Cosmos Books

Vandermeer created a very interesting city with a very absorbing (if unresolved) mystery. I'll have to start leaving mushrooms out of my spaghetti sauce, though. The characters were weird enough to satisfy me and flawed enough to be interesting. There were more Madmen than Saints - no surprise there. Fortunately, I have a habit of checking all books for end material. The addition of a glossary was a good idea (though not required reading and incomplete).

Now for the negatives. The book started great and the first half had me involved. The second half went downhill though. Much of it added little to the "story". A map of Ambergris would have greatly helped this book.

All in all, this was fun to read and I'll be reading more of his books.

Very original Very good The fantasy is top grade and the stories are all colorful. Very worth checking out

This is a hard book to describe. The first word that springs to mind is "eccentric", followed quickly by words like "inspired" and "madness".

The book covers the fictional city of Ambergris, its festivals, its ambiguous history (especially involving the fungoidal gray caps), and its weird obsessions (especially around fungi and squid). It takes the form of a collection of stories, notes, and odd appendixes. I initially found the first story rather disappointing as a standalone tale, but it quickly becomes clear that the overall work is much greater than any of the individual pieces. As I read through, I found it often useful to consult or revisit earlier parts of the book (especially Dr V's notes) while assessing later parts.

The work is heavily multi-layered. The second story "The Early History of Ambergris" should be valued as much for the footnotes as for the main text. Many of the stories and notes are written from a perspective that turns out to be oddly skewed and which is criticized in other notes or stories. In addition, several of the stories take the form of works of fiction written within the fictional world, which means they should not be taken as representing "actual" events in the "real" Ambergris.

It's definitely worth reading all the assorted appendices, even those which it may initially be tempting to skip over. For example, one appendix includes a 38 page fictional bibliography, which by itself is moderately amusing, but which also contains annotations which slowly shed essential light on the earlier text. Similarly, there is a 71 page glossary of Ambergis which is less directly revealing, but which is still an important part of the overall work. I also loved the delightfully mocking "Note on Fonts" at the end, which uses pretentious wine connoisseur terminology "... a hint of orange peel ..." to describe the fonts, real and imaginary, used in the book.

A strange work, but it was fun to read, so four stars.

I bought this online because none of the local libraries had it, and it was recommended to me by someone who knew my tastes well. _City_ is one of a number of amazing experimental (I rather hope I may be forgiven for using that term) novels that seem to shred a number of different-but-related stories and then reassemble them into a work greater than the sum of the parts. I have been trying to come up with a term for these novels -- perhaps someone already has -- "story collage" comes to mind, as well as "synergistic novel", and a few sillier ones.

I am pleased to live in a time where there is so much innovation. Vandermeer works his craft with exceeding skill.

It is hard to avoid acknowledging the intelligence behind this work but it is equally hard to understand the point. The author dislikes his characters and his city, focusing on ugliness, squalor, stench, and scat. There is a lot of shocking and unpleasant material often told in a highly imaginative and creative fashion. The writing is erudite, complex, and sophisticated but also full of hatred for the characters. I could not find any psychological realism or meaningful plots but did find vivid, pungent, toilet imagery.

One of the worst things a reader can do with a book I did with this one. I seeing the title thought the work would be a long meditation on Man's place in the Cosmos, relation to other possible Life and Intelligence- a deep probing into the question of our 'cosmic meaning'. In a sense it does touch on the matters I mentioned but it operates in an unexpected way, in which it makes use of all kinds of questions, and tests to take a wide- ranging look at human nature. In fact Percy's initial claim is that Man is the only Alien creature in the Cosmos the one who knows more about Jupiter and Saturn than he does about his own nature. In a sense the work is an effort at exploring human nature and self- hood in an amusing and original fashion in which all kinds of cultural elements, high and low are brought into the mix. Sounds like it should be tremendously entertaining, and a number of reviewers have commented on how hilarious the section is in which Percy includes material from and takes off on the Donahue television show.
But this said the book did not really work for me on the line- by - line basis. i.e. Many interesting topics were being considered but I did not particularly feel I was getting Pascalian, or Kierkegaardian wisdom in consideration of them.
But again I may have missed this one.
I will say that anyone interested in exploring the Self and the Meaning of Human Nature will certainly find in the great variety of subjects considered here something of value, some insight they have not had before.

Walker Percy is very much a modern-day Pascal, in that he is wrapped up in the project of waking up modern man from his numb, jaded, over-entertained stupor into realizing what a predicament he is in. It's an existentialist concern, in the Christian-existentialist sense of Kierkegaard, especially insofar as both Percy and the Melancholy Dane are obsessed with the problem of subjectivity, and our awareness of it, and the paltry ways we try, unsuccessfully, to transcend it.

So, this is NOT really a humor/satire book, per se, although the dust jacket's description tries to bill it as such (perhaps to expand the market appeal? Feh!). Early on, though, there is a send-up of the Phil Donahue show that is just *hilarious*. Most of the book is a series of (fairly involved) rhetorical questions, about such things as who in a hypothetical situation you would identify with the most, and why. The way the questions are counterposed, one could accuse Percy of making his points backhandedly via strawman-demolition, but that would be beside the point. Percy's overall aim is to get at the background of all our operating assumptions, and the ways in which we judge and evaluate others in relation to self, and what that says about what kind of thing man is.

In the middle of the book is a digression on semiotics, the theory of signs. One of Percy's central ideas here is that man's cardinal innovation over other animals is his use of signs and not just signals. The "sign" usage is essentially triangular, involving subject, object, and the intersubjective sign, whereas an animal "signal" is two-dimensional, such as "danger, run away." All of our thought and communication is predicated on that sign-based three-dimensional framework. The self constantly has to situate oneself with respect to other selves and in the intersubjective framework that marks our communicative network.

The main human predicament is that that intersubjective framework is essentially unstable due to our confusion about ourselves, and our desire to cover up our insecurities. No solution to this problem is forced upon the reader, although some suggestion of one is implied. The humanist and religious outlooks are both presented, fairly, I think, and the reader is left to evaluate the human condition as portrayed.

The book ends with a couple of arresting sci-fi scenarios, that for thought-provocation, I haven't seen since the likes of Arthur C. Clarke's _Childhood's End._ This is a no-holds-barred look at ourselves that is rewarding as it is unflinchingly realistic, and I highly recommend it.

