3 comments about The Door in the Dream: Conversations With Eminent Women in Science.

1. I definitely like the idea behind this book which I thought was to help understand the lives/struggles that the women elected into the National Academy went through. I also liked the way the book was grouped into women born within specific time periods since they seemed to have more in common with each other. But along with all survey books, this one lacked a focus or goal. The author who conducted the interviews seemed very passive and not willing to explore problems the scientists were going through. Wasserman hints at problems/solutions, but I was looking for more.



2. Parts of this book are absolutely first rate -I thoroughly enjoyed the introductory & concluding sets of chapters that "place" the interviews- and some of the biographical pieces are also intriguing and insightful. Unfortunately one gets the feeling that Wasserman has tried to both stretch too far & at the same time go too deep in some areas. In the cases of scientists where we actually get enough material to sense a "conversation" the book cannot be faulted (the interview/section on Ruth Patrick was marvellous for instance), but in some cases we have little more than an expanded extract from some sort of "Great Women & Men in Science" dictionary. Fewer and longer entries would perhaps have served better. This breadth/depth problem is in a sense highlighted by a striking shortage of ecologists (there is the Patrick interview mentioned already & a disappointingly short blurb on Jane Lubchenco) & an absence of behavioral ecologists (what of the likes of Sarah Hrdy etc.?)while at the same time it seems we get lots of biochemist/genetics/& physical science types. A number of authors have noted the greater success that women have had in penetrating the Life Sciences, and perhaps Wasserman feels that this area needs less attention, but a more detailed analysis of WHY things have been better in Biology would be of interest. Other than these complaints I enjoyed the book and will have no problem encouraging my students (female and male alike) to read it.



3. This book succeeds on so many different levels. Above all, it is a fascinating introduction to the lives of thirty seven remarkably successful women. It is a "good read" for anyone interested in a personal glimpse into many different worlds of scientific discovery. It offers varied templates to young scientists seeking alternative approaches to scientific careers today. It suggests some unconventional wisdom about possibilities for career progress for women and men in any organization. And finally, it provides compelling evidence for employer policies and programs to support employee efforts to balance professional productivity with personal and family commitments.

   Wasserman offers a unique perspective on all careers based on the life experiences of women scientists elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences. She draws on personal interviews, correspondence and biographic materials of thirty seven women(of a total of eighty six elected women scientists) to portray their experiences, often in their own words. Wasserman undertook this project based on personal questions about her own career, which led from research scientist (PhD chemist)to academic administration to the practice of law. She describes her career path in the context of family interests and commitments as well. For this study she sought to understand what differentiated the lives and paths of these remarkably successful scientists from the paths of others with similar interests and potential. In presenting a consistent set of questions to each of her subjects, she looked for similar patterns and notable differences within this group of women and between this group and others. Her interview material is organized into age clusters and is thus informed by societal characteristics of each cohort's era.

   Wasserman's work yields lessons about career success far byond the world of scientific research she depicts. For these women initial career decisions were most often based on interest, talent and encouragement from family plus special teachers at critical juncture points. Yet these initial decisions were then modified and shaped by circumstance and opportunity, for better or for worse. As with each of us, each of these women faced numerous barriers and hurdles as she moved along a path. As with each of us, the path was often unclear. Yet each of these women found her way to make unique contributions to scientific knowledge. Despite barriers and hurdles each was remarkably successful in her scientific career.

   Among the barriers and hurdles faced by many of these women, one persists, and that is the dificulty in balancing between professional and personal commitments. Here the lives of these scientists shared challenges similar to the ones faced by men and women at all phases of their professional development. How to balance a strong commitment to work with a strong commitment to family and/or personal life remains a daily struggle for so many of us. It is a struggle we hear about from men and women in corporations, government and academic life as well. It is a struggle anticipated by young people as they embark on their careers and by men and women in mid-career as they live their daily lives and consider their future directions. Each struggle is characterized by much that is personal and unique and much that is universal as well.

   In her summary chapters Wasserman highlights the balance between professional interests and personal lives as a key opportunity for organizations to affect lives and careers. She suggests that organizational policy could enhance productivity by becoming more flexible in demands on people and more generous in the resources provided to help support the balance between professional and personal commitments. Her exploration of policy and program implications is especially cogent for today's workforce and in today's workplace.

5 comments about Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In: Appreciations, Castigations, and Reminiscences by Ram Dass, Andrew Weil, Allen Ginsberg, Winona Ryder, William Burroughs, ... Huston Smith, Hunter S. Thompson, and Others.

1. Regardless of one's personal opinions about Timothy Leary, one cannot really deny the fact that he was a great man; great in the sense that his thoughts and ideas influenced an entire generation (and continues to do so), and that A LOT of people had - and still have - A LOT of strong feelings about everything he stood for. Perhaps it's too early to figure out how extensive his influence actually was. Everything he talked about didn't revolve around LSD, even though many tend to think just that. What many don't know, for instance, is that he contributed greatly to the field of psychology and developed different tests that are still in use today.
   
