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Rating: 
Summary: Seven Experiments that could change the world
Review: I picked up this volume because its title suggested that it would encourage hands-on science activities that are essential to good teaching and effective learning. Unfortunately, I discovered on reading it that the author combines a deep antagonism for the scientific "establishment" with credulity for numerous fringe ideas. The first experiment that he suggests tests the hypothesis that your pet uses psychic powers to tell when you'll be home for dinner! Sheldrake frequently presents anecdotes as "evidence". The "do it yourself" promise of the title is broken for the reader who doesn't intend to begin raising homing pidgeons or doesn't happen to work in a laboratory capable of measuring the physical constants (such as the speed of light) to nine significant figures. Far too few cautions about the pitfalls of psychic research are given (in chapters about the feeling of being stared at, or "feeling" the touch of a severed limb). Despite the nearly fatal flaws of the book, I liked a part of its message, that important science can still be done by amateurs. That's about the only aspect of this book that is commendable.
Rating:
Summary: Seven Experiments that could change the world
Review: I thought that this book gave an intriguing insight into our world, and that it brings up topics that i would never have even thought about had i not read this book. 5 stars for Rupert Sheldrake. He has an unparalleled mind when it comes to evolutionary science
Rating: 
Summary: SCIENTIFIC SHADOW BOXING
Review: Neither a skeptic nor a believer in science, the author was searching for an opponent to box with -- more like friendly sparring. His theory of morphic resonance states that all matter and energy is governed or shaped by some sort of evolutionary habit or cumulative memory. If his perspective were broader he would fit in with David Bohm and other science mystics, but Rupert chose to fence himself in the "little science" surrounding pet dogs, homing pigeons, migrating birds, termite colonies, phantom limbs, evil eyes, and the placebo effect. Why Rupert thinks that clearcut experimental results in these areas of anecdotal, imaginative tall tales would support his morphic field theory, I haven't a clue. What is more likely is that these animals and insects have the hidden ability to detect Gaia's gravitational curved space (much like air and ship LORAN navigators read lines of position).The author was forever hinting that chaos theory, Jung's collective unconscious or other ideas would someday reveal the whole story without telling what that would gain us (for instance, if we accepted that the fundamental constants were slightly variable). Although I would encourage new viewpoints such as morphic fields to shape the matter of the universe, I was left with the impression that this writer bit off way more than his dog could chew.
Rating:
Summary: SCIENTIFIC SHADOW BOXING
Review: Neither a skeptic nor a believer in science, the author was searching for an opponent to box with -- more like friendly sparring. His theory of morphic resonance states that all matter and energy is governed or shaped by some sort of evolutionary habit or cumulative memory. If his perspective were broader he would fit in with David Bohm and other science mystics, but Rupert chose to fence himself in the "little science" surrounding pet dogs, homing pigeons, migrating birds, termite colonies, phantom limbs, evil eyes, and the placebo effect. Why Rupert thinks that clearcut experimental results in these areas of anecdotal, imaginative tall tales would support his morphic field theory, I haven't a clue. What is more likely is that these animals and insects have the hidden ability to detect Gaia's gravitational curved space (much like air and ship LORAN navigators read lines of position). The author was forever hinting that chaos theory, Jung's collective unconscious or other ideas would someday reveal the whole story without telling what that would gain us (for instance, if we accepted that the fundamental constants were slightly variable). Although I would encourage new viewpoints such as morphic fields to shape the matter of the universe, I was left with the impression that this writer bit off way more than his dog could chew.
Rating:
Summary: Perfection
Review: This is quietly on of the most influential books of the century. It is accelerating the rightfull and belated death of Scientism, the AMA, and the FDA.
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