5 comments about The Mayan Code: Time Acceleration and Awakening the World Mind.

1. The title sounds great, and the topic is fascinating. This reads more like a disorganized book report put together to meet a certain number of pages. The author continuously refers to Calleman, which makes it all that much worse. If I wanted to read Calleman, I would have bought his book and read it.
   
   Her continued bantering about the American Evil Empire is rediculous. How did such an interesting topic become such a political book? The title should be more like I hate America, and I bring up some unorganized thoughts about the Mayan Calendar along the way.
   
   Don't waste your money or your time. Read some other authors on this topic...



2. As many many events in my life occur at an increasingly faster pace,going beyond coincidence, beyond karma and destiny, this book explains the reasons why the world consciouness is accelerating towards a higher dimension and why we need to understand and appreciate everything that is happening now, from a more profound point of view.Read it and grow, start becoming a believer.



3. 
   
   The Mayan Code is a book I found I was not able to put down. As I read I found places within my being relaxing in a way I have not felt before. This is a magical gift to the reader. Barbara Hand Clow writes in such way that brings understanding about the Mayan Calendar in easy to understand insights. I am grateful for the references she has given regards Calleman's work along with the many other book titles and authors mentioned thoughout the read. I look forward to reading more of her works and feel a great gratitude for the support given to me within the reading of this book.



4. This book is so well wirtten that it is ale to tell such a complicated issue in an easy to understand format. B.Handclow proves herself also as a formidable writer...



5. The Mayan Code: Time Acceleration and Awakening the World Mind
   I found the material to be very interesting and would have rate the book four stars; except that in reading the book the material is a bit too choppy to follow, chapters don't link together too well. Outside of that very interesting book.

5 comments about Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything.

1. The FCC has officially announced plans to regulate public transmissions over the Akashic field.
   
   Also mentioned was the possibility of relaxing their restriction of time-invariance, officially imposed upon physical laws by Western powers since the time of Galileo. Checks for repeatability of experimental results may cease as early as this July, although officials emphasized that talks are just beginning and a final date has not been set.
   
   Sounds like your morning commute might get a lot more interesting!



2. This book is another illustrative example of how complex, philosophic and unrealizable to direct experience a theory-of-everything (TOE) can become once you wander too far down the wrong rabbit hole. A real theory-of-everything should be so simple and run so close to your being and everyday experience that a three year child could easily understand and relate to it, it should not be something requiring multiple Phds' to decode and still find yourself having many difficulties visualizing and connecting the dots to. There are much simpler TOEs around. One simply states - "God-IS" while another says "I Am That" and you can even join these together, if you want. But the ego needs its fix of complexity, inventiveness, and ingenuity and avoids naked simplicity, which does not meets its needs for specialness.
   
   Ervin's TOE links the Vedic notion of the Akashic Field to physical space through the notion of the quantum vacuum. He sees this vacuum, as a subtle energy sea and as a very active plenum rather than an inert space and background to the world of matter. And he uses his linkage in his attempt to marry science with mystical insights and religion, mind with matter, consciousness with perception.
   
   He indicates that information is encoded through the modulation of quantum state fluctuations in the energy sea of the quantum vacuum. The encoding mechanism itself, he sees as holographic in nature and arise out of the coherent interference patterns setup and created by the interpenetration (entanglement) of the waves represented by the wave functions of individual quanta. While, the reading mechanism of the stored information back into consciousness, he sees as relying on resonance and phase conjugation which can occur between the quantum-ly superimposed wavefunctions (quantum entanglement) setup by the chemicals in our brain and that of the quantum vacuum of the world around us.
   
   His theory therefore borrows heavily on Bohm's idea of an implicate order and on the notion of a higher dimensional existence, in which the holographic fields representing all possible quantum states and therefore encodings can be stored. Bohm relied on the concept of "hidden variables" to connect this higher dimensional theoretical existence to the manifest existence that we experience. The big difference of course, is that Bohm's higher dimensional existence was not a higher order physical dimensional existence but only higher order dimensionally in terms of our understanding. It suggests a higher order evolution in our mental and psychic development than a higher order objective dimensional existence and is closer therefore to the understandings of Ouspensky and Kant. He saw the limited context imposed by the belief in 3-D space and time and the apparent separation between things as insufficient in itself to adequately explain many phenomena in the world appearing around us and saw that our real hope was only in transcending this limited context.
   
   This newer context, which he called the implicate order he felt would help connect and explain all known/unknown phenomena in a higher and `truer' modality. He realized that most of the phenomena are not real in themselves but are artifacts imposed by our mind's limited context. Just as a sphere cutting two dimensional space would be experienced as growing circles and therefore "alive" when viewed in 2-D space would appear as being fundamentally static in a 3-D one. Bohm elucidated this idea in his example of the simultaneous video recordings of two views of a fish piped to two different TV screens. And he used this as an alternative explanation of Alain Aspect's findings on the non-local connection and 'faster-than-light' signaling between quantumly entangled particles.
   
   In Bohm's view this apparent instantaneous communication between the two fish on two screens can be entirely understood if we drop the notions of two fish, the `faster than light' signaling as well as the belief in the space appearing to separate them as real. He indicated that all of this is also easily explainable, in an alternative explanation once we are prepared to transcend the many contextual limitations imposed by our current belief system. His explanation of these non-local phenomena is that all we are seeing is just two views of the same fish and we use our minds to project these different views through space, which has no true existence in itself. This then makes the fish appear to be separate as two different entities, yet somehow synchronised and communicating non-locally.
   