   Robert Forte has edited a book, not about Leary's life, but more about people who met him, were familiar with him, were close to him, were affected and influenced by him, and all in all had some sort of relation to him. Some of these people are Winona Ryder (to whom Leary was godfather), Hunter S. Thompson, Albert Hofmann (the chemist who synthesized LSD in 1938), Ken Kesey (another "psychedelic pioneer"), Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Robert Anton Wilson, and many more.
   
   Some of the contributions consist of Forte simply interviewing the individual in question, while in other cases the contributor has written the piece him/herself. But it's not all about Leary all the time. Timothy Leary is more a book about the psychedelic revolution itself than about one of its leading advocates. Richard Nixon referred to him as "the most dangerous man in the world", and sure, a great deal of the content is about him, what he accomplished, different incidents in his life, and so on. However, another great deal is about the use and abuse of psychedelic drugs, how they shaped and changed society and individual consciousness, how dangers (or harmless) they actually are, what happens to people who choose to try them, and how these now criminalized drugs could be used beneficially in different sorts of therapies.
   
   It's not the best book on the market if you want to learn more about Timothy Leary's opinions and messages, but on the other hand, it's a great book if you want to know some of the influence and the affect he had on his surroundings. Furthermore, through its use of sensible discussions by and with well-informed and rational people, the book offers great knowledge about the absurd American "War on Drugs" and all the hypocrisy this futile and senseless war is built upon.



2. This is a rich and revealing book that I always recommend to anyone trying to grasp the contradictory figure that was Timothy Leary - not least because many of its subjects are still struggling to grasp exactly what hit them when Leary entered their lives. Highlights for me include the essays by Ram Dass, Robert Anton Wilson and Ralph Metzner, as well as William Burroughs' ability to use a few brief words so well. Winona Ryder's eulogy is also terrific -- it has since been included in Copeland's book on the greatest eulogies of our time, and I liked it so much I used it as the foreword to my own biography on Leary, 'I Have America Surrounded'.
   
   As Forte writes in his introduction, this is "not a biography of Leary, nor an in-depth study of his ideas", and as such the critical review on this page by R. Goldstein seems to have missed the point of the book. Forte is not attempting to be a 'cheerleader' or promote his 'thesis', as is claimed, but instead provides a forum where those who knew Leary could record their memories and reminiscences. True, the majority are positive and loving, but this is no reason to criticize the book. The fact is Leary was deeply loved by many - which is something that those who condemn his character find it convenient to overlook. For this reason the book is an important record, but perhaps more importantly it is those who knew him best who often have the most revealing insights - and this is why the book is so valuable.



3. This book is a source of comfort to anyone disgruntled by Robert Greenfield's less than appreciative bio of Timothy Leary. Editor Robert Forte calls his project a "festschrift," which, if my rusty German holds up, loosely means "celebration of writing." It is by no means balanced; its cover promises castigations but delivers only one, ironically from former outlaw chemist Owsley Stanley. There are polite rebukes of Leary's methods from Huston Smith and Myron Stolaroff, but the rest of the book is mainly a chorus of paeans, a love fest that gets sloppy in places.
   
   Part of Forte's thesis is that Leary will come to be vindicated and revered as another Socrates or Galileo. Inevitably the uptight world will recognize the transformational power of psychedelics and, grasping the keys to the missing link in evolution, start popping them like vitamin supplements. Why millions of grateful acid veterans haven't united to demand a change in the drug laws goes unexplained. Like a lot of other issues the book grazes. Why was Eldridge Cleaver not more supportive of Leary in Algeria? Why was Art Linkletter hostile to Leary? What happened to Leary's children? What was "The Brotherhood" that Forte cryptically refers to a couple of times? What about the charges that Leary betrayed friends, including the lawyers who helped him avoid lengthier prison time? Although Forte concedes that Leary failed "to confront his shadow," the negative aspects of his life, he left the shadowy particulars for Robert Greenfield to detail.
   
   There are other shortcomings. The correspondence between Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard is vacuous, discussing where and when they plan to meet next. Albert Hofman's contribution is brief. Hunter Thompson's more caustic criticisms of Leary are absent, replaced by a short, all-is-forgiven comment. Some of the respondents use a pretentious argot prevalent in the `60s, reflecting the mindless blather of the drug-addled. And there are outrageous claims that transcendentalist philosophers Emerson and Thoreau took drugs, that psychedelics brought forth the computer revolution and the Internet. At least Forte didn't suggest that psychedelics are "the only visible hope for a race tottering on the brink of extinction." That claim was in a recent letter of complaint from the Leary estate to The New Yorker over the favorable review its critic gave to the Greenfield book.
   
   I don't blame Forte for being a cheerleader. He was only 11 years old during the '67 Summer of Love, so he didn't see the zombies walking down Haight Street and other hippie enclaves ingesting not only psychedelics but other wares sold by hierarchical criminal outfits (such as the Brotherhood?) engaged in the "democratization" of drug distribution. Gosh and golly, why would law enforcement ever consider LSD a gateway to heroin, methamphetamine and crack? Set and setting indeed.
   
   I thought I'd had enough of Leary after reading the Greenfield book, but I picked this one up after browsing its table of contents. It has limited appeal, so I give it three stars: one for the interview with Huston Smith, one for the interviews with Metzner & Stolaroff, and one for likening Leary to Huck Finn. Greenfield mistakenly linked him to Tom Sawyer.