As some of the other reviews suggest, this is not a book full of side-splitting humor. However, it is humorous and contains a number of worthwhile observations about everyday life.

One review describes it as "nihilistic," but I cannot agree. I found this book to be the exact opposite.

If you have already made up your mind that God/religion/spirituality have no part to play in modern life, then you will probably not care for this book. For everybody else, it is definitely a worthwhile read.

Walker Percy is at his best in this fiendishly clever parody of a self-help book. Through a series of provocative questions, he forces the reader to recognize how complicated as well as downright peculiar the human being is, a creature whose nature and deepest desires can not be satisfied by the cheaply proffered "self-esteem" or other banalities of the self-help movement. Not only are we odd, according to Percy, but equally so is the very planet on which we find ourselves. Percy's ultimate aim, then, is a metaphysical one, to reawaken the reader to a concrete sense of mystery within and without. He seeks to upset the apple cart of complacency induced by many self-help gurus fully at home in the world. He challenges their readers to engage instead in a deeper search for meaning and truth.

Clearly I was not the target audience for old Walker. I've read obituaries funnier than this, and as another reviewer pointed out, it reminded me as well of long and pointless and self-satisfied conversations with other guys in the dorm, although we occasionally arrived at a conclusion. I was hoping for a spoof, so that's my fault, but even after I had shifted gears on my expectations I could never get into his post-modern, nihilistic points. The only other re-occurring theme seemed to be that if you don't know who you are, where you are, why you're here, or where you're going- then you are certainly superior to those fundamentalist hicks.

I thought I was as neurotic as the next guy, but I'm a piker by Walker P's standards. In fact, I think if you can get up and dress yourself you're probably too healthy and decisive for this book.

I will acknowledge that the book has a bit of a pre-test, and if you score about anything on the pre-test then he candidly admits the book is not for you. I bought the book on Amazon- hard to thumb through and take the pre-test. Score one for the old-fashioned book buying method.

If you are not already a Percy fan and have dreams of becoming one, I'd skip this book for now and go with one of his other books first; that is unless you really enjoy unfunny, open-ended, pseudo-philosophical questions.

The 'method' of authorship of this book is sometimes referred to as 'channeling', although it must be noted the quality and variety of material claiming to be 'channeled' does vary enormously. The final 'proof' of anything can only be in its usefulness to the growth of the individual. I can only vouch that this book has served me like no other.

The word Emmanuel means 'God is with us', and if you are a soul who finds meaning and faith in the deeper reality of love, then you too may find your own divinity reflected back to you in this book.

This first Emmanuel's book is particularly striking to me in its comprehensive clarity, insight, and compassion for the human condition. The words speak directly to my humanity from the knowing light I once experienced in a 'Near Death like' experience. Emmanuel presents 'himself' as a 'spiritual entity', a being of light who has completed a whole round of incarnations on earth. He has an extraordinary depth of compassion and appreciation for the duality of human condition. One example: 'He' has a distinctly human appreciation of irony and humor, something other 'spiritual entities' may lack if they have not spent (valuable) time in the human realm.

Emmanuel's Books are presented in a question and answer format. There are few exercises as such, other than inspirations to question suffering, darkness, fear and guilt, and constant reminders of the eternal validity of love - of Self - of truth.

I have been deeply grateful for Emmanuel's wisdom in my life. Very highly recommended.

I hate to judge a book like this based on only one issue, but as a gay man, this is an important issue for me. In answer to the question "What role does homosexuality play in human relationship?", Emmanual gives the following answer (I'll use slashes instead of the poetic line breaks):

"A necessary one./It is a means of loving./It is a means of reaching for oneness./It is a means to camouflage fear./It is, in short, a path.

"It is difficult to accept unification/because you live in a world/that encourages the either-or illusion./But things are becoming more closely aligned./Many people are learning to accept/their androgynous natures./Some express it in homosexuality,/which is an overstatement, however,/because of the need to accept/the sexual structure of the physical world./Nevertheless, in the long run/it is a healthy statement in your civilization./Ultimately we are all androgynous."

Despite the apparently encouraging beginning ("It is necessary"), this passage is troubling for several reasons. Homosexuality is defined as "a means to camouflage fear," whereas heterosexual relationships are not defined thus. Next, Emmanuel seems to identify homosexuality with androgeny, which are obviously two different things. A man can be extremely masculine and gay, just as a man can be feminine in some ways and be straight.

Then Emmanuel says that homosexuality is an "overstatement," whatever that means, "because of the need to accept the sexual structure of the physical world." Emmanuel seems to be saying here that homosexuality is somehow less favorable because of an inherent heterosexual structure to the physical world.

I cannot believe that the God which Emmanuel describes throughout the book would really care or choose to distinguish between the genders of two souls who reach out to each other. Perhaps Emmanuel's views on this subject are colored by Pat Rodegast's own confused and ambivalent attitudes toward homosexuality.

Thanks but no thanks.

Someone I did not know handed me this book about 18 years ago and said, "Here I think you should read this." They were right. It changed my entire outlook on life and has been my only comfort in some very difficult times. For those who are ready to hear the truth, this is it.

The gentleness and love in this book are palpable. I love looking at life through Emmanuel's eyes. He gently yet forcefully leads the reader to a sense of power and oneness.

I read this book when it first came out and recommended it to hundreds of people. Seth is a classic but Emmanuel makes it so much easier to understand the same concepts.

I bought this book 15 years ago and I have purchased several since for friends and family in circumstances when I thought they might benefit from Emmanuel's sage advice. I don't know for sure if Emmanuel is a real spirit channeling through Pat Rodegast but I do know that everything he (or she) has to say has struck the chord of Truth within me and has given me comfort and strength whenever my faith in something greater than myself begins to waiver. Emmanuel is like a brilliant, wise and loving friend that is always there if you need them. This book is like taking a deep relaxing breath. There is nothing negative about it. That is why I still have this book after all these years and why I highly recommend it.

Lee Smolin's life of the cosmos is revolutionary. Before I read the book, I didn't particularly like the idea of relating cosmic evolution to biological evolution, but Lee Smolin makes some excellent points. Life may indeed be modeled after non-life. Compelling evidence is also presented regarding his black hole ideas, which is a great alternative to other theories in the field.

