Cosmos Books

Concentration is the key to success in all aspects of life. This book is a practicle guide for increasing your power to concentrate.

Why a book on concentration? Well, there are countless self-help books which just encourage you to pursue your desires, some of them with specific advices in some domains. However, the basis of all this is your innate power - and such books try to make you aware and get you to DO instead of thinking about it. This book isn't different in this regard, however, what is different is the explanation that the power to pursue your ideals comes from the power of concentration, for such pursue is the focusing of your bodily, emotional and mental abilities on doing that, a concentration power which can, needs and should be awakened through training. Concentration is of utmost importance, for without it becomes difficult to follow what such other books teach. This is an important lesson - master your mind and all the world is yours, and the way to get there is to train it. My comment - this is after all the purpose of such practices as yoga - mind control, your own mind, this is all that matters.
Most of this book deals with aspects on how concentration could help you every way of life, why you should do it, you are encouraged to go ahead, pursue your desires, enhance and strenghen your mind. Once you have made that decision, you will start to control your life, and maybe other people when you become skillfull enough. Opportunities don't come to us, we must seek them, not give up. The second part provides practical exercises on getting there gradually.

Books are good only to awaken you, to make you aware of your innate power. Look for good things, for you will get back what you offer. Positive thoughts attract positive outcomes, reverse is also true. My comment: this seems to be same as the Karmic law in Asian spiritual traditions.
If you want something, just go ahead and do it, for this is the only way to get it done, no one will help you until you start helping yourself. The greater the task, the greater your reward will be. The men that suceed don't have more talent, they have more will to pursue. Is your manager better than you? Do not give up; obstacles that can be here today, might not be here tomorrow, or some that aren't today will appear next month; but just keep on doing, and you will succeed. For sure, being afraid of obstacles is much more overwhelming than fighting them somehow, for the greatest thing to fear is fear.
Everyone is capable of some concentration, for without it wou would be unable to say or do anything - what is different is the duration of the concentration on some subject or thought. Don't take anyone's opinions about what you can do (by perservering) as granted - they don't know what you can do. The truth is, you don't know what you can do until you try it. When you say "I can't do it", you actually say "I won't try".

Will power is a better asset than money (this is an important lesson). The mind that cannot concentrate is weak; same for the mind which cannot draw itself from a subject or thought (e.g. thinking about work issues at home). Slowness in making decisions (this is me!!!) means weakness of will power.
When you eat, concentrate on eating, when you walk, concentrate on your walk, when you listen to music, concentrate on music, etc. Master all your daily minor activities, so that you are prepared and able to master your demeanor when important things happen in your life.
Control your body movements, for everything you do is controlled by your mind - before you move your arm, you think about it with your mind (focus a part of your mind on that thought). Learn to listen, not talk - listening is more difficult to master and much more rewarding. Control your talking, use it wisely, because it consumes some of your mental energy, which could be used toward accomplishing your ideal. My comment: there is a similar concept in Tibetan tradition, where "energy" and "speech" share the same word. Those that are impulsive, excited, or very emotional waste their mental energy. Everyone has the same power, but those who focus it on one or a very limited number of subjects are able to accomplish much more. Successful people don't do many things, but instead focus on only some - read their biographies. Try to cultivate friendship of people with character, at least until you are strong enough to not be influenced by others.
It is just as easy to surround your life with what you want as it is with what you don't want - it is to be decided by your will. What you have today is the result of what your will decided in the past. What you will have in the future depends on what you think and do now. Sure, it won't be an easy trip, but if you are confident and pursue it you will succeed.

Dumont talks about the benefits of powerful concentration in all walks of life: gives mental poise, can overcome bad habits (concentrating on its opposite), gets business results, provides the courage to do, gives you wealth and so on.

The second part of the book - the exercises - disappointed me somewhat. Maybe this means I didn't learn the lesson - answer is not reading more doing (cultivating the intellect), but doing exercises, cultivating the will, and pursuing my ideals. Still, there are probably enough exercises, ranging from controlling your body, your movements, going to focusing on some subjects. However, in my opinion they aren't that gradual, and actually he doesn't suggest a plan, and this is exactly where such book would have been more helpful. The book was published in 1913, and in this age, people need exact strategies.

