Tao of Chaos: Merging East and West

Rating:
Summary: Phenominal investigation and application
Review: Anyone who doesn't like this book does not understand it. "The answer is simply as your level of understanding makes possible", Star Trek. As a student of physics and the I Ching I could not believe someone else had been that deep in the well of Chaos and the I ching. I applaud Katya and encourage any deeply inquiring mind to check this one out. Thin threads connect great things.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!
Review: Anyone who doesn't like this book does not understand it. "The answer is simply as your level of understanding makes possible", Star Trek. As a student of physics and the I Ching I could not believe someone else had been that deep in the well of Chaos and the I ching. I applaud Katya and encourage any deeply inquiring mind to check this one out. Thin threads connect great things.

Rating:
Summary: Intriging if not too highbrow for some readers.
Review: Having formally studied nonlinear mechanics and chaos, I can confidently tell you that the author is just spewing popular buzzwords with absolutely no clue as to their meaning. To make matters worse, she proudly invents her own definitions for words such as "nonlinear" that already have meanings in common usage. Of course, once she's redefined several key words to fit her needs, the author finds wonderful similarities that aren't really there. My knowledge of eastern philosophy isn't great, but I strongly suspect the author's knowledge in this area to be similarly weak. In my opinion, the author is attempting to make a buck by imitating an excellent and far superior book, Fritjof Capra's "The Tao of Physics".

Rating:
Summary: Creative and stimulating speculations
Review: I'm a PhD mathematician with a few publications in "chaos theory" and also some experience researching in other areas Katya touches on in this book, such as molecular biology. While she plays fast and loose with terminology sometimes, I think she also makes a lot of really interesting points. I don't care much for the I Ching, but her analysis of the parallels between the I Ching and DNA are fascinating, and give some insights into the mathematical structure of both the I Ching and DNA. If she were a little more careful in her treatment of science, this could have been a five-star book. But I'll give it four stars for inventiveness and creativity. Unlike most authors writing books at the science-spirituality boundary, she's not just spouting the same old platitudes; she actually has some new things to say, albeit most of them are speculative from the scientific point of view.

Rating:
Summary: Creative and stimulating speculations
Review: I'm a PhD mathematician with a few publications in "chaos theory" and also some experience researching in other areas Katya touches on in this book, such as molecular biology. While she plays fast and loose with terminology sometimes, I think she also makes a lot of really interesting points. I don't care much for the I Ching, but her analysis of the parallels between the I Ching and DNA are fascinating, and give some insights into the mathematical structure of both the I Ching and DNA. If she were a little more careful in her treatment of science, this could have been a five-star book. But I'll give it four stars for inventiveness and creativity. Unlike most authors writing books at the science-spirituality boundary, she's not just spouting the same old platitudes; she actually has some new things to say, albeit most of them are speculative from the scientific point of view.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!
Review: Katya Walters discusses some very interesting parallels between Eastern philosophies, art, and modern science. I think this book opened my eyes to how almost everything can be understood as a rhythmic process of polar opposites. It really enabled me to understand the rhythm of things in nature including ouselves as humans. You can read an even better and interesting account of rhythm in nature (including human nature) in The Ever-Transcending Spirit by Toru Sato. Sato's book has taken this idea and applied it to a wider variety of human experiences relating to development, consciousness, and human interaction and interpersonal relationships. Nevertheless, Walters' book is still a very interesting account on the general rhythm of chaos and order and well worth a read!