I've finished reading Same Soul, Many Bodies: Discover the Healing Power of Future Lives through Progression Therapy by Brian L. Weiss -- again.
It's a good read. It seemed credible (this time around, although my perception about the book's veracity depends on how I'm feeling when I happen to be reading the book). Maybe Dr. Weiss perceives what we would all perceive if we regressed patients to the time before they were born through hypnosis. Or maybe there's something amiss about his technique, or with the way he processes the information that he receives through hypnotized subjects.
As a disclaimer, Dr. Weiss repeatedly tells readres that the results of his hypnotic sessions may be viewed as symbolic, rather than factual. In other words, maybe you didn't die in a fire 25 years ago. Instead, maybe there's a hot issue going on in your current life that needs to be resolved.
Well, thanks, Dr. Weiss. You offer us a book that raises a lot of questions...and few answers.
But then again, what did I expect? This is a metaphysical book, after all, and my view about metphysical matters varies according to the weather -- and New England weather, at that.
Same Soul, Many Bodies
By Brian L. Weiss
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Free Press (August 30, 2005)
ISBN-10: 0743264347
ISBN-13: 978-0743264341
Visit the author online.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Same Soul, Many Bodies
Here's what I'm reading: Same Soul, Many Bodies: Discover the Healing Power of Future Lives through Progression Therapy by Brian L. Weiss.
And I'm not reading it for the first time.
One of my eccentricities is that I hold onto books for a long, long time. I read them. Then I re-read them. Then I re- re-read them. And so on, until the book either starts to disintegrate, or one of my cats expedites the process by shredding the book while I'm asleep. (Actually, that's good news for authors and publishers, because when a well-loved book has been velveteen rabbitted, I'll usually "have" to buy myself a replacement copy.)
Anyway, so after a weekend of indulging myself in a sweet novel, I picked up Dr. Weiss's book and started to read it again. The first couple of times I read the book, I was half-persuaded that the evidence was in, and that souls were, in fact, immortal. Then, each time I put the book down, I wasn't so sure.
A couple of deaths in the family later, I'm back to wondering whether a New Age perspective on the afterlife would persuade me, frustrate me, or just plain confuse me. So here I go again.
Dr. Weiss, this is your last chance.
I'll let you know what I come away with as soon as I finish reading the book -- for the third or fourth time.
And I'm not reading it for the first time.
One of my eccentricities is that I hold onto books for a long, long time. I read them. Then I re-read them. Then I re- re-read them. And so on, until the book either starts to disintegrate, or one of my cats expedites the process by shredding the book while I'm asleep. (Actually, that's good news for authors and publishers, because when a well-loved book has been velveteen rabbitted, I'll usually "have" to buy myself a replacement copy.)
Anyway, so after a weekend of indulging myself in a sweet novel, I picked up Dr. Weiss's book and started to read it again. The first couple of times I read the book, I was half-persuaded that the evidence was in, and that souls were, in fact, immortal. Then, each time I put the book down, I wasn't so sure.
A couple of deaths in the family later, I'm back to wondering whether a New Age perspective on the afterlife would persuade me, frustrate me, or just plain confuse me. So here I go again.
Dr. Weiss, this is your last chance.
I'll let you know what I come away with as soon as I finish reading the book -- for the third or fourth time.
Monday, October 8, 2007
One Mississippi - The Book Review
I'm torn. On the one hand, I'd like to say that I loathed One Mississippi by Mark Childress so that I could get even with him for making me log onto iTunes first thing this morning to download the Carpenters' "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft."
That's not something I would typically do. "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" hasn't been on my mind for something like thirty years (it's not something the local oldies station plays), and I haven't missed it. But Mark Childress has planted the song into my head, as he planted "Rocket Man" by Elton John and countless songs by Sonny and Cher.
Come to think of it, that's what's really irritating me this morning. What seems to have happened is this: Mark Childress got himself several earworms and, in the process of passing them onto his faithful readers, he makes disparaging comments about them (such as saying, in as many words, that Sonny Bono is a dork). He then gets to put those songs out of his mind while his readers, on the other hand, must run over to their vinyl album collections or, in the worst-case scenario (that is, if they've thrown away their vinyl albums or found them destroyed because of a calamity), they must download those melodies and then actually listen to them. That's just wrong.
And here, in all my innocence, I thought that I'd heard the last of Sonny and Cher's Greatest Hits. Well, apparently I have not. Thanks a lot, Childress! So that's why I wanted to pan his new book, One Mississippi. I really, really wanted to pan it!
But, on the other hand, I must be honest. Childress's novel kept me awake last night until I'd finished it not only because the 1970's soundtrack that accompanied the plot was insistently throbbing away in my head when I should have been catching some zzzzzzz's but also because it was good.
Darn Childress, anyway. He shares my affinity for distressingly inane music, apparently. Plus, he can write! And, when he writes, you can't put his book down until you're through reading it.
