anything original, though it is something to witness the FBI's collective befuddlement in face of the events: Join the crowd.
Captivating, if utterly inconclusive, material from FBI investigations into unidentified flying objects and aliens, culled from
declassified files and assembled here by veteran UFO researcher Redfern. Lest there be any doubt about where he is coming from, Redfern asserts, "I am convinced that many UFOs are indeed piloted space vehicles which originate with an intelligence from beyond earth." In an effort to convince his readership of the same, he puts before them documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from the FBI that detail their inquiries into reported sightings. It is perhaps the most gratifying disclosure of the book that the FBI was called in when the Air Force suspected "the first reported sightings might have been by individuals of Communist sympathies with the view of causing hysteria," for the rest of the stories are old hat, strewn with caveats and tied off with the likes of ’still unclear" and "tantalizingly unresolved," by Redfern. We are treated to a variety of old favorites, including the glowing green balls of light in the New Mexican skies, the strange case of the cattle mutations of the 1970s (truly creepy), the Roswell and Aztec crashes and purported recovering of alien bodies (no evidence), and patrolman Lonnie Zamora's close encounter south of Socorro, New Mexico in 1964 (his word, your call). Not new but always fascinating are the many testimonies from credible witnesses, such as experienced pilots who weren't looking to sell their story; if nothing else the sheer volume of these episodes is unnerving. The official reports reprinted here are noncommittal and essentially void of analysis, and that they come from FBI archives no longer carries the aura of sanctity it once did, the FBI being exposed as only human—and not always very nice—over the last two decades. It is little wonder that the FBI considered these documents suitable for declassification, considering their acute lack of
anything original, though it is something to witness the FBI's collective befuddlement in face of the events: Join the crowd.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-684-86834-2
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2000
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.
Lessons about life from those preparing to die.
A longtime hospice chaplain, Egan (Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago, 2004) shares what she has learned through the stories of those nearing death. She notices that for every life, there are shared stories of heartbreak, pain, guilt, fear, and regret. “Every one of us will go through things that destroy our inner compass and pull meaning out from under us,” she writes. “Everyone who does not die young will go through some sort of spiritual crisis.” The author is also straightforward in noting that through her experiences with the brokenness of others, and in trying to assist in that brokenness, she has found healing for herself. Several years ago, during a C-section, Egan suffered a bad reaction to the anesthesia, leading to months of psychotic disorders and years of recovery. The experience left her with tremendous emotional pain and latent feelings of shame, regret, and anger. However, with each patient she helped, the author found herself better understanding her own past. Despite her role as a chaplain, Egan notes that she rarely discussed God or religious subjects with her patients. Mainly, when people could talk at all, they discussed their families, “because that is how we talk about God. That is how we talk about the meaning of our lives.” It is through families, Egan began to realize, that “we find meaning, and this is where our purpose becomes clear.” The author’s anecdotes are often thought-provoking combinations of sublime humor and tragic pathos. She is not afraid to point out times where she made mistakes, even downright failures, in the course of her work. However, the nature of her work means “living in the gray,” where right and wrong answers are often hard to identify.
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59463-481-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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