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Happiness Genes: Unlock the Positive Potential Hidden in Your DNA by James D. Baird, PhD., with Laurie Nadel, PhD Forword by Dr. Bruce Lipton New Page Books, a Division of The Career Press, Inc. 3 Tice Road/PO Box 687 Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417 2010, 288 pages, US $15.99 ISBN-13: 978-1-60163-105-3 Reviewed by Brent Raynes The authors of this book introduce us to a new way of looking at ourselves. Each human is literally a “community” of 50 trillion cells, and each cell is similar to a miniature human being, with its own nervous system, digestive system, respiratory system, musculoskeletal, reproductive, and even immune systems. All of which is pretty amazing too when you consider that if they were indeed people then they could populate 8,000 earths! Pretty amazing stuff! Previously, we believed that our genetic make-up alone determined rather fatalistically our future health and well-being, our fate so to speak, but the so-called New Biology and the new scientific field of epigenetics offer us exciting new possibilities and new inroads into bringing about incredible changes through revisions of our thought processes, through our human consciousness itself. The authors explain that in the past twenty years a mere three percent of mainstream science has studied the effects of consciousness and spirituality in our lives. They point out how Nobel scientist Dr. Roger Sperry once said that molecules don’t make life-sustaining decisions; that consciousness does! We even have specific genes like DRD4 and VMAT2 that provide genetic blueprints for states of happiness. The authors lay the proverbial foundation and background on how we may each find our own flow (also called “the Zone”), explaining self-hypnosis processes, providing written exercises to clarify and establish key points in the reader’s mind, ultimately outlining a 28-day natural happiness program that allows you to reprogram your own life. Self-empowering, educational, and thought-provoking, this book also has a glossary of terms, bibliography, internet resource directory, index, and other useful and helpful information for the interested reader. ____________________________________________________________ The Purpose-Guided Universe: Believing in Einstein, Darwin, and God by Bernard Haisch, PhD New Page Books, a Division of The Career Press, Inc. 3 Tice Road/PO Box 687 Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417 2010, 224 pages, US $19.99 EAN 978-1-60163-122-0 Reviewed by Brent Raynes Again another distinguished Ph.D author (this time an astrophysicist), formerly the editor in chief of the Journal of Scientific Exploration and for ten years the scientific editor of the Astrophysical Journal, daringly explores the role of consciousness, evolution, quantum physics, and the reality of God, in this thought-provoking book. He expresses his thoughts on how evolution is God’s way of creating life forms to experience reality. He points out that he’s not talking just about Intelligent Design, for there must be some unpredictability and novelty as found in Darwinian evolution, for otherwise everything is (as he puts it) a “preordained puppet show.” He points out that free will is crucial in our relationship with God and that prayer and meditation are our essential tools for cultivating that relationship and shaping our present reality and future. Haisch sees a bridge forming between scientific and religious views, but not the kind of religious views from which science and everything else takes a back seat and wherein it’s strictly and intolerably right and everything and everyone else is wrong. He cites how the Dalai Lama observes that proven modern concepts supersede ancient Buddhist notions and that authority comes down on the side of experience first, reason second and scripture last. He also cites a zoologist and paleoanthropologist named Hank Wesselman who has, he says, a foot in two worlds. Having spent thirty years studying spiritual traditions of indigenous people and evolution in the Great Rift Valley of Africa, for more than 20 yeas he has also been trained in shamanism. He believes that there is a widespread and transformational spiritual awakening that is occurring here in the West. This spiritual resurgence is at odds with destructive old school forms of fundamentalism and belief that fight evolution, integration, and self-discovery. Haisch concludes that we reside in a purpose-guided universe that’s governed by laws of science. He perceives a God that, in order to further experience a part of its potential, created a universe with just the right stuff in it (truly an awesome