10/18/2001 - Ommmmm along for peace of mind
By Deirdre Donahue, USA TODAY

This autumn, our national psyche's Teflon shield has been severely scratched by terrorist attacks and anthrax headlines. We cannot change reality, so people need to find healthful ways to cope. For centuries, people around the world have found an inner calm through meditation.
It seems easy. Just sit or lie down, close your eyes and clear your mind. Alas, taming those wild monkeys that jump around your mental tree is very difficult. This book and audio presentation explores the practice of meditation:

• The One-Minute Meditator by David Nichol, M.D., and Bill Birchard (Perseus Press, and Audio Renaissance, 3 hours, abridged). Read by Nichol, the tape is fervent in describing the way training one's mind can decrease stress.

I have meditated daily for the last 3 years and have found this book very helpful. I had let my meditations become more "routine" than "mindful". The very easy excercises through out the book helped me find my center again.

I would recommend this book to anyone at any level . . . beginner to experienced!

I enjoyed this book very much. I especially liked the second half with the instruction on meditation. It also had the best description of mindfullness that I have ever heard. Great book!!

This is a compilation of Ernie Pyle's best dispatches from the front lines during World War II. His stories were printed in American newspapers throughout the war, and brought home to the people of those years just what our men (and women) on the front lines had to endure, and how brave they were in doing their duty day after day until the job was done. It's moving to read about the hardships our soldiers went through in order to preserve the freedoms we enjoy today.

We owe a great debt to the generation of Americans who struggled through this period of history. So many Americans, regular people like you and me, lived through hell and many paid the ultimate price. Ernie Pyle's stories bring this sacrafice to life in a very emotional way.

The book also includes a brief biography of Pyle. It's a beautiful, if sometimes tragic, time-capsule of the WWII years, and I strongly recommend it.

I have yet to find a better book on the experiences of the average "dog face" in WWII. From North Africa to Sicily to Italy to France; Ernie was there and covered it better than anyone.

It would be difficult to find a better book on the average G.I. It isn't hard to understand why every dog face loved Ernie Pyle; he lived among them, lived like them, and died like them. This is one of the best prime source reads around. I can't recommend it highly enough. The section on the Italian campaign is a must read.

I was introduced to Bohm through his video dialogue with Krishnamurti in The transformation of Man. He is one of the most honest, clear thinkers I have ever read. This book is really a transcript of a group discussion of thought with Bohm at the head. If you ever wonder why you get angry for "no reason" or why people get so upset over ideas, then read this book. And if you have an insight into the way thought works, you'll never be the same.

This book is the result of Bohm's collaboration with Krishnamurti, which lasted for over twenty years. David Bohms background as a proven physicist enables him to explain K.'s thought to the West in a more systematic, clear fashion that even K. could. This book was put out after Krishnamurti's death, and so it represents the results of their collaboration from Bohm's point of view. The implications of this analysis of thought are profound. It out does phenomenology in depth as well as it's avoidance of the hideous academic jargon. The only other thinker to take as in-depth a look at "Thought" is Rudolph Steiner (see 'Intuitive Thinking As A Spiritual Path'). This book brings a focus and clarity to a subject that never quiet graduated beyond the experimental dialogues between Bohm and Krishnamurti. Bohm also took the dialogue format (very similiar to Socratic) as his methodology (see his book on communication). Bohm felt that Krishnamurti's greatest contribution was his ideas about the "observer and the observed" and the nature of thought. Bohm had already had intimations of these ideas in sub-atomic physics. Excellent stuff!

A superb book with Bohm investigating the nature of thought in all its subtlety through a dialogue approach used by Bohm in several other books. Bohm's remarkable way of dialogue investigation assumes nothing except his internal investigations of his own thought processes which are explained in a manner allowing free discussion, ie nothing is assumed, set in its ways and everything is open to question, similarly he doesn't create any sophisticated terminology which could confuse the issue or the people who are asking the questions. The talks are in the words of every day people and use their everyday experiences for understanding. Thought is dissected in all its aspects, the creation of the `subject' and `object' and the underlying self, how thought gives rise to the structure of society and its problems, where is thought appropriate, these and many other questions are studied with no final answers allowing a deeper search to be performed by the reader. A book desperately needed to brush away the cobwebs of terminology, systems, fantasies and other claptrap so prevalent in our society.