Overall, this is a helpful book, and it has some interesting ideas, that's why I give it four stars (I wanted to give it three, for what I've explained just before). I would say the "why" part is much bigger than the "how" part, he actually says that you could make up your own concentration exercises and do something. This is an rather old book, so AFAIK it has no copyright, thus you can find it on the web.

One more thing: he says that in order to summarize books or articles in very few words, you need power of concentration. As you can see from the length of my reviews so far, I'm just a beginner :). Good luck with the concentration exercises.

Since the film debut of The Prestiege, I've been reading books by Christopher Priest non-stop. Beginning with The Prestiege, then moving back to some of his other novels including: Indoctrainare, The Affirmation, The Glamour, and some others. The Quiet Woman keeps with Priest's notion of a psychologicaly flawed character trying to give reason to their psychologicaly unstable world. Not only is the book thrilling, but the plot and character development are supurbley defined by Priest's subtle quasi-post-modern style. A great read for the seasoned Priest fan and the newcommer alike.

The Quiet Woman is probably Priest's least known novel, and judging by its rarity and the absence of a paperback edition, his least commercially successful one too. It's certainly not in the same league as The Affirmation or the The Glamour or The Prestige, but it is compelling nonetheless. The story revolves around a woman writer living in rural England, the murder of a friend, and the suppression of her most recent book. Priest touches on many themes here - largely political and literary - and the book is populated by a small cast of characters, each of whom is mysterious in their own way (except the cat, which is delightfully and typically feline!) The ambiguity of the characters, far from being a weakness, adds a certain edge to the story and, in typical Priest style, leaves you wondering about the nature of reality. It's not an 'alternate reality' novel like some of his others (The Affirmation, A Dream of Wessex, The Separation); it's more about different perceptions of reality, and how people create their own realities. The setting is equally mysterious, with hints of a recent nuclear disaster, crop circles and shadowy government cover-ups, none of which are developed to any great extent. Together, they provide rather a dark, disturbing backdrop for this interesting, slightly weird novel. If you like your books to leave you pondering, you should like this one. It's hard to get, but worth tracking down.

As surely as Monet creates masterpieces of images on canvas, William Meissner in "The Road to Cosmos" creates individual portraits of characters whose truths stay with you long after you've walked away from the viewing. Meissner dabs the page with stunning metaphorical phrases that create impressions of light to reveal his characters' nobility and impressions of shadows to reveal their flaws. And you recognize the portraits as you gaze at each picture in the gallery.

Meissner observes this piece of American 'cosmos' with a microscope rather than a telescope, and his observations are accurate and astute. You might think you've never met the fortune teller, but then your cousin calls from Manhattan and you hear Estella's voice in the voice that's on the phone. And the image of Molly who leaves because "the road was straight and the tires were round and because she was too big and...her eyes were like her mother's" flips back and forth in your mind with an image of your own daughter - and sometimes with an image of yourself.

Particularly poignant are Meissner's observations about men. He captures their essence precisely at the intersection of their masculinity and vulnerability. These are men who push their accelerators to the floor, work in gunpowder factories, stuff dead pheasants into their hunting jackets, but 'light their pipes so they have something to gnaw on besides their lack of words.' His observations are cross-generational, and through them, Meissner hints at an evolution of psyche that seems to come with time.

Through the voice of Skip Corrigan, Meissner defines the father-son relationship with insights few are able to articulate. Any one who is a son or anyone who is a daughter, for that matter, cannot read he chapter titled, "Bud...," without pangs for what they've lost or what they've never had. It's one of the most emotionally evocative pieces in the book.

The characters in the "Road to Cosmos" are all good and decent people - and complex. Meissner, like Skip Corrigan's father, mixes his particular brand of 'lemonade with limeade so it isn't so sweet.' There are virtues here and failings, and as we read, we can't help but to identify those attributes of Meissner's characters that we, ourselves, want to acquire; those characteristics we already have and want to keep; and the failings of theirs that are our own and need to be thrown away.