feat) whereby life in complex forms (like us) could evolve. God’s consciousness, that created it, also is a part of who we are, and quantum physics dictates that consciousness can create reality. ____________________________________________________________ Real Zombies, the Living Dead, and Creatures of the Apocalypse by Brad Steiger Visible Ink Press 43311 Joy Rd., #414 Canton, MI 48187-2075 2010, 300 pages, US 19.95 ISBN-13: 978-1-57859-296-8 Reviewed by Brent Raynes Real Zombies, really?? When we think of zombies we generally think in terms of Hollywood horror films of complete and unadulterated fictional content, not at all in terms of anything remotely resembling reality itself, in any way, shape, or form. Unless, that is, it falls within the category of Voodoo practices wherein unsuspecting victims are drugged, hypnotized, or brainwashed somehow. But, alas, that masterful genius of realms dark and mysterious, the legendary Brad Steiger himself, once again illuminates and educates our impoverished mentalities and imaginatively deficient belief systems with a comprehensive historical and global perspective on the “zombie” reports, issues and beliefs that the vast majority of us didn’t even realize could be found on the real side of the fence. Naturally, “real zombies” do not simply fall into a single category at all. Brad documents and explores multiple multicultural case histories from multiple perspectives. Zombie type traditions can be found from all over the world, in China, Japan, the Pacific islands, even India and Persia. Brad shares with us spell-binding supernatural tales of the restless dead, of assorted hideous monsters and beasts, of curses, hexes, exorcisms, demonic possessions. There are a good number of first person eyewitness accounts. Brad’s frightening narratives include the Devil Baby of Bourbon Street, complete with horns and a tail; Black Mama Couteaux and the great zombie war; Baron Samedi and Maman Brigitte, Kind and Queen of the Zombies; from the bayous of Louisiana the swamp child of Mama Cree; and a multitude of others. Not recommended for reading just before bedtime. ____________________________________________________________ The Déjà vu Enigma: A Journey Through the Anomalies of Mind, Memory, and Time by Marie D. Jones and Larry Flaxman New Page Books, a division of The Career Press, Inc. 3 Tice Road/PO Box 687 Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417 2010, 242 pages, US $15.99 EAN 978-1-60163-104-6 Reviewed by Brent Raynes The Déjà vu Enigma brings us up-to-date on the most recent research, findings and theories relative to this age-old and perplexing human phenomenon, along with innumerable first-person accounts. None other than Anthony Peake, the British déjà vu researcher and author of The Daemon: A Guide to Your Extraordinary Secret Self, wrote a titillating Foreword. I am especially pleased to see Anthony’s involvement with this book as last year, when I learned that Marie and her co-author were writing a book on déjà vu, I had shared with her then how I had twice interviewed this interesting Britisher who was generating a good deal of thought-provoking information and theory regarding this enigma. I encouraged her to collaborate with him, and obviously she took that recommendation to heart. A wide-range of different research studies, some that may give us potentially vital clues and insights into specific areas of the brain that may be involved in perceiving and generating such experiences, as well as a wide variety of expert opinions and perspectives, provide the reader with a balanced and informative review of relevant data on this complex and controversial subject. Again we examine the complex functions of consciousness, the possible implications and role of precognition, maybe even a dash of quantum physics and possibly even a smidgeon of Hugh Everett’s Many-Worlds Interpretation, and how these and other sometimes fringe sounding concepts may play a significant part in the controversial déjà vu enigma. With this book we can mix it all together and shake it up and see what kind of a concoction we have. You can even read about how Dr. Rick Strassman’s DMT subjects had déjà vu moments, the possible links between déjà vu, Jung’s collective unconscious, quantum’s Zero Point Field, Deepak Chopra’s Pure Potentiality, Cayce’s Akashic records, “time storms” (“rips” in the fabric of reality) as proposed by British researcher Jenny Randles, Shared Deathbed Visions, and a vast and fascinating collection of other facts and theories that are posited in this thought-provoking book for your consideration and exploration. | ||
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