Race, State, and Armed Forces in Independence-Era Brazil: Bahia (1790s-1840s)

Book Description

Focusing on the military institutions (army, militia, and National Guard) of Bahia, Brazil, this book analyzes the region’s transition from Portuguese colony to province of the Brazilian Empire. It examines the social, racial, and cultural dimensions of post-independence state-building in one of the principal slave plantation regions of the Americas.

Contrary to those who stress the autonomy of the Brazilian state, this book documents the close connections between the locally-organized armed forces and society in the late colonial period. Racially segregated and mirroring the class hierarchies of the larger society, these military institutions were profoundly transformed by the war for independence in the early 1820s. In its aftermath, the new Brazilian state gradually built a national army, breaking the local orientation of the Bahian regulars by the 1840s. The National Guard, locally-oriented and democratic in its 1831 organization, was turned into a state-controlled corporation in the 1840s.

These developments deeply affected the lives of the men (and women) involved in the armed forces, and a main aim of this book is to examine their participation in the complex and convoluted process of state-building. The liberalism used to justify independence and the creation of an imperial state resonated among ordinary soldiers and officers, as it provided an ideology and language with which to challenge important features of late colonial military organization such as racial segregation and corporal punishment. Racial discrimination, formally eliminated in the 1830s, shaped racial politics in the military, while the construction of a national army undermined the previously close connections of officers and soldiers to the mainstream of Bahian society.

Race, State, and Armed Forces in Independence-Era Brazil: Bahia, 1790s-1840s

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Race, State, and Armed Forces in Independence-Era Brazil: Bahia, 1790s-1840s
Hendrik Kraay
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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A Fascinating History of the Occult.

Flapdoodle

Liminal Lives At The Doors Of Perception

Worthwhile, but...

Intriguing and insightful, though not what I expected

A Dark Muse: A History of the Occult
Gary Lachman
Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
Occultism | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1560256567

Book Description

The occult was a crucial influence on the Renaissance, and it obsessed the popular thinkers of the day. But with the Age of Reason, occultism was sidelined; only charlatans found any use for it. Occult ideas did not disappear, however, but rather went underground. It developed into a fruitful source of inspiration for many important artists. Works of brilliance, sometimes even of genius, were produced under its influence. In A Dark Muse, Lachman discusses the Enlightenment obsession with occult politics, the Romantic explosion, the futuristic occultism of the fin de siècle, and the deep occult roots of the modernist movement. Some of the writers and thinkers featured in this hidden history of western thought and sensibility are Emanuel Swedenborg, Charles Baudelaire, J. K. Huysmans, August Strindberg, William Blake, Goethe, Madame Blavatsky, H. G. Wells, Edgar Allan Poe, and Malcolm Lowry.

Customer Reviews:

A Fascinating History of the Occult........2007-03-21

_A Dark Muse: A History of the Occult_, published by Thunder's Mouth Press, by musician and author Gary Lachman is a fascinating history of the central figures who make up the occult movement beginning from the time of the Enlightenment to the modern day. The book especially focuses on artists, poets, and writers who played a significant part in the development of occult ideas or who were otherwise influenced by the occult and occult notions. However, the book also features figures who could be described as belonging to the occult proper. Gary Lachman was a musician who is perhaps best known as one of the founders of the group Blondie. More recently, Lachman has written extensively on occult and esoteric topics, including Ouspensky, consciousness, and the Sixties from a mystical perspective - the fruit of years of occult research. In many respects, Lachman's writings are similar to those of Colin Wilson, who wrote extensively on existentialism and the occult from an anti-materialist perspective.

In the introduction to this book, Lachman begins by defining the occult as meaning "hidden, secret, esoteric, and unknown". He notes that in the popular mind the occult is frequently associated with such strange things as Satanism, witchcraft, tabloid horoscopes, and UFOs. While it is true that these can all be considered as part of the occult, the occult itself is more elusive. Lachman also relates the occult to various ancient beliefs, mystery cults, the Kabbalah, and the Gnostic heresy. In terms of Satanism, Lachman provides evidence of ritual murder in an event which occurred in England. Lachman also notes how the occult has arisen largely in opposition to various aspects of the Enlightenment, including an excessive emphasis on "Reason", a fundamentalist form of materialism, and the idolatry of science in "scientism". Lachman emphasizes that the occult is today understood largely as "rejected knowledge".