   And so, the two fish are not instantaneously communicating with each other through space, because there is only one fish and no space. Therefore Bohm's theory is that we are only ever seeing (with quantum entanglement and non-local connections) different views of same undifferentiated oneness of ultimate reality that we then projected to different locations in space and time and then take to be separate entities in themselves. So we are really projecting our biased beliefs in time, space and the separation as a fundamental mold which behaves as false context that then embeds and limits our experiencing of phenomena. Within this limiting context, there can be no direct experience of reality as it is and therefore of the noumenal existence. And so like the teachings of "A Course in Miracles", only Oneness IS, the belief in separation is a faulty construct developed through limitations in our mental evolution and our many attempts to partition reality on our own terms.
   
   And so Bohm's understandings correlate closely to Plato's analogy in "the cave". In this analogy the prisoners, tied together in the confines of the cave since birth see the meaningless shadows arising on the cave wall as representing all that there is to experience and fail to recognize, that these shadows but represent weak reflections of the real world as experienced through the distorted lens imposed by the limited scope and context through which they are experienced. In the same way Ervin hints that what we experience into our manifest world of experience instant-by-instant but one holographic encoding of all possible holographic encodings and it is this encoding that gets stored to the eternal record of the Akashic Field. He briefly describes some of the common elements to the various string theories that also support this belief and to explain that the quantum-ly collapsed state of our individual experience operating within a fundamental multi-dimensional existence beyond our own scope and experience.
   
   The key mistakes, that I feel Ervin makes are that he takes the world of matter and space, to be real in-and-of itself. In fact, he sees matter as arising out of and to be interchangeable with space. He therefore believes in an external world and espouses the belief in Evolutionary Panpsychism that "there is no categorical divide between mind and matter... conscious matter at a lower level of organisation (the neurons in the brain) generates conscious matter at a higher level of organisation (the brain as a whole). He therefore ties the Akashic field (A-Field) to physical existence and the existing notions of the gravitational field, the electromagnetic field and the Higgs field.
   
   But, I am confident that his belief that there is not categorical divide beween mind and matter is where he makes the compromise that will never work. They arise out of his attempt to reconcile his direct experience of his own consciousness with his concurrent belief in an external world of matter. And so if I hold a cup of tea in my hand. The epiphenomenalists will attempt to convince me that this cup can create me along with all the refinements in my consciousness, while the mystics and enlightened, say otherwise that we create the cup out of our consciousness. Ervin adds to this the third view that my consciousness and the cup co-create each other. But reason would say that one must be cause and the other the effect, and this effect is entirely dependant on its cause. The epiphenomenalists belief that our consciousness is tied to matter and cannot exist apart from it contradicts however the findings of transpersonal psychology, OBEs, NDEs, ADCs etc. The panpsychism view it ultimately the view that both consciousness and matter can exist without a real cause since each is a cause and effect of each other. The mystical and religious view is that all is consciousness, it does not deny matter as part of the experience of our consciousness but insists that it has no existence in-and-of itself, independent of this consciousness.
   
   This is the understanding that there is no world (excepting the Absolute) apart from our conscious experience of it. Our consciousness and its subtle involutions creates the world of our experience and all its apparent evolutions. This understanding takes the world appearing outside back inside us. And so isthe understanding also matter is not and cannot ever become conscious, rather that consciousness appears in the form of matter if we limit the context enough through our conscious ideas. And so consciousness like any good river flows downstream to lower and lower levels based on more and more restrictive and limiting contexts into which we put it. In one limiting context, it may appear as a dog, in a lower one as a cell and in a lower one still as a rock. It is the same one-consciousness seen in the mind's eye through the different transparencies established by each context. Remove our belief in any particular context and consciousness will no longer appear in that form.
   
   This was the teaching of the original and real Akashic field as espoused by Vedic thought. That it is all recorded and available because it is recorded not only at the level of our conscious development, but at the cellular level, at the organic levels and at higher levels of consciousness more subtle than our own. One last point on this, just because we experience something, does not mean that it is true. We have truer and falser experiences all the time but all perceptions have some error in it, being born out of error and the fall from the undifferentiated reality. And so people experiences their dreams as real but find them to be false and lacking substance on awaking, those with schizophrenia and on drugs experience worlds that do not exist apart from their own mind and their own belief in them and we all share in some individual and collective hallucinations that we then take to be true amd self-evident because we experience them and they are validated by others from the apparent outside.
   
   And so, just because one experiences the world of space, matter and an external world does not mean that it is true, just part of your experience. In time, this experience will be seen to be an unreal or a very limiting modality of living as we undergo even more refined quantum evolutions in our consciousness. After all, consciousness at the organism or cellular level have no conscious experience of us because it downstream from us on the consciousness level. It can only deem, its own limited experience as valid to itself. This is not surprising, because we do the exact same thing, believing in the reality of matter and in an external world when in reality all these are just part of our own experiential level, given our level of conscious evolution. Consciousness itself will eventually disappear, because it can only exist in duality. Once restored to awareness of Oneness, duality is seen to be a faulty construct and so without purpose simply disappears.
   