4. Timothy Leary is a mythological figure. Almost everyone has an opinion of him, even if they have never read a word he wrote.
   Often opinions are second-hand filtered through this or that media source.

   The editor for this book, Robert Forte, one
   of Mircea Eliade's last students at the University of Chicago,
   does not provide us with second-hand information that he has digested, but instead, gathers an anthology of viewpoints from those who knew Timothy Leary. Not all are positive, and I was surprized to read the negative remarks of Owlsley Stanley in regards to Leary. Thanks to this compendium, we are allowed past the veil of the myth and get a glimpse of the human Timothy Leary.

   Robert Forte knew Timothy Leary personally and has edited another book, Entheogens and the Future of religion, that I highly recommend.

   Thomas Seay




5. Robert Forte is one of the most important living documentarians of psychedelic history and phenomonology. In this book, he's gathered a myriad voices of people who were really "there" when Leary was influencing people and who therefore have valuable commentary worth hearing -- both positive and negative. The folksy, chatty style of this book make it a pleasure to read. Along with his other book "Entheogens and the Future of Religion," Forte is performing an important informational and documentary service toward a fair assessment of the role that drugs have in society and also of the real-life figures who have affected this. This book is a must read for anyone interested in what Tim Leary (and for that matter, ...) were really like.

5 comments about Boltzmanns Atom: The Great Debate That Launched A Revolution In Physics.

1. Lindley states upfront that this book is not a proper biography. There is not much on Boltzmann's early life, and the account of his adult family life is very sketchy. Actually, I found this an advantage as I was most interested in the development of Boltzmann's physics and how Boltzmann related to other famous figures. Lindley is very good on this, showing exactly what Boltzmann's contributions were and how figures like Gibbs and Maxwell inspired him and were inspired by him. The accounts of his philosophical battle with Mach for the soul of physics were particularly intriguing - a battle that ended in Boltzmann's suicide. Mach had won the battle, but not the war. Einstein and others later came down on Boltzmann's side.
   
   Of course Mach can't really be blamed for Boltzmann's suicide. Boltzmann comes across as a depressive, neurotic character. He could not relax, was forever traveling, and incessantly pursued social and academic advancement. When given the leading post at the University of Vienna he sought posts at German universities, but then didn't want to leave Vienna when he got them. This 'having his cake and eating it' situation left him distraught, torn between two great opportunities. Also, he became upset when followers of Mach did not admire him, even though his own followers held him in the greatest esteem.
   
   It is surprising how much physics Lindley manages to convey without using equations. Differences between his ideas and others are conveyed with subtlety. For instance the difference between using a distribution of velocities and the earlier idea of just using average velocities for working out the statistical mechanics of gasses is brought across with verve. (Read the book if you don't know what I'm going on about!)
   
   Lindley makes impressive use of original sources. You will find material in this book nowhere else in English as he translates many letters and works from the original German.
   
   All in all, a must read. There are many popular books centered on Galileo, Newton, Einstein and Heisenberg. It is interesting to read a book where these giants hardly figure, and instead Boltzmann, Gibbs, Maxwell and Mach take center stage. So give yourself a novel treat and read about the harrowing fight for Boltzmann's atom.



2. David Lindley succeeds in this book in what escaped him in "Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science", where the narrative lacks structure and is not sufficiently persuasive. "Boltzmann's Atom" reads as a biography proper, if a very brief one, where Lindley shows (appropriately) broader historical picture, not just in scientific and philosophical ideas of that time.
   
   Boltzmann is shown in this book as a real human being - in development, both intellectual and emotional - and one can actually empathize with him. The book is somewhat too short for a real biography, which all run nowadays to 500 and more pages, but especially so considering the scope of Boltzman's personality, as well as very complex & rapidly changing situation in science during his lifetime. Still, the book is a very good introduction to Boltzman's life & work.
   
   Even in this short a book, Lindley managed to outline Boltzmann's scientific & philosophical ideas, show clearly what was his conflict with Ernst Mach about, and give the reader enough understanding to see that modern physics is based to a high degree on Boltzmann's works. Lindley also succeeded in giving a persuasive picture of Boltzmann's idiosyncratic personality.
   
   Hope David Lindley won't consider a short quote from his book to be a copyright violation: http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dhcsjrmw_192cpz88x&revision=_latest



3. David Lindley's book is a beautifully written and subtle portrait not only of a very important scientist, but of a place and time in scientific history. Some rather slippery scientific concepts are expertly communicated at the same time -- that Lindley manages to do all of this in the space of about 230 pages makes this book a model, in my mind, of concision and expert communication. It is a joy to read.
   
   If anything mitigates that joy, it is the intense sadness that hangs around the titular figure, Ludwig Boltzmann. Although his work is of primary importance in physics, few laypeople are aware of him. Boltzmann died in 1906 but -- much like his fellow Viennese Gustav Mahler, who died in 1911 -- seems like a kind of presage of 20th century uncertainties and anxieties. This is probably saying too much. But there is little of the heroic and the ironic and the certain in Boltzmann, and much of the anxious, needy and depressed. He is a figure we all recognize: whether in our alcoholic uncles, our desperate mothers, or our sleepless selves. He does not and cannot rest easy.
   