The one downside to this book is the small print & verbose vocabulary of the author. At times, you almost need a dictionary by your side, & the average word must be eight letter long. However, if you make it through this revolutionary work, you'll never look at the universe or life the same way again. Overall this book is literally a beast to read, but in the end, it is well spent money & well spent time. Far too many scientists are scared to think on their own & hence there are too many books that sound exactly the same. This simply isn't one of them.

I was looking forward to reading this book (despite the tiny type size mentioned previously) but found myself struggling with it. This is not because it is too technical, but more becaue of the verbose style of the author. The text is filled with tautologies and sentences that just don't make sense. One can get the gist of what Smolin is saying, but the repetition at times within the same paragraph was annoying enough to take the shine off the story. The book could be quite a bit shorter. The copious typos didn't help either.

That said, there is plenty if interesting stuff to ponder here. Perhaps because Smolin is trying to appeal to a popular audience, I sometimes found his explanations lacking in depth - for example, the assertion that certain parameters that determine the composition of the universe and its hospitability to life are fine-tuned to an accuracy of one part in 10 to the 60th power. Not being a physicist or mathematician, I can only take what Mr Smolin says at face value. I'm also not sure about black holes being the generators of new universes - it strikes me as an idea that can never betested or proved. Perhaps the development of the grand theory that Mr Smolin ultimately hopes for will provide further support for his cosmological natural selection, through testing of new mathematical models. But I still feel that much of what he is saying will always remain beyond the scope of science, and to a large degree must be taken on faith. But I take my hat off to him for thinking so big.

There is no question that this book is the product of an unbounded thinker of possibilities. Lee Smolin's opening description of the history and current state of theoretical physics is highly understandable and makes a more compelling (albeit unconscious) argument for Intelligent Design theory rather than his one of "Cosmic Natural Selection." What is interesting is professor Smolin's rejection a priori of any answer lying outside the realm of human observation. He then summarily proposes to describe our universe as "naturally selected" to maximize the quantity of black holes; they of course being the "wombs" of new universes with their own black holes, etc. I have to ask, "Why must they create universes; why not leprechauns or fairies, for both of which we have minimally far more observational testimony"? To quote Davies & Brown from their "Ghost in the Atom", the many-worlds interpretation "introduces a preposterous amount of `excess metaphysical baggage' into our description of the physical world." Rudolph Peierls, formerly at Oxford, dismisses such a theory with a simple question: "Since we have no means of seeing or ever communication with the other universes, why invent them?" It is easily more probable to believe that 10 space/time dimensions really do coexist than to buy into a theory composed of: an infinite number of ever expanding (non-colliding?) universes, created by some unknown mechanism, in some unknown space, for some unknown reason. Who says faith is outside the realm of science? If a new theory is truly needed now, this seems an unlikely candidate.

Lee Smolin's speculative book is revolutionary.
For him, physics are not mathematics, but biology. Cosmology is a question of natural selection. This selection happens via black holes, where universes are created with slightly different random new values for the parameters of the standard model in physics.
There are no eternal laws, only worlds which are the result of random and statistical processes of self-organization.

I agree, there are a lot of ifs in this book, with a crucial one on p. 93: 'If quantum effects prevent the formation of singularities ... then time does not end in the centre of black holes, but continues into some new region of space-time.'

Smolin explains that behind the central principles of relativity and quantum mechanics lies the essential fact that 'All properties of things in the world are only aspects of relations among real things, so that they may be decribed without reference to any absolute background structures.' (p.259)
For Smolin, the future of physics is to find a solution for the tension between the atomist description of elementary particles, and their relational use in the gauge principle. He believes that string theory is part of the solution.

Smolin's point of view is partly shared by the late Nobel Prize winner Ilya Prigogine in his difficult book 'The End of Certainty'.

Even if his theory is falsified, this book is a real bargain, because it contains magnificently clear (a real bonus) explanations of the 4 basic forces in physics, the gauge principle, symmetry breaking, quantum mechanics, gravity, the second law of thermodynamics, the theory of natural selection, Leibniz's philosophy, the reason why mathematical and logical truths may be eternal ... I could go on.
Into the bargain, it contains a deadly attack on determinism and a very polite but definitive refutation of the anthropic principle.

A great book by a true and free humanist.

The author's hypothesis is that universes evolve by reproduction (via black holes) and natural selection (of fundamental physical constants). No thrill compares with an intellectual thrill, and this book is as good as it gets. I was high and exhilarated while reading and remained so for days afterwards. The experience made me wonder if it is too late for me to go into physics myself. It is fun to think along with the author about really big questions, even the biggest of all. Thank you Lee Smolin for sharing your excitement with the rest of us.

While the book was written well grammatically, the overall presentation of the story was very dull. There was a great deal of detail but it was all presented in a manner that left me with a "Yeah, so what?" feeling. The main character starts out as a lazy, self-centered teenager and perhaps he improved a little by the end of the book but really, who cares? This is the only book by this author that I have read and it does not encourage me to read any others.

All of Lawrence Watt-Evans books are wonderful. Please print these in hardcover though!!! I hope somebody is listening out there.

This is the second book in the Ethshar series. We are introduced to Tobas, the main character of this book, who starts off in the book as a basically a lazy bum. Early in the book he is constantly looking for a scheme so he can enjoy the good life without working for it. Tobas talks a wizard into taking him in as an apprentice; unfortunately the wizard dies after teaching Tobas only a single spell. Tobas ends up having several adventures.

Lawrence Watt-Evans is publishing online "The Spriggan Mirror." This is the ninth book in his Legends of Ethshar series. I read a couple chapters and found them well written and fun. Amazon's guidelines ask that URLs not be included in a review, but if you'd like to read about Lawrence's efforts to publish online, go into goggle, search for "The Spriggan Mirror" and you'll find the web page.

"With a Single Spell" sets much of the background for "The Spriggan Mirror." It is in "With a Single Spell" that Tobas creates the mirror that causes so much havoc.

"With a Single Spell" is a fun story. It is well written and moves along quickly. Lawrence Watt-Evans writes a well fleshed out world of magic. Tobas travels through various parts of this world so we get a good feeling for this detail rich environment.

