spiritually sensitive and aware. I come away from the book with a strong impression that Godwin is writing to my mind, my heart, and Spirit.
Godwin takes his biggest risks in the third book in building a scenario of how the opportunities and challenges of self-consciousness in early humans created considerable fear with which we must continue to contend today. It's a sobering argument.
While respectful of religious traditions, Godwin argues that they have created words and symbols that are highly "saturated" with cultural baggage, and therefore weak as effective pointers to Spirit. In the fourth book he presents an intriguing set of symbols that on the one hand are precise and clear, and on the other are quite free of content. This spiritual glossary offers an excellent reframe for fresh ways to communicate about Spirit.
Robert Godwin, if not in the Punster Hall of Fame already, definitely belongs. Throughout Godwin's writing is playful, yet his punning has behind it the serious intent of connecting the old and familiar with the growing edges of Spirit. His plentiful puns create new "wineskins" so that we may hold and share for awhile a taste of new wine. This is a book I will continue to study for some time to come.
Unification Theory.......2006-04-19
In `One Cosmos under God`, Robert Godwin shares his thought provoking insights into the deepest workings of the cosmos, each individuals purpose on earth and the ultimate destiny of mankind. In explicit detail he explains the universe's progression and transformations from Oneness with Spirit, to Matter, to Life, to Mind, and ultimately back to Oneness. Mr. Godwin turns the contemporary understanding of the workings of the universe on its head and fleshes out that theory with reasoned logic and well documented research. In addition to being a theoretical exploration and explanation of the Cosmos, the book also serves as an ultimately practical guide to realizing your own spiritual evolution.
This book has enabled me to think about the universe and my place in it in ways I never had before, and the clues contained in the book have contributed immensely to my own personal and spiritual growth.
If you've ever asked yourself "What's this life all about?" then this book offers keys to those on a path of spiritual discovery and understanding and is well worth the price of admission.
Inspiring and Useful.......2006-02-23
I enjoyed this book a great deal, but I got something more important and lasting than enjoyment--inspiration, and a useful vocabulary for reminding myself, when I need reminding that 'this' is not all that 'is.' What you see around you, matter, your town nation Earth solar system stars galaxies, is not the whole of the truth about Reality. We all need to be reminded of this from time to time, lest we slip into the half-sleep of the human herd animal, going to work to get the money to buy the food to give us the strength to go to work to get the money...until finally the blessing of the Last Sleep relieves us of such petty concerns.
Dr. Godwin (aka Gagdad Bob) has provided us with a pleasurable and humorous reminder.
Now a good many other fine authors, starting approximately at the time of the invention of writing (before that, they were after-dinner speakers), have attempted to communicate and reiterate this important truth to their fellow humans, with more or less success. Bob's great strength is his ability to gather, study and evaluate a few thousand years worth of material on the subject and synthesize it, with humor, compactness and readability, into a coherent Wake Up Call. This is no mean feat, as others who started out with great promise have ended up caught in eddies and cul-de-sacs, writing whole bookshelves worth of obscurities that awakened no one, at least not without great difficulties. Aleister Crowley is an example that comes to mind.
I'm not going to go through the book from beginning to end and try to describe what can only be grokked by actually reading the whole thing; I was most struck, personally, by the symbolic system Bob has devised (starting on p. 207) "to create an unsaturated spiritual language through which each individual may 'realize' and 'discover' their meaning." In this system O stands for "the ultimate, unchanging, unqualified, non-dual ground and source of our being." I 'discovered' this to mean everything above and beyond what the senses tell us is there; the One Big Thing that surrounds everything else, that contains it, The Thing that we all too easily forget as we go about our business.
If one is truly a strict materialist, life can have, indeed must have, no meaning, for meaning is not a material thing. The problem is that all of us human-all-to-humans have a natural tendency to fall into routine and slide, so to speak, down the slippery slope into a default materialism. We forget about O.
But I find myself forgetting it less, since reading this book. It's gotten to the point where I see that television commercial where the very attractive woman purrs, "It's all about the O" and I find myself answering back, "You got that right, baby!"
Hey, that alone is worth the price of admission. My recommendation: Buy it! The yokes alone are Chappelle Perilous, and eventually you'll find that the beginning was The End all along, in the Apocalypse Now. And yes, Every Man and Every Woman is a Star.
At least Crowley got that much right.
Brilliant synthesis of physics and metaphysics and theology..........2006-02-21
And psychology and lots of other stuff.
This is the most brain changing book I've read it years, and will probably be one of the three or four books I've read that will change my philosophy of life in general.
You can't skim this book. You have to read every word and pay attention. I'm almost done and I'll probably have to read it again. That said, the book is written in accessible language that any literate person should be able to understand, if they only choose to understand.
So, buckle in your brain cells and grab this book and go on the white knuckled reading adventure of your life. And, like a roller coaster, it ends where it begins. How about that?
Books:
- Principles of Nuclear Magnetism (International Series of Monographs on Physics)
- Programming C#: Building .NET Applications with C#
- Quantum Dot Heterostructures
- Son of the Morning Star
- Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity
- Supressed Intelligence Reports: News They Dare Not Print!
- The Backyard Astronomer's Guide
- The Backyard Astronomer's Guide
- The Cosmo Kama Sutra: 77 Mind-Blowing Sex Positions (Cosmopolitan)
- The Day of the Triffids (20th Century Rediscoveries)
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