Any short story collection dealing with smalltown life is going to have to contend with the 800-lb gorilla in the room, WINESBURG, OHIO. Bill Meissner does about as well anybody could.

Meissner's book is divided into three sections. Part One, "Small Dances to an Unheard Song" alternates between Skip Carrigan stories and other people who have a Cosmos connection. Skip is the George Willard character who holds the stories together. I found the Skip stories much more compelling, especially "Otie, Fake Fights." I could relate because my buddies and I used to stage fake fights in high school. Meissner, who appears to be a stock car racing fan, also has the ability to take a small incident, such as a brief discussion with a fan, and turn it into a story with emotional impact as he does with "Lily: The Demolition Derby Driver's Wife."

Part Two, "At the Intersection of Dreams and Asphalt," abandons Skip for other characters. My favorite here was "Duane, the Car Circle," about a junk yard owner who builds his own Stonehenge out of car wrecks. "Norm and Johnny: the Everyday Drive" also packs an emotional wallop, dealing with jealousy between two life-long friends, one a housing developer, the other a mechanic.

Part Three, "A Road so Close to Home," deals mostly with Skip as an adult. He now has a wife and his own son. About half of the stories also deal with Skip's father. Meissner is especially impressive when he writes about a teenaged Skip who is impatient with his father's eccentric habits, such as cooking one egg at a time for Skip's breakfast when Skip is anxious to be with his friends. I got the impression that these stories were confessional, Meissner's attempt to deal with the loss of his own father, Leonard, to whom he dedicates the book. Some of the stories can be humorous, such as the one where Skip's father tricks him into admitting he'd been drinking beer in the family car.

Overall, I enjoyed these stories immensely, especially those stories that struck home in some respect. Just about everybody thinks their parents are geeks, just about everybody deals with jealousy between friends, just about everybody deals with a spouse's obsession. Meissner has the ability to ferret out these experiences everybody can relate to. I must admit that I was afraid Meissner's stories might be a bit too esoteric for my taste since he's primarily a poet, but most are very straight forward and could pass as journal entries.

This is considered the first field case-study ever done in the field of Anthropology. With that being said, I do not know if you can criticize the first of it's kind. I personally found it too old to be enjoyable and would only read it again if I had to for a class.

Only get this if you are REALLY interested in the origins of anthropology-Otherwise skip it.

"The Sexual Life of Savages in ...Melanesia" is a book along the lines of Margaret Mead's 'Coming of Age in Samoa'. But Malinowski concentrates on the sex life alone. Of course, in the modern world, the sexual life of Western society may rival those of Melanesians, but the freedom of young unmarried people to enjoy sex without social disapproval was not common when Malinowski wrote the book. One of the strangest things in the book was that the Melanesians did not connect sex with pregnancy, according to the author. I wonder if they were just taking him for a ride. The pictures are great. B&W, but so real, with grass skirts and bare bosoms.

The rather pompous title disguises a good beginner's guide to astronomy. The first two chapters provide a brief overview of our current understanding of astronomy, followed by a discussion of the instruments we now use to do astronomy, from Hubble to radio telescopes to space probes. After that comes the meat of the book, three chapters dividing the universe into our galaxy, outside our galaxy, and the solar system. Each chapter provides an overview followed by a host of examples. The examples are my favorite part of the book: each is a two-page spread, with a big beautiful photo on one side and an explanation on the other. The explanation consists not only of a brief text but a sky map showing the exact location of the object in the photo as well as a smaller, annotated version of the photo pointing out notable elements that appear in the image, whether it be craters or interstellar clouds of a particular composition or a ten-billion-year-old supernova. (I could have used some of that in my astronomy classes.)