   Some of the other sections of this book attempt to join the findings of cosmology, quantum physics, transpersonal psychology, remote viewing, many lives, as well as some of the findings in modern biology such as morphogenetic fields within the context of the non-local intelligence of the A-Field. I have no problem with this just with his placement of the A-field itself and his attempts to mix-up true cause-and-effect relationships. If he had placed the Akashic field and record within the universal consciousness, and this existing as an imperfect formulation of fundamental spaceless essence of the One-mind, all would be fine.
   
   In the book, he talks of Pierre S. Laplace's comments to emperor Napolean, namely that God was a hypothesis for which there is no longer any need. Do not mistake this for a random innocuous quote from an otherwise unbiased and impartial observer, for we all scavenge the world of our perception, in search for all that is like us and which appears to strengthen out thought system and to consolidate our own beliefs about ourselves. And this particular TOE is Ervin's own belief about himself and his attempts to offer it to you for your belief.
   
   A Course in Miracles discusses our attempts to dismiss God in this way and have creation under our own terms and beliefs, in its section called "The Authority Problem".In indicates that this world of duality, of many apparent separate things represent nothing more than our attempts to usurp the power of God and have reality on our own terms rather than how it is. We create this artifice of our experience as a cover to hide ourselves from God. But it is all mindless and without meaning and represents only our attempts to add meaning to the meaningless. They are just attempts of escapism and the fundamental Truth that we cannot and did not create ourselves, for our creation is beyond our own error. And so God remains present but yet out of our awareness because of the many mindless and meaningless artifices we have attempted to interpose between Truth and our experience of Truth.
   
   Ervin's background is as a system's theorist. These are the folk that go madly hopping about like magpies looking for the shiney trinkets of apparent value from many diverse fields and then attempting to join them into a convergent thought system and systems theory that meets with the umbrella of their own beliefs and biases. Sometimes, they make useful connections but most often they attempt to make a Cleopatra from many different body parts that they have collected over the years.
   
   These are not the inner explorers or those real thinkers that build from below ground level often from first principles that need to be invented and to establish a new framework or context that does not yet exist. Einstein and Bohm fall into this latter category. If phenomena cannot be explained by the existing theory, then maybe an entire new theory and context is needed instead. They do not try to have the theory meet with the biases of common sense and personal experience knowing both can be invalid.



3. In this book, Ervin Laszlo is taking us on a journey, previously attempted by many authors/thinkers, from the antiquity to the current era. Laszlo's trek is different, however, because it not only incorporates, in quite a readable format, some of the discoveries in frontier sciences such as cosmology but also uses concepts of Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory. Such an approach allows the author a high degree of conceptual integration which he aptly labels coherence. For those whose thoughts are not quite as ethereal but are still primarily matter-bound, the venture into transpersonal psychology, the mind, etc. may still feel too many conceptual light-years away. Sporadic studies of analogies in morphology, physiology, and behavior among separated but at birth identical twins, have been just as mysterious and intriguing as is the concept of nonlocal coherence and teleportation, so far proven to exist only in the quantum world. What unifies the quantum observations with those of the studied twins is that in both instances, there is an initial entanglement, a form of a special and close relationship in physical and biologic realms respectively.
   The capability of biologic entities to generate magnetic waves is also touched upon by the authors as a possible medium of near instantaneous communication within the human body. The release of magnetic waves, albeit following an external magnetic jolt, is already explored in the current usage of magnetic resonance imaging, the MRI, in medicine. It is a technology which allows for unprecedented and near-real time images of the human body in health and disease.
   This book literarily teleports us to another paradigm. At a time of human and climate instability, this book goes a long way toward making the existence of Universe-wide and all-encompassing connections worth deep exploration. The author utilized science-based observations, with a special focus on the paradigm of integration/coherence, to raise the plausibility of bi-directional relationships not just within esoteric quantum physics but among all of us and all that surrounds us on any scale. This book is very timely and highly recommended.
   Ivo P. Janecka, MD, MBA, PhD
   Janecka@post.harvard.edu



4. Reading this book was a joyful experience. Of course, if you want a more profound, detailed, technical if you will, discussion you can read one of the several books by the same author on this or related subject.Or, other authors on this same matter. I enjoyed very much the previous to the last part: The Phenomenon of Coherence where Dr. Laszlo discusses the Coherence in Consciousness with such a simple approach that it made the complex subject a very understandable one. He also refers his discussion to several well known resources on the subject. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to introduce him/herself into the realm of universal consciousness phenomenon.



5. What Did I Get Out of the Read?
   -------------------------------
   This is one of the most thought-provoking books I have read for a long time. It brought together, in one theory a lot of the loose ends of "weird" science and paranormal experience and tied them with a normal science-based knot.
   
   What Did I Think of the Book?
   -----------------------------
   This guy has so many academic degrees and awards I am barely worthy of reading his book, never mind reviewing it! False humility aside, although this book takes a scientific approach to the subject matter, is targeted to the layman.
   