Following this, Lachman turns to the role of the occult during the Enlightenment period. He begins by noting the paradox of defining this period as "The Occult Enlightenment", but maintains the prelevance of occult ideas throughout the Enlightenment. Many of these ideas and movements grew in opposition to both the churches and orthodoxy as well as the kind of rationalist materialism found in other Enlightenment thinkers. Lachman then turns to the occultists themselves. He devotes separate sections to the following individuals: Emanuel Swedenborg (the Swedish seer who maintained that he could communicate with the dead and the angels), Mesmer (a Viennese doctor who devised a theory of "mesmerism" and "animal magnetism" and was influential in the discovery on the unconscious), Cagliostro (an Italian Rasputin who was involved in Masonic movements and largely considered to be a political subversive and revolutionary), Le Comte de Saint-Germain (a mysterious figure who recurs in the history of freemasonry, believed to have lived for centuries, though regarded by his enemies as a huckster), Louis Claude de Saint-Martin ("The Unknown Philosopher"; an influential mystic involved in freemason and Christian mysticism, influenced heavily by the mysticism of Jacob Boehme ("The Teutonic Theosopher") and the Kabbalah), Karl von Eckharthausen (a fellow mystic influenced by Saint-Martin, perhaps most famous for writing _The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary_ in which he maintained the reality of a "hidden church", an idea which influenced both Madame Blavatsky and Crowley), William Beckford (an occultist and writer of the _Vathek_ novels), Jacques Cazotte (a famed occultist influenced by Saint-Martin), Jan Potocki (a Polish occultist and writer of _The Sargasso Manuscript_), The Illuminati (the dreaded Masonic organization bent on overturning throne and altar and believed to still be operating behind the scenes), and William Blake (the famed poet influenced heavily by Swedenborg).

The Enlightenment was followed by the Romantic period, in which Enlightenment belief in the rights of the individual was succeeded by individuality itself. Many Romantics were appalled by the excesses of the French Revolution and thus embraced a reactionary quietism with a frequent hankering for nature and a nostalgia for the medieval. Lachman discusses the following figures who represented the occult during the Romantic period: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (the beloved German writer who wrote on suicide and the Faust legend with an interest in Rosicrucianism), Novalis (the pen-name of German Romantic who praised Europe and Christendom and had an infatuation with a young girl), E. T. A. Hoffmann (a German Romantic who wrote ghost stories and weird tales), Edgar Allan Poe (the famous poet, an alcoholic who sought to understand the unconscious, a writer of ghost stories, and an occultist), Honore de Balzac (the famous writer, an agnostic influenced by the occult, Mesmer, and Swedenborg), Gerard de Nerval (an eccentric Bohemian who among other things walked a lobster down the street tied to a ribbon; an extremely mentally unstable individual who was heavily influenced by the occult), Edward Bulwer-Lytton (the Victorian novelist, most famous for his writings on Pompei, ghosts, Rosicrucianism, and as creator of the "Vril"), Eliphas Levi (the famous occultist, writer on magic, socialism, and the French Revolution who praised Catholicism and the Kabbalah), Charles Baudelaire (the blasphemous Satanic poet who was later to convert to Catholicism), Villiers de l'Isle Adam (the Symbolist writer and aristocrat, most famous for his writing _Axel_, heavily influenced by Catholicism, and who led an otherwise miserable life).

Lachman next turns his attention to Satanic occultism, noting the role of Satan in comparative religion, Gnosticism, and the "Black Mass", as well as the role of various instances of poisonings and murders. Lachman describes the Satanic occult activities of the following individuals: Charles Baudelaire (the poet again, a strong believer in the reality of Satan who dabbled in Satanism for a time but eventually converted to Catholicism), Arthur Rimbaud (a disturbed poet who dabbled in homosexuality with Paul Verlaine and frequently wrote of the Devil), J. K. Huysmans (an occultist writer perhaps best known for his description of the "Black Mass" in his novel _La-Bas_, supposedly based on fact), and Valery Briusov (a Russian decadent who dabbled in Satanism).

