Customer Reviews

Jump Time: Shaping Your Future In A World of Radical Change

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Every now and then a book comes along that changes the way I see the world. When I first read Joseph Campbell's "The Power of Myth," it had an enormous effect upon me. When I read Jean Houston's "Jump Time" I felt like all things are possible and I could be a participant, a co-creator in shaping our future. It energized me to continue to do good in the world and to work towards creating a better planet. As an teacher, I found her chapter on education profound and insightful. It's a blueprint for the kind of education I have been working to create all of my life. Compassionate, intelligent, and sparkling with great clarity, "Jump Time" is a MUST read.

One of the most provocative, profound and powerful books I have ever read. Houston puts us right in the center of "the biggest change in human history". I have never been so exhilerated by a book before. It makes you want to go out and be part of the change that is happening.

I floated an experiment with this book. You know the sort of assay: let the book fall open and follow your gaze to a line, any line. As a personal venture, such experiment, homely and amateur, has, over time, yielded me an efficient, effective test of a writing's worth. In the present case, the line from Jump Time that caught my gaze referenced the Iroquois "Ceremony of Condolence." The ceremony is, at once, a mystical practice and a practical device which affords immediate succor and, in the long-term, transforms grief into life-affirming perspective.

Any book worth your time will afford such affirmation. It will transport you even as it grounds you, affirms the richness of the "every day." As with the single line from the "Ceremony of Condolence," the whole of Houston's Jump Time achieves a delicate balance between the transcendent and the quotidien. The book rewards the investment of your time. Why? On any page, you will find Houston's signature blend of the numinous and the no-nonsense: blueprints for education (with real-time examples); "a harvest of spiritual practices" (leave the paltry single crop to Fundamentalists); a model for international peace-making (underscored by the author's solid diplomatic work) which is downright prescient in its aptness for our era; finally, a privileged glimpse into our own interior riches, our "entelechy." Ultimately, then, the signature blend is the keenest of provocations. Houston's anecdotes and antidotes provoke because the blend is packed into the loaded stuff of Jump Time.

Houston takes care not to restrict the definition of Jump Time. With mastery, she draws with a broad metaphysical brush. She variously defines the phenomenon as "radical change" and the "time of the parenthesis" (whet your appetite?) Nevertheless, she astutely avoids force-feeding her reader with a facile, definitive take. Ultimately, we all know, instinctively, what Jump Time is (if you don't, turn on CNN), and Houston knows, respects that fact --in spades. She is here, at our private altar of the arm chair, to evoke and provoke -- to enrich the intimations we already possess deep in our psyches --collective and singular.

Among the many joys peppering Jump Time, the reader will experience Jean Houston as an exuberant, proximate, compassionate narrator. Forget disaffected cynicism. This book is Jean Houston, plain and not-so-simple; not so simple because Houston has a preternatural knack for gifting us with the complex while sheltering us from the dogmatic.

In the final analysis, Jump Time were better dubbed Jump Timely. Prescient and topical, the tome is a lifeline in a world where all bets are off. In this new world, this post-September 11 realm, we are, as nations and individuals, struggling to quell our fears, define our next steps. Our spirits falter under the weight of our leaders' well-intentioned but wan rhetoric -- rhetoric that, with another major wave of terrorism, may go the way of bankrupt metaphor.

In this mind-numbing hour when, as Houston reminds us, "affairs are soul-size," Jump Time appears as a manual for meaning, as primer for the "New Mind" that is a prerequisite to personal and global survival.

Do yourself a cosmic favor: buy the book, try the experiment. It is the experiment of a lifetime.

Jean Houston introduced herself to me in a speech at a local New-Thought church. It was the finest talk I had ever heard, and was convinced I had found another 'Deepak'.

This book reads like a speech. Unfortunately, this speech didn't make a very good book. Maybe a book-on-tape would have been a better alternative... well, no, I still think I would have turned it off after tape 2 or 3. Here's why:

Jean Houston is a brave speaker, but strangely, on paper, you realize that there are very few brave sentences. She is an ultra-romantic, projecting an entire culture or existence from various rich encounters in her (admittedly full) life. But obviously, sporadic instances do not a world make... as testimony to this fact, Houston refuses to come to summary or even to make a single bold statement about human nature, circa Y2K. She instead skips thoughtlessly from "neat situation" to "neat situation", making only vague references to a certain vague theme. Houston need not have split this book into chapters.

Houston is a rapid-fire thinker, which bypasses any -depth- of thought. There are no ties to previous works, nor any foundation laid here to build upon. I have read every page, and still do not know what Jump Time is. It is 'like' many things... many of Houston's concepts are 'like' other things, but none are critical to understanding her views.

For instance, Houston brings up two fascinating topics (invented by others): Entelechy (dynamic purpose) and Polyphrenia (our many selves). But between these fantastically rich metaphors, Houston is only able to make two or three meaningful comments, and they come 60 pages apart (with only (rather puffed-up) anecdote in-between)... -and- they aren't mentioned again (except as adjectives to further embellishment).

This was a frustrating experience... and I am not a reader who always demands serious analysis. I was far less irritated by Redfield's Celestine books, and those books are the quintessential New-Age throwaways. I just felt cheated... this isn't an accurate view of -any- lifestyle, culture, or trend, anywhere. This -isn't- how late 20th-21st century life -is-. Jump Time is hyperbole. And I think it's paraded rather proudly. It should be considered biography, if anything... a story of all the places Jean Houston has been and all the things she has thought about. But even that wouldn't work... she is typically only guessing or glorifying. Of course she is well-traveled and well-read, but, as she -herself- would tell you, that just doesn't impress me enough to care.