   It is remarkable as a serious, educated attempt at a scientific framework for explanation of much of the paranormal. Laszlo is neither a scientist, nor a paranormal investigator. He has an eclectic academic career - in this book he plays the philosopher of science. He explains his theory of the Akashic field (A-Field) that causes the coherence we see at all levels of nature - from the strange non-local effects of quantum physics, up through Bose Einstein condensates, molecules and consciousness to the problem of the uniformity of the cosmos. The heavy duty maths and conceptual detail are missing. It is left to an exercise to the readers to discover the rigorous physics that underpins the speculative theory ;-). It is intellectually a very satisfying book to read because it so effectively applies Ockham's razor - so much is explained by a theory that "introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest entities."
   
   This and Dean Radin's book "Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality" seem to be at the forefront of laying down a scientific foundation for the explanation of the workings of hitherto paranormal events.

5 comments about The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next.

1. I am still wondering why theoretical physics is behaving like it is doing...losing the essence that characterizes the scientific method. After reading this delightful and incisive book, my only concern is to know how long it will take to string theorists to accept we are following the wrong way...as physicists. I just wish this book captivates as many honest people as the honest author desires.



2. For those of us non-physicists looking into what has been going on in string theory for something close to three decades, things just look curiouser and curiouser. No doubt the problem is that only physicists can comprehend the science itself. Still it is enormously frustrating that not a single shred of experimental evidence has come to light supporting string theory. What this suggests is that string theory, as beautiful as it may be, is art not science, or perhaps it is pure mathematics.
   
   Lee Smolin, who is a real physicist, has come to a similar conclusion in this insider's look at the sorry state of particle physics today. Once the undisputed master of the sciences, physics has become--it is downright dreadful to acknowledge this--the butt of jokes from--are you ready for this?--the social sciences! Even professors of literature are having their way with physics. The inability of the string theorists, who have dominated particle physics lo these many years, to accomplish anything substantial, has so damaged the prestige of physics that something called postmodernism has been able to declare that all of science and mathematics constitutes merely an arbitrary "social construction" with no more claim to objective truth than utterances from a creationist's convention.
   
   Say it isn't so, Brian Greene. Well Professor Greene has said it isn't so, but entrenched scientists tend to have entrenched ideas, just like global warming deniers, and so what we need are some hard facts derived from experiments or at least some predictions that can be identified and confirmed. Alas, as Smolin is at pains to point out, we have more like the opposite.
   
   Take the reincarnation of Einstein's cosmological constant. Not predicted by string theory. Take the discovery of dark energy. Not predicted by string theory. Take the seven additional dimensions required by M-theory (an offshoot of string theory), and the old phobia about infinities in the equations seems rather mild. No one has yet seen, tasted, smelled, felt or heard even a fifth dimension (putting aside the once popular band) let alone six others. We cannot even imagine such a thing.
   
   Well, yes, the fact that we can't imagine them doesn't mean they don't exist. However, one of the leading reasons that physicists like string theory's extra dimensions is that they do away with the infinities. Talk about going from the frying pan into the fire, or from the deep blue sea to the devil!
   
   Philosophy was once the most prestigious academic discipline. Could the same thing happen to physics? And if so, why?
   
   Part of the problem is the great success and power that physics has enjoyed since the days when Newton stood on the shoulders of giants. Even more so, since the days of James Clerk Maxwell, vast has become our knowledge of the physical world. Indeed physics and physicists have constructed much of the modern world. Their ideas and discoveries and understanding have led to enormous advances in technologies that have increased the standard of living of people, at least in the developed nations. So much success has led to great expectations. The sad fact for physics may be this: the next great discovery may be centuries away, or worse yet, beyond the reach of humans.
   
   Smolin certainly isn't so pessimistic. The tone of "The Trouble with Physics" is that of a father urging his children to great accomplishments while warning them that they have been wayward. He is blunt but bends over backwards to be fair. The trouble with the book for non-physicists is that it is really impossible to follow the various arguments for and against string theory in any concrete detail. The truth is in the equations, and Smolin doesn't give any, and rightly so since this is a book aimed at the educated general reader. We educated general readers are left skimming the bewildering details of the history and current state of string theory to focus on the broad implications while being guided by Smolin's expert opinion. But even in reading somebody like the aforementioned Brian Greene, who is a proponent of string theory, this reader at least was left with the sense of watching a wild goose chase from a distance.
   
   It isn't just in particle physics that physicists have gone over the deep end, so to speak. Take cosmology where some physicists are postulating a large, possibly infinite number of universes in addition to the one in which we live. As Smolin points out "The existence of a population of other universes is a hypothesis that cannot be confirmed by direct observation..." He adds, "...the fact that we are in a biofriendly universe cannot be used as a confirmation of a theory that there is a vast population of universes." (p. 163)
   
   Although there is nothing wrong with Smolin's writing style, and he does write with a minimum of jargon, some of this is impenetrable, at least for me. Those more versed in physics will do better I'm sure. However particle physics is per force about things we can't see and can't even visualize.
   
   Near the end of the book Smolin presents some alternatives to string theory. As a non-physicist I have no ability to evaluate these approaches, which brings up an important point. How can any non-physicist pass any kind of judgment on the validity of string theory? We can't. We can only count noses--physicists' noses. When we do we find that most theoretical physicists believe in string theory despite the dearth of experimental support. Why? Perhaps because string theory is what they have been doing all their working lives, and string theory is what they have been taught and are teaching.
   
   My question is, have string theorists become a sacred priesthood? Smolin doesn't use this term, but his book suggests as much.