Following this, Lachman turns his attention to "fin de siecle occultism", noting the influence of Nietzschean ideas, Bergsonianism and "creative evolution", William James, Proust, and Theosophy and the Order of the Golden Dawn. Lachman mentions the following figures who played some role in the fin de siecle occult: Madame Blavatsky (the Russian medium and occultist, as well as the founder of the Theosophical Society), Villiers de l'Isle Adam (again), H. G. Wells (the famous writer and one of the fathers of science fiction as well as an ardent socialist), Algernon Blackwood (the writer of weird tales), Lord Dunsany (the famous writer of weird tales, Nietzschean, and ardent aristocrat), R. M. Bucke (the alienist who developed the idea of the "cosmic consciousness" and an influence on James and Ouspensky), P. D. Ouspensky (the Russian mathematician, occultist, and philosopher known for his researches into the "fourth dimension" and as a promoter of Gurdjieff), Aleister Crowley ("the Great Beast 666", a drug addled madman who dabbled in Satanism and magic), Arthur Machen (writer of the weird tale, perhaps most famous for his novel _The Great God Pan_), Guy de Maupassant (writer of horror stories who became obsessed with his "doppelganger"), August Strindberg (the schizophrenic Swedish playwright who was also influenced by the occult), Gustav Meyrink (the Jewish occultist influenced by the Kabbalah and the legend of the golem), and Andrei Bely (the pen name of a Russian writer influenced by the Anthroposophy of Steiner, Orthodox Christianity, and the Sophiology of Solovyov).

In his last section, Lachman discusses the occult in the modern era making note of the role of the Symbolist movement, James Joyce, and such poets as Pound and Eliot. Lachman discusses the following individuals: Fernando Pessoa (the Portugese modernist poet who developed an interest in the occult and Rosicrucianism), Rene Daumal (the French poet who combined the thoughts of Rene Guenon, pataphysics, and occultism), O. V. de L. Milosz (uncle of the Noble Prize winning poet Czeslaw Milosz and ardent occultist, influenced by Rosicrucianism and the Book of Revelation), and Malcolm Lowry (the novelist most famous for his novel _Under the Volcano_ and influenced by the occult).

The book ends with a selection of texts from various occultists presented in this book.

This book offers a fascinating picture of some of the individuals who played an important role in the development of the occult from the time of the Enlightenment to the modern era. Such occultists offered alternatives to the reigning paradigms in religion and science at the time, as well as challenged the stale materialism which largely reigns in our world today. Their biographies are certainly fascinating reading material and this book is an excellent source for their ideas.