Tobas joins a group of men who are going to try to slay a dragon which has been terrorizing a small kingdom. He ends up traveling to another world, rescues a woman there, and then comes back to Ethshar to finally face the dragon. By now he has learned enough to more effectively fight with the dragon.

If you like fantasy, or have enjoyed any of the other Ethshar stories, this a good book to buy.

Tired of epic stories that go on and on and on? Sick of novels in which the Hero saves the world five times and that's just in chapter one? Hate it when you read a book and find out it is number six in a series of twenty and if you read them out of order they will never make sense? Ever have a fantasy novel in which the time line and appendixs take up more space than the story?
Than the works of Lawrence Watt-Evans is for you. Light fantasy, great taste, not boring. Each novel in the Ethshar series uses the same setting, history and magical rules but are not linked in any way. They are a series of stand alone novels! You can pick up any of them and enjoy them in any order you want!
With a Single Spell is where I started and, boy, am I happy I finally opened the pages. I'm not normally into fantasy for many of the reasons above but this book, while not trying to be a comedy, does give us the lighter side of a magical land. We follow Tobas, a young wizard or an old apprentice, who knows only one spell on his way to finding a life. But what can he do with one spell? One SPELL! Yet he has to go make a living in a world where magic is repected but also not that uncommon. Pirates, big cities and dragons, oh my!
I will not give away the ending but I have to say the book did seem to go a tad slow at first. I am going to collect the other books and maybe search out some of his other series as well. Anybody who loves fantasy should get this book.

When I read this book for the first time I was inspired. Finally an author had imbued originality into Fantasy. Many of the cliche plots needed in fantasy were missing, and to my amazement a character with very little promise or power became a hero.
Here was a boy with the high hope of becoming a powerful mage, but after his teacher dies he is left with only one spell. The way the author turns this into a very interesting yet simple novel intrigued me.
Lawrence Watt-Evans is one of the few Fantasy authors that really explores the fantasy genre, creating different ways to turn it on it's head.
One of the few books that actually made me laugh...how often does a fantasy novel do that and still retain a rich world that isn't comical and foolish.

The Extravagant Universe is an interesting read, taking you through the career of Professor Kirshner as well as an overview of the components of the universe and astronomy. Particularly interesting are the descriptions of how the researchers use supernovae to measure the expansion of the universe. Likewise, other scientific discussions, such as how the different elements in the universe were formed are well detailed.

However, I was hoping for a more detailed discussion of dark matter and a greater focus on the scientific concepts.

I would recommend this book if you're looking for a story of the evolution of a discovery and the twists and turns of the research behind it. If you're looking for a pure description of the theories discussed in The Extravagant Universe, this book may fall short.

I loved this book!!
Very informative but easy to understand.
I read it 4 times!!

Dr. Kirshiner spins a good yarn. The focus of the book is mostly on the story and history of the accelerating universe theory, presented in a very readable style. I would only fault the book in that after reading it, while I'm now comfortable with the idea of the accelerating universe, I would have liked to see more of the science and math involved. It's a great overview, though; recommended!

Who may resist the irresistible magnetism of an unfinished and always explored issue like this one?. This is indeed, one of the hottest topics in the modern science, supported by an easy lexicon and remarkable information.

The writing is excellent. He has a nice way of describing things.

I wish the book focussed more on describing physical processes. For example, he briefly defines a cepheid on p. 62 (of the hardcover edition) and uses the term often. But I wish he spent some time describing exactly what a cepheid is. He couldn't spare 10 pages, or even 5, on the subject?

Depsite these reservations, I found the first half of the book very interesting, especially the issue of the cosmological constant and how it went out of fashion and then back in.

Then beginning with Chapter 8 ("Learning to Swim"), the book become more of a journal of what happened. I made it through chapter 8, but then I finally put the book down in chapter 9. Here's an example, taken completely out of context. On p. 216 (hardcover): "The weeks passed quickly in Pasadena while Adam and I went back and forth about the latest results. Did we really believe we were seeing the effects of a cosmological constant?" It goes on and on like this. There's too much "We did this", "I said that", or "Then we thought that". Yawn. Just get to the point and tell us what the heck is going on with the universe. Where did the physics go?

When Paul Brunton decided to take up a long journey into mystical India in search of its secret spirituality he must have had a genuine urge to study Indian spirituality. The thirst to get a real `Darshan' of a true yogi. He had something more than a journalists' inquiring mind. During his days India was ruled by Gora (white) Sahibs and the Indian treasure in terms of its spirituality, herb medicines, yoga etc. lay hidden from the world. The world was just amazed by the new scientific inventions taking place in the west. Indians themselves had begun doubting their ancient systems and methods. To set his foot in India in those times to discover its hidden mysticism is quite commendable.
Paul Brunton lands in Bombay from where he begins his mystical experiences and travels south in search of a true yogi. His experiences which he jots down in very lucid English are a pleasure to read.

A critical eye looks at the old world yoga. Great story! Great view into this world that few understand. This is one of my favorite books of all time.

With Paul Brunton we have a combination of three things, a Journalist who writes exceedingly well, someone who understands western mystical thought and history and an ardent student of eastern mysticism. This combination produces powerful books and 'Search in Secret India' is just one of them. I recommend Paul Brunton's books to anyone who is interested in Mysticism. Just read one of them and you are sure to become a fan.

It is indeed a breathtaking effort by Paul Brunton which has rediscovered the lost acme of human thoughts and the peak of spirituality.

There are Yogis and there are Jnanis.

Yogis, are able to detach themselves from the world at will
and gain control over their mind enough to attempt and acquire union with God, Goodness, Soul, Spirit, at will.

The last phrase, 'at will' is the catch.

Yogis still have their ego (will) in tact.

Their accomplishments may feed and enlarge this ego rather
than help them see its illusoriness and get rid of its hold.

I had the impression that Yogis are ultimately evolved souls, but this book clearly showed that there are Yogis of different
levels of enlightment. A Yogi can gain enormous powers of concentration and become a master of subjects he chooses- even human subjects. He or she may seem and talk and act like an enlightened master (eg Osho), but the veil of Unreality ultimately will catch him or her.

The difficulty with the Yogic path is, and most likely thing to happen, is that one could 'slip' and settle for being a guru or a miracle-worker and thus become bound deeper into a happy, all powerful sense of ego.

