Book Review: The Thundering

First Thunder: An Adventure of Discovery, by MSI (Society for Acension, 1996, ISBN 0-931783-07-0)

This book was written by: MSI, who, according to the last page of the book, "personally trains teachers of the seven spheres described in his books. He presently resides at the Society for Acension's academy in the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina." He also writes in the introduction to Second Thunder that "I am an Unbounded Being. Living in a human body, I experience the Ascendant continually, twenty-four hours a day." At the time of the book's publication, MSI was willing to teach seminars on Ascending in exchange for a reasonable fee.

What is in this book: "a Teaching founded by Christ and his beloved Disciple John, a precious knowledge with enough power to transform the Earth within a single generation" (p.28). However, First Thunder lays out this teaching in a first-person narrative, where an everyman with "no fondness for cults or anti-Christian practices" (p.11), who admits that the sight of a parked Acura makes him "irritated at my poverty and chain of failures,"(p.20) finds out that his friend Ollie "has been studying and Ascending with a group of monks who belive they are following the true but hidden teachings of John--and of Christ" (p.11).
Ollie meets a violent death--struck by a car--and the narrator travels to the Ishaya monastery with a love interest and an academic doctor, where the three of them learn that a group of monks "wanted to keep [the teaching of Acension] a secret for monks only; they belive it's too good for average people and belongs only to those who give up all worldly desires and dedicate their lives completely to God." (p.24) The three of them and the monks struggle with the decision to make this knowledge "from the Apostle John" (p.76) available to the public.

What is not in this book: Tables, charts, or easy-to-read lists of the Seven Spheres. This is because in a conversation with Boanerge, Son of Thunder, the narrator learns that "a 'how-to' manual simply wouldn't work in today's world" (p.239). Also, "there'd be a lot of superficial people, just skimming through the pages, not trying the techniques to see if they worked. And, once you'd printed the Attitudes, they'd become public knowledge, there'd be no more confidentiality."(p.238-239)
This is a bold choice, as a dialogue between the everyman, the love interest, and the embodiment of modern scholastic knowledge exploring the teachings that are "most assuredly" from the Apostle John (p.73) could be insightful and enlightening in the hands of a skilled author. However, they risk coming across as repetitive and leaden, with little to break up the pages and pages of discussion if laid out in the inept prose of someone just pushing an agenda.

Would you recommend this book to Lion-O? Possibly, but he would need at least need a "Cats - HO!" and preferably two more instances of thunder if he wanted to get serious about activating the Eye of Thundera in the Sword of Omens to rally the other Thundercats.

Would you recommend this book to Hulk Hogan? Maybe. These meditations are supposed to bring about paradise on earth, but it is unclear as to whether that paradise contains a bitchin' high-tech boat.

What is interesting about this book: The factual liberties taken by the author "to enable those who prefer to belive this book is just a novel to be able to do so easily" (afterword). These include Ollie's death, an explosion in Skala harbor, and the deaths of 105 of the Ishaya monks during the India-Pakistan war. They also help to tone down the electrifying and potentially controversial nature of the Seven Spheres Teachings, which would be completely riveting if separated out on their own:

"Use Cognition after each repetition of each of the Attitudes. Praise Attitude, Cognition; Praise Attitude, Cognition; Praise Attitude, Cognition. Then Gratitude, Cognition; Gratitude, Cognition; Gratitude, Cognition. Then Love, Cognition; Love, Cognition; Love, Cognition. Like that." (p.274-275)

Book Review: Everybody's Talking 'Bout Crop Circles

The Talk of the Galaxy: An ET Message for Us? by Paul LaViolette, PhD (Starlane Publications, 2000, ISBN 0-9642025-3-0)

This book was written by: Paul A. LaViolette, who is the author of five books, and who holds a BA in physics from Johns Hopkins and a PhD from Portland State. According to his website, www.etheric.com, Dr. LaViolette is the developer of subquantum kinetics, which resolves the field singularity problem, the wave-particle dualism, and the field source problem, and he is also co-developer of the Gray-LaViolette feeling tone theory which explains how the brain/mind forms creative thoughts. His website also states that "He is the first to discover that certain ancient creation myths and esoteric lores metaphorically encode an advanced science of cosmogenesis. His contributions to the field of Egyptology and mythology may be compared to the breaking of the Rosetta Stone hieroglyphic code."