Flapdoodle.......2007-02-20

Gary Lachman is listed as being not only the author of this anthology about eccentrics,weirdos and bogus mystics,but also a"founding member"of the group"blondie"and a guitarist with"iggy pop"..Perhaps this data ALONE ought to clue the inquiring reader in on what sort of a book this is..
"Occult",in its most basic definition means"hidden"and much of what is written about in this volume DESERVES not only to remain hidden,but should be discarded entirely..
The "occult"figures written about here are,for the most part,dope addicts,psychopaths and/or what we might today refer to as the"mentally disturbed"..One can,of course,understand that there might indeed be a market out there for an over-view work about the alledged "wisdom" to be imparted by these crackpots,inasmuchas there are a lot of dope-addled mentally disturbed people in our world today,people who reject conventional thinking,people who cannot be satisfied with the true reality all around them and,instead,turn to drugs and/or rely upon "voices" or"hidden masters" or any of a number of other nonsense inspirations in order to produce the sort of retarded thinking that is so celebrated in this volume..
Certainly this book will appeal to the rebels out there...the same cretins who are"bored"by reality AS IT REALLY IS,the sort of self-indulgent nutcases who want "thrills"instead of the mundane reality of everyday existence,the youthful jerks who can think of no higher goal than to reject outright everything thier parents represent and/or who use drugs and alcohol,AND THE SORT OF BOGUS FLAPDOODLE WRITTEN ABOUT IN THIS BOOK in order to see themselves as "progressive"or outside of the laws and the limitations that affect the rest of us..
Certainly SOME of the people written about in this volume,some of the 18th century "scientists"and a few celebrated writers and poets used this"otherness"in order either to get beyond the confines of a religious bias against any"new"knowledge coming from a source other than the church and/or to promote a new liberalism in the face of a constricting conservative atmosphere both politically and socially,but a lot of what they produced in secret was and is flapdoodle,plain and simple....Certainly few intelligent people actually believe in,for example,Madame Blavatsky's"Hidden Masters",Or Bulwer-Lytton's"Vril",and these are two of the more moderate "thinkers"represented in this book...Most of the rest postulate a more extreme,more ridiculous set of notions,not a few of which,alas,survive and thrive today in the so-called"new age"agenda...
While opening up one's mind to possibilities beyond the obvious is no crime,the methods used by most of the creatures written about in this book in order to do so fly in the face not only of science but also of commonsense...Drug use,no matter how desirable this may seem to some,and no matter how certain of today's celebrities may tout it is still not only criminal activity but very very dangerous..Even a rich and famous drug ADDICT is still in the end,a pathetic piece of work,and not a"liberated"being on par with divinity...and yet a majority of those listed here got whatever bogus "knowledge"they came to possess through drug-use,and many of them wound up pathetic drug addicts,,Aleister Crowley,written about here,is a notable and recent example..
About the ONLY thing that this book has going for it is Lachman's writing style,which is entertaining..It might also serve as a "plus"that Lachman seems to think highly of the crackpot"wisdom"and the harebrained"thinking"exposed here,but I am not really sure that that is a "plus"

Liminal Lives At The Doors Of Perception .......2006-03-23

Gary Lachman's generally excellent A Dark Muse: A History of the Occult (2003) isn't an actual "history of the occult," as its title claims. Rather, the book is a collection of short essays on both famous and relatively obscure individuals, beginning in 1688 with Emanuel Swedenborg, whose lives were dominated by the metaphysical and the paranormal in some significant manner. Lachman, who excels at contextualizing the broad traditions of Occidental occultism, clearly has a both a great enthusiasm and a sober respect for his subject. The author's insights are often fascinatingly original, such as his belief that [...] is a modern example of "sehnsucht," which Lachman partially translates as "something infinitely desirable just beyond our grasp...horn calls far off in the dark forest, the poignant glow of sunset, which we will never reach, no matter how quickly we race to the horizon, the snow-capped peaks of a distant mountain range."

After the initial chapter on Enlightenment Occultism, which includes Mesmer, Cagliostro, Le Comte de Saint Germain, and Jan Potocki in addition to Swedenborg and others, Lachman hits his stride with penetrating essays on E. T. A. Hoffman, Edger Allen Poe, Charles Baudelaire, and August Strindberg that shed telling light on areas of these writer's lives usually overlooked or ignored by academia.

A Dark Muse, which cautiously explores the questionable relationship between 'genius and madness,' also underscores the additional tragedy and suffering that comes to many of those who immerse themselves in the occult, or whose lives are immersed by it.

Depression, nervous collapse, extreme self-consciousness and sensitivity, hallucinations, temporary or permanent insanity, incarceration in mental institutions, syphilis, cancer, and other diseases, poverty, starvation, alcoholism, drug addiction, alienation from friends and family, social ostracism, and suicide or suicide attempts were common elements in the lives of many of those included here, all of whom, with the exception of Madame Blavatsky, are male.

In addition to severe forms of human suffering, early death was also a factor: Novalis died at 28, Rene Daumal at 36, Arthur Rimbaud at 37, Poe at 40, Guy De Maupassant at 42, Gerard de Nerval and Baudelaire at 46, Fernando Pessoa at 47, Malcolm Lowry at 48, and Villiers de l'Isle-Adam at 51. Very few lived long, happy, or successful lives, though Goethe, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Lord Dunsany, H. G. Wells, and Algernon Blackwood, each of whom had problems of their own, were exceptions to the general rule.