So, okay, I concede. For a really good read, pick up a copy of One Mississippi. You'll end up staying awake too late, as I did last night. You'll also find yourself listening to a lot of bad music and visualizing Cher in those outrageous Bob Mackie costumes of (thank goodness) long ago, and you'll fixate on the image of a pre-political Sonny Bono flinching at his wife's insults while tiny Chastity, who was too young to know her parents' marriage was already in big trouble, looked on from atop the piano. And you'll worry about whether it's okay to laugh at Childress's depiction of everyone who either teaches or attends school in the deep South circa 1973 as a Redneck.
But, "dadgummit" (as the protagonist's father might say), you'll enjoy reading One Mississippi. You might not enjoy reading it quite as much as you enjoyed reading Crazy in Alabama (I'm sorry, but "The Sonny and Cher Show" will never put "The Beverly Hillbillies" out of business). But you'll enjoy it deeply, and you'll find yourself recommending it to others.
The only thing that would make this novel even better would be if a CD with all of the music you'll come away singing were included as part of the package. Next time, perhaps.
One Mississippi is a keeper. Two thumbs up (one on each hand).
One Mississippi
By Mark Childress
Back Bay Books (Little Brown and Company)
ISBN-10: 0-316-01212-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-316-01212-6
$13.99/$16.25 in Canada
Visit the author online.
That's not something I would typically do. "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" hasn't been on my mind for something like thirty years (it's not something the local oldies station plays), and I haven't missed it. But Mark Childress has planted the song into my head, as he planted "Rocket Man" by Elton John and countless songs by Sonny and Cher.
Come to think of it, that's what's really irritating me this morning. What seems to have happened is this: Mark Childress got himself several earworms and, in the process of passing them onto his faithful readers, he makes disparaging comments about them (such as saying, in as many words, that Sonny Bono is a dork). He then gets to put those songs out of his mind while his readers, on the other hand, must run over to their vinyl album collections or, in the worst-case scenario (that is, if they've thrown away their vinyl albums or found them destroyed because of a calamity), they must download those melodies and then actually listen to them. That's just wrong.
And here, in all my innocence, I thought that I'd heard the last of Sonny and Cher's Greatest Hits. Well, apparently I have not. Thanks a lot, Childress! So that's why I wanted to pan his new book, One Mississippi. I really, really wanted to pan it!
But, on the other hand, I must be honest. Childress's novel kept me awake last night until I'd finished it not only because the 1970's soundtrack that accompanied the plot was insistently throbbing away in my head when I should have been catching some zzzzzzz's but also because it was good.
Darn Childress, anyway. He shares my affinity for distressingly inane music, apparently. Plus, he can write! And, when he writes, you can't put his book down until you're through reading it.
So, okay, I concede. For a really good read, pick up a copy of One Mississippi. You'll end up staying awake too late, as I did last night. You'll also find yourself listening to a lot of bad music and visualizing Cher in those outrageous Bob Mackie costumes of (thank goodness) long ago, and you'll fixate on the image of a pre-political Sonny Bono flinching at his wife's insults while tiny Chastity, who was too young to know her parents' marriage was already in big trouble, looked on from atop the piano. And you'll worry about whether it's okay to laugh at Childress's depiction of everyone who either teaches or attends school in the deep South circa 1973 as a Redneck.
But, "dadgummit" (as the protagonist's father might say), you'll enjoy reading One Mississippi. You might not enjoy reading it quite as much as you enjoyed reading Crazy in Alabama (I'm sorry, but "The Sonny and Cher Show" will never put "The Beverly Hillbillies" out of business). But you'll enjoy it deeply, and you'll find yourself recommending it to others.
The only thing that would make this novel even better would be if a CD with all of the music you'll come away singing were included as part of the package. Next time, perhaps.
One Mississippi is a keeper. Two thumbs up (one on each hand).
One Mississippi
By Mark Childress
Back Bay Books (Little Brown and Company)
ISBN-10: 0-316-01212-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-316-01212-6
$13.99/$16.25 in Canada
Visit the author online.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
One Mississippi
Here's what I'm reading.
One MIssissippi, by Mark Childress, is what I'm reading today. I fell in love with Childress's Crazy in Alabama (the book, not the movie -- I never did make it through the movie, I'm sorry to say), and I thought I'd give his latest book a whirl. Although I should know better than to be swayed by the endorsements, the buy-in of Stephen King (which, strangely, is inside the cover rather than on the cover itself) moved me enough to pick up the book at Barnes and Noble.
So far, I'm hooked. Then again, it doesn't take much to get me excited about a book on a lazy Sunday morning. When I've finished reading One Mississippi, I'll post a review and give it a rating. In the meantime, I'll welcome your comments.
One MIssissippi, by Mark Childress, is what I'm reading today. I fell in love with Childress's Crazy in Alabama (the book, not the movie -- I never did make it through the movie, I'm sorry to say), and I thought I'd give his latest book a whirl. Although I should know better than to be swayed by the endorsements, the buy-in of Stephen King (which, strangely, is inside the cover rather than on the cover itself) moved me enough to pick up the book at Barnes and Noble.
So far, I'm hooked. Then again, it doesn't take much to get me excited about a book on a lazy Sunday morning. When I've finished reading One Mississippi, I'll post a review and give it a rating. In the meantime, I'll welcome your comments.
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