What is in this book: A discussion of pulsars as artificially created by an advanced galactic society to indicate key points and events within the galaxy. Dr. LaViolette makes this argument by showing that pulsars themselves are too regular (or not regular enough) to occur naturally. Although the individual pulses of a pulsar are irregular, "precise regularity emerges only when many pulses have averaged together to produce a time-averaged pulse profile," (p.10, emphasis the author's) which looks absolutely identical to a time-averaged pulse profile made up of the average of a number of other pulses made by that pulsar. If the fact that these time-averaged pulses are all occurring at exactly average intervals and have an exactly average duration is not enough to convince skeptics, "the highest concentration of pulsars is not found near the galactic nucleus, as one might expect if pulsars were natural stellar objects born out of supernova explosions."(p.20) Instead, these location of these pulsars indicate "a network of beacons [that] would have meaning only from our particular Galactic locale with its particular perspective for viewing the Galactic center direction."(p.25, emphasis the author's) Dr. LaViolette uses "star lore mythology"(p.48) to show how these beacons commemorate a catastrophic event that occurred around 14,000 BC, by appearing in constellations like Orion, who is "a memorial set in the sky to honor those who died in this global catastrophe."(p.88-89)
The same technology that created these pulsars may also be in use by aliens to make crop circles "as a way of giving us blatant demonstrations of the technology that we hopefully will one day develop ourselves to protect our planet." (p.149)

What is not in this book: Indecision regarding the course of action that needs to be taken regarding with advanced technologies. The Starburst Foundation research institute, of which Dr. LaViolette is president, "has advocated that governments who are developing microwave phase conjugate technology for military warfare instead redirect their efforts toward setting up a force field shield for the purposes of planetary defense. The project could be called Project Centaur, named after the Centaurus constellation which depicts a Centaur with raised shield, presumably protecting our solar system from the onslaught of superwave cosmic rays and cosmic dust." (p.148-149)

Would you recommend this book to proponents of Intelligent Design? Maybe. Dr. LaViolette himself writes that he "began to consider the possibility that pulsars might be a natural phenomenon and that their conveyed message might reflect the presence of a high intelligence permeating the universe and attempting to make its presence known to us on a grand scale"(p.123). However, he "thought of a different method of generating pulsar signals that made it possible to once again reconsider the hypothesis that pulsars might be artifacts of Galactic civilizations,"(p.123) so they might have to throw down over whether pulsars are generated by god or aliens (unless they were closet Raelians).

Would you recommend this book to someone with a speech impediment? Yes. It might give them solace to know that while their problems making themselves heard are dwarfed by the communication problems that these aliens have been facing.

What was interesting about this book: The author's diagrams of advanced technology, like figure 45, the proposed schematic of a phase conjugate microwave resonator and associated aerial plasmoid. (p.133)
Also of interest is the author's proposed course of action:

"We may already know enough about the galactic core explosion message of the pulsar network to allow us to devise a return message that would let nearby Galactic civilizations know that we are aware of their transmissions. We could recreate the Crab-Vela pulsar arrow [....] Since our transmissions would symbolically be laying out an arrow along the ground, we should be prepared to expect a close encounter or landing somewhere beyond the tip of our "Vela pulsar" transmitter. It would perhaps be prudent to mark out a specific landing site using an array of landing lights."(p.151)

Bitterly Books: What is in this Blog?

Bitterly Books takes caustic, uncomplimentary tours through ill-advised and poorly executed nonfiction. Because nonfiction is where it's at.

Sure, you could piss your life away reading about assorted Beowulves and Kings Lear, but they'd never teach you how to earn a six-figure salary or cope with a loved one's video game addiction.

Has Harry Potter ever explained what to do if you're big, beautiful, and pregnant? Do you think that kid from Twilight is going to know why men and women talk differently?

It's true that various bawdy pilgrims and green knights have their place in a well-rounded education, but you've also got to educate yourself about the secret message hidden in your hands and why the American Economy is now, and will always be, in great shape.

You'd better get started.

