Illness and plain laziness have kept me from the blogosphere for many moons, but I am rectifying that. Now, obviously.
Since I wrote the Planetary Types: Science of Celestial Influence, I find myself immersed in the skeptical community, relishing the exercise of my own critical thinking. Which you might think is odd, since my first book tries to make a good case for the influence of the planets on man.
However, the success of failure of the book and its ideas rests on empirical tests, and there are still pending investigations for those interested in assisting with research. Go over to http://planetarytypes.wordpress.com/ and sign up. Planetary Types is actually one the most critical books of astrology, despite being an attempt to sort out the wheat from the chaff on the subject.
I am also prepared to wear the results. There are far too many other fascinating things in the universe to discover to lament and try to bargain over any negative result. Way too many other interesting things to ponder and investigate. Of course, if we get a positive result, then we might have something interesting. We shall see.
I can tell you that I have begun work on my new book, which will deal with scepticism from a spiritual point of view, and with spirituality from a sceptical point of view. To give you an idea of its direction, my completed reading list for research is included below.
Krishnamurti biographies by Jayakar and Lutyens
Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon – Peter Washington
The End of Faith – Sam Harris
The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins
On Being Certain – Robert Burton
The Supersense – Bruce Hood
Why We Believe – Michael Shermer
Buddhism is not what you Think – Steve Hagen
The Universe in a single atom – Dalai Lama
The Transparency of Things – Rupert Spira
If you grill any good skeptic worth their salt, they will tell you that true scepticism means being less sure about a good many things. Those who have made their minds up once and forever more rarely learn any deeper secrets of the universe. I have learned to question things much, much more than I used to. And I was pretty rational before.
The surest thing I am sure of is the need to purify my instruments of perception – to train my attention to see things clearly. That is what I am trying to do and hopefully I will be able to judge things with some clarity..
