show me the money!!!!!!!!!!!October 28, 2008 0 out of 8 found this review helpful
I had listened to a ten hour unabridged audiobook of this book and have found nearly all the material irrelevant. This book does not even touch on how to make money or fill up your own bank accounts. If the reader wants a real good book on self-improvement, then I would suggest The Work We Were Born To Do by Nick Williams. I am reading through the book, using a journal and doing the exercises. I expect to see significant improvement in one year.
Inspirational despite lack of accuracyOctober 18, 2008 8 out of 9 found this review helpful
My criteria for non-fiction books of a scientific nature is extensive referencing with numbered citations, a good index, some diagrams, photos, graphs, tables, a clear structure, and high accuracy. This book has the first two, as well as an engaging, if not very scientific, writing style. Usually the use of 100% text is a hint that all is not well technically. As good as the writing is, some intransitive verbs are abused, and "research" is mistakenly used as a verb.
A great deal of research on ESP and psychokinesis (PK) is summarized to show that these phenomena are real. Prayer is also discussed with an honest presentation of a half dozen trials that showed that prayer does not work, as well as some that showed it does. Meditation and focusing thoughts are detailed. This leads gradually to the idea of The Intention Experiment as a mass projection of mental will toward a particular goal, such as healing a cancer in a specific person, at a specific time or times to send your thoughts. This is the current example on the website. A worldwide network of like-minded researchers, for whom donations are requested on the website, is supposed to give an honest evaluation of the results. If a Big Pharma drug trial were carried out in such a non objective manner, what would we think of it?
In praising the work of the Princeton Engineering Anomalous Research (PEAR) Laboratory on ESP and PK, McTaggart did not mention that a major discovery of the lab was that their random number generators (RNGs) were found to drift off random by themselves. Or that the PK effects were small enough to be in the noise level, supposedly attaining statistical significance only after huge numbers of repetition. My personal visit to the PEAR lab with an old friend and believer resulted in 3 types of machines (ball bearings dropping on and deflected by pegs to give a bell curve distribution, an RNG normally producing numbers that sum to zero, and a pendulum with a known period) all showing a slightly opposite tendency to the previously announced intention. A local skeptical technician in the PEAR lab said (in private) that "...they have nothing...".
A major failing of McTaggart was in giving too many examples with too little detail, writing that some experiment in PK gave a positive result (with a citation), but not how positive, or what percent of tries were positive, or what was the probability of chance for the result. There were some exceptions, as on the effect of praying on p161. Mass wishing (or praying) has had plenty of opportunity to achieve a result, as then a new ruler of a country proves to be a vicious dictator whom a majority of subjects wish ousted or dead. No clear result of thought or intention has ever been proven; only assassination works.
One good way to judge the veracity of an author is to note his accuracy on topics you are certain about. If normal science and technology are treated competently, it is reasonable to give the author some slack on paranormal topics. This was not the case with this book. Example 1 on p166 on "effect size" has aspirin considered to be "...one of the most successful heart attack preventives of modern times... has an effect size of 0.032..." I have no idea from this how an effect size is calculated, and aspirin, while preventing about 30% of heart attacks in men who never had one according to the best trials, does not increase lifespan because of side effects, and thus is not worth taking. See: Joel M. Kauffman, "Should You Take Aspirin to Prevent Heart Attack?", J. Scientific Exploration 14 (4), 623-41 (2000). Example 2 on p169: The beta-blocker propranolol is said to be recognized as extremely effective. At what? The type of effect was not given. Trials showed it not to lower heart disease incidence or to increase lifespan by a statistically significant period. See: Psaty BM et al., JAMA 1997;277:739. Example 3 on p178: The German biologist "Popp has a number of extremely sensitive photocount detectors at his disposal, which can register an intensity of visible light of about 10-17 watts per square centimeter, analogous to the light coming from a candle several miles away." Well, I would hope so, because the light at the surface of a 100 watt light bulb is about 1 watt/cm2. And that was one powerful candle! A list of several dozen shaky claims may be had by e-mailing me at kauffman37@yahoo.com.
So does ESP or PK exist? Maybe, but this is not the book to rely on for an answer. A short one with opposing views and a really scientific mindset which I recommend is: Paranormal Phenomena: Opposing Viewpoints, Greenhaven Press, San Diego, CA, 1997.
Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the WorldAugust 31, 2008 Easy to read, Very powerful and enlightening on how our intention can affect our lives and everyone around us.
DisappointingJuly 28, 2008 8 out of 8 found this review helpful
A couple of chapters into Lynne McTaggart's book, The Intention Experiment, I was disappointed. Bored and disappointed. Two emotions I certainly didn't expect to feel while reading a book on one of my favourite topics, the intersection of science and psi.
It took me a while to figure out why I was feeling like this. It wasn't that the book didn't contain information from scientific studies on esoteric subjects such as meditation and intentions and healing. It did, and those studies in themselves were interesting. The studies presented do make one think about the connections between all living things and the power of the mind to affect matter. I finally realised, however, that I was battling to connect with Lynne's writing style. It reminded me of some students' literature reviews that I used to evaluate when I was an academic as well as of some journal articles that I would be asked to review - competent, don't get me wrong, very competent, but "disconnected". By this, I mean, they would present many scientific facts and figures, lists of studies and results, but ultimately not tie these together in any coherent way to give the literature review a sense of continuity and a central critical argument (possible, even when one is trying to fairly present both sides of a debate).
I persevered with The Intention Experiment, however, and it did get better. By the time the final two or three chapters came round, linkages between sections and a critical viewpoint were emerging.
The last section of the book presents some very practical guidelines related to setting and sending an intention. I found these very helpful and probably enjoyed this section, which applied the results of the scientific studies to very specific exercises, the most. The book is further linked to Lynne's website (www.theintentionexperiment.com), where you can join a community, discuss your own and others' experiences as well as participate in ongoing group intention experiments.
My criticisms above notwithstanding, I am still very grateful to Lynne McTaggart (and all the scientists mentioned in her book) for their continued work to understand the nature of the universe and to make it accessible to everyone.
Lotus Guide reviewJuly 3, 2008 The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World By Lynne McTaggart Lynne McTaggart's first book, The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe, documented discoveries in science that link us to a quantum field of energy, which ultimately becomes our manifested reality. Now through her new book she is providing the opportunity for people worldwide to take part in the Intention Experiment. She provides much-needed validation for the possibility of creating a new world through our thoughts. This is a great book that you can actually get involved with in a global way. See [...] Rahasya Poe, Lotus Guide, [...]
