Book Report-- When she was Bad by Patricia Pearson (c)1997

When she was Bad, Violent Women and the Myth of Innocence by Patricia Pearson (c)1997

Hot on the heels of the notorious Heard V. Depp trial (June 2022), I heard about this book, and it certainly piqued my interest. I'm not usually interested in the true crime genre, but the bizarre soundbites that kept showing up on social media drew me in, and so did the extreme responses of the fans. 'Nuff Said.  

This book is a deep dive, not exclusively into crimes committed by women, but moreso Western Society's perspective on women and crime, both social, legal and scientific. And it may not be what you think it is. Specifically the theme is "the nature of female aggression."

Exploring a number of specific crimes committed by women in detail and examining the public, legal and scientific data about them, the author found that our culturally influenced attitudes about women as the "weaker sex" have created an environment which serves badly both for the victims of women's aggression and for the the women themselves.

In order to clearly highlight the influence of our culture, which is primarily a Western/Christian influence, the author compares cultures less influenced by implicit patriarchal beliefs, where women may be as accepted as aggressive and physical as men, something that, to our culture seems very alien. For example, our western attitude is that women are the better sex, the purer one, but also the one that doesn't think for itself, and never acts, but only reacts. (at the time the book was written, the term "patriarchy" was not in usage as it is now).   

The author manages to walk that razor's edge social attitudes on one side and hard data on the other in order to shine a light on the difficult-to-look-at facts that women are fully human, fully equal to men in all ways, including aggression and violence. At the same time, her writing stays witty, clear and highly readable.

The author manages to span a number of important places and perspectives to give us a thorough picture. She opens the book by looking at other cultures where womens' aggression are more believed and accepted. On an island off Venezuela, for example, it is accepted that women may be as strong or stronger and more violent than the men, and it is a point of pride, something they call Parar El Macho to balance male aggression. In aboriginal societies in Australia and Africa, aggression and violence is about equally initiated by males and females, and women have even been known to lead genocides. 

She also describes her initial difficulty in finding psychological research here in America on women and aggression, simply because most researchers didn't see the point, since their patriarchal attitude precluded the idea of female aggression.  

The book goes on to explore the world of female serial killers, women who murder their kids, women in prison and more (a recent edition, released in 2021, includes a new chapter on medical caregivers and violent crime). Each chapter presents its facts and premises clearly and colorfully (sometimes too colorfully), but with an engaging narrative style, and even a touch of humor. 

Perhaps nowhere is the troubling dichotomy made more obvious than the chapter on women who kill their own children. In previous chapters we find women literally getting away with multiple murders because the authorities sees women as both unable to initiate violence, and too good and pure to really hurt anyone. But one of the many things revealed in this chapter is that many of the mothers who killed their babies actually sought help before they committed murder, but were disregarded as merely suffering normal post-partum depression, and that their natural maternal instincts would soon kick in and make motherhood wonderful for them.

If you were ever fell afoul of the mean girls in school when you were little, if you ever had a bad divorce, if you were ever victimized unjustly by a woman but were told you must be at fault because "women don't do that," you may find this book quite cathartic. 

Book Report: Master Guide to Psychism by Harriet Boswell (c)1969

 Harriet Boswell  was an enthusiastic experimenter in the area of Psychic abilities. She founded the Aquarian Research Center in Florida, a nonprofit center which offered classes and workshops in ESP research. It was dissolved in 1984. This book appears to have been popular enough to have gone through several printings, at least two in hardcover by Parker Publishing, and several in paperback, at least one by Lancer Books, who offered a number of popular titles in inexpensive paperback.

 This latest addition to my collection of Parker Publishing titles, is another book that might qualify as a first-year textbook at Hogwarts. It touches on a broad range of Psychic phenomena, and includes exercises, tips and anecdotes to help a student along. 

The book follows the usual Parker style, which is very readable, and ends each chapter with a series of useful summary points of the chapter. The author's writing style is very clear and readable, almost conversational. She approaches the psychic topics with stories of her personal experiences and fellow experimenters, as well as some references from other authors. She demonstrates a great deal of confidence in what she writes about. She describes herself as a non-conformist, by which she means that she does not adhere too inflexibly to tradition, advising the would-be psychic to avoid being too rigid in their practice, and be open to inspiration (but regular practice is important to improve). 

There's a nice consistency in her philosophy. She opens with spiritualistic subjects, seances and so forth, and then goes on to discuss everything in terms of the energetic "auras" that surround everyone and everything. All subsequent psychic phenomena relate back to either using the energy of one's own aura, or reading the energetic aura of other things or people. 
 