   Boltzmann was far from anyone's stereotype of the "mad" scientist. His mental illness was all too real, his struggle with inner demons all too tragic. If you are interested in science, in scientists, in the occasionally sick world of academia, or even simply in fin-de-siecle Vienna, read this book. It's extremely good.



4. The scientific community of the late 19th century were scandalised when Boltzmann introduced his Atomic theory. First his attribution of probability, and using statistical methods to explain thermodynamics went against the longstanding trend of assuming absolute fixed laws. In comparison the implication of probability in Quantum theory, caused bewilderment rather than stringent criticism of the theory. Second, due to lack of observable evidence, atoms were considered a figment of Boltzmanns imagination. This is not very dissimilar to the opposition faced by String Theory proponents even today who have no way of confirming existence of Strings.
   It was not until Einstein used Atomic theory to prove Brownian Motion that people began to consider it seriously.
   
   Boltzmann got one more hunch right . In 1905, touring Berkeley , he notes 'Happy the land where Millionaires hold ideals and idealists become millionaires'. Though bitter about its food, and worker strikes, he concludes 'America will accomplish great things in the future. I believe in these people'
   
   Couldv been 50 pages short atleast.



5. I loved this book. I was very wrapped up in it throughout. I highly recommend it to any physics students who are about to undertake a course in Thermo or Stat Mech. Amazingly, Lindley does a better job of explaining some things than many textbooks. I learned a lot from this book. I think seeing the historical development aides in learning the science.
   
   One downside is the lack of more in-depth science. Only one equation is written (S=klnw). It would be nice to see more of the physics being developled...possibly an idea for a new textbook...
   
   All in all, very fun. I would love to read more history of physics books that are written similarly.

1 comments about Explorations: A Life of Underwater Adventure.

1. An excellent read. This is the life story of one of the Greatest marine geologists and explorers of our time. From top secret navy submarines to luxurious ocean liners to deep sea marine life this man has seen it all, this book helps to explain what wasn't in the other great books he has written, it is a personal account of everything he went through to get where he is now. It was one of the best books I have ever read and a must have for all fans.

2 comments about The First Copernican: Georg Joachim Rheticus and the Rise of the Copernican Revolution.

1. This book was too boring to finish. It bogs you down in information without being an interesting story.
   
   I enjoy astronomy books and astronomy history. One of my favorite books was "Tycho and Kepler: The Unlikely Partnership That Forever Changed Our Understanding of the Heavens". I got this book soon after reading that and thought it would grab me the same way. All it did was make my eyes heavy.
   
   Some day I might pick it up and finish it, but as for now, I'm off reading better choices.



2. This book is delightful and fun to read and anyone interested in the history of scientific discovery will enjoy it. Danielson manages to bring to vivid life the story of Copernicus's great insight, how it survived the political, religious, and academic obstacles of its time to reach the hands of other scholars, and how the Copernicus manuscript might never have come down to us at all but for Rheticus, who himself was the founder of modern trigonometry.
   
   While this is a very well-researched and scholarly book, I liked how Danielson brings the story alive, complete with the intrigue of the university politics and the national politics of the day. The author places you in the time. You feel the influence of Luther and Erasmus, patrons of the sciences, clerics of different stripes, dukes and mayors, and large scientific figures. And, for me what was interesting, the role of various competing academic institutions in the emerging nation-states of the Renaissance. That, and the story of all the tenuous links that must be secured before a great scientific idea comes to be accepted.
   
   Danielson makes the personalities real: their intellectual struggles, what drives them, and their foibles. In particular, I found myself outraged at the academic treachery of Osiander, who sullied the first publication of the Copernican manuscript. And readers will find a soap opera element in the charges faced by Rheticus for allegedly molesting a male student.
   
   Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to know the story of how the Copernican revolution began.

5 comments about The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung.

1. As can be seen by the angry tenor of some of the negative reviews below, Carl Jung inspires strong feelings of loyalty in those who've been captivated by his ideas. This somewhat cultish personal devotion is what author Richard Noll plays off in this misleading biography of the "secret" Jung.
   
   I've enjoyed the works of Carl Jung in the past, but I'm not a slavishly devoted groupie nor an uncritical disciple of the man or his work. His co-opting by various New Age types have certainly insured that his ideas--if diluted--have become diffused into our popular culture. On the other hand, it's hard to swallow the sinister thesis that Noll advances in *The Aryan Christ.* I suggest reading this pseudo-biography with the veritable salt-shaker at the ready. Indeed, knowing anything about Jung, you'll need it to make what you'll read here palatable. Only by knowing what Jung himself actually said can you understand just how preposterous much of Noll's interpretation really is. It would be a shame for anyone with no knowledge of Jung to come to this book exclusively to get it. But as an "alternate what-if" biography of Jung it has its moments.
   
