Rating: 
Summary: Incredible!
Review: I was skeptical at the claims this book was making until my dog figured out that whole Clinton/Lewinsky thing. He knew the ending to the Sixth Sense long before it actually happened. He knows that Jello is really connective tissue. He even believes the editors will chop up this review because I've been c...par... them .. ad.... and f..ri... .... ..... ..
Rating:
Summary: Incredible!
Review: I was skeptical at the claims this book was making until my dog figured out that whole Clinton/Lewinsky thing. He knew the ending to the Sixth Sense long before it actually happened. He knows that Jello is really connective tissue. He even believes the editors will chop up this review because I've been c...par... them .. ad.... and f..ri... .... ..... ..
Rating:
Summary: Alabama reader: you should read the book before reviewing it
Review: I've found the book a very convincing and well-researched description of this phenomenon. I saw the 20/20 episode about this book and it seemed very clear that the dog was reacting to the owner's intention to return, though it wasn't obvious if that was an unusual occurrence. If you read the book, it is clear that the dog is not just sitting by the window the whole time. The percentage of time that the dog spent by the window was measured for each 10-minute interval in the entire time the owner was gone. The dog spent an insignificant amount of time at the window before the owner decided to return home, and a significantly larger amount of time afterward, far more than could be expected by random chance. The data was collected from the videotapes by someone who was unfamiliar with the details of the expirement and thus wouldn't be likely to expect a particular result. I will agree that "most" dogs do not know when they are coming home, but the fact that some do is very surprising.
Rating:
Summary: Response to A reader from Alabama September 28, 1999
Review: No one is claiming that all members of all species of animals have "super human" abilities, including the animal species that we say is 'human'. All of us, plants and animals, have special abilities. Those of us who call ourselves humans just do not know very much about our own abilities and know even less about the abilities of the other living things with which we share this universe. We are a species that is naturally inquisitive and some of us will always challenge the currently accepted propaganda and will climb to the top to see what is on the other side. That is not something to fear, it is something to celebrate!
Rating:
Summary: Dogs That Know When Science is Changing...
Review: Rarely do scientists break ranks to go out on their own. If they do, they are usually viewed as radicals ... not to be trusted. Rupert Sheldrake studied natural sciences at Cambridge and philosophy at Harvard. He took a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Cambridge University, was Director of Studies in biochemistry and cell biology and was also a Research Fellow of the Royal Society. His latest book, Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home, is the latest in a long list of ground-breaking books that follow in the tradition of those scientists that are brave enough to ask the really difficult questions. Sheldrake is a first-rate observer and a gifted scientist. After reading his latest book, I come away with a sense, not that science has just about figured it all out, but just the opposite: we have only just begun to understand what's going on...
Rating:
Summary: Recommended to anyone interested in animal communications
Review: Rupert Sheldrake is renowned for his theory of morphogenetic fields. These fields are species-specific collections of experiences individuals have, which are available to all members of the species. These fields provide information on knowledge and behaviors that are helpful to the species, such as migration routes and other learned behaviors. For instance, mice have learned paths through laboratory mazes, and members of the same species who were not direct descendents of the original lab animals subsequently learned the same mazes much more quickly.
In this book, Sheldrake has gathered several hundred reports of dogs, cats and other pets that evidence telepathic and precognitive communications with humans. These occur most often with the animal's primary caretaker, but may also occur with other people who have close bonds with them.
The evidence is presented engagingly, with many examples from the very broad spectrum of phenomena reported in Sheldrake's survey. Pet owners describe not only dogs and cats who show clear alerting behaviors prior to their owners returning home, but also intuitive anticipations and acknowledgments of death of someone close to them; intuitive homing behaviors; and applied/ trained assistance to owners who are blind or have epilepsy or diabetes.
Sheldrake's hypothess that morphogenetic fields explain all of these phenomena is an interesting variation on the themes of intuitive/psychic awareness, collective consciousness, and spiritual dimensions of reality.
Sheldrake's book is highly recommended to anyone interested in animal communications that extend beyond the ordinary physical world of visual and auditory channels.