That's why Bitterly Books presents this guide to nonfiction. It's arranged by the following categories:

Books about Personal Growth: All books help you grow and develop as a person, but these books make a special effort to help you step outside your comfort zone and take the risks necessary to more fully realize your potential. Whether you're focused on earning a bigger salary or fulfillment of a more spiritual nature, this category--the site's largest--will have something to meet your needs.

Books about Cutting-Edge Science and Health: There's so much medical advice out there that it's difficult to know who you can trust. Fortunately for us all, the publishing industry always views the distribution of safe, reliable health information as more important than crass money grabs dressed up in Ph.D. credentials. That's why you can assume that anyone who has published a medical-themed book has done so from a desire to further the cause of science. You may not have known that water will kill you, or how to deal with being overweight and pregnant, but now you're both forewarned and forearmed (unless you lost your forearms in some kind of industrial accident, which would be a terrible shame). This category also holds the site's number one destination for people who use the search term "kat von d nip tats".

Books on Parenting, Family, and Relationships: We could all use an instruction manual for those potentially frustrating, often uplifting, and always complicated interactions with others. Where do you turn for advice on dealing with your difficult daughter? What if you wanted to know what your pet was thinking? And wouldn't it be nice if someone else finally agreed with you when you said that newborns are ugly? These books will help you prepare for adolescence, kindle a romance when you're easily distracted, and get to doin' it in front of your kids.

Books about the Universe: Oh, the truth is out there, all right. And the truth is that aliens are trying to talk to you, if they haven't already taken over your body or sent their emissaries to meet you. You may also be interested in looking at the books in this section to learn that the Big Bang never happened, and sometimes aliens are indistinguishable from schizophrenia.

Books about Religion and Spirituality: Is your life missing something? Have you been collecting material possessions at the cost of your soul itself? These books will share the secret teachings of Montana monks, wisdom of the Aztecs, and even the Catholic Church's advice on strengthening your marriage through divine assitance. See how you can guide yourself through spiritual emergency or visit a magical island of thought.

Books about Mental Disciplines: From the Confucian wisdom of the far east to the new-age spirituality of the west coast, these books draw from a number of sources to help you learn fringe skills like psychokinesis and telepathy or practical techniques like lie detection and memory enhancement. This section includes books on losing stress and manifesting miracles.

Books about Government and Laws: Do you want to know what it's like to go to prison, or what really happened on September 11? These books include works on a new world government for the new millennium and what the church has been up to.

All Books. Really, why limit yourself? Follow this link to read every Bitterly Books profile ever written. Go ahead, knock yourself out. We don't judge here.

Book Review: No Soul Hurricanes Here

The Call of Spiritual Emergency: From Personal Crisis to Personal Transformation-How to deal with the disorientation that can accompany death, illness, injury, childbirth, drug experiences, sex, meditation, and all life-transforming experiences by Emma Bragdon, PhD (Harper & Row, 1990, 0-06-250104-6)

This book was written by Emma Bragdon, who states that she does not fear death because she knows that it "would be a passageway into the ultimate peace that [she] had felt when [she] nearly drowned." (p.12) Dr. Bragdon "went from being an art student to being a Zen Buddhist Nun" (p.16) at the age of 20, and is ""not only a sensitive receiver, responding to the stimulation of others, but an organism looking for ways to express itself." (p.18) She has also undergone Neo-Reichian therapy while pursuing a life devoted to meditation so that now she "can help people to integrate their spiritual experiences with their ordinary reality, to reach levels of development beyond ego," (p.23) this is due in part to the fact that, "life and death, the archetypal opposites, had made love on [her] doorstep." (p.22)

What is in this book: "Guidance and reassurance in understanding your spiritual experiences." (p.9) The term spiritual emergency is used in this book not to describe emergencies in the sense of soul earthquakes, essence fires, or spirit floods, but rather to describe "critical points in the process of spiritual emergence" (p.15). This book has been written because people with emerging spirits may suffer from "a framework that classifies their experiences only as evidence of mental disease."(p.8) Since "intense spiritual experiences and inspired states of mind often look similar to psychosis," (p.16) and "the difference between psychosis, which is a breakdown, and spiritual emergency, which is a breakthrough, can be very subtle," (p.214) this book is necessary to let people at those critical points know that they're not going crazy.