   Indeed, I found the first 100 pages of *The Aryan Christ* entertaining, providing as it did some interesting background of Jung's early years as a "spiritualist," as well as dishing on some of the important figures surrounding Jung as he rose to prominence, in particular, the brilliant but doomed Otto Gross. I enjoyed this book mainly for its recreation of the Zurich-Vienna rivalry and the turbulent early days of psychology as Freud and Jung jealously jockeyed for preeminence. The rest of *Aryan Christ,* alas, was largely a waste of time.
   
   In a nutshell, Noll contends that Jung's psychological insights were based on a proposed return to ancient pagan rites and symbols of primarily Germanic/Aryan origin that Noll does his best to make sound as racist, anti-Semitic, and pro-Nazi as possible while making the barest feints at objectivity. The title of this book--*Aryan Christ*--is "justified" only by the greatest stretch of credulity and the most tortured of interpretations of Jung's ideas. Nowhere does Jung call himself the "The Aryan Christ" and neither do any of his colleagues. Only through a great deal of laboriously twisted arguments and patched-together odds and ends does Noll melodramatically--and even at times comically--come up with even the slimmest of reasons for this sensational-sounding, but inaccurate sobriquet. He announces it often throughout the book in attempts at drama that almost enable you to hear the accompaniment of evil organ music. "Little did they know, but Carl Jung was about to become...(cue sinister organ music)...the ARYAN CHRIST!! mwah-ha-ha. Oh, it catches the eye alright, *The Aryan Christ,* which is no doubt the point. But for that matter, Noll might just as well have titled the book *Carl Jung: Baby Killer!* with not much less attention to accuracy. What's more, the subtitle, "The Secret Life of Carl Jung" is, unfortunately, no more accurate than the title. If Carl Jung had a secret life, it remained a secret to the author, or so we must presume, because he sure didn't impart it to us in this book.
   
   Fact is, there is very little about the life of Carl Jung here at all, secret or out in the open. Jung, as Noll acknowledges early on, remains elusive and many details of his personal life are still a mystery. As a result, Noll is reduced to hearsay of the most dubious sort. Something he doesn't acknowledge and that the reader only comes to realize around page 100 when *Aryan Christ* rapidly starts falling apart and at times hardly seems to be a book about Jung at all. At this point, *The Aryan Christ* deals with the observations of Jung through the eyes of a few of his "celebrity" followers. These are mainly wealthy patrons who were attracted to Jung because they were bored and often troubled. Noll uses the letters and diaries of these characters, such as the heirs and heiresses of the Rockefeller and McCormick dynasties, to provide behind-the-scenes insights into the world of Carl Jung. But picking and choosing snippets from the personal papers of these rich and mostly superficial dilettantes is hardly a sound foundation upon which to build serious scholarship. Nor is it a good idea, as Noll does in one instance, to provide the reader with a summary of Jung's psychology circa 1915 courtesy of a figure who the author himself repeatedly claims "had trouble thinking." What Noll has assembled here is not much better than gossip and gossip from unreliable sources at that. Noll's sources for re-interpreting Jung are neither very interesting nor very smart. They were only very rich and had some limited access to a thinker they no doubt didn't understand all too well.
   
   Noll claims that Jung was surreptitiously pushing an anti-Christian paganism while pretending to still be speaking as a Christian. Noll asserts this proposition as if it could offend anyone in this day and age but fundamentalists. At the same time he claims Jung considered himself Christ, albeit an Aryan Christ. That he was, in effect, attempting to resurrect Christianity with all its pagan antecedents intact and with himself as God. Well, its something like that Noll seems to be saying. Fact is, what Noll argues doesn't really make sense at all it's so rife with contradictions and so blatantly ignores what is relatively obvious: Jung sought the psychological roots of religion and attempted a synthesis of its most ancient manifestations in order to provide a formula that would enable each of us to authentically re-enchant our world and discover "god" within ourselves. If Jung wrote about finding god within himself it didn't mean that he literally believed himself to be God, the one and only. Indeed not even Noll seems to seriously consider such a blatant misreading of Jung, but he certainly allows the possibility of others to misread it as so. And that is where the intellectual dishonesty of this book principally resides, though it certainly also strolls all around the neighborhood. Noll purposely floats such an inflammatory thesis in the interests of the sensationalism that he and his publisher ultimately hope will translate into book sales.
   
   *The Aryan Christ* is kind of a joke that you only get if you already know something about Jung--the real Jung, not the fake so-called "secret" one misrepresented in this book. I note in the afterword that Noll is about to set his sights on fiction next. I think he got a head-start here.



2. To some of us who have read widely and been around a long time, the "revelations" in this book consist less in its main theses than in the detailed evidence provided by the author. Jung's affections for the Nazis have been extensively documented elsewhere, so this is perhaps the least surprising of the major points Noll describes. In fact, the Jung Institute itself issued a book--Jung's Shadow--in an attempt to defuse at least some of the dismay arising from information dribbling out from behind the Archetypal wall.
   
   
   
   
   
   For some, the fact that Jung was more pagan than not in his spiritual leanings, will be hot stuff; to me, it's old hat; the interest, as I said, is in the specifics provided by Noll. The fact that Jung was not monogamous may similarly upset--or titillate--some people coming for the first time to know the man behind the mask, but once again, it's no great excitement to those who have read widely in psycho-spiritual literature.
   
