Category: Total Crap

Practical Guide to Vibrational Medicine: Energy Healing and Spiritual Transformation

Practical Guide to Vibrational Medicine[rating:.5/5]

Vibrational Medicine is allegedly written by someone with an M.D. With that being so, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that the author had a fair amount of education and was capable of writing a book that while potentially controversial (nothing wrong with that per se) but was supported by real research which, of course, would also be listed in a well-written bibliography. Don’t expect anything like this; however, from Richard Gerber – the guy is a real QUACK!

I originally had high hopes for this book – with the topic being “vibrational medicine” there is an incredible wealth of information on all kinds of related topics – including the complete sound spectrum and the electromagnetic continuum. Obviously an enormous amount of time could be spent on examining readily (and empirically) identifiable uses of such waveforms but that seems to be expecting far too much from Gerber.

Instead of science, Gerber decides to spew forth endless pages of New Age quackery beginning with a seemingly never-ending discourse on chakras and other such garbage. He refers to “research” conducted by clairvoyants, psychics, faith healers, “medical intuitives”, and a whole plethora of other euphemisms as the basis for his drivel. This appears to be designed to legitimize the fact that he can’t support the bizarre ideas he presents.

While one can’t help but wonder if Gerber must have missed his thorazine when he wrote this nonsense, he covers many of the most ridiculous modalities of “healing” but ignores many, many valid ones. For example, Gerber doesn’t even mention the use of sound – a treatment modality that has found uses in essentially every culture and yet he goes into such bizarre topics as long distance “color therapy” where the healer merely “thinks” of a color while projecting his/her healing thought upon a patient who happens to be miles away.

In fact, this book contains so much meaningless tripe that it might be best to sum it up by hypothesizing a visit to Gerber’s “medical” practice. For example: suppose you are in the midst of a massive heart attack. After reading this book, it is easy to imagine that Gerber would tell you that his on-staff “medical intuitive” took the day off in order to find some more snake oil. As a result, he needs to call the psychic hotline first (because he can’t read your aura) and will need the so-called clairvoyant at the other end of the line to bathe you in “indigo” in order to unblock your chakras. Let’s not forget that you will need to be facing west, during your heart attack, and have magnets placed upon your chest as you sniff the essence of dandelions that have been fermented in a green room (shaped like a pyramid, of course).

While there are so many promising approaches to healing that use legitmate techniques for overcoming sickness, books like this do nothing but harm those who are doing real research into alternative medicine modalities. If you have any sense, at all, avoid this unscientific pile of excrement behind … after all, you wouldn’t want to block your chakras!

Far Journeys

Far Journeys [rating:.5/5]

I recently read Robert Monroe’s first book, “Journeys Out of Body” and found it to be a disappointment – it was just weird. As I noted in my review of that book, I had hoped that the author would discuss his use of sound, for which he is allegedly noted. As I purchased this book at the same time and had nothing else to read, I thought I’d give it a try.The book did start out with a brief discussion of some of his “research” and I thought that, perhaps, this book might actually have some real substance. That belief; however, quickly disappeared. By the time I had reached the half-way point in the book, nothing remained but a schizophrenic quagmire of incomprehensible gibberish. How does total garbage like this manage to get printed?!

There are those that claim that Monroe was a highly left-brained individual who delved into the realm of the creative right-brain. If this book is any indication, one can’t help but wonder if Monroe was missing his entire left hemisphere! There is nothing logical or, for that matter, even coherent in the babble spewed across the endless pages of this book. It would have been worthwhile if Monroe had actually described his experiments and resulting data in a scientific manner. Instead, he chose to spew his incoherent ramblings about his own, personal, dream experiences: these wander so aimlessly, from paragraph to paragraph, that one can’t help but wonder what real point, if any, he was trying to make.

The sad thing is that I had really hoped to find a genuinely scientific study of his work – I was actually quite interested in the topic. Having now been subjected to two of his useless books, I’m amazed that they’re still in print. This is pseudo-science at its absolute worst.