Some of the topics of the book include:

Mediumship & Séances
The Human Aura & Astral Projection
Telepathy & Thought Transference
Premonition & Precognition
Psychokinesis & Telekinesis 
Automatic Writing
Psychometry Powers

Additional subjects covered include reincarnation, spiritualist churches, the use of Ouija boards, and photographic manifestations of the spirit world.

Book Report: Transcendental Meditation by Robert Roth (c)1994

Robert Roth is one of the oldest, most accomplished practitioners and spokesmen of Transcendental Meditation, having trained directly with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi since 1972. He has taught and lectured all around the world, for hundreds of schools, corporations and individuals. 

Transcendental Meditation, created by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is probably one of the most famous of the popular schools of meditation, having been made popular by the Beatles and various other Rock Stars and celebrities in the 1960s and 70s. It is apparently a very easy and effective way to reduce stress, improve health and do all those things that Meditation is known for. It apparently is based on the practice of repeating mantras ("mantra yoga").

 The book, unfortunately is very disappointing, basically being a sales pitch for the course, but not offering even a hint of any specifics about the method. Rather, it is simply a collection of anecdotes and testimonials form many many students, along with some scientific research, but by avoiding any specifics it becomes rather repetitive. There is better material on the web, and videos from the Yogi himself on Youtube and elsewhere. 

More info can be found at their website: 
https://www.tm.org/

Book Report: Mind Control by Emilio Guzman (c)1976

Emelio Guzman appears to be a Mexican experimenter in the field of psychic communication who came across Jose Silva's famous Silva Method mind control course, and became a strong supporter and, we can assume, teacher. This book is his English translation of his original 1972 Spanish title, Control Mental. 

This book is an introduction to the methodology behind The Silva Method. Back in the 1970s, The Silva Method, was a very, very popular discipline, taught all over the world in week-long seminars, variously known as Silva Method, Silva Mind Control and Silva ESP. 

Through a series of meditation techniques similar to self hypnosis, the students learned how to live a more stress-free life, how to improve their thinking skills and day-to-day activities and even how to develop their ESP skills. The courses are still being taught. 

This book is a discussion of the science and methodology behind the Silva method, and a number of the areas that the Method claims to be able to improve. It also touches on some of the specific techniques, but isn't a study guide. I guess you have to take the course, in person or one of their recorded courses, to learn the specifics. 

To learn more, you can go to the website:
https://www.silvamethod.com/

Book Report: Threshholds of the Mind By Bill Harris (C) 2003

 Bill Harris is the originator of Centerpointe Research Institute, famous for their Holosync(c) binaural beat recordings for self improvement and development. He is a pioneer of the Binaural beat technology. He was heavily involved in various forms of meditation and self development before exploring the technology of frequency entertainment.  

 If you're curious about binaural beats and entertainment technology, you'll enjoy this book by one if it's pioneer developers. 

The book explains the technology behind the very successful Holosync recordings, which primarily employ binaural beats to stimulate frequency entrainment, in order to achieve deeper mental states very quickly and reliably. 

Deeper meditative states cause the mind to run at different frequencies. Excited mental states run at a higher frequency, meditative and hypnotic states are much slower (these are commonly referred to as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Theta).

Frequency entertainment is the effect whereby an external frequency, like music, can have an effect of our consciousness, and if you've ever experienced loud, pounding dance music, or calming, slow lullabyes, you've experienced the entrainment effect. 

Binaural beat technology is an interesting effect whereby different, specific tones are played into each ear, and the way they interact with each other withing the listener's hearing generates the desired tone. This has proven to be very effective and the result is that the listener can achieve meditative states that normally take meditators a long time to achieve. 

The recordings combine this technology with guided meditations or self help techniques to achieve reliable results. 

 The book is part sales pitch, with lots of testimonials and selling points, part biography and still presents a lot of detailed information about the technology behind the recordings. His personal journey in exploring and developing his materials is as interesting as the science. It offers a lot of practical discussion and techniques for helping one get in control of their thoughts and feelings, whether or not you go in for their products. 

The Centerpointe Research Institute's website can be found here: 
https://www.centerpointe.com/

Book Report: Sorcery by J. Finley Hurley (C) 1985

Imagine an experienced scientist putting aside any professional biases and exploring the idea that people can influence each other and their surroundings through thoughts (more or less) thought alone, analyzing every step of the process in a scientific method and weighing it against established researcher and observations. Well, that's the book we have here.

You'll probably have noticed a lot of books about metaphysical abilities in the book report section of my blog. What makes this one different is that the author is a clinical psychologist and this book is his analysis of "magical powers" through the lens of scientific data and empirical case studies. And he claims to have based it on his own observations and research.

