I read somewhere that there are deal breakers when it comes to finding a blog to follow.

 

At first, I dismissed it as a non issue.

 

But then when I read a reviewers giving this piece of crap 4 stars and said it was informative. Inform about what?  I know it is either a fake,or I am reading a global warming denier's blog. 

 

Click to the link to see a long list of global change deniers who wrote crap books. 

 

My feeling when I see that book is like.... 

 

 

Seriously. 

Why do a person wrote a book of woo?

That's not only discredit him as a honest person. It also discredit him as a good doctor.

 

So why?

 

There must be a lot of money in the making of woo that goes into the equation of cost analysis. 

 

Gee. 

 

Skip this one. 

I decided to read this thinking it would be metaphorical and not literal. Quite frankly, I should have known better, as New Age books are rarely, if ever, metaphorical in nature, but I digress.

 

From the title, I thought it meant the author was going to explain how to figuratively transform the reader's life into something that would make him or her feel better as a person, which is something I don't mind because sometimes that's what people need. As I got further into the book, I realized that no, this guy meant the reader could literally transform into various animals, including mythical animals such as a phoenix; this is dangerous behavior and quite frankly rather terrifying.

 

This is the kind of slop I imagine some bored housewife gets into and not something someone with half a brain could read and enjoy. Avoid this garbage at all costs.

To be honest, I don't think this book lived up to its title. "Vague writings on weird things people believe", or "Why these people are wrong" was the more common theme. Some interesting content, but very little of what I expected - ie social theory re: how 'weird things' catch on. There are three chapters entirely devoted to debunking weird things, which, again, is interesting, but not what I was expecting. Some fascinating footnotes, though.

I have read many of Shermer's articles for Skeptics Magazine but this was the first book by him that I've read. It was probably a good one to start out with. He appears to be setting out his basic ideas on why people often lean to unscientific and illogical beliefs. He goes through these reasons and also describes the basis of scientific inquiry well. However he also gives specific examples of pseudo-science and outright erroneous thinking including Holocaust denial, aliens abductions and Creationism. While I enjoyed it, I felt some of this material would have been better in a separate book, especially the chapters on Ayn Rand and objectivism. They appeared to have been Skeptic Magazines essays that were glued together and, in fact, Shermer pretty much admits that in the foreword. Nonetheless, there was some valuable information throughout the book and I recommend it as a essential primer on the difference between science and pseudo-science. Three and a half stars.