Paul Brunton gives many many examples of such people and stays clear of them. As you read the story of his experiences, you
unconsciously internalize the intellectual honesty and quest for
Truth.

He then meets a few Jnanis - more than one is in here. His meetings with Sage of Kanchi and the Maharshi are the satisfying
climax of his Quest. But he also meets very many jnanis - at least two more in Madras (read the one with the outhouse meditator) and an astrologer in Kasi.

A Jnani is one who has understood the Reality of how World is put together and what the Mind is and how the only truth is Pure Awareness that permeates everything all the time. This understanding of the truth, not Yogic practices, characterize
the spontaneity of a Jnani.

Even though the original word Yogi means 'one who is united with God', it is currently being applied to practitioners of Yoga and in general, aspirants, which is why the distinction of yogi and Jnani is made here to point out that make sure to look for a Jnani (one who has attained the understanding of reality) and not to settle for other Gurus - who may be aspirants along the path little farther from us.

Even though a saint and a yogi will eventually attain this Wisdom, it is very important to remember that they are on the path and have to be treated cautiously - for their ability to mislead us. Searching for a guru, it has been said, is like a blind person trying to judge whether his helper can see. If he could say that, he does not need a helper.

Reading this book, the detailed and objective style of which is very characteristic of last century British writing, you can
actually re-live a journey in 1900s India or even rural india of today and gain a sense for clarifying your own quest. THAT, is a rare thing, and the most important.

First introduced to this book by a friends father, I have come back to the book once every two to three years over the last 20 years, each time I have felt the book is still relevant and it
re-vitalizes my outlook - sort of a spiritual compass.

Ravi Annaswamy

The professor, Michio Kaku, has easily become one of my favorite authors. That Einstein was the greatest scientist of the past century there's no doubt. And the author in addition to being a physicist is able to explain, in a warm, and caring way, how Einstein pictured, in his mind, what eventually became his theory of special relativity. But there's more; Prof. Kaku provides us a glimpse of the life, thoughts, frustrations, and accomplishments of Einstein the man as well. An easy, and interesting read for sure.

Just finished the book Einstein's Cosmos, which is a great look into the life of the genius physicist Albert Einstein.

The book has lots of interesting facts about Einstein. Some that i remember: He was born in Germany but he had such a bad experience in his youth, he renounced his citizenship when he was 17

He was always brilliant. There's a myth that he wasn't that smart when he was young. Wrong. He read a Geometry book when he was 12 and LOVED it. Since then he devoured any physics and mathematics he could get his hand on. He hated classes where they wouldn't teach the "interesting topics of the day" and frequently got poor grades. But he was always smart.

One little tidbit i loved hearing about is that he was a total ladies man. In High School ALL the girls wanted to talk to him b/c he had such a funny personality. He was a witty guy - always cracking jokes and having fun. Bottom line: Albert was a stud and had his pick of chicks when he was in college.

Another little interesting piece of gossip - he got his main college girlfriend pregnant but she had moved away and the baby died when it was 3. He eventually had another child with her and paid alimony with his Nobel Prize money. But, as he because more famous and busier, they drifted apart and he moved to Germany, she stayed in Switzerland - leading to eventual divorce. He then became very close to his cousin Elsa, who he later married. From the book it seems that they were a great couple - He the absent-minded disheveled thinker and she the pretty put-together socialite. His tours around the world would have been impossible without her.

The book follows his behavior during the wars, his refusal to support Germany during WWI and his endangerment as a prominent Jew - eventually moving to the states and living at Princeton.

The physics is all easy to understand language. All the cosmic questions that stem from relativity - including the puzzling worm-hole questions are all lined up. I found it a great to read before bedtime book due to the mind benders.

If you're looking to know more about Albert - this is definitely a quick and interesting book.

In this small book Prof. Kaku has created a marvelously entertaining and easy-to-read biography of the scientist whose very name has, somewhat illogically, become synonymous with any and all flavors of genius. As a physicist himself, Kaku enriches the narrative with lucid explanations and personal scientific judgments. He consistently shows a sure hand for striking a nice balance between the extremes of expecting too much, or too little, from the general reader.

The author describes vividly the many fascinating aspects of Einstein's life, including a brief obsession with religion at 11, an uneasy relationship with conventional education, difficulty finding a job, a stint as a patent examiner combined with startlingly original contributions to physics, escape to America from an increasingly Nazified Germany, the triumph of General Relativity, and finally life as a scientific elder statesman at Princeton, doggedly chasing the elusive unified field theory and insisting to the end that the intrinsically probabilistic quantum theory he helped establish could not represent ultimate reality.

Woven into the narrative by Kaku the biographer are many valuable insights from Kaku the physicist. For instance, he counters the popular misconception that relativity brought classical physics crashing down, and that Newton's equations were suddenly revealed as useless or wrong. Relativity did perform the astonishing feat of reducing classical dynamics to a special case, but it is an exceedingly important case which is still used daily by engineers and scientists around the world. In the author's words (p. 65), "...for everyday velocities, Newton's laws are perfectly fine." Kaku contrasts Einstein's accomplishments with today's physics in some interesting ways, including a remark on page 224 proposing that the encyclopedic Standard Model of quantum particle behavior is, despite its predictive success, "...perhaps one of the ugliest theories ever proposed in science." So much for the notion that truth and beauty always go hand in hand.

The author provides an edifying resolution of the famous "twin paradox" by emphasizing that although the relative velocity histories of the moving and stationary twins must be symmetrical and indistiguishable, their histories as recorded by separate accelerometers attached to each twin would be very different. The traveling twin encounters the time stretching effect of large velocity changes with respect to inertial space, hence returns younger than her stay-at-home sibling. The key is to recognize that the required accelerations move the problem out of the limited realm of special relativity.

The book's story line skillfully blends Einstein's professional life with illuminating vignettes of his nonscientific side. For instance, he was not an unqualified pacifist and supported the use of force when challenged by an enemy, such as the German/Japanese alliance in World War II, which pursued destruction of life as an end in itself. Occasionally Einstein could appear shockingly naive, as when he suggested locating the Jewish state in a country such as Peru to avoid replaying the "promised land" conflicts described so vividly in the Old Testament. Odd as it seems, this proposal was consistent with Einstein's way of looking at things, which supported some aspects of Zionism but simply could not countenance any claim to supernatural land grants.

