Rating: 
Summary: A little hard to read, but packed with good information
Review: You'll need two brains and a dictionary to get through the first section of this book, where Mr Pearce speaks about 3 brain levels, how they work, and what its all about. The language can get difficult and the concepts complex.
The second section is bang on. It goes into detail on how a child learns, how it grows, what stimulates the baby. He also speaks about how children are damaged by modern day childbirthing procedures. I was immpressed with what he had to say. And found it meshed nicely with what I know of Early Childhood. I will be reading up more on this subject.
Besides the obtuse language, the only other down side to this book, were the authors claims for telepathy, mind bending etc. I didn't buy it, and was forced to skip those chapters. If you steer clear of the telepathy babble, I would recommend this book.
Munawar
Rating: 
Summary: Creation's Open End.
Review: 4 billion years of evolution always waiting in the wings,hmmm. High Play folks, You create a frame of reference to outstrip that reference to thrust further in to unlimitedness. If you get in a jam or confused use the intelligence of your heart to dissolve the situation so something new can arise. Let's play let creation do the dancing.
Rating:
Summary: Altered states of Consciousness
Review: Intelligent, thought inspiring, and intense. As a doctoral student with a backgound in physics, I was amazed to find a book on heightened awarness that didn't dishonor Schrodinger's and Einstein's work. This book will blow your mind away.It is free of the platitudes and the stupidity associated with books that unfortunately get lumped in the same catagory as Evolution's End. If you read it you will be floored, and left lusting for what it propounds. Pearce obviously didn't just write this for money, he knew exactly what was going on and probably felt the need to let everyone else in on it. Do not go through life with out reading this, you will miss out on the potential of your own existence! He writes with dizzying acrobatics of intelligence, spun with fact and the pages emanate with the grace and eloquence of a silver tounged linguist; that in and of it's self is enough to warrant reading this...
Rating: 
Summary: Kirkus?
Review: It's said: As in the microcosm, so in the macrocosm. In other words, everything is reflected in everything else, and it's true. Of thousands of books, tapes etc. few reflect what ails our society as well, as Pearce's book. We all have a hunch that things are not well with the world. Our waste-products alone will eventually choke us out of existence. Our child-birthing-& rearing practices produce incapable, intellectual idiots, creating yet more imbalance. Pearce not only describes what's wrong and why. Through his book we gain access to valid changes, enabling us to (hopefully) turn this ill-fated ship around. (on a personal note: we need to review our value systems badly. These include some of our most prized, yet badly abused bastions like religions and our constitution. When these become excuses for our often ill-fated actions, rather than metaphors to creative solutions, we've become a stagnant species with it's true potential and survival at risk.)
Rating: 
Summary: Babbling in the shadows
Review: Joseph Pearce "lectures worldwide on human intelligence, creativity, and learning." If you don't believe it, just read the inside cover for this personal promo. These lectures, though, are probably not discussions of RNA, DNA, proteins and memory, random or leapfrog evolution or any of a number of worthy topics. No, Mr. Pearce stays on the high ground and delivers such claptrap as "So the supra-implicated is all-power conceivable, the implicate is all-power manifesting, and the explicate is the contracted end-result so manifested." ("Mind and Matter") I, for one, do not have the slightest idea what he is talking about except that it sounds like mumbo-jumbo about physical vs mental vs conceptual, blah blah blah. More hocus pocus on such subjects as sight, sound, day care,the hazards of television, raising kids for the future, learning, school, world peace. He manages to state a few good points between all the squawking - some children are not educable and this should be recognized, children should be raised by parents in their home, and we have the potential to affect evolution today through artificial means. But then we hear again about how we use only a small portion of our brain (absurd - we use it all only at different times). A discussion of the Bhagavad Gita about human potential and belonging brings these dreary essays to an appropriate ending. Awful as it sounds!