I have an entire shelf of MMPI/MMPI-2 books. While I can't give up my Roger Greene volume, nor Caldwell, Butcher, and others, this little book wins the prize for practicality. Dr. Nichols has integrated manifestations of psychopathology and real world behaviors that are commonly seen in various MMPI-2 score elevations or depressions at a level that exceeds that of other available handbooks. This is not just a book for the beginning student -- while it will give novices a real jump start, it is a book which advanced practitioners including forensic psychologists will find exceptionally useful. This book is worth every penny and then some. I only wish that Wiley would put this book into e-book format so that I could have it in my computer for ready access wherever I go.

David Nichols provides detailed, easy-to-understand guidance for assessing psychopathology and personality using the MMPI-2. As a graduate student in clinical psychology, I found this book extremely helpful in evaluating MMPI-2 profiles. The book we are using in my Assessment of Personality course - Newmarks' Major Psychological Assessment Instruments, was simply too dry and academic. I purchased Essentials to help me understand the powerful MMPI-2. It worked! In class, when called upon to provide my own assessment of MMPI-2 profiles, I was able to quickly make sound judgments. Other students were amazed. In fact, the professor asked: "How did you know that?" When I shared I was using Nichols' book, he exclaimed; "That explains it. That book is excellent."

Essentials includes far greater detail on potential 2, 3, and 4 code profiles. In addition, it includes insight into the history, treatment and prognosis of individuals with various clinical scale, validity scale, and profile code scores. It also includes detailed information on the clinical and normal groups and validation stragy used for each scale. Many tables also provide quick references for later use.

GOOD TO HAVE, IF YOU NEED TO SAVE SOME MONEY AND FIX IT YOURSELF

I called all the auto stores in my area to see if they had a Honda CR-V service manual. No one had them, so I turned to the web for help. I found this book, ordered it, and was able to succesfully replace my squeaky brakes. This book can help you with almost any repair on your CR-V, and I highly recommend it rather than paying tons of money for the dealership to repair your car.

New Mexico, and the Taos area in particular, has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. John Nichols captures this beauty perfectly in his first of the Taos series, "If Mountains Should Die." Accompanied by heart-grabbing photographs, this book describes his first few years in Taos as a transplanted East-Coaster. Nichols not only captures the raw beauty of the land, but also the people that occupy it. Along with this, he describes the disturbing and continous struggle to keep it alive and free from suburbanization. His personal and touching accounts of his own struggle with the place and the people bring it alive in unexpected ways. There is also plenty of respect here, along with a deep anger for what is being done to the land, the people, and the unique way of life found in Taos Valley. As this is a very special place in my heart, I found it easy to cry and laugh along with him.

Once again David Bohm, one of the most original of thinkers, has demonstrated his ability to make original and fascinating discoveries in regard to, let us say, life in general. This is a combination of physics, biology, philosophy etc etc or as it used to be called natural philosophy. Bohm was one of this century's last remaining natural philospohers in a time of specialisation, in some ways akin to Robert Rosen, Darcy Thomson or Einstein all of whom were willing to expand their frontiers beyond their areas of specialisation. What singles Bohm out is his deep investigation of all aspects of thought especially the study of thought itself, its origin and dissolution and is human life possible without it, in other words is thought all there is or does being human mean a great deal more and other ?

In this short text Bohm looks at creativity, what it is, what it means in human life, how it works and various other aspects. Bohm, like in his other works, shys away from any form of solid definition, this is done on purpose, rather than because of a lack of understanding, Bohm insists that any form of thought, concept, idea which becomes crystalised as the "whole truth and nothing but the truth" interferes with the natural flow of reality which is ever changing and never static, this includes ideas as well which are insights about this flow (expanded on earlier in eg "Wholeness and the Implicate Order"). In this book he considers something he calls artamovement or "the art of fitting in the flow", here the word fit is in fact the meaning of art, in fact all forms of human endeavour are a form of art. This fitting in is the way people find out whether something is true or right in a context.

This, as usual, is highly original and especially true to itself, Bohm always writes what is true to itself and himself, he never, right until his dying day, failed to expound the truth whether he liked it or not. He epitomises the true seaker of knowledge which today is often smothered by individual desires, political expediency, domination from others or downright egotism. He was a remarkable man.

Peter Halley's works have been cool related these city world. This book is good for design to show his works variety. Book color is nice which reminds his vivid paintings. His chronological texts is very interesting with scenes of his many exhibitions.

Shulgin and his wife give a very entertaining, educational, and fascinating account of their exploration of psychedelics, with a separate section on their chemistry. The DEA hated this book so much that they harassed the authors and their friends for months after it was published.... but you'd have to be a narrow-minded pinhead to hate this book! Shulgin goes on my short list of "heros".

