Non-fiction | Now I See …

2013-0207

Rudolf Steiner: An Introduction to His Life and Work

Comments Off[Author: kkaine Category: Biography, Non-fiction, Reviews ]

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By Gary Lachman

Tarcher Book Publishers, February, 2007. Click to Buy this Book!

When speaking of the life and work of Rudolf Steiner, the greatest challenge is to express it in general terms. Gary Lachman has done just that. The other challenge for those who know Rudolph Steiner’s work is to speak of it in an unbiased way. Gary Lachman invites you to know Rudolf Steiner in his humanity; a man who had one foot on this earth and the other in the spiritual world that weaves through every physical Higgs boson particle.

At the core of Rudolf Steiner’s teaching lies the principle of metamorphosis. He invites us to observe and think deeply about the form-changing process we can observe in nature and apply that to human evolution. Gary Lachman uses this same principle to reveal the life of Rudolf Steiner through the pages of his book. Steiner himself wrote in his autobiography that its purpose was to “trace the course of his thought and to show how it evolved over time.” Yet many of his followers today embalm the Steiner they think he was in the ideas of a century ago when he lived.

One of the key principles to change is the encounter with a force of resistance. Through the journey that Gary sketches we come to understand that at every turn in his life Rudolf Steiner met with resistance in one form or another, both from without and from within his organization. He still does today. Why wouldn’t such a significant thinker be as well-known as Einstein? Einstein! the one whose theories do not metamorphose into modern scientific thought as well as he may have hoped. On the back cover of Gary’s book we read, “Rudolf Steiner — educator, architect, philosopher and agriculturist — ranks amongst the most creative and prolific figures of the early twentieth century. Yet he remains a mystery to most people.”

What Gary Lachman has written in this biography goes a long way to unraveling this mystery. Steiner wanted to find ways of expressing with utmost clarity what he called “the living activity of the human spirit.” Gary explains that from an early age Steiner was aware of things “seen” and things “not seen.” The things “not seen,” meaning not grasped by the senses, weren’t fantasies, or what we’d call “mere imagination.” They were inner events taking place on a kind of interior stage, the soul.” Gary says that “Rudolf Steiner talks about the visual world as a tapestry behind which is a great work.” More »

Tags: book, Gary Lachman, Introduction, Kristina Kaine, Life, new, review, rudolf steiner, Work

2013-0107

No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith

Comments Off[Author: mkeltz Category: Biography, Non-fiction, Reviews ]

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By Fawn M. Brodie

First Vintage Books Edition, 1995; originally published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1945. Click to buy this book!

In the Preface of the first edition of her book, author Fawn M. Brodie (1915–1981) sums up the challenges faced by all those who decide to undertake a serious study of the life of Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805–1844), founder of Mormonism: “It was in a funeral sermon that the Mormon prophet flung a challenge to his future biographers. To an audience of ten thousand in his bewitching city of Nauvoo, Joseph Smith said on April 7, 1844: ‘You don’t know me; you never knew my heart. No man knows my history. I cannot tell it; I shall never understand it. I don’t blame anyone for not believing my history. If I had not experienced what I have, I could not have believed it myself.’ Since that moment of candor at least three-score writers have taken up the gauntlet. Many have abused him; some have deified him; a few have tried their hands at clinical diagnosis. All have insisted, either directly or by implication, that they knew his story. But the results have been fantastically dissimilar.” Having been raised in a Mormon family, Fawn McKay Brodie departed from the faith and perhaps wrote her first historic biography as a means of coming to terms with this towering, shadowy and perplexing figure of her childhood. Later she wrote biographies of Thaddeus Stevens, Sir Richard F. Burton, Thomas Jefferson and Richard Nixon, and became the first female professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles. In the Preface to the 1970 edition of No Man Knows My History she acknowledges “the continuing growth of a considerable literature on human behavior, some of which is decidedly relevant to an understanding of the more baffling aspects of the Mormon prophet’s character.” She points out in the 1970 psychoanalytical Supplement that it is not intended to be a comprehensive clinical portrait, “which would have to be the work of a professional based on much more intimate knowledge of the man than is presently possible.” However, despite these cautious remarks, as well as a statement that “the clinical definitions of 1970 cannot easily be superimposed on the social and political realities of 1840,” her lack of comprehension of Christian esotericism, spirituality and the nature of visionary experience and clairvoyance leaves her little option other than repeating a number of psychological suppositions, such as “unconscious conflicts over his own identity,” “pseudologia fantastica,” “parapath,” “alienated from reality,” “grandiose” and “megalomania.”

