By rhythm, content, and just plain curious facts this is one of the best nature books around. Whether the discussion is of the winds of Jupiter or the winds of the Sahara, Watson is consistently engaging and erudite. Don't miss the appendix with the best list of winds from around the world, including Foehn, Zephyr, Sirrocco and Santa Ana.

It covers everything about the wind you can imagine, and then some. Required reading for the seasoned meteorologist and the weather-watching dabbler alike. Not only powerfully informative but an extemely intriguing and pleasurable read. One of my top ten all time favorite books.

Lyall Watson is a renaissance man, and his vast and varied experiences, readings and interests are easily on display in this and all his other books. Watson has an eye for whimsical and unusual events, for beautiful images whether natural or manufactured, and a keen intution for the magic in the ordinary image, thought, and objects. This book specifically addresses all those strange and unexplained events which our orthodox scientists (isn't that an oxymoron) reject as unproven, untested, and unscientific. Watson who holds a PhD in some branch of the natural sciences sees the inifinite humor, compassion, and joy inherent in being alive on this earth, and the strange inhabitants of it, whether it be Komodo dragons, human beings, or rivers. In his stories and anecdotes inanimate objects come to life, water can be happy or sad, mammals can re-grow severed limbs, and teh existance of shells (with their forms often representing mathematical perfection) can have hidden lives.... If for no other reason than to have whimsical, unusual, and interesting trivia to talk about at a dry and dull dinner table, this book is to be read and marvelled at...

Adrian Boshier set out into the semi-wilds of rural southern Africa as a teenager, with an encyclopedic knowledge of the local flora and fauna and a determination to escape from social contingency by foraging. As an escape attempt, his expedition failed - what he had learned from books proved inadequate in the field and he quickly began to starve. The generosity of Swazi strangers, who laid out food in remote places once they realized that he would not approach them for help, kept him alive. Eventually, he got to know his neighbors, and became a sort of cultural liason between archaeologists and the descendents of local ancients whose artifacts were riddles to the scientific community. Lyall Watson's slightly imaginative biography of this prodigal spirit is rich in anthropological detail and illustrated with simple but evocative sketches of some of the artifacts that Adrian's interviews with rural healers and magicians have helped to explain.

This book is every bit as timely as the original 1975 printing. It began as the author's doctoral thesis on mysticism, ultimately blending a variety of disciplines into a multifaceted jewel of perception. The preface to this reprint is an account of the author's looking back, with bemusement, at having written the book and the deep ramifications that this had in his life (which included his later explorations with his brother that led to the "Ring of Fire" PBS series about Indonesia). For anyone who enjoys a synergistic blend of science and metaphysics, served with scholarly, yet very spellbinding, prose bordering on poetry, this book is a must.

I read this for a psychology Senior Seminar class at Univ. Maine @ Farmington... The intersection of scientific knowledge and inexplicable phenomena was awe inspiring... It is amazing how the natural world has yet to be sufficiently explained by science. This book was extremely easy to read, as I read most of it backwards (the chapters are broken down into sections). This is one of those books you can easily read twice!

Biologist Lyall Watson travels to Indonesia in search of magic... and finds a 'dancing island' and a girl who comes of age to become a shaman and healer. For those who simply enjoy a good story, this is an excellent book. For those who realize that the magic described in this book is real, it's even better. Watson is a first-rate story-teller, and I would give this book ten stars if such a thing were possible!

Thank you Destiny Books for reprinting this extraordinary meditation by the iconoclastic scientist Lyall Watson! First published in England in 1976, Watson's ideas are just now beginning to surface in the mainstream. Read it for the beauty of its language and structure. Read it for the thoughts that will suddenly stream into your consciousness. Read it for the sense of wonder a truly great book can bring to your life.

What is it that connects us to each other, and perhaps connects us across time. Lyall Watson is a gifted scientist who suggests some provocative possibilities in simple prose. If you don't want to think about his speculations you will still be entertained by his biographical adventures about South African Bushmen and Elephants. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is that the author spends a lot of time telling the history of various Elephant herds and the men who slaughtered so many of them, and that's really a separate tale (or is it tail?)

I enjoyed this book. The author discusses his encounters with elephants over the course of his life in South Africa. Lurking beneath the surface is the possibility that the elephant's existence may go beyond the physical level. Elephants appear where they have not been seen for years. Lyall Watson encounters men whose life seems strangely connected on the spiritual level with the elephant.

At times I was not sure whether Watson was sticking to non-fiction or whether maybe he was twisting the facts a little to make a better story. Perhaps, as is often the case, truth is stranger than fiction. Nevertheless, the case is made that elephants are sensitive, social, and mysterious beings who deserve a place to thrive on Earth.

Marvelously written with elements of mystery and science. This is well worth reading, along with To the Elephant Graveyard, which is somewhat similar.

This is a vivid account of the interactions between a very unusual young Englishman, Adrian Boshier, and a culture basically unchanged since it was first described over a century ago by Livingston and Selous. It is a true story of Boshier's struggle with himself and survival in a dangerous land, and of the search, seemingly directed at times by supernatural events, that lead, before his death at age thirty-nine, to discoveries that have helped both rewrite Stone Age history and give us a poetic insight into the dignity of the Stone Age mind. It is the story of an adventure of the human spirit... of a man, magic and culture of the real Africa. I cannot remember when I have so enjoyed or felt bound to the fate of an individual more than in this beautifully written story.

