Rating: 
Summary: NOT published by the University of California Press
Review: One of the earlier customer reviews states, "I was surprised that this book was published by the University of California Press." In fact, the book was NOT published by the University of California Press. It was published by a company called "University Press, California," that is located in San Jose, California.
Rating:
Summary: misleading title
Review: This book is not about what it is purported to be about.About 20% of the content deals with neurology and spiritual experiences. The rest can only be described as wildly speculative material reminiscent of Von Daniken and Velikovsky. A great deal of attention is devoted to the notion that a "super-race" of humanoids lived on Earth 15,000 years ago. Their advanced civilization, housed on the continent of Atlantis, was destroyed when the planet Venus, originally a moon of Jupiter, careened past Mars, stealing that planet's ocean and atmosphere, and came close to Earth, leaving much of the water here in its wake -- hence, stories of a big flood that appear in mythologies the world over. The current theory of evolution may be problematic, but it is more believable than the author's suggestion that life was planted here, designed so new species would unfold in a carefully-crafted plan to terraform the planet in stages. There is a large amount of graphic violence, including depictions of medieval torture. Numerous examples of clergy or prophets "gone bad" are given to demonstrate the "close connection" in the brain between spirituality, sex, and violence. The author asserts that gay men have waged a religious war on women, but he cannot provide any examples to back this up. Abraham and Jesus are described as sexual deviants. On the whole, the fact that spirituality has inspired acts of good is overlooked (as is any other fact that would counter his claims). To be fair, the content that does deal with the stated topic seems to be on a sound footing. The evidence he offers more or less matches what I'd seen elsewhere regarding neurological aspects of spiritual experience. However, I didn't find these portions of the book particularly enlightening. The editing and layout is extremely sloppy, and (as if it mattered) footnotes are not consistently provided.
Rating:
Summary: misleading title
Review: This book is not about what it is purported to be about. About 20% of the content deals with neurology and spiritual experiences. The rest can only be described as wildly speculative material reminiscent of Von Daniken and Velikovsky. A great deal of attention is devoted to the notion that a "super-race" of humanoids lived on Earth 15,000 years ago. Their advanced civilization, housed on the continent of Atlantis, was destroyed when the planet Venus, originally a moon of Jupiter, careened past Mars, stealing that planet's ocean and atmosphere, and came close to Earth, leaving much of the water here in its wake -- hence, stories of a big flood that appear in mythologies the world over. The current theory of evolution may be problematic, but it is more believable than the author's suggestion that life was planted here, designed so new species would unfold in a carefully-crafted plan to terraform the planet in stages. There is a large amount of graphic violence, including depictions of medieval torture. Numerous examples of clergy or prophets "gone bad" are given to demonstrate the "close connection" in the brain between spirituality, sex, and violence. The author asserts that gay men have waged a religious war on women, but he cannot provide any examples to back this up. Abraham and Jesus are described as sexual deviants. On the whole, the fact that spirituality has inspired acts of good is overlooked (as is any other fact that would counter his claims). To be fair, the content that does deal with the stated topic seems to be on a sound footing. The evidence he offers more or less matches what I'd seen elsewhere regarding neurological aspects of spiritual experience. However, I didn't find these portions of the book particularly enlightening. The editing and layout is extremely sloppy, and (as if it mattered) footnotes are not consistently provided.
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