From the point of view of Anthroposophy (defined as knowledge of the human being, sophy meaning wisdom and anthro referring to the human being) it would seem that the young, charismatic “Joe Smith” had genuine visionary experiences and may have been deeply connected by destiny with the pre-Christian history of settlement on the American continents by foreign peoples. This awareness could have been awakened in him by a reading of the 1823 publication by Ethan Smith: View of the Hebrews. There would be no wrong at all in the likelihood that the work of Ethan Smith was instrumental in the inspiration of The Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith was also obviously moved by his readings and studies of the Old Testament, particularly Isaiah, which spoke to him personally, and from which he drew strength for his life and his spiritual aspirations. Author Fawn Brodie casts doubt on the originality and authenticity of The Book of Mormon in citing Ethan Smith’s work in particular. More »

Tags: biography, book review, Fawn M. Brodie, history, Joseph Smith, Life, man, Martha Keltz

2012-1119

Psychic Criminology, Second Edition: A Guide For Using Psychics In Investigations

Comments Off[Author: mkeltz Category: Non-fiction, Paranormal, Psychology, Reviews ]

By Whitney S. Hibbard, Raymond W. Worring, Richard Brennan

Charles C. Thomas PUBLISHER LTD, Springfield, Illinois, 2002 Click here to purchase this book!

The first edition of this book, described as a “practical operations manual,” was published in 1982. Author Raymond W. Worring died in 1998 and Richard Brennan replaced him for the second edition, contributing sections on remote viewing and adding a new chapter titled “PSI Case Files.” In the Preface To The Second Edition, Whitney Hibbard writes: “The intent of this book is not to be a critical appraisal; that has been done comprehensively elsewhere, most notably in the highly recommended The Blue Sense: Psychic Detectives and Crime, which also is a careful and well-documented look at the many pitfalls of working with psychic sleuths. The first edition was criticized in some quarters for being overly sympathetic and uncritical about the role of psychics in investigations. This criticism has been addressed in this edition … However, the book remains unapologetically supportive of the use of psychics as investigative aides, as long as they are used in a disciplined, efficient, and professional manner.” For better understanding of Psychic Criminology as a manual for law enforcement officers (while the book will also be of value for everyone with interest), The Blue Sense, a 1991 publication by Arthur Lyons and Marcello Truzzi, Ph.D, will prove a helpful companion study. The Blue Sense is referenced several times in Psychic Criminology and it offers such a thorough treatment of its subject it could be used as a “foundation course” for the entire field of psychic detection.

From a careful reading of these two books alone it becomes clear that what the science of the spirit describes as the essential next step in the evolution of consciousness, the development of the new capacities for clairvoyance or spiritual perception, has been assiduously taken up in its preliminary stages — psychic phenomena — in areas where it is most needed, in the fight against crime, which is increasingly exposing the public and law enforcement officers to a barrage of sick, irrational, tragic, violent and dangerous situations, not to mention the unending frustrations caused by a top-heavy legal system that rules far too many times in favor of the criminals. “According to Chief James Basil of the Buckland, Massachusetts Police Department, one of the few police officials to go public on the subject, ‘A lot of police departments may use psychics, but they will only admit it off the ‘record’ … In all likelihood, increasing public pressure eventually will force law enforcement personnel to use psychics more frequently. This is evidenced by the escalating number of requests for help that psychics receive from victims’ families … The current situation is summed up nicely by Karen Henrikson and Chief Kozenczak (ret.), chief investigator on the John Wayne Gacy case, in their article Still Beyond Belief: The Use of Psychics in Homicide Investigations: ‘The world of parapsychology has a great deal to offer… Having once experienced the positive attributes a psychic can lend to a case, parapsychology seems to be a natural companion to the world of criminology.’ One of the purposes of this book is to foster that companionship.” Awareness of the necessity for standards, codes of ethics, and a heightened sense of morality is evident in articles and books about the developing science of psychic criminology (e.g., some psychic sleuths ask for payment beyond expenses and seek publicity), and the constant everyday work required in distinguishing truth from falseness in many investigative areas transfers over into level-headed assessments of psychics and psychic phenomena. The authors stress that it has become essential to avoid wasting time, human resources and funds.

Parapsychologists have become aware of the unique states of consciousness between waking and sleeping, and it seems that in the use of “forensic hypnosis” — defined as the use of hypnosis during a legal/criminal investigation, conducted with witnesses and recorded — the subject does not lose consciousness, but enters into an altered state of consciousness. It is to be hoped that any methods that cause the subject to become unconscious and “taken over” by some unseen entity will be recognized as spiritually unlawful and hence harmful. Just as there are natural and social laws, there are spiritual laws. The Blue Sense offers an interesting passage on hypnosis in Chapter Nine, “Psychic Success Stories.” Regarding the mentalist Kreskin (George Joseph Kresge, b. 1935), More »

Tags: Criminology, Guide, Investigations, Martha Keltz, non-fiction, paranormal, Psychic, Psychics, psychology, Raymond W. Worring, review, Richard Brennan, Second Edition, Whitney S. Hibbard

2012-0330

Rising Fire: Volcanoes and Our Inner Lives

Comments Off[Author: mkeltz Category: Non-fiction, Reviews ]

By John Calderazzo.

Published by The Lyons Press, Guilford, CT, 2004.

The painting on the jacket cover, by Joseph Wright of Derby, c.1774-76, is titled An Eruption of Vesuvius, seen from Portici. Click to Buy this Book!