Tibetan Ting-Sha: Sacred Sound for Spiritual Growth

Tibetan Ting-Sha[rating:.5/5]

Need I say more? This “book” is about the worst I’ve ever read – and I’ve read plenty. Not only that but the tingshas that are included are of the worst quality: in fact, they’re so bad that it’s embarrassing. I’ll review both (the book and the tingsha) to warn others about this substandard drivel:

Tingsha – as already noted, of that absolute worst quality. The sound that mine make are horrible (and that’s putting it mildly) – I’d rather listen to fingernails on a chalkboard. The tingsha that included are covered with eight auspicious symbols – most traditional instruments are unadorned. Of course, that makes them look “pretty” but that has nothing to do with quality – which these are not.

Book – very little is actually devoted to the discussion of tingshas and the little that is, is filled with errors and meaningless drivel. A closer look reveals that the book is merely filled with fluff and absolutely no substance. In fact, very little of the book pertains to tingshas; rather it contains rambling discussions on the “eight auspicious symbols,” other cultures (Indian, Chinese, etc.) other than Tibet, and other non-related information.

The errors and false information provided are astounding; examples include:

Page 10 – [the tingshas included with the book] are “pitched in approximately the key of E major.”

Facts: a pair of resonating objects (such as found in a tingsha) cannot be tuned to E major or any other diatonic Western scale – the author’s claim that they are is simply STUPID! Furthermore, each cymbal that came with my book is “tuned” to F# and G respectively which, of course, makes the author’s statement even more absurd.

Page 13 – “each individual ting-sha [sic] is skillfully tuned . . . to create a perfectly matching pitch for each pair.”

Fact: As noted above, my tingsha was not “perfectly matched” when; in fact, they were “tuned” to a minor second, one of the most dissonant intervals to the human ear! In other words, they sound awful!

Page 32 – “Musical prodigies, such as Mozart and Beethoven. . .”

Fact: Huh? What? Mozart is; of course, a well known prodigy, Beethoven, on the other hand, most certainly was NOT! Duh!

Pathetically, because the author is clueless as to what he was supposed to be writing about (he’s certainly NOT a scholar), he rambles on about topics ranging from Edgar Allen Poe to Feng Sui to add fluff. It’s too bad that he provides very little about Tibetan tingshas and most of what is mentioned, is just garbage. Avoid this nonsense at all costs – you’ll be glad you did.

Hacking Movable Type (ExtremeTech)

Hacking Movable Type[rating:.5/5]

To be honest, I’m VERY disgusted with this book – I just purchased it this afternoon, started to read it and went to the web site that was supposed to contain plugins and other materials from the book, only to find that it is essentially an EMPTY site! The site is located at:

http://www.hackingmt.com/

There is no reason that this book has been out for such a long time and yet there is still no real site! On top of that, one of the authors even touts that this bogus site is “coming soon.” That’s right, Jay Allen announces on his own blog that: “Hacking Movable Type (which has a ‘coming-soon’ companion website, hackingmt.com) is finally out and it’s even more fantastic than I remember.” That post is located at:

http://jayallen.org/journey/2005/08/hacking_movable_type_is_out

He made that post on August 18, 2005 and it’s now the middle of April 2006. Frankly, I’m disgusted and can not recommend this book if the authors and publisher (Wiley) are so dishonest.

Glorious Appearing: The End of Days (Left Behind #12)

Glorious Appearing: The End of Days[rating:.5/5]

I’ve read (or rather suffered) through the entire Left Behind series. The first few books were fabulous but slowly and painfully dragged into the most hideously written and endlessly drawn out piece of literary drivel ever subjected upon God’s people. I had the misfortune of accidentally wandering into a Christian bookstore on the first day that Glorious Appearing was unleashed. Having suffered through the last several books, with the alleged premise that this would be the “final” book in the series, I couldn’t imagine it being any worse. To say I was wrong is nothing less than a gross understatement. Unlike every other poorly written book in this series, I simply couldn’t force myself to wade through this book in order to reach the end. In fact, I simply gave up for weeks at a time and recently managed to get to the end. The only redeeming value to festering end of the Left Behind Series is that it is, without question, one of the best cures for insomnia ever created. At this point, I’m thinking about putting my “complete” (wanna bet there are more sequels?) set of Left Behind on eBay but it would be a sin to subject even your worst enemy to this series. Heck, even my cat would get mad if I lined her box with it. LaHaye and Jenkins should be disgusted with themselves for spewing this endless money-making series upon the public.