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OPEN SKIES, CLOSED MINDS

Name: OPEN SKIES, CLOSED MINDS
Author: Nick Pope
ISBN: 0-87951-916-9

by Nick Pope ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 27, 1999

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As a career civil servant with Britain’s Ministry of Defence, Pope served a three-year stint in the early 1990s as chief investigator of UFO sightings in the United Kingdom. He began as a skeptic and ended up a true believer. This book, a bestseller in Britain, attempts to explain his conversion but does a poor job of it. Fully a third of the book is spent discussing what is by now a familiar litany of UFO-related phenomena: Roswell, Area 51, the US Air Force “Blue Book” of UFO investigations, etc. Pope’s own work consisted mainly of investigating alleged sightings of UFOs, crop circles (huge, symmetrical designs mysteriously created in open fields), and cattle slaughters (aliens apparently like hamburgers). Slim as this investigative work is, and even though, as he himself admits, there is no proof of the existence of UFOs, Pope still insists that “there is a war going on” with aliens. To make matters worse, he contends, we aren’t even aware that this war is happening. He also assures us that 95 percent of UFO sightings go unreported, though his only evidence for this is that private UFO groups have said so. Still, the book is blessedly free of the paranoia found in so much of the UFO writing done in the US. For Pope, the government of Britain is not engaged in a conspiracy to cover up the existence of UFOs (as some believe about the US government); it just hasn’t bothered to do much investigating. He can also be lyrical, such as when describing the joy and wonder of visitors within a crop circle. But he can also turn around and be facile and trite. On the connection between aliens and ghosts he concludes, “The spirit world is highly complicated.” One would suppose this to be true. An odd, unconvincing statement of belief from a government official. (8 pages b&w photos)

Pub Date: Jan. 27, 1999

ISBN: 0-87951-916-9

Page Count: 270

Publisher: Overlook

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1998

Categories:

BODY, MIND & SPIRIT

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EXPLORING THE LABYRINTH

A GUIDE FOR HEALING AND SPIRITUAL GROWTH

by Melissa Gayle West ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2000

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EXPLORING THE LABYRINTHA Guide for Healing and Spiritual GrowthWest, Melissa Gayle

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000

ISBN: 0-7679-0356-0

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Broadway

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999

Categories:

BODY, MIND & SPIRIT | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | SELF-HELP

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BEHIND THE CRYSTAL BALL

MAGIC AND SCIENCE FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE NEW AGE

by Anthony Aveni ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1996

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For an anthropologist and astronomer, Aveni (Conversing with the Planets, 1992, etc.) displays an encouraging though sometimes excessive openness of mind about things magical in this dash through the history of Western mysticism and hokum, from the Gnostics to the alchemists to the New Age. While he recognizes the many benign uses of magic—as religion, as ritual, as epistemology—Aveni is also far too accepting of the innumerable abuses. Pulling the usual flea-bitten rhetorical rabbits out of his hat (science is limited, magic is nonempirical, etc.), he clumsily seeks to excuse all manner of mountebanks and charlatans: ``When we compare magic's by-laws to those of science, it becomes very clear why the two constitute ways of knowing that are totally at odds with one another concerning both what knowledge is valid and how that knowledge gets passed on.'' Yet as Aveni acknowledges, the two have sometimes become entwined. Further, he believes that as science supposedly becomes less rational (cf. quantum mechanics), it will once again meld with magic. Interestingly, while science changes constantly, magic has altered very little over the centuries, with old beliefs constantly ``being rediscovered and dressed up in brand-new clothing.'' Though Aveni's erudition is impressively vast, he doesn't know when to rein it in, as he hies off after even the most obscure flummeries. Yet he manages to slight both non-Western magic and the history of science. In short, this is one of those works that seem both too long and too incomplete. Certainly, it is far removed from the benchmark history of mysticism, Charles Mackay's entertaining 19th- century classic, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Still, saw this book in half, suspend some of Aveni's credulity, and presto chango, you just might conjure up a highly readable book. (illustrations, not seen)