3. about the sociology of science, and I agree completely with what it says about it, and on the need to parcel funds and scientists more equably among the several possible approaches (for example, to fundamental physical theories). The trouble is that men are not angels, and the proposals it makes are very difficult to implement in practice. Perhaps, as Churchill said of democracy, the present system in science "is the worst possible one, with the exception of all the the others". Or, paraphrasing Juvenal 2,000 years ago: "Who'll watch over the fairness of the funds' and careers' administrators?". It really looks like an infinite regress. So perhaps the only feasible solution is to muddle through, as the human race has done over its entire history.
   
   Other reviewers have spoken at length about the book's contents, and I will not repeat them. Suffice it to say that I don't feel qualifided to judge the relative merits/defects of string theory versus loop quantum gravity and the other "theories" that are being worked upon, although I am sympathetic to those who start from relativity, I think the "background independence" argument has some merit, and string/M theory is, in my opinion, beginning to sprout epycicles. You don't need to have worked on it to realize it. Of course I could be wrong: in this (or these) Universe(s) almost anything is possible, which, although a very trite remark, is deeply true.
   
   But this book, although eschewing math, is written for an adult public -unlike so many ones in the market today-, doesn't simplify the issues (i.e., doesn't pretend you can really "understand" anything much without math), depicts accurately why science isn't exactly what you thought it to be, but instead in the short run (say 1½ human lifespans?) much more based on personal vanity and lust for power than on rational considerations, and, more importantntly yet, is CIVILISED. It's really refreshing to read pages unpolluted by vicious ad hominem attacks à la Lubos Motl (a learned physicist who reviewed, among others, Peter Woigt's also excellet book "Not even wrong ... "), even if it's only for appearences' sake.



4. Excellent read. Smolin's critique of string-them-along string theory in What's Wrong with Physics is greatly superior to Greene's cheerleading treatment of the same topic in The Elegant Universe. It is interesting the way that physics is being corrupted in a similar way to the financial system in the current crises causing a meltdown on Wall Street: people spewing out equations that nobody really understands and that have little relation to reality. But Smolin, while enlightening in his insider insights into the achievements and failures of string theory, falls into many of the same faulty assumptions of contemporary physics. My own view is that special relativity was fairly brilliant, but general relativity is essentially flawed. Physicists pay too much homage to Einstein, without admitting that he could be wrong. Remember that nobody has ever found a gravity wave, but general relativity appears to be premised on their existence. It would be more profitable to seek to create a theory that explicitly makes gravity waves impossible than to continue to believe in any theory where they exist. And the entire program of unification is suspect. Why should the Universe require unification when everything we know points to simply finding, over time, that it contains more and more things and phenomena -- different laws at different scales of spatial dimension -- and becomes bigger and bigger than we ever thought before? The Universe seems to require diversity, not unification. And while physics flounders, there are legitimate advances in related fields: our understanding of the information sciences and the concept of entropy appear to be critical for any advances in physics.



5. I don't read very much since I read slow but I was glad I finished through this book. There is a very good background of the state of physics in the first 3/4ths of the book. The ending could be skipped if you aren't all that interested in the authors prescriptive suggestions for addressing the state of academia and research funding.

5 comments about Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Dover Thrift Editions).

1. This book is often recommend by theoretical physicists and mathematicians (most often mathematicians involved in hyperdimensional topology) to their students.
   
   It was written by a Shakespeare scholar in Britain more than 100 years ago. The reason it is recommended by theoretical physicists, etc., is it provides the reader with a framework for understanding and trying to visualize dimensions above or beyond our ordinary four-dimensional world (length, width, heighth, space-time).
   
   It deals with a two dimensional world with two dimensional beings and what happens when a third dimensional being interacts with a two dimensional world and what the two dimensional beings would see. It also does this in terms of a one dimensional being and one dimensional world interacting with a two dimensional world and two dimensional beings (or structures).
   
   This book written with apparently some intent on commenting on Victorian England and its values (with what appeared to me to have some misogynistic comments within it), was otherwise an enjoyable book and really does provide a good analysis on multi-dimensional view points and visualizing or imagining hyper-dimensions.
   
   If you are interested in advanced theoretical physics, hyperdimensional geometry or topology or mathematics, this is a very interesting book and may be useful. If you are just interested in a good unique science fiction story, I would highly recommend this. This is not an (explicit) math or science book - so you won't find any explicit mathematics (i.e., no math is required).
   
   Excellent.



2. Yes, many young people have been required to read Flatland against their wills. Yes, many people have missed the real point of the book. This book stretched the mind and imagination in ways that are fun and challenging. The author might not have been entirely serious in writing the book, but nonetheless provided serious food for thought.
   
   I believe Flatland is an excellent (and quick) reading experience for minds in the formative stage, a stage I recommend maintaining throughout life. The book's theological implications were the most important to me. I had always wondered where heaven might be, how God can see inside us, and what the spirit is made of. I do not know if extrapolating the Flatland concepts into a fourth (or fifth) physical dimension reflects ultimate reality, but it provides a sufficiently possible and plausible explanation to remove rationalist objections.
   