What is not in this book: Permission to go crazy. "Psychotic states that are pathological, rather than gateways to higher functioning, are very real, and need to be treated by health professionals" (p.16). Dr. Bragdon notes that the way to tell the difference between inspired state and psychotic break is that "visual and auditory hallucinations, delusions, and inability to communicate" (p.16) are clear symptoms of psychotic behavior, and illustrates the difference by providing accounts of spiritual emergence from individuals who have heard eerie whistling noises unlike anything they have known (p.120), have had wild hawks land on them (p.146), see visions of purple orbs taking up all of space (p.95), and who are so overcome by their spiritual experiences that they don't want to communicate with those around them (p.142).

Would you recommend this book to cheerleaders? No. This book will do nothing to help for either spirit rallies or spirit week.

Would you recommend this book to either Carrot Top or Ed O'Neill? No. Spiritual emergence does not "dial down the center" when it calls, and is not interested in learning how to do so.

What was interesting about this book: The excerpts that Dr. Bragdon has included from sessions with her clients, describing their own moments of spiritual emergency. One client, "Louise," had "wanted to experiment with MDMA, a psychoactive drug, when it was still legally available [...] Since many of her patients had abused drugs, Louise wanted to try a drug "trip" once, because she felt it would help her understand her patients in more depth." (p.26) Louise states that after she began her experience with MDMA, her husband "knew that if [she] was taken to the hospital, they would give [her] antipsychotic medictaion to stop the process, so he decided to be with [her] at home."(p.26)
Also of interest is the section at the end of the book on how to help in a spiritual emergency. Of interest to those who have friends or family members undergoing a spiritual emergency, it offers helpful tips like "A woman who is mistrustful of men may be more comfortable appealing to a feminine personification of divine energy such as Kuan Yin, the goddess of compassion, than appealing to Jesus Christ or a masculine God"(p.206).

Book Review: Newborns Are Ugly

Birth Without Violence: The Book That Revolutionized The Way We Bring Our Children Into The World by Frederick Leboyer (Healing Arts Press, 1995, 0-89281-545-0)

This book was written by: Dr. Frederick Leboyer, who studied traditional childbirth practices in remote areas of India unaffected by Western-style obstetrics. He graduated from the University of Paris School of Medecine, where he served as Chef de Clinique, and has written this book to explore the termination of the relationship "between the uterus and its prisoner."(p.62) His love of children is clearly conveyed through his lyrical, almost poetic style of writing, such as the passage where he discusses how there should be no external light at birth, since "in the darkness, the mother will be able to make out her child's features only faintly. And this is all to the good, since newborn infants are almost always ugly."(p.37)

What is in this book: A re-examination of birth, focusing on the fragility of infants and the sensations that they experience. Their skin, "thin, fine, almost without a protective surface layer--is as exposed and raw as tissue that has suffered a burn."(p.19) Furthermore, "the air, which enters and sweeps through the trachea, and expands the alveoli, is like acid poured on a wound."(p.20) After establishing why current birthing methods are traumatic, he offers alternatives that include giving birth in darkened rooms and immersing newborns in water.

What is not in this book: Graphic descriptions of axe kicks, inverse piledrivers, and turnbuckle stomps performed in the delivery room. Apparently, the violence Dr. Leboyer is writing about is largely metaphorical and/or symbolic.

Would you recommend this book to Marv Albert? No. This is a book about birth without violence, not conception without violence.

Would you recommend this book to a classical musician? I'm not sure. The author does not discuss his stance on birth without violins.

What is interesting about this book: Dr. Leboyer's description of how one should touch a newborn baby. While he acknowledges that some may find his methods overly sensual, "making love is the sovereign remedy for anguish: to make love is to rediscover peace and harmony. In the cataclysm of birth is it not fit that we should call upon this sovereign comfort?"(p.64) He is unapologetic in the advocacy of his methods.

"Without rediscovering this visceral slowness that lovers rediscover instinctively, it is impossible to communicate with the child.
But, people will say, you're making love to the child!
Yes, almost."(p.64)

Book Review: OWD (Sorry, WWE, not NWO)

One World Democracy: A Progressive Vision for Enforceable Global Law by Jerry Tetalman and Byron Belitsos (Origin Press, 2005, ISBN 978-1-57983-017-5).