A teacher of creative writing at Colorado State University, John Calderazzo completed an extracurricular project of writing a children’s book about volcanoes that raised questions for him “that deserved a deeper, more complicated consideration appropriate for adults.” He also received a CSU teaching award as the school year was winding down and, an experienced traveler, he decided to visit Sicily’s Mount Etna, that was still erupting (he does not give the year, but this must have been 1993). Rising Fire is primarily an account of his travels to some of the world’s most notorious volcano sites: Mount Etna, Vesuvius, Stromboli, Kilauea, Parícutin, Soufriere Hills (Montserrat), Mount Pelée (Martinique), and Mount Rainier. Mixed in with the largely vernacular travel accounts (“By Monday, I’d had it with conspiracy theories and was badly in the mood for some Scientific Smarts …”) is an abundance of both entertaining and very serious subjects, including local history, quotations from literature, stories and folklore, reminiscences, a treatise on the outer layers and the interior of the earth, ritual sacrifice, and descriptions of volcanic disasters and deaths, e.g., the 1991 deaths of Maurice and Katia Krafft and photographers and reporters in a pyroclastic eruption on Japan’s Unzen. There are also descriptions of such physical sensations as lava moving underground beneath one’s feet at Kilauea, or, three thousand feet up, the sound of the dragon exhaling on Stromboli Island.

The biographical chronology of the author’s experiences is difficult to extract because of his writing style and the profusion of subjects, but it is in the biography and in the many reminiscences that the secondary theme of “Our Inner Lives” emerges. Calderazzo grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He was “23 or 24” years old (he does not say which) in the summer of 1971, when he “first laid eyes on Shasta” in California. He was then a would-be writer, had recently completed college in Tampa, Florida, and had decided to live on “sunshine and metaphors” for a time in the great American West. In 1983 his father died, and this memory becomes a part of Calderazzo’s profound musings on mortality and death. He perceives in the final breaths of his father “the sound of the earth rising within him, reaching up for him, because he refused to move down on his own.” In 1984 he and his wife, SueEllen Campbell, taught college English in Xian, northern China; in 1985 he was successfully treated for a life-threatening skin lesion; and in 1986 he began teaching at CSU. From the Prologue: “Volcanoes were helping me find solace in the liquid nature of rock, in the impermanent nature of everything, including me.” Calderazzo describes himself as a “dreamer,” but he is clearly searching, like a disciplined scientist, for facts and substantial answers about life and death from geology and volcanology. In the rising fires of volcanoes he becomes increasingly aware of death processes out of which will emerge new life. More »

Tags: book review, fire, Kilauea, Martinique, Montserrat, Mount Etna, Mount Pelée, Mount Rainier, non-fiction, Parícutin, Soufriere Hills, Stromboli, Vesuvius, Volcanoes

2012-0319

The Ecotechnic Future: Envisioning a Post-Peak World

1 Comment[Author: chris Category: Non-fiction, Reviews ]

by John Michael Greer

New Society Publishers, First Edition, October 1, 2009. Click to Buy this book!

To understand the need for such a book as The Ecotechnic Future an understanding of the concept of resource depletion is required, especially the concept of Peak Oil. This idea states that the amount of fossil fuels on the planet will reach a peak after which there will be a steady, irreplaceable decline in available, cheap energy. This has been addressed by many authors, dating back to the 1970s when M. King Hubbert first explained how the production of petroleum from a well typically follows a bell-shaped curve and extrapolated this idea to the planet as a whole. It is neither the author’s intention nor mine to go into the details of this concept here. There are many books available on the subject, including Matthew Simmon’s Twilight in the Desert, James Howard Kunstler’s Long Emergency, Richard Heinberg’s Peak Everything, and Dimitri Orlav’s Reinventing Collapse, just to name a few.

Drastically reduced resource availability has crushing ramifications for a world in which there has been an absolute population explosion in the centuries since cheap energy became available. The author argues that the abundant availability of fossil fuels has in large part enabled this growth. If we now have this stimulus taken from us, it seems obvious that it must lead to a drastic reduction in population, with the attendant social unrest, large migrations of people attempting to find sustainable living conditions, etc. If one accepts that resource depletion is a fact for the future world and that indeed a decline in civilization is imminent, then one naturally asks oneself: How can I plan for the future? This is the question that this book largely tries to answer.

The book is broken down into three parts. The first part, Orientations, discusses the history of resource depletion generally and how this has affected other civilizations in the past. The author then attempts to roughly predict, based on this historical evidence, what phases of decline we can expect. He foresees an end of our Age of Affluence followed by three subsequent stages: An Age of Scarcity Industrialism, followed by an Age of Salvage and finally the coming of the Ecotechnic Age. More »

Tags: book review, culture, depopulation, ecology, Ecotechnic, energy, Envisioning, finance, Future, industrialism, John Michael Greer, migration, non-fiction, politics, Post-Peak World, renewable energy