The text is not terribly sophisticated, and I found myself skimming through it to get to the photo section. I also have one quibble and two errors. The quibble is that there's no mention of false-color imagery, even though I think a number of the photos are in false color - oxygen clouds are not automatically green. The errors are in the chapter on instruments. In one place it says the radio telescope at Arecibo is built into the top of a mountain. It's not, of course, it's built into the bottom of a (radio-dish-shaped) valley. It also states that the Very Large Telescope at Paranal, with its four 8.2 meter telescopes, has the light-gathering power of a mirror 200 meters across. Even with some additional smaller telescopes, that's unlikely: it would take another 590 8.2m telescopes to make that true. I assume he means the resolving power.

However, those are minor points in a beautiful and informative book. I got this at the library but would seriously consider getting my own copy, for both the beautiful photographs and the helpful explanations thereof.

Although most serious astronomers don't look at images through their telescopes (they have instruments like spectroscopes analyzing the light that's coming in) the images that have been produced in the last few years have been truly outstanding. For the first time mankind has sent spacecraft to objects in our solar system. We have rocks back from the moon, we have close up images of planets and moons, we have Spirit and Opportunity roving around on Mars. And we have the Hubble Space Telescope sending back astounding photographs.

The result is this book, filled with images and information that just a short time ago simply wasn't available. The images that are reproduced here are simply spactactular. The book starts with the biggest objects: galaxies and star clusters. Then it moves down to our own Milky Way Galaxy, and then to our own solar system.

This is a coffee table picture book, but with some truly out of this world images.

Wong Kiew Kit has managed to write a book that stays on topic (Sukhavati and how to be reborn there) while not neglecting to explain the basics of Mahayana Buddhism and of Pureland in particular. As such, it is a good stand alone introduction to Buddhism for those who want a broad but brief introduction.

Though it is the most widespread Buddhist school in East Asia, Pureland Buddhism is not very well known in the West and english books that do mention it often do so pejoratively as if it were a degenerate pseudo-Buddhism. Mr. Kit goes to great lengths to dispel these misunderstandings using both scholarship and sound reasoning. Longstanding metaphysical and ethical issues that have divided Therevadists and Mahayanists for centuries are dealt with thoughtfully and with great respect and understanding . Buddhist cosmology and epistemology are discussed and compared with findings of modern science. The concept of karmic traces are treated in great detail, dispelling the all too often made mistake of confusing karma with some sort of external punishment and reward mechanism that is imposed upon us by the universe, which it most certainly is not. There are brief, but original, explanations of basic Buddhists teachings on emptiness, non-self (anatma), rebirth andthe three bodies of the Buddha. A section on Buddhist mantras. Finally, the necessary prerequisites and practices required for rebirth in Sukhavati are discussed in detail. An english translation of the Amitabha Sutra is included along with copious commentary by the author.

Overall, I was very impressed with this work & recommend it to anyone interested in Buddhism, especially in Mahayana and Pureland.

What does a Qigong Master know about Pure Land Buddhism? I found out when I read this book. It is a MUST reading.

This book is a very good read. Technical in the beginning, then getting into mathematical coincidences and designs of the universe. About 60% of the way through the book, the author starts tieing all the facts and figures together to show how the universe functions and how we all affect the world around us.

Some of the technical data was over my head, but the points she was making were easy to follow in spite of this.

Good, clean writing with no personal agenda. The author gives seminars and I would like to attend one, if she is ever speaking in my area.

This is not a review that reveals parts of this wonderful book, for me "The Wave" needs to be read as a whole. I loved this book, heart and soul.

The increasing speed of change is highlighting the limitations of fire-fighting the effects of our human actions, in every area of our lives, society as a whole, global and local business, the environment and within each and every relationship. The country in which I live, marked as lines upon a map, offers me little protection from increasingly polluted air, seas and disease which recognise no boundaries.

Imagine for a moment, that scientists from each of the many disciplines, together with those who represent different religious and world views, have now read a book that unifies the many separate threads of understanding. I wonder would each be willing to lay aside the power associated with their separate part [not their vocation, just the defence of that position of power], simply in favour of an integrated global wisdom?