This book was written by: Jerry Tetalman, who registered as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War. He is president of the Citizens for Global Solutions of San Diego.
It was co-authored by Byron Belitsos, a poet and the CEO of origin press. His involvement with the world democracy movement started in 1986 when he joined the World Federalist Association; he is now a board member of one of its successor organizations, the Democratic World Federalists.

What is in this book: A cry for a single government serving the entire world, since "we can say categorically that the UN has failed to bring the peace and stability that the broadening of sovereignty has been shown to confer upon humankind"(p.14). Before we can commence said broadening, “something must fill the vacuum that is created by the absence of a world government to enforce global law to keep the peace. And given the failure of the United Nations, that role will, by default, fall to the world's largest military and economic powers”(p.33). According to the authors, global government isn’t just something that can happen, it’s something that will happen, whether we like it or not, and “in the absence of a democratic world government, a ‘new world order’ will be provided by default by the world's largest superpower"(p.34).
We may as well opt for the omnipresent and all-powerful government of the New World Order that we democratically elect, which will be way better than the omnipresent and all-powerful government of the New World Order that is forced upon us. The book then adroitly soothes the fears of separatists, militiamen, and other individuals afraid of “Big Brother.” These individuals can read the following excerpt in the calm, rational style for which they are famous, entirely without searching for any hidden subtext or noticing anything alarming or ominous about the phrases that I have emphasized on my own:

"Eventually, all nations of the world would join of their own free will due to the numerous advantages of membership. They would quickly see how they would be protected from foreign invasion and terrorism by the power of the law backed by global government; they would be relieved of the burden of large military budgets; and they would gain the economic advantages of free trade and fewer restrictions within the governed area."(p.103)

What is not in this book: The gradual results of this world-spanning government redefining new and more aggressive powers for itself, or granting legislative favors to corporate patrons. While the authors warn about the dangers of corporate influence on civil government, they state that one thing "more powerful than corporate bribery is public outrage"(p.187). While in theory, this outrage works equally well against governmental abuses of power, there is no discussion of how this outrage has fared against illegal wiretapping programs, the awarding of no-bid contracts to favored corporations, or the indefinite detainment of individuals at Guantanamo Bay.
Also, no space is devoted to resolving the truly critical issues that would face such a global undertaking, such as what color the one world government should choose for its law enforcement army's uniforms, whether the supercomputer of the centralized bureaucracy in charge of tracking and monitoring all citizens should run Windows or Apple software, and if it would be better to have our identity chips implanted in our foreheads or in our right hands.

Would you recommend this book to Pat Robertson? No. At first, he would agree with the authors when they say that "war and anarchy can be eliminated only when a new sovereign source of law is set up over and above the old clashing groups," (p.14) because he'd think that they were referring to the power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. However, the authors' later statement that "the new world government can endorse no religion; world public opinion should strongly discourage international political parties based on religious ideology"(p.199-200) might rub him the wrong way.

Would you recommend this book to Lou Dobbs? Yes, but only after explaining to him that under the new system, he could keep the Mexicans from sneaking into our country by telling them that they're already in our country. The authors note that "the best thing the U.S. could do to stem the tide of immigrants coming from Mexico and other developing countries would be to launch a massive campaign of foreign aid for development, political reform, and family planning assistance"(p.166), and go so far as to suggest that the same amount of money we have spent on border security could be used to fund these programs with far more tangible results.
In fact, such a plan could produce significant savings since border guards expect steady salaries, but government assistance can be promised for years and then quietly cut from the budget without actually being paid.

What is interesting about this book: The opening phrase of the book is, “imagine an old Star Trek series like this:"(p.3).
There are also some interesting figures regarding the word choices used in this book that would probably be of no interest to either militiamen or separatists:
-In the first 5 chapters, not counting chapter or section headings, words like "democracy," "democratic," and "democratically," are used 91 times over 91 pages.
-The phrase "New World Order" only appears 4 times in the entire book, counting one time where it describes a "New Democratic World Order."
-Neither the words "zionist" nor "conspiracy" appear at all in the book.