   The 3-D sphere that intersects the plane of reality provided the "Aha" moment. The sphere embodied perfection and could mysteriously appear and disappear. Explaining the view from above the plane to a flat square is as difficult as explaining the spiritual realm to a person unable to envision beyond the world seen with the eye. A greater-dimensional being floating above the plane can see inside the geometric shapes, reach inside their skins without intersecting their boundaries, think far more complex thoughts, and take them out of their limited reality to a better place they could not have imagined. If a Flatland person had no thickness, he would have no volume by our reckoning, and therefore no real existence. If there is a spiritual dimension and a person has no thickness in that direction at all, then he may not really exist either.
   
   We have learned to adjust to modern concepts of reality that are no longer Euclidean and Newtonian. Perhaps we need a view of creation that is not limited by unfounded presumptions of limited dimensionality. After you ponder the concepts of Flatland and extrapolate them to your life, I wonder what new thought may form.



3. Originally written with a Victorian theme, it is now a must-read classic for anyone who enjoys reading about the fourth dimension. The story is about a two-dimensional being (called A Square) living in a two-dimensional world (hence the title, Flatland). As a three-dimensional being imagining this two-dimensional world, you come to realize that you can understand higher-dimensional space through lower-dimensional analogies. In fact, A Square meets a three-dimensional being (A Sphere), and takes a journey beyond the second dimension. Although some readers may enjoy the book for its historical and Victorian period merits, math lovers can enjoy the book for its geometric insight.
   
   If you are curious about the fourth dimension, you should also read:
   
   - Spaceland: A Novel of the Fourth Dimension, Rudy Rucker's novel of the fourth dimension
   - Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So, a continuation of the geometric idea from Flatland
   - The 4th Dimension: Toward a Geometry of Higher Reality, Rudy Rucker's classic introduction to the fourth dimension
   - The Visual Guide to Extra Dimensions: Volume 1: Visualizing the Fourth Dimension, Higher-Dimensional Polytopes, and Curved Hypersurfaces, a modern geometric introduction to the fourth dimension



4. Incredibly easy and direct way to give a new perspective into a 1D, 2D and 3D "space"!
   
   Flatland is written in 1800's English, so it might be a little bit tricky to get it straight, if you aren't a native English speaker. Sphereland is straight forward!!
   
   Highly recommended!



5. The first contact I ever had with this book was in fourth grade when my teacher read a couple of passages as a lead-in to geometry.
   That being said, I need to tell you that I hated my freshman geometry course. My teacher didn't speak English; there were all these formulas, theorems, and postulates that we had to memorize; and we spent all our time doing useless proofs. But this is getting into my high school career, and away from a review of this book.
   Even though I didn't enjoy geometry, I found this book fascinating. Don't be deceived by the subtitle; it's not a love story. Abbott uses the word "romance" in the sense of "epic." I guarantee that you will stop at least once while you're reading this book to try to wrap your mind around what the fourth dimension must look like.
   The only criticisms I have are about the misogyny and the pacing. In Flatland, women are treated as second-class citizens, but this is not a major theme. A few times, particularly during A Square's conversation with the King of Lineland, I got bored. But overall the book was paced well, and I'm impressed that the 19TH century churned-out any book less than two hundred pages.

2 comments about Cracking the AP Physics B Exam, 2008 Edition (College Test Prep).

1. This book will easily get anyone who really understands it a 5 on the exam, especially if you can score well on the practice tests in the back. It's better for review, rather than learning. If you want an AP book that you can learn from, I suggest using 5 Steps to a 5. I never really understood electromagnetic induction or nuclear physics from my textbook, and this book was even worse for that, but 5 Steps to a 5 cleared up all my issues with those topics in about an hour. I think that this book is way better for review, though, mostly because the questions they ask at the end of each chapter are better and help your understanding of the concepts.
   
   Don't be discouraged if you don't score well on the practice tests in the back, because the actual AP exam is much more conceptual and less calculation-based. But if you can do the Princeton Review tests, you'll have no problem with the real one. It's not overly difficult though, so don't let that discourage you from buying it.
   
   Overall, this definitely gets a 5/5 for its explanations and for being so concise and on target regarding information the exam will test you on.



2. Really helped prepare for the AP exam. The practice tests are key. They really get you a good feel for the exam. Princeton Review does a great job.

5 comments about Schaum's Outline of College Physics, 10th edition (Schaum's Outlines).

1. Our school uses "Physics for Scientists and Engineers" by Serway and Jewett. The Schaum book of problems teaches some tougher concepts in a less complicated way. It's a "worth-your-time & effort" supplement to any calc-based physics book.



2. Oh my,I absolutely love this book!! It is by far the most useful supplementary book I've ever used! I had a horrible AP physics teacher and textbook in high school, but this book saved me. The example problems in the book show us almost all the techniques we will ever need to know for introductory physics. It's easy-to-understand, yet sophisticated enough to be useful for college physics. It covers just the right material. I've personally found that in order to do well in physics, one has to be very good at recognizing what strategies are needed for a problem and then knowing how to apply thosee techniques; studying this book helps us with just that.
   
   The way I do it is, for each chapter first I read through the summary (not long; just about a page), then I carefully read through most of the problems, and then put the word "key" next to the few problems that I know I must absolutely internalize because they contain crucial techniques. When tests roll around, I will study those "key" problems and if time allows, the other ones as well. And if you want to do really really well on tests, make sure you take a look at the last few advanced problems as well.
   