Since "sorcery" can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, it's worthwhile to clarify that the author's focus is primarily telepathy and it's ability to influence people with or without their knowledge, and he also touches on other cases where practitioners seemed to be able to influence people and events in seemingly magical ways. 

Happily, Hurley is a fun and engaging author, and because he also writes as a scientist, he backs up his observation and hypotheses with some kind of scientific reference (at least enough to satisfy himself). This is pretty unique for this kind of book and also very practical for anyone who wants to delve into the research instead of just taking the author's work for it.

The author hypothesizes that the other-than-rational effects of "Sorcery" cannot be justified by the conscious, rational mind and so must originate in the subconscious, which he terms "Cthonic" mind.

He begins with the well researched phenomena of The Placebo Effect, an often observed phenomena where an inert drug or treatment has a demonstrable effect on a patient simply because of the patient's belief in the outcome or had faith in the healer. He also includes the somewhat more controversial Pygmalion Effect, which suggests that the healer's belief in the placebo is as important or more important than the patient's belief. He cites situations where the placebo effect has been used to heal people, and also to curse them. In the author's view, telepathy is the vehicle whereby a sorcerer's influence is most commonly carried, and he quotes many studies that explore different forms of telepathy.  

This book falls short of offering an illustrated blueprint to practice from, but adventurers will find plenty of inspiration to work with in this tome.

 The biggest problem with this particular book is how hard it is to find. When copies do show up on the market, they usually cost several hundred dollars, and in an interview the author admits that even he doesn't own a copy. Fortunately, PDFs do float around the web, and you should be able to find one with a quick search. 

Wise Word About Hypnotism and Politics from the Father of MkUltra

Professor George Estabrooks is known mostly by reputation for being the hypnotic mastermind who conceived of some of the more disquieting things to come out of the Cold War, like MK Ultra and the Manchurian Candidate. But he was first and foremost a scientist, and was equally concerned with the inexplicable way dictators could turn sensible people into fanatics, and he wrote at length about it in his book “Hypnotism” (revised 1957, E.P.Dutton). This excerpt is WELL worth a read, and maybe a little self-reflection:

“How can we guarantee that our choice at the polls will be a wise one? Our previous discussion of hypnotism and mob psychology should help. Is this man you listened to on TV last night a genuine leader or is he a rabble rouser? Is he heading a battle of democratic principles or “a battle of the gravy bowl’? We may safely say that, in America, we have the world’s most intelligent electorate and that, on the whole, our politicians are a superior group, so we are not crying panic. On the other hand, as we have said, “when you stop being better, you stop being good,” and on this matter of electing a potential dictator, you will make that mistake once only. From then on, he will take care that your mistakes are always in his favor.

So play a little game with yourself. Sit down and think over that last spellbinder you heard on the platform, over the radio or on television. Behind every argument is someone’s ignorance. You probably are either for him or against him. Why? 

Was he appealing largely to your reason or was his appeal largely to your emotions?—especially on such matters as class privilege, the race issue, religious issues. These matters can be handled along the lines of reason, but the temptation to go over to the highly emotional appeal is very marked. In other words, were you listening to a man of reason or to a hypnotist who aimed to limit your field of consciousness? [earlier in the book, the author explains the hypnotic state as one where the subject is led to be hyperfocused on a single topic] You say you cannot be hypnotized against your will. Perhaps you were hypnotized last night as you listened to that political address over your TV. It might be well to give a little thought to this matter. Don’t worry about the hypnotist in his laboratory. You will probably never meet him. The most dangerous hypnotist may be the man you listened to last week over the radio. You were his subject. His appeal was emotional, inflammatory, an excellent example of prestige suggestion [“Prestige” refers to a kind of authoritarian hypnotic influence, and eliciting strong emotion as a way to create an altered state]. You came away determined that something drastic should be done – on, shall we say, the racial issue. As a matter of fact, you were a very excellent subject. Think it over.

And think about the nature of that kind of hypnotist. He may be, he often is, a man of great intelligence. You may have your own opinions about Hitler, Mussolini or Napoleon, but no one ever accused them of being morons. They could and did use the brains they had with great effect. Their outlook was purely selfish. They used their intelligence to further their own ends. But Hitler was excellent within these narrow limits.”

If you want a concrete example of this "mass hypnosis" effect, consider that in the year following the 1973 movie, "The Exorcist," there was an explosion of people believing they were possessed that persisted for years afterwards. Even during the movie, people passed out, vomited, and supposedly there were even a few heart attacks. But all those people did was sit down in a theater for an hour or so.