I found only two drawbacks: First, the absence of illustrations was a letdown, especially since Einstein was known for thinking in pictures. Second, lack of an index is frustrating in any non-fiction book, and especially in one as good as this.

The author loves Einstien. Good simplification of Einstiens' work. I gave this a 4 star because I understand more about einsteins theories now than before I read it.

I have gained even more respect for Einstein. From the book, I am impressed that he seems like a real down to earth decent person. He also suffered from many trials and tribulations (like hating school and almost not passing entrance exams, etc.).

Physicists will already be acquainted with nearly everything in this book. For the rest of us, Professor Kaku provides a comfortably woven account of Einstein's personal and professional life. While nearly everyone is familiar with the famous scientist's reputation, few know much about him as a man or his incredible body of work. Einstien's humanity and self-deprecating humor only add to his charm. Surprising to me was his dogged, single-minded pursuit of the solution to relativity. His determination nearly ruined his health and his relationship to his family.

This is a wonderful book for the general reader. No special knowledge of science or physics is needed to thoroughly enjoy it. Highly recommended.

The mathematician, Roger Penrose, whose lectures on singularities launched Stephen Hawking toward Black Holes and the birth/death of our universe also collaborated with artist M.C. Escher. (See my review of GODEL, ESCHER, BACH, Vintage Books, 1979) Somehow, it doesn't surprise me that the theorists who explore Event Horizons, Gravitational Collapse and the like are tangled up with drawings of endless waterfalls, hands drawing themselves and swarms of fish/bugs/birds/bison endlessly morphing. This is a minor sidelight in Overbye's story of the astronomical and mathematical search for the origin and future of space/time - but it is a telling one. The author follows individual careers through the post-WWII cosmology quest and manages to give human scale to, literally, the very biggest story of all. Sit with folks who spend fourteen hour, teeth-chattering nights riding the 200 inch Palomar Telescope, years analyzing fuzzy dots on photographic plates and decades feuding over imagined slights and publishing coups. You will leave with a little clearer understanding of Einstein, Bohr, Hawking and Wheeler and a richer sense of wonder.

This is one of the best books on physics I have read. Not only doees the author Dennis Overbye present the information about the fascinating personalities in astrophysics, cosmology and astronomy, he will actually explain in laymen's terms some of the scientific formulas they were after and why. Wish I had this in school, would have helped me understand all those calculations a little better

Author Dennis Overbye studied physics at MIT and for years has been Deputy Science Editor of the New York Times. He has been associated with science his entire career and his journalistic style stands apart from the usual writings of scientists. I have yet to find a scientist write something like, "photographic plates whose grains were hysterical for the light that had left some star or galaxy before the human race was born."

Overbye spent some five years attending PhD cosmology seminars and conducting recurrent weeks-long working interviews with world-class scientists. What results is a series of mini-biographical sketches of the important players while new technologies blew this exciting field wide open - and the never-ending fight for who would get credit.

For those interested only in the history, technical and scientific paragraphs are easy enough to skip, but the interspersed science is manageable under Overbye's direction. I learned the easy way - about ages of stars, anthropic principle, antimatter, background radiation, black holes, big bang theory, bottom-up theory of galaxy formation - just a few items selected from the "a's" and "b's" in the index.

Although the book was published in 1991, the science is still almost current. Recent publications suggest there have been no new significant findings in physics in the immediate past decade (although astronomy has been booming). This is a great read, and a valuable kick-start in my on-going efforts to understand particle physics and cosmology.

In Overbye's "Lonely Hearts" the reader will find a contemporary history of one of the most exciting fields of science in the 20th century. Told with a personal style that helps the reader understand that the both the scientists and the science exist in a very real sociological frame work, the narrative focuses on the developments in answering, "What is the Earth's place in the cosmos?" and "What is the fate of the universe?"

Overbye centers his story around the life of Allan Sandage, the sometimes hesitant successor to Hubble. In examining his life as well as the lives of numerous other astronomers and physicists he helps the reader see both the high and the lows of a life of pursuing knowledge in a scientific context. He also helps us understand the sometimes rough and tumble world of publication, scientific ego and underlying uncertainty found in such pursuits.

The only drawback is that the book's original edition was written so long ago. While the newer edition seeks to add more information about recent progress in the field, there is a lack of the exploration of the personalities that are doing the science. Additionally, even with the update, the book is once again somewhat behind the latest work in the field.

That having been said, I still strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in astronomy or physics as well as for anyone who is a student in the history of science. I would also recommend this book for students seeking to pursue a career in the sciences. The book does a wonderful job of showing what a person must do to be successful and what obstacles a person faces when following that path.

Okay, I KNOW I'm a little biased, being an astronogrl and all, but this book is an AMAZING read! It reads like a novel, and yet contains so many interesting astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology concepts, that it will blow you away. Covers everything from the big bang to inflation to black holes to string theory to dark matter... Dennis Overbye (the author) has hob-nobbed with so many big names and been able to glean personal interviews that you begin to feel like you know these people and their astronomy struggles. And don't worry; This book contains no equations. This book makes me excited to do astronomy and it is the best book I have read this year and will always remain one of my favorites.

This was my second book by Mircea Eliade, and it is very similar in content to his more basic introduction book "The Sacred and the Profane", detailing mostly the so-called Archaic religions views on time and space and related issues of religion. Naturally, being a bit longer, it also is more focused and in many ways more interesting for me personally, since a lot of it deals with the Indo-European concept of the ages and the Cosmos. Eliade was a professor of the history of religions at the University of Chicago, among other things, but he was also very well travelled, having studied under the guidance of an Indian yogi back in Mother India. He was born in Rumania, a contemporary of the European idealist freedom fighter Corneliu Codreanu in the 30's, and in fact a member of the Legion of the Archangel Michael, a radical "Right-wing" religious organization opposed to the project of creating a new Israel on Rumanian soil.

