Radio Hydrogen

Transformative Medicinal Mind Mastery

Reviewed: 30-05-23

I was expecting some Totnesian Pop Psychology. Well, I got that wrong. It is heretical to some, I am sure, but as it unfolds, it is not counter-intuitive, it matches experientially with my own brand of mania and historical fuss-ups. It is nice and secular - always a plus. There might be a kind of loose, very feint spiritual hat-tip here and there, but not enough to invite derision. I think it is more just a polite agnosticism. The strategies and philosophies in this book are practical, user-friendly, intellectually accessible and loving. Yes, Peer likes us jumped-up monkeys will ALL our darkness. That includes men, there's no zeitgeist-permissible misandry here. This book is on your side, who or whatever you are.

It's not just a great book for one's library, it's a companion of a book. This book likes you and it liberates you from yourself and those who programmed you to be a lot less than your potential. Peer has also shown restraint in that it's not a big advert for her 'Rapid Transformation Therapy,' career path. I would not have had a problem if it was. It's more, a stand alone ambassadorial budget book from her universe that will do ya some good. And and and it comes with some downloadable goodies. That said, I am tempted to investigate her courses.

A few days on and I have a grimly held onto optimism (not delusional positive thinking) and the beginning of a spring in my step. I FEEL and AM better for having been exposed to it. I love it.

I don't know who this Carlyss Peer fellow is, but suffice-it-to-say, she expertly narrated Marissa Peer's words. EXPERTLY, I says. Kind of like Chris Pine playing William Shatner playing Captain Kirk.

Great great book - doing its job on making me less like Gollum from Lord of the Rings and more like a flowering polymath from my own future.

Thank you, Marissa Peer, and a hearty slap on the back to Carlyss Peer, my subconscious and I are collaborating again.

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Very Well Written Talisman for the Consumer Class

Reviewed: 19-05-23

It is a very well written and beautifully narrated witty, sometimes laugh-out-loud engaging book for people lost in consumerism and inherited values. I love the way it illuminates the not so obvious and counter-intuitive stuff too. It is a pragmatic work more than imaginative, kind of reconstituted Stoicism in the same way that "The Power of Now," is reconstituted Zen. There is no harm in that at all, it is very useful as such. It deserves to be read/listened to and it is a valuable mental survival book. I have most definitely benefitted from it. It warns and endorses in equal measure. Anyone engaging in this book, from Buddha to Donald Trump will find themselves in these pages both negatively and positively. Its rock and roll title is by no means flippant. Some people reading the title might think it is nihilistic, it is so not. The book clearly does give a.... ahem....flip! Mr Manson is more right than wrong about stuff, but his life story is kind of conservative, it' not really a book for repeatedly disastrous outliers, it's a book for people stuck in the mud pursuing the accolades of their culture. Good and useful book.

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Familiar Politics from an Alien Perspective

Reviewed: 13-05-23

I've always been inclined towards Anarchism, it is a natural fit for me. That doesn't, of course, mean that it is a useful or correct set of politics merely because it suits my psyche and worldview. This book illuminates, for me, logic and history that I have never considered or encountered. It gives numerous detailed historical examples of natural anarchy as a kind of emergent property that flourishes when people and communities are self stewarding. In Two Cheers for Anarchism, Scott also deals with some of the practical apprehensions that one might have in terms of productivity/work and reveals accidental substrates and friends of Anarchism that even some anarchists would not have realised. The book is very well written and gorgeously narrated. It is challenging in a couple of places and comes from a perspective alien to me. Two Cheers for Anarchism is an antidote to some of the petrification that can occur even in the expanded and untethered minds of anarchists. I enjoyed being disabused of some of my own preconceptions and inherited fears. It shook me up in a good way. As a result, I have a greater appreciation for the social physics of history. It's a small and powerful book. I will enjoy listening again and following up on some of the micro history it points to. Love it!

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This is a Flyby

Reviewed: 26-04-23

The content is not mediocre as my score might suggest, merely mild and surface level. It is not wrong or inadequate, it's a worthy book that is a collection of salient points. It's a piece for newbies, and as such it is good. It just doesn't knock you over, but I would rather have heard it than not and I would rather own it than not. It's a good piece of wor thatk equips you with the "whys,." For anything deeper, you need to go elsewhere. I liked it, I just need deeper, both historically and conceptually. It's dummies guide, and laudable as such.

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Don't be Scared off by the name "Chomsky...."

Reviewed: 21-04-23

.....It is NOT a Chomsky technical read!

It might require some concentration, but this book is in plain English and relays the basic concepts of anarchism in a user-friendly way, dipping into a bit of history and some sound logic. Also, it expanded my appreciation for the role of language in thought and social innovation. A constant sponsoring consciousness throughout the book is one that merely requires authoritarianism to justify its existence and give an account of itself. It is not some ranty studenty slogan-trotting posturing fashion accessory, it is meek and deductive reasoning in a considered, and dare I say, (c)onservative way. There is no lunacy or rabidity to it. It's a reasonable and comfortable book. It is a good introduction to anarchism, even if it doesn't start at the beginning. It is THE book i would throw at smug, blazer-wearing English Tories (Toffs AND Barrow Boys) who are oh so realist, but nonetheless intelligent, and challenge them to, "Show me the Rabies!"

In fact, it is the book I would throw at anyone who is new to, or frightened of the words, "anarchy," or "anarchism." I'd also throw it at crusties who have kind of hijacked the word, "anarchy," to mean getting stoned at Glastonbury and having an enduring a mullet haircut between the great mullet eras of the 1980's and now. There are a couple of things I disagree, with but so what? Overall, I find it to be a sensibly written book on a sensible set of politics. From this book, you can reverse engineer or explore other anarchist ideas.