Lachman's writing is often persuasive and certainly penetrating. Having quoted De Maupassant's "...I have a softening of the brain...the result of washing out my nasal passages with salt water. A saline fermentation has taken place in my brain, and every night my brain runs out through my nose and mouth in a sticky paste. This is imminent death and I am mad...", Lachman adds, "Remembering the fate of his insane brother, Maupassant tried to kill himself, but botched the job and was saved by his servant. He was driven to s sanatorium in Paris in a straightjacket, and nineteen months later he died, raving, a month short of his forty-third birthday."

Lachman explains why he has chosen those figures who populate "The Modernist Occultist," though it's unfortunate he did not include Hilda Doolittle (1866-1961), since Doolittle not only experienced, wrote about, and avidly studied the occult, but also had a background in Count von Zinzendorf's Moravian Brotherhood, and, in keeping with the potential consequences of occult interaction, suffered several bouts of severe mental instability during her lifetime. It's also difficult to excuse the absence of C. G. Jung, though Lachman presumably left Jung out due to the sheer abundance of material available about him elsewhere. However, Jung fits Lachman's criteria exactly, and of course has had a profound influence on metaphysical thinking and theory.

A Dark Muse, which sadly lacks an index, concludes with a brief selection of excepts from the work of Swedenborg, Karl Von Eckarthausen, Madame Blavatsky, Strindberg, P.D. Ouspensky, Poe, Eliphas Levi, and others.

Worthwhile, but..........2005-09-07

Lachman gets off on the wrong foot, at least in my books, by regurgitating sensationalist headlines over a recent supposed 'Satanic' killing in Germany in his introduction as a suitably dramatic opener. I know a little about the case, and it was no more authentically 'Satanic' than the Manson murders (another Lachman hobbyhorse in another of his books). The 'dark stuff' is almost inevitably more interesting - as he tacitly accepts by the space afforded it in 'A Dark Muse' - so that kind of wilful tabloid approach to 'black magic' bodes ill in my books.

He also fails to really get to grips with the relationship between occultism and the arts - part of his central thesis and perhaps the key to understanding this amorphous area (at least in my opinion). The dates he begins with and finishes on also feel a little abritrary (we seldom revisit recent history after the 'shock, horror!' intro), and much of the material here will be pretty familiar to most with an interest in occultism and its avant-garde exponents in the arts.

Yet, it rattles on at a fair pace, and there are some unfamiliar faces in here - Portugal's Fernando Pessoa (who helped Crowley fake his suicide) and a whole coven of devilish Russians (indeed Russia's one of the countries with a rich occult-art axis that remains virgin territory to most of us Western occult aficionados) spring to mind. Overall, 'A Dark Muse' is a valid addition to any occult bookshelves. It doesn't break too much new ground ('Surrealism and the Occult' is perhaps a more satisfying survey in that department) but reads well and should inspire all but the most jaded old magus to explore a new literary avenue or two.

Intriguing and insightful, though not what I expected.......2005-04-01

Contrary to this book's subtitle, this is not quite a history of the occult. When picking up this book, I was looking forward to reading about the history of the occult as it lies in ancient Greece and hermetic texts, the subsequent secret societies formed based on those texts, the differences between them, and where their varying beliefs stemmed from. Instead, Lachman chooses to focus this text on central literary figures and their occult backgrounds, in other words, their "Dark Muses." Though this book wasn't quite what I had expected, it was still a rather intriguing read that presented a plethora of insightful information.