   I am in an intro physics course in college right now, and I still find this book useful. This book helped me aced the AP, and is helping me stay in the top portion of my class right now. And, it's helping me appreciate physics more because I have the confidence to tackle problems. It takes some time to get stuff out of it. But if you put the time into it, this book will be soooo helpful to you!! :)



3. This book is meant as an aid for a student taking a College Physics course based on Algebra, and not on Calculus. It covers all of the major topics for General Physics I and II, from Classical Physics, including vectors, kinematics, and dynamics all the way through Modern Physics, including Relativity and Nuclear Physics.
   
   As is the case with all of the books of the Schaum's Outline series, this particular volume is a supplement and is not intended to replace your textbook or your professor. It is really meant for someone who has already grappled with the material from a textbook and has some idea of the concepts already. If you are approaching the material for the first time, I would advise you to steer clear of this book until you have approached it from another source. Also, if you are searching for a book with a really qualitative or intuitive approach to Physics, or one with lengthy explanations, I would recommend looking for another book. If you are looking for a supplement that you can read prior to your textbook, or for a supplement that doesn't read like a condensed textbook (as this one does), I would recommend something like Physics for Dummies.
   
   That said, the book is divided up into various short chapters. I like that the chapters are not especially long and that while most conventional textbooks would group them into one giant chapter, this book breaks them down. For example, Coloumb's Law and Capacitance are divided into two chapters. There is a terse run-through of the material pertaining to the concept (usually they are about 1-2 pages long). If you already have tried to read your textbook, this book will probably help you, as it hits the highlights and gives you a better idea of the broad picture, allowing you to integrate your information. There are some helpful figures as well.
   
   While the summary is useful, it does miss out on some details and does not go into proofs of equations, and it does not offer a deep, intuitive break down of the concepts. For example, it may say something in the vein of "the equations of motion are related graphically," but they will not include or explain the graphs in the text. The authors assume that you have a textbook to explain those details. In short, I can see this being particularly useful right before an exam as a quick review, but not as a primary learning source.
   
   After the summary of the concepts, there is a section of worked problems, and a section of supplementary problems that are not worked, but to which answers are provided. The book has a plethora of problems that will test your understanding of the subject matter. The best way to learn Physics is to do problems constantly, and this book really forces you to figure out how to problem solve. The questions range from easy to difficult, and many problems are likely to challenge you.
   
   While the problems are very helpful in reinforcing what you have learned, I do have a few minor issues. Sometimes the explanations of the worked problems can be a little too brief, and can be a little confusing. I would also have liked to see all of the problems worked through (but I do believe Schaum's has a book of 3000 fully worked problems). My biggest problem is with the formatting of the Supplemental Problems, as the editors have placed the answers right next to the questions! It is impossible not to see them. I think they should have put the answers in the back of the book.
   
   I would say that this is an excellent resource for quick brush-ups and for problem solving help. I wish that some of the explanations of the concepts had been a little more detailed, but this is one of the best General Physics aids that I have found. I must stress once again that this book is NOT a replacement for your textbook, and that it is not some sort of shortcut or miracle book. You will have to put in a lot of work to understand Physics, and studying the summaries and problems in this book will certainly give you more confidence, and will allow you to tackle the problems set by your teacher with greater ease. This book has really helped me out.
   
   Thank you for reading my review! Please rate, so I know whether it was of any help to you.



4. I didn't buy the textbook b/c it sucks and it's too expensive. So, I use this book as a reference to learn how to solve College physics (non-calculus based physics), and it helps a lot, esp. for my Online homework. This book is so clear and step-by-step. I would recommend for anyone who is taking College physics



5. I bought this book along with the "3000 Solved Problems In Physics" and the "3000 Solved Problems In Physics" is a better book, but still each author has a very good manner of explaination. I would certainly recommend it. It is a very good aid to understanding.

5 comments about Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos.

1. Michio has done an excellent job at describing the current understanding of the Universe, based on the latest proven theories. He has the ability to reach out to all skill levels. This is simply the best book I have ever read regarding the Universe. Thanks to my good friend and colleague, Neal Bailey, for recommending this book.



2. hello . this book is so facanating it is hard to belive. literly after you read about the quantum paralel worlds part you never ever look at the world in the same way.also i was ten when i read this book and still found it facanating and 100% comprehend able. because of this book and many others by michio ka ku i want to be a theoretical phisisist. i hope you buy this book. happy reading^_^



3. this book is very good view of the physics of the new millenium..michio kaku really knows what he's talking about and im sure this isn't his last book on this topic



4. Ranges further and is more accessible than Brian Greene's "Elegant Universe." A must read for anyone who is interested in the _very big questions_.



5. I don't have much physics backgroud but found this book very easy to comprehend and easy to read also. The information is astonishing.

5 comments about Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness.

1. This book on interpreting the quantum facts is one of the best I've read. It is one of the best, I think, in its understandability of the enigma one is faced with in trying to go beyond the Copenhagen interpretation.
   This book presents the measurement problem of quantum physics and explains why conscious observation must have some role in influencing reality, if you choose to go beyond CI. The way the authors explain Bell's Theorem and how it became a testable theory that answered the EPR challenge to quantum theory is succinct and comprehensible to the layman, for which it was writen.