I believe "The Wave" offers much more than hope, here is a blueprint, an immense opportunity for a higher, and therefore, more healthy path of reconciliation and integration of that which we individually, and collectively call our world.

"The Wave" has changed this life, I believe it will change many more.

If I had to sum up Stephen Hawking's The Universe In A Nutshell in one word, it would be brilliant. In this masterpiece Hawking somehow takes the most, in my opinion, complicated and confusing science topics and breaks them down into a reader-friendly showcase of knowledge and love of science. Upon first opening the book and skimming the topics and detailed illustrations I almost didn't even bother to start the adventure into Hawking's world, however upon reading the first few pages I quickly learned that such topics could be understood by even the most severely scientifically challenged. Granted comprehension of such daunting topics does not come instantaneously, but if slowly taken in you can easily come to understand the science of every bit of matter around you and begin to see the world through Hawking's eyes.
Normally I am the last one to pick up a non-fiction book such as this one for a pleasure reading book, but on my friends persistence I bought it. After reading the first couple of pages I could not stop reading. I would read a couple of pages, give myself time to wrap my mind around what I had just read, and then immediately dive back into the book. Hawking immediately pulls you in with his obvious delight in the universe and the science around us. He somehow makes the book fun to read. The fact that Hawking makes such advanced science subjects and ideas comprehendible without watering down the material makes you want to learn more about the world around you and the possibilities of the future.
Without a doubt, this book would not be as digestible as it is without the magnificent illustrations. Detailed pictures and diagrams help the reader to visualize the topics which Hawking explains with excellent clarity. The diagrams alone are enough to explain the ideas and theories Hawking conveys in this amazing book. I myself am a very visual learner so the illustrations were very helpful to my understanding of the topics.
In conclusion, Hawking takes seemingly impossible subjects such as quantum mechanics, time travel, and the actual shape of time and is somehow able to explain it in a fashion that can be understood by almost any reader. Hawking introduces ideas and theories completely alien to the average person in his book, so digest the book slowly. With a little effort, anyone can comprehend the world they live in through the eyes of the brilliant Stephen Hawking.

A Startrek to Eternity
After having read, and thoroughly enjoyed, Stephen Hawking's previous book (A Brief History of Time) I was a little disappointed in this one. Not that it isn't entertaining or that Professor Hawking isn't presenting it as well as he did in 'History,' it's just that the subject material is so much more difficult to comprehend that I'm sure the casual reader (such as myself) would have trouble getting through it. The theories presented are so 'off the wall' and are such a long way from being verified that it appears to be nothing more than wild guesses - but I suppose that's the world of a theoretical physicist.

Dr. Hawking begins every chapter in this book with an intriguing question such as "Is time travel possible?" Instead of providing a response and proceeding to explain, prove or disprove his assertions, he delves into the detail of the theoretical physics aspect of time travel, and then somewhere in the middle of the chapter the following appears: "It seems, therefore, that quantum theory allows time travel on a microscopic scale." Hooray! It's fine and dandy that microscopic particles can travel through time. Please tell us about spaceships, humans, aliens, ANYTHING larger than a microscopic particle traveling to the past or the future. Here's what Hawking divulges two sentences later: "Can the probability in the sum over histories be peaked around spacetimes with macroscopic time loops?" This sentence alone mentions three complicated concepts covered in other chapters, albeit not in sufficient detail. And therein lies my biggest criticism of this book:

The uninitiated reader can easily lose her comprehension because of the layout and depth or lack thereof of material suited more to readers who have a physics background.

As was the case with his previous bestselling book , Mr. Hawking provides neither the technical detail to satisfy the knowledgeable, nor the simplified information for the lay person.

Nevertheless, Dr. Hawking deserves recognition for using his celebrity status in the world of theoretical physics combined with his remarkable effort to simplify and bring to the masses difficult concepts that only a handful of people in the world can fully grasp, especially given his dire physical condition afflicted by his decades old fight with Lou Gehrig's.