Although Eliade throughout his life claimed to be very "apolitical", his views on religion have a natural conservative and reactionary consequence, so hence this is for sure one of "our own boys". The book itself is split into four chapters, the first one being "Archetypes and Repetition". This is highly interesting, and details the many forms of rituals throughout the world (mostly archaic) that have been performed to re-create the cosmogony and the sacred times when the Gods or God-heroes performed the original act that the ritual today resembles. Eliade claims that for sacred rituals there is always a divine model that is more real than the perceived reality around us. He is quite clearly influenced by Platonic philosophy, with his emphasis that it is the divine celestial model that is real, the "idea", if you will, and that reality merely is a cheaper mirror copy of the celestial reality.

The second chapter is "The Regeneration of Time", a chapter dealing with the idea that the world and the cosmos need regeneration, which the human races have a responsibility of helping with. Often, this fell on the first time of the New Year, so hence, the Ragnarok of the cosmos fell on the last day of the year, and then the cosmos was regenerated on the first.

The third chapter is "Misfortune and History", where he does get a little political as well, dryly remarking that those that have claimed all in history is good, probably wouldn't have felt the same way had they been born in the Baltic or in the Balkans, where they for the simple reason of being neighbours with the Red Beast got invaded and killed off in millions. He then goes a little quasi-Hegelian on us, when he details how many races and cultures have though of history as theophany, that is, history as the appearance of God. He also details the various Yugas, or ages if you will, and how we are now decidedly in the Kali Yuga, the last age, known as Ragnarok to my own Germanic ancestors. If you don't believe this, turn on your television, and see how degraded the West and the world has become as of late, always deteriorating further.

The final chapter is "The Terror of History", detailing how these people acted with their knowledge that everything always returns, that unless you find a way out of the circle, your soul will always return to existence, along with the eternal cosmos. The fact that Creation will occur again and again is not something that many so-called "modern Christians" will find acceptable, but alas, this is what our ancestors believed, as well as the fact that for large parts of European Christianity, the Christological interpretation of history was merged with the Aryan one, to create a kind of "Cosmic Christianity", which was the religion that Eliade himself felt a part of.

This is of course a very shallow review of such a wide and deep book filled with examples and information to the brim, but I've read it twice in a month now, so it is certainly a wonderful book.

(I read the first English 1955-edition)

When I first became aquainted with the thought of Mircea Eliade it was through this book. It really changed the way I looked at the world.

The basic Eliade's idea that majority of basic beliefs of human beings about the world do not correspond to the reality but are merely inherited from the religious tradition of our ethnical group is the greatest insight that revolutionized my personal philosophy. After all, how many of our believes are unconsciously shaped by Judeo-Christian dogma? - not only the idea of history as having the beginning and the end which is analyzed in this book, but other ideas as well, such as the idea of death. We think it is bad to die. Why we think so? Because of our belief in soul and its death or possibility of suffering in hell. Tribals share with us the survival instinct which is basic for all mammals but aside from that they are not distressed by the idea of death because they believe that they return back to Mother Earth. Prove them wrong! After all we all come from the matter of this planet in material sense and return to it again, having lived our lives. To believe in the eternal return is more logical than to believe in some entity called "soul" which is separated from the body "once and for all" after death.

This is just a single thought on my part.
After reading this book, those of you who are ready to accept its ideas will undoubtly have more thoughts about the validity of our common-sense beliefs about reality.

Even if scientific materialism is true this is no great reason for pessimism - we are who we think we are!

Reading this book, I came to acknowledge in no modern scholar's analysis is there a possibility of divergence from "politically accepted" thought. To say a primitive (someone illiterate, living bounded into archetypes) has a theory of being is highly ridiculous, especially as the author himself acknowledges primitive man's disconfort in living outside the world of archetypes. To link an archetype (which is a form of instinct, with equivalents among other higher mammals) with philosophy, and even with the highest stance of the latter (ontology) is "mentally incorrect".

These pitiful relativistic stances should be immediately ignored by a serious person. Otherwise, the influences of Jung's theories are always apparent. As always, ideas aren't bad in themselves, but their interpretation makes them a vehicle of relativism.

According to Eliade, the archaic man lives in a world of archetypes and cyclical past, while for the "fallen" man of modern civilizations archetypes no longer exist and time is linear. This is obviously incorrect. His very idea that "we should respect other peoples cultures and not judge others as primitive" is an ALWAYS recurrent mindless ARCHETYPE of Post-Modern ages.