   
   
   
   
   That Jung regarded himself as having been initiated and elevated to the rank of a god, depends on how 'god' is understood...and Noll does a good job of showing that this was intended in a pagan sense, and not a Judeo-Christian one.
   
   
   
   
   
   All in all, this is an informative book, one that provided documentation and detail--both things the Jung Archives try to prevent by keeping The Great One's original works and personal correspondence controlled and under seal.



3. As might be expected this book, The Aryan Christ, has caused considerable controvery in the US and in Europe. The argument is convincingly presented that Carl Jung's scientific description of the psyche and pyschoanalysis are based more on volkish notions prevalent in the late 19th century, coupled with assumptions from the likes of Max Muller about the truth of a deep "sun religion" behind the plethora of world religions, and all ginned up with allusions to Wagner's Parsifal and the Knights of the Holy Grail. Noll does well to present a plausible explanation of how Jung's theories were generated in the context of Jung's rather voracious reading in a range of fields including, not just comparative religion as it was construed in his day, but also the altogether wacky "fields" such as Theosophy, alchemy, and astrology.
   Naturally, this is just the problem for those who would like to keep Jung on his pedestal: it seems to be the case that Jung was VERY MUCH a man of his times and to read Jung and take away the sense that he represents a universally valid account of human subjectivity is to be nothing but silly. Put otherwise, Noll has significant evidence that Jung "found" in the unconscious a wide variety of things that were also found in his library (see p. 133 where Noll writes: "If so, the collective unconscious may still be said to exist, but only on the shelves of Jung's personal library"). And this seems to me to be critical for the 21st century to understand: Jung read a lot of half-baked accounts of religions around the world and then claimed, in good faith or otherwise, that he was finding just these same elements, themes, and symbols in his patients. Beside the audacity/arrogance to interpret and explain the Other, for all time, and in all traditions, there are two pressing problems: first, no credible figure in Religious Studies would hold up the 19th century works of Max Muller et al as reliable information; so, the specific elements that Jung is discovering to be universally relevatory of the deep truth of humanity are based on "scholarly" information that has long been discredited: in effect, Jung appears to have read a lot of books on religions, "found" these same symbols in his patients (many of whom were reading the same books), and then wrote a lot of books about just these symbols claiming, adamantly, that they didn't come from their reading. Thus, just like the joke that communism is the fastest way between capitalism and capitalism, Jung's writings are the fastest way between shoddy scholarship on religion and shoddy scholarship on religion. Second, if reading books is how this kind of religious symbolism is getting passed around, then the unconscious in the Jungian sense is a useless idea since what is getting passed around is a body of fadish symbols that both patient and doctor agree are deeply significant. Jung's theories will fall flat if it can be shown that the unconscious and the analysis that uncovers it are really a refraction of the best seller list of spiritual hits at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, in league with contemporaneous assumptions about the Germanic people and the dehumanizing effects of Judeo-Christianity, effects that stand in the way of Germans recovering their original identity.
   That said, I find Noll's qualities as a historian troubling in places. Let's agree for the thousandth time not to write about what other people are supposedly thinking or feeling, especially when we weren't there. Then, Noll doesn't do himself any favors when he seems to use Jungian categories to talk about Jung's troubled invention of Jungian analysis. Similarly, even if a book is being written for a popular audience, no one needs to read chapters that start with sentences such as " Without her, he might never have succeeded."
   And, also on the topic of Noll's sense of historiography, how about some admission of negative evidence? Is it just as Noll has it in this book, or are there spaces for doubt? Wouldn't the book have been stronger to let in some doubt about the narrative that Noll constructs for Jung's life, along with some room to debate the selection and interpretation of evidence? History _is_ interpretation, of course, with the substantiated facts and footnotes in view. And, in my opinion, I think Noll goes too easy on Jung's anti-semitism -- it's appalling what Jung said and wrote about Jews (and Christians for that matter), not to mention evidence presented in the French reviews of this book that Jung went on the radio in support of Hitler in 1932 or 1933. Arguably, this story could have been cast even darker than Noll has it.
   At the end of the book, I am left with the two sentiments. First, Noll has done us all a favor -- I read Jung in my early 20's and didn't know what he was talking about or how to contextualize him -- now, with Noll's assistance, I have a way to situate Jung in the milieu of the likes of Ernst Haeckel and Ernst Junger. Second, Jung now, justly, appears as a symptom of his time: another German writer desparate to recover his Germanness at any cost, and fired up with Goethe, Nietzsche, and Max Muller, hopes that the unconscious and Jungian analysis will be his highway to the Teutonic soul and salvation -- a rather pathetic and truly atavistic hope, all in all.
   Three questions remain: 1) why it took nearly 100 years to figure this out; 2) why modern readers find Jung so captivating - the answer isn't going to be flattering; and 3) what to do next in light of the deep influence that Jung has had on the formal study of religion in America and Europe, especially as refracted through the works of Eliade Mircea which, though tilting Jung's project somewhat away from the Germanic focus (Eliade's relation in the 1930's to the Romanian fascist group, the Iron Guard, is another matter to be dealt with), still share much of the basic plan of recovering archaic man and his chthonic spirituality in a quasi-Jungian effort to return to primitive homo religioso. Don't we really need to understand this phenomenon of "reactionary modernism" and see how problematic it really is? And, similarly, shouldn't we awaken the likes of Karen Armstrong and other who draw so heavily on Jung and Eliade, to the troubled tradition to which they belong, even as they promise to save us from ourselves?
   In sum, though I wish Noll wrote history with less purple prose, I am sure that his work will continue, deservedly, to be part of the self-evaluation that Religious Studies, at least in America, began roughly a decade ago.
   And, for the prospective buyer who has read my lengthy review: buy the book!