As Lachman states, "[i]t's not surprising that the poet and the mage should be linked: both use words in order to produce a desired effect" (66), and it seems that this statement serves as his thesis for the remainder of the book. Lachman speaks of Goethe, Blake, Poe, and Baudelaire, among many, many others, and dictates small (2-10 page) vignettes about their lives and their ties to the occult, as well as their contributions to occult-themed literature. Therefore, this book can be read as one unified piece, or one vignette at a time in random order as one's interest piques. Each person covered herein is grouped into the over-arching sub-sections of enlightenment occultism, romantic occultism, satanic occultism, fin de siècle occultism, or the modernist occultist. Furthermore, at the end of the text important selected texts and excerpts are included, which is a nice addition.

I wish Lachman had gone a little bit more in-depth with each literary figure, as a couple of pages hardly does each one justice (whole volumes could be written on each central figure alone), and it would have been nice to find out more about occult history aside from each central literary figures' viewpoint, but nonetheless Lachman does cover quite a bit of interesting ground. I also found the text to be convoluted at times, as many of the lives of these important writers were inter-twined, and many names were mentioned before being properly introduced. Some of the facts presented seemed irrelevant at times as well, and the writing style of Lachman can be extremely dry. Regardless of my minor quibbles, I have found this book to be a decent starting point that has piqued my interest, making me want to read further on this intriguing subject matter. I think this will be a book I turn back to on various occasions, after I have read more of the important literary works mentioned herein.

I would recommend having some knowledge of occult interests, orders, and perhaps even some of the important texts before picking this book up, however, as some of the details might seem lost or otherwise incomprehensible to the casual reader, as I know I felt somewhat lost during a few of the sections.

Book Description

In a pioneering work, two researchers draw on a decade of experimentation to challenge the current rift between physics and metaphysics. Their provactive finding is that the interaction of human consciousness with technological systems can produce unexpected results. Index; illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Finally a rigorous study of psychokinesis.......2007-03-31

I don't think a reasonable person could seriously attack the methodology of these experiments, which makes their findings somewhat shocking. My only qualm with the book was that the final section wherein they proposed a theoretical model to explain the anomalous behavior they'd observed was disappointingly weak. While this shouldn't reflect badly on the validity of their experiments, one can hardly help making the illogical leap that casts doubt on their findings in retrospect.

Despite the flaws in their theoretical model, the book is still hugely important simply because it provides a basis for easily repeatable experiments which - if their results are indeed replicated - could radically alter the emerging sciences related to the mind and it's behavior.

Expanding on Ben Finn's Review..........2002-09-06

I think Ben Finn's review is spot-on, but I'd like to add a few things.

Section I of the book deals with a review of many paranormal topics and inquiry (scientific and otherwise) into their origins. The best thing I took from this section is that the authors were acutely aware of the criticism that has been made of such research, and were determined to exercise caution in designing their experiments.

The PK research --- that demonstrating the ability of human intent to influence a probable outcome --- seems to have been designed very carefully to address anticipated criticism. It's difficult to read through this section of the book and not come away believing that something has been proven. And whatever that "something" might be, it is distinctively weird: it's one thing to obtain operator-specific profiles of statistical influence over some random process, but downright bizarre that they were able to obtain similar results using a *pseudorandom* source. This research, detailed in section II of the book, is what makes this work really shine --- it's the strength of this section that really earned the four stars I gave it. This section is *worth* it, and does much to convince a skeptic (like me).

Section III deals with remote perception, and a system the authors devised to quantify the results of such experiments. The sample sizes and the data here are necessarily more sparse, but are still quite engaging. The anecdotal evidence at the end of the section made for some enjoyable reading, though stories of experiments where the subject completely missed the target seem conspicuously absent.

Sections IV proposes a theoretical framework for the anomolies demonstrated by the experiments, and comes off as quite silly. Sweeping metaphors are taken from the realm of quantum mechanics, to a level of detail that isn't remotely supported by the research. One does need to theorize *something* after such experimentation, but attempting to build a rich framework from a few targeted experiments is more than is necessary, and certainly more than is warranted. Furthermore, the authors' model attributes conciousness even to simple devices such as the "Random Event Generator" or a bunch of foam balls bouncing off pegs --- a truly embarrassing stretch, in my opinion. (For some much better theoretical ideas, I'd suggest a book called "The Physics of Consciousness" by Evan Harris Walker.)

