| My Book Reviews |
| Stargate Conspiracy - Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince This book is largely about connections. Conneections between Masonic groups, Secret intelligence agencies, New Age philosophies, the Pyramids and Channellers. These connections span the whole of the 20th Century and virtually amounts to a secret history of some shadowy figures and organisatons who have had a powerful influence behind the scenes on the whole New Age/Paranormal scene. What's nice for me is that behind all this thorough, painstaking investigations is a belief in the reality of paranormal phenomena. I mean this book could have been just a damning analysis of the whole sordid paranormal field, but the authors display a much more sophisticated approach by exposing the cynical manipulation of believers, but not attacking the basis for belief itself. For example they are actually suggesting that there might be 'something' of paranormal significance beneath the Sphinx and as you read about the shadowy involvement of Masonic and American intelligence agencies behind the scenes it's hard not to think that there might be something to that. They also discuss the shamanic 'invention' of Curare, which is a kind of tribal designer drug. It is made from a highly complex mix of specific flora and fauna with precise preparation that defies belief, but what's even worse is that Curare has been reinvented time and time again across the continent with the unique flora and flora of each location. No conventional explanation seems good enough to cope with this, but it has considerable relevance to my own dowsing experiences as told on this website. It is obvious to me the 'makers' of Curare, if not dowsers, gained information from the same paranormal source, where or whatever that might be. This book also informs my opinion of another book Dark Moon (see my book review) and also the whole Lunar and Martian Anomalies scene in general. For a lot of this information presented to the public comes from channelled sources and one in particular called The Nine. Picknett and Prince seem to suggest that there might be validity to some of it's pronouncements, though a lot of it is distinctly dodgy. There is also a suggestion that there is secret intelligence involved behind the scenes making this whole concoction a heady brew of disinformation, esoteric rambling and perhaps social engineering surrounding a very flimsy,but real paranormal centre. There are no firm conclusions in this book and that's fine with me, and so we are left with connections. Connections that suggest other connections and so on until a complex web has been spun before us. But whatever the truth to all this is ,it certainly disturbs our notions about the whole New Age/Alien movement suggesting it maybe partly a manufactured phenomenon. |
| The Roots Of Coincidence - Arthur Koestler I could have picked virtually any book by Arthur Koestler, he was a profound influence on my early days studying the paranormal. His great ability to play Science at it's own game, meant most of his books went into great detail to argue his points and it was that detailed analysis that gave me the confidence to believe that the paranormal had validity and demonstrated that it was rooted in the very structure of living things and their evolution. This book written later in his career was comparatively a slim book, and in it he shakes off some of his shackles and writes directly about ESP. However, it is not one of my favourite books of his, books like The Ghost in the Machine, The Act of Creation and the The Sleepwalkers are the ones I tend to rate the most. But in The Roots Of Coincidence there was an amazing moment of realisation I had about the nature of chance that had a fundamental effect on how I viewed the whole of the universe and the position of life in it. Koestler gradually demonstrated that what we call coincidences are in fact the operation of some fundamental principle in the universe. I remembered feeling as if the world had turned topsy turvy, because he'd inverted blind chance into 'meaningful' grouping. It's like the universe keeps drawing events together in a way that is completely nonsensical from a scientific point of view, but which gave a basis to explain many aspects of the paranormal and also more importantly for me it's role in the formation of life itself. To anyone unfamiliar with this kind of idea, this article will sound ridiculous, but let me assure you it's not. I have spent a lot of time over the the last twenty years thinking about the implications of this idea, and is a key piece of information in my views about the paranormal. To see my own investigations of this subject go to to article A Simple Throw of the Dice. |
| Books reviewed on this page are |
| Stargate Conspiracy - Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince |
| The Roots of Coincidence - Arthur Koestler |
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