4. This book is an example of Richard Noll's self loathing. One writes a negative, critically dissective, slanderous account of another if and only if that individual has certain secrets or behavioral predilections that conjure an amount of resentment and regret in that individual's Self. Perhaps Noll's feminine half, his anima, or shall we say, his own aryan-poking-fun unconscious, meant to flash a slight knowing smile admitting such - while his self-righteous, or perhaps self-emulating, conscious half, and he is surely a half, not a whole, constructed this work of laughable fiction attempting to damage the personality of a man who understood more than Noll ever will.
   
   However, I'm sure Jung appreciates, as do I, a serious wannabe humorist. Who wouldn't? It is clear that Noll himself does not understand the projection of his own Aryan obsession though the character of Jung. Perhaps, one might suspect, Noll does not grasp the fact that Jung himself is an archetype, and his connect-the-dots method of observing himself as such was what gave him his objective/subjective analysis of reality.
   
   Of course Jung is limited; he is limited as anyone is by the personality by which others record the physical presence. Yet Jung admits this himself - frequently he refers to psychology as a modern version of alchemy. Jung persists in acknowledging that psychology is the beginning and the end of grasping the human psyche and what comes after. Words after all are words, and where ever you go, there you are. I'm sure Noll twists his lip at Wilhelm Reich as well.
   This is a good comedy.



5. As you can see from the diversity of viewpoints expressed both here and in reviews of Noll's "The Jung Cult", this is a highly controversial history of Jung's work with an emphasis on aspects that Noll claims have been suppressed. When I was debating whether or not to buy this book, I found one seemingly scholarly review that called it "bad history" and, just now wondering whether I should say what I am about to write, I did further searches and found several other, seemingly reasonable reviews which take Noll to task for bad scholarship. So, as one should always, I will try to remain open to the possibility that I have been misled. But the diary extracts, letters, and other source material from which Noll's conclusions are drawn are carefully footnoted and mostly gleaned from libraries where anyone could easily show deception if that were the case. So, for the moment, Noll has convinced me that there is a dark side (both in the Jungian and conventional sense) to Jung.
   
   I came to this book with a very high regard for Jung and seeing him as a guardian of truth in standing up to Freud's dogmatic insistence on the sexual basis of all neuroses. I still regard Jung as brilliant and having made extremely important contributions to humanity, but I now see a more balanced picture. Freud may have been too focused on sexuality, but apparently so was Jung, although in a much more personal way. Noll provides a convincing picture of Jung as being secretly dogmatic that a form of free love is essential to psychological health. Jung's sexual relationships with patients and coworkers, and his advice to patients to have extramarital affairs seem incontrovertible based on the evidence presented here.
   
   I suspect that much of the criticism of Noll is based on his evidence that Jung was heavily into an Aryan world viewpoint, which immediately conjures up Nazi stereotypes in our minds. Noll repeatedly tries to counteract that understandable tendency, saying for example (last paragraph of the Introduction) "But the most troublesome part of this story comes from asking you, the reader, to do the morally impossible: to imagine a world - fin-de-siecle German Kultur - in which the words "Hitler" and "Nazi" and "Holocaust" do not exist."
   
   Along these lines, it helps to remember that many intelligent, respectable, well-meaning Americans (e.g., Lindberg, Joseph Kennedy Sr.) were early Nazi supporters, just as many were early Communist supporters. The horrendous evils perpetrated in the names of Aryanism and Communism were not present in their early philosophies. It also helps to remember that anti-Semitism and racism in general were the cultural norm througout the world until well into the 1960's or 1970's. It was almost impossible NOT to be prejudiced in Jung's time. (A related book that touches on psychoanalysis and anti-Semitism and that I highly recommend is Bakan's "Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition.")
   
   Another problem concerns Noll's evidence that Jung disparaged Christianity and secretly reverted to (as well as secretly proselytized for) an ancient, pagan, Aryan religion. Such a move will be seen through a highly distorting filter if viewed in the context of today's Christianity. Again, it is hard, but important, to view Jung's choices in terms of the dogmatic Swiss-German Christianity of the late nineteenth century.
   
   As with most movements that believe they have the secret to saving the world, many Jungians idealize their prophet and make him into a kind of god. In contrast, the picture that emerges from "Aryan Christ" is of a brilliant man -- but a man not a god and therefore with all the attendant human frailties. The danger is in forgetting Jung's humanity.

5 comments about "The End of All Diseases": An Obscure San Diego Genius Develops A Cure For Cancer In 1930.