Section V rambles in the authors' usual heavy prose about implications and applicability, and, unfortunately, builds upon section IV. If there was anything interesting in this section, I'm afraid it slipped past me.

My rating of 4 stars is for some genuine, solid research in section II and, to a lesser extent, section III. As a skeptic, the results of these experiments will compel me to dig deeper; barring outright fraud, the results cannot be dismissed as mere chance. It's too startling to rate it any lower, even if the closing sections of the book are rather goofy.

If you're already convinced that such paranormal effects are real, however, I doubt that this book has much to offer. Buy it for a skeptical friend, but give them a disclaimer about the stretch made on the theoretical side.

Interesting research marred by embarrassing speculation.......2002-01-07

This book recounts very interesting research into the ability of humans to influence random events such as coin-tossing. This is extensively documented in technical detail, with graphs of many hundreds of thousands of trials, over which strong statistical significance shows up even though the influence is less than 1% per trial and therefore not casually noticeable.

There is also an intriguing those less detailed section about remote viewing, in which one person can describe the surroundings of another person at a different location in space or even time. Again the statistics indicate a significant effect.

However, the credibility built up by this is severely dented by the rest of the book, which attempts to outline a theoretical basis for this in terms of a 'quantum mechanics of consciousness'. This eyewash is just embarrassing to read - e.g. many pages expended on arguing for the existence of physical analogs such as 'consciousness distance', 'consciousness mass' etc. on the grounds that we sometimes speak of being 'deep in thought', 'light-hearted', etc. The quality of this reasoning speaks for itself. A few pages later and these spurious variables are being incorporated into quantum-mechanical equations. Oh dear.

Unfortunately this shows the danger of scientists wandering out of their field into discussions of mind and metaphysics, which are topics in philosophy - a subject in which these authors are complete amateurs without appearing to realize it. Their blunders are so elementary as to be laughable to anyone with a knowledge of metaphysics.

The extensive bibliography cites endless references to Freud, Jung and other people in loosely related subjects without including a single mention of anyone who knows about philosophy, with the marginal exception of William James (who is a century out of date anyway).

So worth buying to read Sections 2 & 3, but don't waste your time on the rest.

a future classic?.......2001-12-17

Both scientist and layman will find a lot of valuable information in this book, which describes modern research, particularly at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratories, into how mind can influence the material world. It is at this point the premier academic text on this very controversial subject. There are some technical aspects to the book that, for a non-scientist like me, were admittedly tough going (...). However, the book is leavened by very readable prose and incredible illustrations, many from ancient Egypt, Europe and occult sources. To read a book from an engineering department that contains such illustrations is astounding, and shows how far we have come in taking this stuff seriously!

Best of its kind.......2001-10-11

This is a courageous, humane, and highly provocative book. The
authors present evidence for the existence of ESP and PK
(psychokinesis), all of it generated by their own research.
They also work toward a new paradigm for understanding how
these parapsychological effects might be part of the natural
order, since the classical scientific world-view does not
offer space for such. In my mind, they put too much stress
on the role of consciousness in the world, and even cross over
into the suggestion that the world is observer-created. To
their credit, however, they work toward a more nuanced view
of what is entailed by consciousness (what happens as mind
interacts with matter) than most advocates of this position.
Still, in trying to bring mind and matter into a state of
solution, they seem to turn the world into "a great thought
thinking itself" (to borrow from James Jeans, one of many
scientists whom they quote). This seems to veer too closely
to Berkeley's idealism, and I wonder if in correcting the
materialistic emphasis of traditional science, they
overcorrected in the opposite direction. Is there a "middle
way" yet to be discovered? These comments notwithstanding, this
is a book very much worth reading, and it is obvious that much
rigorous thought and expansive feeling went into it.

Margins of reality : the role of consciousness in the physical world / Robert G. Jahn and Brenda J. Dunne

Average customer rating:

Margins of reality : the role of consciousness in the physical world / Robert G. Jahn and Brenda J. Dunne
Robert G. Jahn
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJ9ZA8

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