This book is more of a companion to, rather than a sequel to Hawking's "A Brief History of Time". It covers much of the same ground, but is illustrated, whereas the original version of "Time" is not. (There is also an illustrated version of "A Brief History of Time" that is far better than the original non-illustrated version.). I think that the first two chapters of "Nutshell" give a better overview of relativity theory and quantum mechanics than the corresponding chapters in "Time". These chapters and the illustrations are reason enough to read this book. The other chapters stand-alone and represent areas that Hawking has worked on or thought about since he wrote "Time". Some are a bit out there, especially the one on time travel, but are none the less very interesting and entertaining, even if they are very hard to follow (at least I found them so). A better alternative to this book is to get, if you can find it, Hawking's illustrated A Brief History of Time and Universe in a Nutshell, which is published in a single volume. It is available in hard and soft cover, but appears to be hard to find, even though it was published in 2007. (I have seen copies in the bargain sections at Borders and Barnes and Noble.)

On the cover of Stephen Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell you can find, surprise, a picture of the universe in a nutshell. This cover illustration is typical of both the sense of humor Hawking employs and the helpful illustrations found in his work. Hawking's book is written for the average person who is interested in the science that has today's most educated and intelligent minds talking. Theoretical physics from M-theory to duality are all examined and explained in terms that the average reader with basic scientific understanding can comprehend and apply. Throughout his writing, however, Hawking intersperses his own, unique, geeky science humor and also diagrams and pictures coordinating with his discussion to keep the reader interested and engaged. Through his ability to mix illustrations with humorous and yet highly informative and accessible reading, Hawking has created the most successful volume of its kind in years and educated millions of average readers on the most complex science to date.

Highly Informative yet Accessible

To begin the book Hawking first introduces Albert Einstein and his theory of relativity. He begins with Einstein because his ideas have had perhaps the strongest influence on the science that Hawking discusses. In explaining Einstein's theory of relativity, Hawking does not use mathematical equations or field-specific terms. Instead he uses everyday language with examples and analogies that almost anyone can relate to. For instance,, in explaining how time is relative to each individual in the universe rather than being the same for everyone everywhere, Hawking presents the experiment that was done in which two extremely accurate clocks were flown in opposite directions around the world, one to the East and one to the West. When the planes returned, the clocks read slightly different times. The result of this experiment supported Einstein's theory and its use is an effective way to teach an average reader about Einstein's theory of relativity. This accomplishment, teaching a reader the basics of Einstein's theory of relativity, is brought into context by a quote found in another of Hawking's books, A Brief History of Time. In the early 1920's, a journalist told Sir Arthur Eddington, a British astronomer, that he had heard there only three people in the world who understood general relativity. Eddington supposedly paused for a moment and replied, "I am trying to think who the third person is" (Hawking 108).

Engaging through Humor and Illustration

While presenting a barrage of information that would be difficult indeed to wade through on its own, Hawking throws his reader flotation devices in the form of illustrations and comic relief that make the seemingly overwhelming amount of information much more manageable. When discussing a complicated experiment designed by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley to measure the speed of light, Hawking provides two diagrams of the experiment that make it much easier to comprehend (Hawking 6). Because of the diagrams, the reader can better understand how the light was split into two beams which were made to travel at right angles to each other, and how by observing the behavior of the light in the experiment one can support the general theory of relativity. Because Hawking includes helpful diagrams such as these, his readers become less mired in the bog of information and are more capable of sifting through it. Hawking's use of humor is another device that makes reading his book easier. On page nine, after discussing the aforementioned clocks on airplanes which are flown in opposite directions, Hawking writes "This might suggest that if one wanted to live longer, one should keep flying to the east... However, the tiny fraction of a second one would gain would be more than canceled by eating airline meal.s." If an author can make a reader laugh as this comment made me, then the reader will be encouraged to keep reading. By engaging the reader through humor, Hawking keeps the reader interested despite the amount of difficulty the reader may have in understanding wormholes or string theory.