Rating:
Summary: Top notch!
Review: Sheldrake has proved to be the thinking person's thinker. But he also has a knack for reaching the general reader. Although we cannot be certain of his claim that only past habits influence the present, the book is well thought out and superbly researched. It should be valuable for anyone interested in furthering the scientific study of essentially spiritual matters.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and Informative
Review: Sheldrake has spent a lifetime studying animals but looks outside the box of conventional wisdom in this engaging book about family pets. He suggests that the animals we know best, the cats and dogs who live in our homes, can teach us the most. He looks closely at several categories of oft-reported -but sometimes disregarded- types of animal behavior: predicting when their owners will return home, empathy, telepathy, sense of direction, and premonitions. Using replicable and rigorous experimental methods he demonstrates that something indeed is going on here, something they can not be easily described by conventional explanations. Sheldrake posits psychic connections that he calls "morphic bonds" exist among some creatures, including bees in a hive and schools of fish, and may well exist between some animals and the humans closest to them. Sheldrake clearly explains that such bonds do not occur among all pets or even among the same pets in all situations, but they definitely do seem to exist. This is a fun book for animal-lovers, full of engaging anecdotes about dogs, cats, horses, and birds who enjoy strong emotional bonds with their owners that allow them to accomplish seemingly-unbelievable feats. But it is also an eye-opening book, for Sheldrake has applied some scientific techniques to both debunk fraudulent claims and to confirm those that have no conventional explanation. His "morphic bonds" are persuasive, especially to those who have lived closely with animals and observed their behavior in close quarters.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and Informative
Review: Sheldrake has spent a lifetime studying animals but looks outside the box of conventional wisdom in this engaging book about family pets. He suggests that the animals we know best, the cats and dogs who live in our homes, can teach us the most. He looks closely at several categories of oft-reported -but sometimes disregarded- types of animal behavior: predicting when their owners will return home, empathy, telepathy, sense of direction, and premonitions. Using replicable and rigorous experimental methods he demonstrates that something indeed is going on here, something they can not be easily described by conventional explanations. Sheldrake posits psychic connections that he calls "morphic bonds" exist among some creatures, including bees in a hive and schools of fish, and may well exist between some animals and the humans closest to them. Sheldrake clearly explains that such bonds do not occur among all pets or even among the same pets in all situations, but they definitely do seem to exist. This is a fun book for animal-lovers, full of engaging anecdotes about dogs, cats, horses, and birds who enjoy strong emotional bonds with their owners that allow them to accomplish seemingly-unbelievable feats. But it is also an eye-opening book, for Sheldrake has applied some scientific techniques to both debunk fraudulent claims and to confirm those that have no conventional explanation. His "morphic bonds" are persuasive, especially to those who have lived closely with animals and observed their behavior in close quarters.
Rating: 
Summary: I have trouble respecting mediocre writers
Review: The fact is that he's dealing with interesting material. We all want to believe in something like this. I know I do. But will a book like this convince me? It won't.
I think I was turned off to the message of the book primarily by the writing style. Granted, this shouldn't sway me from the facts, but his words are the only means by which he communicates the message, and if he is a subpar writer, I see a person of subpar intelligence. And I simply can't respect that. I don't know if he is intelligent enough to thoroughly research his facts, or to tell the difference between stories that are true or otherwise. And a lot of what he does here is tell over individual stories.
Furthermore: I'm an actuary, and I deal with statistics. When I read this book, I also ask myself, for every animal mentioned that has telepathic powers, how many don't? Perhaps, if you take into account the millions of dogs that are owned, it is statistically fortold that whether or not any dogs have these powers, stories will nevertheless crop up. The research here is NOT done scientifically, and there is NO mention of any sort of statistics. I don't believe any were done. And while I read stories that seemed true, I take it with a grain of salt because I simply don't know what I'm not being told.
I apologize to those of you who came here to see all the good reviews, and to those of you who want to believe and wanted this book to be great. I read all the other great reveiws of the book. I'm baffled, to be frank.
|