2. Quantum Enigma goes where few science books dare to go: right up to the border that separates physics from philosophy. And there it stops. The implication though is strong that something, a field of consciousness (?), is behind the universe and everything in it.



3. It takes a little while to grasp its concepts and I am not completely convinced of all arguments. However, its a very interesting read and I'm naturally a "doubting Jane" when science is involved. I question everything beyond the norm. What this has done is spiked my interest in String Theory so as well as recommending this book as a good starter, I would then recommend you read The Elegant Universe. Better to read this one first.
   
   Happy enlightenment!



4. Truly a classic book! If I had read this book during my college years, I definitely would have been a physics student instead of doing computer engineering. Even though I knew about Schrödinger Cats, It was the biggest surprise for me to read that it was in fact physics' encounter with consciousness. It was always - shut up and calculate approach for most of us. Also being a Vedanta student, it feels good to see that philosophy and science are converging to the same point. Simply the best book on science that I ever read! And it was such a great coincidence that I saw Dr. Fred Alan Wolf and Larry King on CNN discussing the similar subject the day I finished this book.



5. This book is interesting because explains in easy terms physical concepts and they do so with almost no math formulas. I gave this book 4 stars and not 5 because when the discussion departs from "how to explain that observation causes results", they end talking about conscience and it's relation to results. I can't accept that all the universe came to be what it is (including all its pre-history), just because of observation. There should be an elegant way to explain the relation between how things happen in the quantum world, the relation with observation and its relation to the macro world, even when procedurally that way would be the same as the Copenhagen way. This is just my opinion. I am just an engineer; not a physicist or a philosopher.

5 comments about The Complete Idiot's Guide to String Theory (Complete Idiot's Guide to).

1. I am still basically an idiot on this subject, but now with a little enlightenment. I have been out of school for some30++ years and this
   stuff is a bit out there for me. But, it is written clearly and I am
   very happy with the read.



2. how could i resist? my education/degrees are in biophysics, so there's a lot i've missed out on. fascinating to read and learn and not over the top in levels of difficulty.
   take a chance!



3. A chunk of the book covers relativity.
   Quantum mechanics is presented with its incompatibilities.
   With these formalities over with, string theory is discussed.
   
   There are some difficulties here.
   Profound conclusions are presented without much background.
   The conflicting view points get tiresome.
   There is not much of a climax at the end.
   But these problems are inherent to the subject matter.
   
   The digressions and historical bits are always interesting.
   The endless analogies to everyday life are better than you would expect.
   There is a joy about the audacity of the subject which comes through.



4. Witty, clear, interesting and a great addition to your collection, especially if you're interested in knowing more about physics, without having to learn equations and understand complex principles.
   
   The "Brief history of time" of string theory.



5. ..as a part of a title. Idiots do not read such books. I may say, you will like this easy to follow review of relativity, QM, the Standard Model, the possibility of time travel, and more. Then explore alternatives to string theory. All this conveyed in everyday, even breezy, language. The next few years will be critical for string theory. LHC will begin to smash particles into bits to see what they are made of and give new types a chance to form. But finishing the job will probably require new conceptual input , as author indicates. Good quick read ..from micro to large scale cosmology.

5 comments about 3,000 Solved Problems in Physics (Schaum's Solved Problems) (Schaum's Solved Problems Series).

1. I bought this book to help my daughter with her physics class. I just wanted to help her practice with a few of the easier problems given that she is still in high school. Surprisingly, I found the book better in comparison to the problems given in her actual textbook. Obviously, one cannot learn physics from scratch by doing these problems alone. Some initial instruction is required. However, once the basic concepts of physics are learned, this in turn becomes an excellent practice guide in order to master the topics covered. No matter what your level of acheivement is, this book will help you get to the next level. I wish I had found this book a lot sooner.



2. This book has plenty of practice problems and helped me to bring my grade up, but the problems seem kind of dry compared to textbook problems. Most of the problems have to do with the same situation (ex. boom, something going in a circle, inclined plane, etc.). Problems in texbooks are often more varied in style and force you think a bit more. If the problems are of a greater variety, this will definitely be 5 stars. I still recommend this for anyone who is hoping to get better grades in physics. You'll get a lot better by doing all those practice problems.



3. I'm a retired physicist and bought this book so I could pick out good problems for my daughter to solve as an adjunct to her high school textbook. It often happens that if you "get" a concept one or two problems is enough practice but when you're having trouble its nice to have many, many problems (and see the solutions) on a particular topic to work on until the concept "clicks". This book is perfect in that regard. I was also pleased that many of the problems go well beyond plug and pray. Last but not least, the solutions are CORRECT (I've yet to encounter an error).
   
   The one criticism I would make is there is a tendency to have several sequential problems depend on the prior problem. Thus, if problem 8.47 looks interesting you might find that you have to first solve 8.45 and 8.46 before attempting it. Minor point....
   
   I also bought Schaum's 3000 Calculus problems and found it to be just as good.
   3,000 Solved Problems in Calculus



4. I've bought other books on the topic of physics as well. I'm an engineer/programmer, not a physics guru, and this is the book that's done me the most good with the advanced topics. For the price you can't go wrong, and the basic topics are covered very well also.



5. This book has not helped me at all in my physics class, mainly because the problems are nothing like the ones my teacher assigns. They are all much easier.