I simply love this book. It gets four stars because five stars is a standing ovation, and this is a dummies guide for the likes of me, who are uneducated yet biologically inclined towards anarchism and find comfort in the fact that an academic grown-up endorses something intuitive. The book itself is not a mind-shattering work of genius, although Chomsky probably is, but it is a concise and useful pocket guide entry book. It ended and I thought, no surely not, I must have accidentally jumped some chapters, such is the fluidity of Chomsky's writing.

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New-Age Pop Psychology Masquerading as Science

Reviewed: 28-11-22

There is some useful psychology in there that you would have heard over the centuries that we could safely call common sense now. However, there was so much cliched dross about human drives - that all vigorous pursuits are some kind of an attempt to runaway from our inner selves. Some of us are just excited about having been thrown into a a universe from nothing, and we're keen to see as much before we return to nothing or whatever we end up as. Dispenza insists that it is all escapism and dernial. Honestly, wearing headphones and listening to this was like I had been trapped in Totnes with no means of escape for eternity. I had to rip them off, from the hundred cliches per hour that were hitting me. I do like the style of his practiced rhetoric, but that soon disappears as he attempts to pad the book.

Quantum Mechanics and Epigenetics are undiscovered countries, not the catch all for bombastic new-age assertions. I actually found the tone of the book quite hateful for its sweeping generalisations about what motivates people. At the age of 58, I am motivated by a childish sense of wonder, not escape from karmic inner darkness. I was kind of excited by his science credentials, and I have been foolish for being impressed by that. There is massive repetition in the book. It is a work of cynicism.

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1 person found this helpful

This book vibrates my neurones like no other!

Reviewed: 28-10-22

As with all David Wood’s books, the language is succinct and written in a way that makes chewy concepts become completely accessible. There’s nothing in The Singularity Principles that is intellectually ungraspable. Sure, there may be the odd big word or taken-for-granted science or geopolitical phrase, but the big words are minimal. Any big words that do appear, merely enrich, expand, and excite, or simply rearrange and join the dots you’ve always carried around in your head.

The Singularity Principles invites the reader/listener to consider many practicable strategies for dealing with the current cluster of emergencies; pandemics, war, economic uncertainty etc, as well as preparing us for any number emergent technologies that may reward, enhance, enslave, or destroy us.

What lies beyond the so-called Singularity is an undiscovered country of our own making but not necessarily one in which we still have a place or a role. It could be a marvellous miraculous machine-driven Eden for us all as intellectually and compassionately expanded beings, or it could be desolation. It might only be just a levelling up – another industrial revolution, or any number of wondrous or horrific scenarios. It may arrive seamlessly or with a bang. In his book, “The Singularity Principles,” David Wood does a good job of explaining the principles of the Singularity, challenging some of the myths and assumptions as well as taking back some of the hijacked language.

This Book examines governments, religions, subcultures, mafias, politics, commerce, science,technology, the arts, and crime in a way that is not sanctimonious moral posturing, but is more from the viewpoint of an alien anthropologist working with what IS, and what with a bit of tweaking, would work better. It is not lofty. It is informed, quiet and considered, intricate, creative and inspired. It is also open to discussion and input from the rest of Humanity.

Everyone else and You and I are in this book - the politics are that inclusive! This is not a handbook for some elitist breakaway civilisation comprised of just boojies, boffins and TED talkers, it’s for everyone including boojies, boffins and TED talkers - probably even dogs and dolphins too! David Wood makes it quite clear that we are ALL relevant in the future. This book is replete with logic and love based on sound science and a pragmatic feel for philosophy, history, and the Human Condition. The logic navigates the rapidly evolving technologies and the many social responses to them, and the love is the absolute inclusion of us all as part of these sets of initiatives.

Like his other books, The Singularity Principles is bigger on the inside than on the outside. There are actionable strategies to pursue, communities to join and tons of material to engage in - who or whatever you are.

The Singularity Principles does not paint a pretty picture. It is not deluded or fanciful. Instead, it is somewhat agnostic as to the outcome and consequences of the Singularity, but it invites us to be as deterministic and as effective as we can in perhaps shaping, or maybe just surfing the future as it comes at us. However, this book does suggest possible wondrous futures in which we can all live in mutual and beautiful ways, imagined or unimagined.

I love that this book possesses in-built and necessary optimism, suggesting how each one of us can just begin where we are and get involved with the communities and strategies listed in the book as well as creating our own. It is not top-down authority. More, it is a sharp reveal of the phenomena that comprise the Singularity, acquainting the reader/listener with a better understanding of this buzzy and often misunderstood and misused term.

This book not only acquainted me with a better understanding of the science, but I started to understand, just through listening, where my own critical thinking deficits were. I could feel the holes in my understanding and the shortfalls in my skillsets. The Singularity Principles, therefore, has left me with an excited hunger for more knowledge, skills, a realistic yet optimistic view of what could be and how I can be part of it, and it has restored my faith in humans.

For me, it is a book that I will enjoy revisiting, next time as a less provincial luddite. I loved this book!

If you buy it, you’ll probably love it act upon it.

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Mind expanding science using measured language

Reviewed: 24-10-22

I love this book. It is engaging ,and in a sober scientific way, still manages to deliver a delicious spook factor, demonstrating that Science and Reality will always be more fantastic than superstition and fiction. The language is accessible, the narrator is a good disembodied guide, and the content mind-blowing. I have always wanted to meet aliens, this book is the next best thing.

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