What's amazing about the Shulgins is their ability to isolate the nuances that make drugs like MDMA and MDE different from one another. The separate entries at different dosage levels are not only insightful, but essential to the potential experimentor. Reading this will make anyone cautious about buying what is considered "ecstasy" by the current youth culture.

The Chemistry is beyond me, but it's still fascinating. Buying this book is worth being put on any government list. Yes, it's that good.

While the story itself is rather interesting, the last section of PIHKAL ('book II') is the true star. It's not a story...it's a list of aprox. 200 psychoactive and potentially psychoactive drugs, each lovingly described as to structure, synthesis, dosage, and effects. Each item is based on the core skeleton of phenyl-ethyl amine, which Shulgin laboriously explored at virtually every point, substitutive alkyl groups, thio groups, halides, etc. (Methoxy ring substituents are especially popular in his work.) The result is an astonishing array of hallucinogens, amphetamines, and some seemingly inert materials. While he is perhaps best known for his work on MDMA, the drug that would later gain infamy as the illegal drug 'ecstasy', it will surprise most readers to discover that MDMA is only one of an entire family of psychoactive drugs, each with their own sometimes subtle, sometimes astonishing differences. A truly extraordinary, landmark work for the pharmacologist, or simply those curious about psychoactive drugs from a more technical, exploratory stance. (That said, if you wouldn't know a carbon atom from a Honda Civic, you'll still like the biographical part, which is anything but dry and technical.)

Remember the TV pundits trying so hard to convince us that the Bush presidency really began on 9/11? Don't let them fool you--the details of vote robbing, fraud, abuse of power, and political chicanery that played out in Florida, courtesy of the Bush family and GOP operative Katherine Harris, have been researched and presented in very convincing fashion by John Nichols. Until I read this book I thought I was pretty well up to speed on the Florida election fiasco. I was wrong: Jews for Buchanan not only has much to add about the infamous butterfly ballot (designed by a Texas firm, by the way!) but also goes into depth about such under-reported (or outright censured) aspects as the real extent of African-American voter disenfranchisement. The book is rich in details. For instance, I didn't know that there is a Bush cousin working at Fox who succeeding in manipulating that station's news coverage.

The saga is recounted with an appopriate touch of light humor (much needed, because the information is enough to make you scream and cry), with fascinating sidebars throughout focussing on particular technical or "human interest" aspects. It is extremely well-written.

I promise you will never look at Bush and his clique the same way again. It has stirred me to become more politically active, and to start paying close attention to this Administration and its media lackeys.

The British philosopher Lord Acton said, "Evil triumphs when good men do nothing." Numerous patriotic Americans have given their lives throughout history initially in revolution and later in wars to provide us with a democracy and to help preserve it.

Author-journalist John Nichols reveals the theft of democracy by the Bush campaign team and, ultimately, the United States Supreme Court in the 2000 presidential election. Not one for small talk, Nichols, as the current saying goes, "cuts quickly to the chase." He writes about the prevasive influence of George W. Bush's first cousin, John Ellis of Fox News, in making the initial call of Bush as the "winner" of the hotly contested race, along with the masterly spin operation which prompted all other television networks to quickly follow. From that point Bush was the presumptive president-elect and efforts by the Gore team to secure a definitive recount of Florida voters would be dubbed as the efforts of a "sore loser." Much attention is also devoted by Nichols to the successful efforts on the part of Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the candidate's younger brother, and Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a George Bush "co-campaign chair" to disqualify African American voters in Florida, resulting in the estimated disqualification of 31% of the state's elegible African Americans on the state's voting roles. The effort did not stop there as roadblocks were erected in heavily African American precincts while, among those who attempted to vote, many ballots were discarded. Also covered in detail by Nichols is the "Butterfly Ballot" controversy in Palm Beach County. He reveals there was indeed judicial precedent for the revote which the petitioners sought.

Another excellent element of Nichols' brilliantly researched effort is his closing reference sources, in which he invites interested citizens to investigate deeper, supplying a treasure trove of sources to facilitate such efforts.

This is a GREAT book about the 2000 election, Florida's electoral bungle and much much more that went into George W. Bush becoming President DESPITE not receiving the majority of the popular vote. Nichols puts so much evidence into play about the Florida mess that one can hardly not be convinced of who really won the presidency. Great stuff on racism, siblings in power, voting systems, outright lunacy and more. Loads of information, but more importantly its very funny! Excellent cartoons, writings from Hunter S. Thompson and Ralph Nader, and a great one-on-one conversation with Pat Buchanan after the election. (Pat thinks the election was stolen too!) I highly recommend this book.