Stephen Hawking's book The Universe in a Nutshell has taught me more about physics than any textbook that I have ever used. Because of Hawking's work I have a greater understanding not only of the phenomena that occur around me but of the theoretical physics that are being discussed right now among the leading minds in the fields of astronomy and physics. While there is a vast amount of information covered in his book, because of Hawking's accessible style I was able to comprehend many more of the concepts he discusses than I would be able to on my own. His use of diagrams and humor kept me engaged and helped me to keep on reading right to the end, even when there were concepts that I had trouble grasping. For the average reader interested in learning more about the events that occur around them and what is going on in the universe that has the brightest scientists in the world talking, The Universe in a Nutshell is an extremely helpful tool.

I am about 100 pages into this book and am enjoying it. The ideas are interesting and thought provoking. There is a great deal of evidence provided.
At times it is abit challenging for someone without a science background but it is, overall, accesible for most.

Certainly a convincing argument so far.

I found the Privelaged Planet to be profoundly credible in that while enlisting the best of science, and scientists who were neutral in their research...they laid out the obvious and logical conclusions without any apology or level of theological deductions. This was so very well done and deeply inspiring; as is all of authentic research and discovery.

Dr. Lynn Cerullo

Very concentrated stuff that overwhelms. Things we take for granted all point to the Privileged Planet. For example, if the axis of the earth were not tilted to a 23.5 degree angle, Seattle would have weather like Siberia. The awesome nature of so many facts and how beyond comprehension it all is even though the fact can be so simply stated. We can know without understanding or comprehending. What a perspective! These people talking about global warming or climate change are like ants scurrying around on their ant hill.

An awe inspiring product bearing witness to the uniqueness of planet earth in our large universe. The earth The Privileged Planet is also the best place in the universe for scientific discovery.

The author of this book is an Assistant Professor of astrophysics at Iowa State University. He was denied tenure because his research was considering very lacking (little research & grants). Some have stated that another reason for denying him tenure was that he was a strong proponent of the religious field called 'Intelligent Design,' but I have not verified this.

This book promotes a hypothesis centered around I.D. (Intelligent Design), but attempts to mask (hide) this fact by pretending that the book is scientific. The vast majority of scientists, especially those in biology related fields, do not believe that I.D. is a scientific hypothesis.

This is because I.D., which is essentially just a renamed version of Creationism designed so that it could be snuck into public schools. The federal court decision in "Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District" ruled that I.D. was religious and just a poorly disguised form of Creationism. The Judge even stated that that the expert witnesses for the I.D. supporters perjured themselves repeatedly on the stand to get their religious view included in the school system.

While this book has some science in it, it is really just an attempt to discretely support I.D. This is dishonest and unscientific.

wow whee. as someone raised by scientists whose creation myth has always been the big bang i was spellbound by the first section of the book on cosmological thinking. i didnt see the astrology coming. what can i say but woah gosh golly gee whiz

Tarnas has an impressive knowledge of history, but seems to have forgotten that science does not mean fitting data into a pre-determined paradigm. Quite the reverse. His attempt to "prove" astrological influence on history reminds me of the "save the appearances" credo of his predecessors.

The works of Copernicus, de Brahe, Keppler, Newton, et al., that contributed to our understanding of the universe were based on hard science--mathematics and detailed observation, arrived at after leaving aside the idiosyncratic views of each observer.

While Tarnas may have some interesting things to say about psychological archetypes, it is not new; though a close look at the subjective, or way we construct our worldview, is always valuable. His book may have some value in that domain.

I awaited enthusiastically , only to find a long rambling hype ,that has been better discussed by others.
Poorly bound on cheap paper , this one went to the op-shop.

This dense, heavy book is painful to read, and the pseudo-scholarship is all in the service of promoting the long-discredited view that the stars rule our lives. Give me a break! There is absolutely no evidence that anything in astrology is true. Wake up Tarnas, join the 21st century. Stop wasting your time with nonsense.

Offering no scientific proof whatsoever, the author embarks on a mindless quest to make sense of random events. The alignment of the cosmos is less a factor in human history than solar wind and the earth's magnetic field (and the latter two may have only a negligible effect). I initially thought that this work was an attempt at parody.