The Lightning Bird has remained my very favorite book of all times. It captures how very different indeed the African mind and perspective is from our Western one. Beautifully written, this book is a must on African afishionados book shelf.

This book covers all aspects of water on planet Earth; from physical properties to human drama, abundance to dehydration, and facts to emotions. I utilize it as a text in my middle school classroom.

The pictures are as thought provoking as the words. It is these photos that enthrall my students.

So much information, punctuated with breath taking pictures. Yet such an easy read for the everyday person. You realize through reading this book how precious and wonderful water and life on our planet is.

Although I am a non-scientific type, I am intrigued by this book. It is surprising that there has been little research about Jacobson's Organ until recently. Although it was first identified in the 18th century, its existence has only been studied clinically since the early 1990s. This sense organ, which consists of two small pits inside the nasal passages, works in combination with what we traditionally understand as our sense of smell. Instead of registering the odors we typically associate with smell, however, Jacobson's Organ functions as our "sixth sense" deciphering odorless chemical pheromones that are sent and received by a variety of plants and animals. These chemical messages may trigger sexual arousal, panic, fear, or an immediate dislike or attaction to someone you just met. The book is filled with interesting examples of how this organ and pheromones function in different species. Certain trees and plants are shown to communicate with each other by these signals. The author also suggests that schizophrenia, in which sufferers sometimes experience heightened sensitivity to another's feelings, may be related to disfunction with Jacobson's Organ. Instead of being out of touch with reality, they sense reality too much and are overwhelmed. This book will make you think of the people and places that gave you a sense of well-being. It may be that the chemical signals have much more to do about our perceptions of these than we have ever imagined.

Lyall Watson has made a life of uncovering the unknown, unravelling mysteries and delivering wonderful accounts of these explorations. Jacobson's Organ is a joy to read, with Watson's intellect, humor and delivery a pleasure, as always. Read this book and you will smile at how deeply the sense of smell influences the creatures we are. Send one to a sensitive friend, and then look into the amazing library of works this man has created for us.

Lyall Watson always manages to surprise us. Which is why, in a world where cynics have suggested that we are running out of frontiers, Watson's nearly thirty-year authorial career steams along vigorously. Were we to pare away --- an act that would diminish us all --- the endless scientific prying, the years of formal education, the myriad exotic locales from which he has derived his singular approach to natural peculiarities, were we to strip him of all these leaving in place only his dexterity with language, Watson would still be a joy to read. In this newest book, Jacobson's Organ, he outlines the variety of "noses" in nature's repertoire, beginning with snakes and birds and coming at last to mammals, "the supersmellers, with the best noses in the business." He moves on to describe an ancillary system that seems to have been speedily consigned to scientific oblivion after Ludwig Jacobson's 1811 discovery of it. Based upon recent work at both the University of Utah and the University of Colorado, what was once considered a useless primitive component, a sort of nasal appendix, may in fact be a functional, information-gathering sense. Or, as the author puts it, "a chemical clearing house for subliminal impressions." Leave it to Watson to explore its potential. Lest we think technology has rendered olfactory matters meaningless or trivial, there is a discussion of the consequences of smell loss, along with a gentle warning about

cosmetic surgery's sometimes undesirable side-effects. He speculates that, through long- term dependence on the purely rational, we have sacrificed our ability to consciously control the "sixth sense," that collection of unique abilities which have been regarded at various times as prescience, witchcraft, or mental illness. Jacobson's Organ explores the world of perfumery while shedding light on another aspect of smell, that of pheromonally based responses between people. And not just those relevant to sex --- though these will certainly be the most interesting to some readers. Watson suggests that we may release scents registered only by Jacobson's Organ, smells which 'voice' our reactions to others --- at times before, or in defiance of, intellectual recognition. (All that 70's hippie talk of good/ bad "vibes" may not have been so bizarre after all.) Perhaps this explains why we sometimes dislike an individual immediately and without apparent reason. Taken a step further, that certain out-of-control persons could be radiating a sensory signal we find unsettling. Might they posses an unintentional warning beacon which Jacobson's Organ translates as "avoid me"? We are entertained with stories of cultural diversity, instructed via biological comparison, delighted by occasional puns. Any danger of extreme seriousness which might dominate (and even destroy) such an inquiry is alleviated by a swift and subtle wit. In Jacobson's Organ, Dr. Watson demonstrates that strange phenomena are not the sole focus of his journeys; that he possesses the ability to extract magic from the seemingly commonplace. By presenting a subject which might ordinarily elicit from us no more than a casual shoulder-shrug, he bestows upon it the mantle of the extraordinary. We are snared by countless possibilities. His is the lifelong "dis-ease" of curiosity. We could do worse than catch a whiff of it ourselves.

Overall Watson does a good job. His style can get carried away, though. It has been a while since I read this book, so I am fuzzy on the details. What I remember is the general impression that the author loves his subject but gets a little too excited about it at points and this leads to some hyperbolic claims. He has a book coming out called "Jacobson's Organ"; it is about the sense of smell. I have read excerpts from it, and it is written in a similar fashion. More literary science than scientific literature.

I read this bok a few years ago and recall enjoying it completely. Lyall Watson's books will make you think, Supernature, the book about
Evil, the Romeo Error, are all books by Lyall Watson that I have enjoyed so much. I reccomend this book because I bought it once, lent it to someone who never returned it, and fully intend to buy it again. It's that good.