Rating:
Summary: Babbling in the shadows
Review: Joseph Pearce "lectures worldwide on human intelligence, creativity, and learning." If you don't believe it, just read the inside cover for this personal promo. These lectures, though, are probably not discussions of RNA, DNA, proteins and memory, random or leapfrog evolution or any of a number of worthy topics. No, Mr. Pearce stays on the high ground and delivers such claptrap as "So the supra-implicated is all-power conceivable, the implicate is all-power manifesting, and the explicate is the contracted end-result so manifested." ("Mind and Matter") I, for one, do not have the slightest idea what he is talking about except that it sounds like mumbo-jumbo about physical vs mental vs conceptual, blah blah blah. More hocus pocus on such subjects as sight, sound, day care,the hazards of television, raising kids for the future, learning, school, world peace. He manages to state a few good points between all the squawking - some children are not educable and this should be recognized, children should be raised by parents in their home, and we have the potential to affect evolution today through artificial means. But then we hear again about how we use only a small portion of our brain (absurd - we use it all only at different times). A discussion of the Bhagavad Gita about human potential and belonging brings these dreary essays to an appropriate ending. Awful as it sounds!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely amazing
Review: Never have I read a book that was more purposeful, real, and paradigm challenging than this. Pearce's thoeries of evolution, existence and the potential of humanity are revolutionary and he backs up his points with footnotes on every page. This man has done his research and he is very knowledgable on multiple subjects including science and psychology. I will say that he writes on a highter intellectual level than most, so if you slept through your English classes in school you might want to consider bringing a dictionary along for the ride. Definitely one of the best books I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: A book for today
Review: The Kirkus reviewer of this book has missed the real issues.If he had read carefully he would have seen that Pearce condemns all aspects of modern, man controlled birthing methods, which cause trauma to the baby and prevent deep bonding with the mother, both for blacks and whites.I see no racism in this book.Pearce estimates that 70 percent of white children are uneducable due to the modern developments that he discusses.About two thirds of the population have grown up with these factors that prevent full human development.Most of the people concerned would not be aware of their arrested development.A very disturbing fact that Pearce discusses is the way television prevents the higher brain from developing in children.Television engages only the lower or reptilian brain, not allowing the higher brain to develop.At age 11 the brain destroys many unused neurons, so that arrested development is permanent.This book and "The Sibling Society" by Robert Bly show that very negative things have been happening to human nature in modern society, causing the general breakdown which is going on all around us.
Rating:
Summary: A facade of knowledge
Review: This book covers subjects important to ourselves and to our society. However, it does so with a thin covering of scholarship, a poor level of critical argument, and a smug certainty in carefully selected facts to support a personal belief system. The strongest lines of evidence are unsupported annectotes and overstatement of examples as fact. My favorite is his discussion on "remote viewing", where one person tries to send an image to a "receiver" sitting somewhere (and somewhen) else. He argues that the rather common "misses" are actually hits beheld from another viewpoint (e.g. you are sending to me an image a public park fountain and I receive an image of a person sitting on a nearby bench reading a book). He also supports Targ's comment that reception of future images (images received that are not yet sent) are easier because the signal to noise ratio is better. I am certain that I can see the look on your face right now....
This book appeals to individuals with a desire to believe uncritically. It sounds good, and I expect he has been on Oprah many times. If you like a description of our potential for mental spoon-bending mixed with bad neuroanatomy, spiced with some small common sense regarding some actual problems in our society, this book is for you. If you want well-reasoned guidance, look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Touches on some interesting topics but goes too far
Review: This book talks about the how the spirit of a child is damaged by the society we've created, both intellectually and physiologically. Unfortunately its takes on too much and ends up seeming like psuedoscience. But there are some very good points being made. Its well worth contemplating.
Take the idea of how hormones in our food affect children. Somehow we want to believe that children reaching puberty when they have barely put down their stuffed toys is due to good nutrition and not hormones in our food. There was a study done of precocious infant sexual development (extremely enlarged genitalia on babies) in Puerto Rico many years ago that linked the problem to hormones in Chicken. The reason there is so little interest in identifying and solving this problem here (and not even calling it a problem) is not because it doesn't exist but rather because there is no money to be made in proving it ( a very expensive and time consuming procedure). Yes, the victims could sue if they could prove links to cancer or early developmental issues...but the researches willing to take on the food industry would not be able to pay their bills. And it is easy for the food industry to pay for studies suited to their needs and spoon feed them to the press. This stops the questioning before it starts.
Read this book with a skeptics mind realizing that though you may find some of his ideas far-fetched, there are some valuable truths here...truths you need to know if you have children.
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