Somewhere on the cover, or in the preface, or even in the introductions to other of his many profound works in the field of comparative religious studies, one will find Eliade's famous counsel: "I consider it the most significant of my books; and when asked in what order they should be read, I always recommend beginning with The Myth of the Eternal Return." One of the enduring monuments of twentieth century academic writing, The Myth of the Eternal Return expounds Eliade's seminal ruminations on the advent of the nuclear, or post-modern era - the naissance of our capacity for apocalyptic self-annihilation - an attempt to demonstrate in analyzable terms the relation between the foundations of the contemporary psyche to the seemingly adventitious madness which actively anticipates (and even militates in favor of) an end-time, an Armageddon, a Judgment Day, if you will. Eliade thus asks the arch-question: "What can protect us from the terror of history?"
The discussion is framed within a comparison between what Eliade deems as the distinctive difference between the ancient and modern, the archaic (or primitive) and contemporary world-view. The modern envisions reality as a series of events which fulminate in a linear, progressive history - a history which had a beginning and will have an end. The ancient experiences reality as an endless, cyclic repetition of primordial acts. "... the life of archaic man (a life reduced to the repetition of archetypal acts, that is, to categories and not to events, to the unceasing rehearsal of the same primordial myths) although it takes place in time, does not bear the burden of time, does not record time's irreversibility; in other words, completely ignores what is especially characteristic and decisive in a consciousness of time. Like the mystic, like the religious man in general, the primitive lives in a continual present. (And it is in this sense that the religious man may be said to be a `primitive'; he repeats the gestures of another and, through this repetition, lives always in an atemporal present.)"
Eliade points to the centrality of the lunar cycle in the mythological fabric woven from this perspective, which, to a degree, envelops our own world-view, however linear and eschatologically determinate. "The phases of the moon - appearance, increase, wane, disappearance, followed by reappearance after three nights of darkness - have played an immense part in the elaboration of cyclical concepts. We find analogous concepts especially in the archaic apocalypses and anthropogonies; deluge or flood puts an end to an exhausted and sinful humanity, and a new regenerated humanity is born, usually from a mythical `ancestor' who escaped the catastrophe, or from a lunar animal." Regeneration of humanity is thus always implied in its destruction. In the natural imaging, like the seasons, we assure ourselves, fall and dissolution are ever succeeded by renewal. "... just as the disappearance of the moon is never final, since it is necessarily followed by a new moon, the disappearance of man is not final either; in particular, even the disappearance of an entire humanity ... is never total ..." As the modern (historical) cultures translate this concept, "this optimism can be reduced to a consciousness of the normality of the cyclical catastrophe, to the certainty that it has a meaning and, above all, that it is never final... In the `lunar perspective', the death of the individual and the periodic death of humanity are necessary, even as the three days of darkness preceding the `rebirth' of the moon are necessary. The death of the individual and the death of humanity are alike necessary for their regeneration ... what predominates in all these cosmico-mythological lunar conceptions is the cyclical occurrence of what has been before, in a word, eternal return."
Due to the fact that the modern, predominantly Western model, of consciousness, primarily informed by Hebraic/Christian-Greek (teleological) influences, perceives time as a matrix for linear progress toward eschatological fulfillment, an end (and Eliade does not hesitate to analyze with his usual acumen - and here one must highlight the amazing passage where he claims that the concept of `ekpyrosis', the destruction of the world by fire, originates in early Iranian mythology - how Islam developed within this eschatological framework), we are forced to confront what he terms "the terror of history", the assertion (often stated by zealots of various stripes as fact) that human history, itself, must end. Recognition of this shift in human consciousness, from the archaic celebration of the repetition of nativity to the modern obsession with the limitation of mortality yields enormous explanatory power. In the face of the nuclear option, we must seriously consider how far such concepts as "resurrection", "rebirth" have tangible reality, not merely a traditionally assigned or contemplatively evoked meaning, but value as real states of affairs.
"Since the `invention' of faith, in the Judeo-Christian sense of the word (= for God all is possible), the man who has left the horizon of archetypes and repetition can no longer defend himself against that terror except through the idea of God . . . Any other situation of modern man leads, in the end, to despair. It is a despair provoked not by his own human existentiality, but by his presence in a historical universe in which almost the whole of mankind lives prey to a continual terror (even if not always conscious of it) . . .
In this respect, Christianity incontestably proves to be the religion of `fallen man': and to the extent to which modern man is irremediably identified with history and progress, and to which history and progress are a fall, both implying the final abandonment of the paradise of archetypes and repetition." These are the words with which the book concludes. If all that we are is the product of all that has been thought, they deserve the closest sort of reading by every thinking being. For the final abandonment, in the fine sense and print, means no less than the final abandonment of planet earth and the evolutionary project of humanity in full.

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I'm in awe over this book! It's a larger lens, a higher mountain to see religious and historical thought. Really, I am amazed at this book. 50 years after it is written and I've read hundreds of books and here I am dumb founded. Read some of the other amazon.com reviews here (some are excellent) and now I am adding to them.

Eliade relates two main types of persons. The archaic man and the modern. The archaic models his life on archetypes, similiar to Plato's "world of ideas," forsaking history in favor of such. He repeatedly and continually destroys all history and recreates himself in a new beginning. He does this by entering a timeless realm Eliade calls the illo tempore, a timeless and numinous death and rebirth, which he bases on cyclic events of some type.

The modern man negates all of this in favor of historicity. He measures all history and time, or the profane time, and bases his entire life on the meaning of such in present existence and all future decision making. However, without the archaic man's non-historical regenerative abilities to recreate himself in such timelessness, or in the sacred, in imitation of archetypes, the modern historical man faces extreme existential despair. But what saves the modern man from suicide and utter meaninglessness in relativism and nihilism; he joins to his historical self, either religious faith, cyclic theories, mysticism, science and philosophy.

Hegel suggests history (and all the evil in history) is never repeated and necessary for the evolution to higher ends. Only persons like Belinsky or Dostoeyski have resisted but weakly in that. Marx had made a science of history as the results of the class struggle, which ultimately fails and leaves us in our existential relativity.

So remedies are created to coincide with historical measurement, as in Nietzsche's Eternal Return,although cyclic in nature is not the Eternal Return of the Archaic man who regenerations a new beginning, but rather that of the Greek Heraclitus and Pythagorean thoughts, are the cyclic meanings needed to live a life of measured time and history apart from the archaic regenerative man of archetype models and rebirth into new beginnings. The same holds true for Oswald Spenglers biological conception of history and Heidegger's idea of historicity transcending all are what modern man must attach to his linear historical measurement.

While monotheism, the first to measure history and time encounters the timelessness of the illo tempore in the beginning of creation and in the "end" of the world or in Christianity in the second coming of the messiah. Unlike the archaic man who enters the new creation each and every time he recreates both himself and his world.

Eliade suggests that perhaps mankind will one day return to the archaic man of regeneration in repetition of rituals and meaning to cease measuring this time and enter in the timelessness, letting go of history and entering in the illo tempore.

(Archetype Non-Historical Regeneration Man)
The wind blows - but - gets continually reborn; or,
(Historical Man with Religious Faith)
Cling to your dusty mirror and hold God's hand.
(Historical Man without Religious Faith)
Or the mirror without dust would destroy the world.

And to sum it up, Archaic man had no history, repeated archetype models, destroying his past (all history) and recreating the beginning of time each year in a mystical, timeless moment in the illo tempore, all history erased. While modern man relies on history and profane time and gains either science, philosophy or religious faith to prevent him from dying in existential despair.

Now I'm reading this great book entitled, When Science Meets Religion, by Ian G. Barbour and reading of those with religious faith who conform the uncertainties of quantum physics with a God who controls such acausual events. Seeing this through Eliade's lens, I see this as an historical man's attempt to join religious faith to his history and science in order to prevent him from existential despair in the terror of history. For the archaic man none of this is needed, as he will erase all history, re-creating the beginning of time reborn in the timeless moment of illo tempore, not of some future time but of the present.

And while the modern man has history and faith, he also forms minority governments to control, organized and maintains his linear history. The majority are followers, freedom is seriously limited. The archaic man has complete freedom as each time cycle or year, to erase all history, to enter in the timeless moment of the archetype of illo tempore and re-create himself and his world.

I can't say enough for this book, this only a summary of a higher mountain to see humanity.