1. Save you money on this turkey...I was looking for facts, not fiction. Of all the books I have read on Rife, this was close to being the worst of them all. Patric



2. This book combines a scanmag account of a persecuted man with an unintelligible description of his device that only a mad scientist could love or understand. There's only a small bit that I as a practitioner/patient might find actually useful.
   
   What makes Rife's life worth knowing about is just how significant his work was. It undermined the theories that Pasteur died defending--though ironically his journals told a different story. Its application was simple and practical, provided that a practitioner learn how to tweak his machine for each patient. Tragically, that is the knowledge that died a premature death with Rife.
   
   Happily others are now picking up its trail again. A quick search of this very site will also lead to many books from scientists who have been building on Rife's work; from these we can find tools for our own healing.
   
   In the meantime, for those interested in the life of a fascinating yet sad figure, there's a much more judicious account of Rife's life and work in the much better book "50 Years of Suppression: The Cancer Cure that Worked". That book also makes clear the scientific implications of his findings in the context of other scientists of his times. Look for it.



3. If one is interested in getting serious information on R. R Rife, avoid this book. This title is a bit misleading; it should probably be marketed as a chic novel and/or made into a movie as suggested in another review. The search for salient information on Dr. Rife is scant and literature involving sensuality and sexuality is rife (sorry for that), in my opionion when I want to read the latter I'll go to a place where other writers are much more facile with the erotic genre. I give this one star for the information implied within.



4. To much conspiracy to be beleivable. However, it is a fiction so it does not have to be believable. Not very well written in my opinion.



5. By the cover you would never know it is a ( VERY Poor) piece of fiction, written as if an adolescent was given a high school assignment and was just passed an article about Royal Rife the day before. I'd say someone owes me 10 bucks, but that old adage of a fool and his money soon being parted, keeps running through my mind.

5 comments about Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon.

1. A visual gem; this book is one that even those with just a passing interest in space history would enjoy. In addition to the numerous photos, the text is extremely cogent and well written. It covers all major aspects of the apollo program in a highly informative and entertaining manner. The book is of a very high quality and will not disappoint.



2. Outstanding book. It should be required reading for kids in high school. The only downside to this book is that it is printed in China. It's rather ridiculous to read about America's greatest achievement in a book printed by communist Chinese.



3. This is a very comprehensive read which takes you from the beginning of the space age through to what might have been if the momentum had not been lost around 1970.
   
   The illustrations are some of the best I've ever seen and counterpoint the text superbly. There are none which are there just to look good, they all have a well defined reason for being where they are in the body of the book.
   There is plenty of input from the people who were involved and a lot of the adventures are recalled in quite thrilling prose. It even manages to convince the reader that the technology really was there to establish bases on the moon and go to mars using the Saturn V booster. It leaves the reader with a clear feeling of NASA's betrayal by Richard Nixon, portaying him, albeit subtly, as someone willing to take the credit for Kennedy's commitment but unwilling to extend the legacy.
   
   The book is somewhat spoiled by the fact that it is written very much from a cold war perspective. That the great and the good of the American people can overcome any adversary and that all other ideologies are wrong. A non-American is likely to find this a little sycophantic and it does leave a sour taste in the mouth in view of recent political activity, regardless of your enthusiasm for the subject. That it acknowledges that the space shuttle has failed in it's charter on just about every level since it's conception compounds the folly of the writer.
   
   This should not put you off from buying this book. First hand accounts from the astronauts and the eye candy in this book alone make it worth the price. Yet it is the story it tells which is most compelling. It's an absolute must for any enthusiast. Even the All-American (which to be fair, it was) narrative is not sickly enough to stop me recommending it



4. This book was a great resource to learn in depth about the history, people, technology and politics which was the genesis of the space program. Also, what the author captures uniquely well is the sense of imagination and wonder involved - the dream of space. That one reviewer dismisses this as 'childish' and 'inaccurate' is sad, because it's exactly that which inspired so many in America and the world, to look to the stars and understand the reach of human potential. (That includes me - as a child, btw). The personalities of the people who helped drive the program are inseparable from what was accomplished, and I was fascinated to hear more about figures like Von Braun and the Apollo astronauts. Though the writing can wax a little poetic at times, it's more than balanced by a thorough level of historical and technical detail.
   
   I highly recommend Apollo as an inspiring book for anyone who has even a moderate interest in space. I think it'd make a great book for younger people with a technical bent too.



5. I am a space nerd - majored in space physics, minored in space studies, worked in the space industry. Am enthralled with the Apollo program and have studied it extensively. This book does have a few minor errors, but they in no way detract from the thorough examination of the Apollo program. The book is worth its weight in charts, maps, diagrams and photographs alone. For example, I had never seen maps of the tracks of where each Apollo mission did its EVAs on the moon.
   
   I refute the claim that this book is aimed at children - I doubt any standard kid would understand Delta V and Isp and hypergolic fuels and translunar insertions. I think having a background in rocketry helped me enjoy the book more, not less.

No comments about Faces of Science: Portraits.

1 comments about Jane Goodall: A Biography.

1. The book is not very in depth, but perfect for a young grade school child who needs someone amazing to report on. It might even inspire them to read up and research her even more to get a more detailed account of what she has done and is currently working on.