Jean Houston is a speaker, and a grand one at that. This book is only a platform from her to speak from, it's not a book to read. Do yourself a big favor... get this book (or book on tape) from the library, read the first few chapters, and if you find yourself scanning and yawning by page 50, don't be hard on yourself. This is a natural response to a book -written- faster than one typically reads.

I've never felt more urgently the need to understand what is happening in this upside down world, and no book I've found addresses that need more profoundly than JUMP TIME.

Recognizing the perils of the day while emphasizing the possibilities, JUMP TIME is engaging from cover to cover, with a wonderful blend of the humorous, poignant, and inspiring. Mostly, it is brilliant. I kept thinking, "Why don't today's world leaders know this stuff!" Actually, I've heard that Dr. Houston is now regularly called in to work with the U.N., so that is heartening. This is a book to read if you want to understand what is unfolding in this amazing time in human history. I'll close with a passage from the book:

"The electronic nervous system of the global village has resulted in a spreading and sharing of the images and archetypes of societies radically different from each other in geography, history, and ethnicity. Myths and stories cooked in climates vastly different from ours are becoming the materials of our everyday consciousness. The rebirth of images and their cross-fertilization through media and travel spurs us to rethink the archetypal possibilities of our human selves, now expanded to include all present knowledge and all previous visions of tribe, race, and social class."

Dr. Jean Houston foresaw the great challenges that America and the world faces today. In light of the tragic events of September 11th, the lessons of Jump Time are more important than ever. If you only read one book this year, read Jump Time.

You may know Jean Houston as the best-selling author of such books as The Possible Human, A Passion for the Possible, and A Mythic Life. You may have heard of her association with Joseph Campbell, or her work with Margaret Mead. Jean Houston is a world-renowned scholar, philosopher, and teacher. She has been a consultant to UNICEF, and her forward-thinking concepts often takes her to the United Nations. There is no greater mind in the human potentials arena today than Dr. Houston who continues her rich work in developing the possible human, who will then create the possible society and the possible world.

What is Jump Time? Well, we're living in it; a time of whole system transition in which nothing is as it was in the past. It is the end of the world as we know it, and the beginning of something entirely new. What that world will be is up to all of us. In Jump Time we are given tools to uncover human potentials for this brave new world. You learn to access your essential self; self orchestrate across states of consciousness; turn on your polyphrenic self; become a cultural fusinary; travel your greater mythic path, and emerge as the new man or woman, "cooking on more burners," as Jean Houston says.

The book offers great insights into social change and social artistry. Chapter Three on new systems of education alone is worth the price of admission. In Seattle, where I live, there are amazing new schools which are growing out of Jean's inspiring view of what is possible for today's children, their parents and community. This is a book that makes change happen! Much of Jump Time is also taken from depth soundings in Jean Houston's Mystery School offering glimpses into deep wells of sacred psychology where one is given the tools to be more than they ever imagined.

Whoever you are when you begin reading Jump Time, you will find an entirely new person looking back at you in the mirror by the time you finish reading the book; an expanded you that is ready for the challenges we face together in this new millennium of incredible possibilities. Make the jump to Jump Time... together we can make miracles happen!

Jean Houston's latest book is not only an intellectual tour-de-force and immeasurably intellectually stimulating, as we would expect from such a stellar intellect, but it's also VERY readable. It's the equivalent of a Baedaker guide to the new era we're jumping into. Covering a wide range of arenas, Dr. Houston explores how the massive changes we're in the midst of affect not only the cultural zeitgeist but our own lives. If you "get it", better get it - Jump Time, that is!

Jean Houston's "Jump Time" is a useful handbook for thoughtful, progressive people who recognize the significance of these complex times and want to move forward with grounded knowledge.

Now,as never before, we must seek better answers to the national and international problems that haunt us. September 11 changed our world, and we must change our ways of thinking. It makes sense to look to our great thinkers and teachers, those who can show us ways to expand and deepen. Jean Houston is such a thinker and teacher, an intelligent and wise resource in these turbulent times.

With stirring metaphors, practical applications, and powerful questions, this handbook for life in the 21st Century provides guidance, information, encouragement and example.

Houston writes about 5 specific forces she describes as now propelling our growth. These forces, which will determine the direction and quality of our future are:

- the evolutionary impulse that drives our growth and suggests how we might learn to ride and direct its energy.
- the repatterning of human nature to discover ways to feel at home with anyone, anywhere, anytime, and to use much more of our potential.
- the regenesis of society, changes in interpersonal relationships and relationships between peoples and governments.
- the breakdown of old barriers, old forms, resulting in a more complex and inclusive global paradigm.
- the breakthrough of the depths, meaning the spiritual renaissance now occuring worldwide.

The chapters deal in depth with aspects of these forces and include examples from her extensive study and life experiences. Houston's liberal use of metaphor makes the read exciting as well as informative.

"Jump Time" is a valuable resource for those who seek answers to the powerful questions: How can we make a better world? What must we do to serve the larger story? Reading the book will help you clarify and define your objectives as well as articulate goals lofty enough to move you from little preoccupations to goals worthy of your best efforts. In short, Jean Houston sets forth guidelines for us all to become more of who and what we are, and to create a better world. Read it. You'll be glad you did - and so will the world, as you begin to apply the ideas.

It's clear that this writer has a lot of enthusiasm for her subject material. However, as I read this book what I was really struck by was how much what she discussed focused on theory, with little application of practical techniques that could incorporate her concepts into a person's life.

I think she has some brilliant ideas, but I would've liked to have seen those concepts followed through on in a manner that went deeper than just a presentation of theory.

JUMP TIME: SHAPING YOUR FUTURE IN A WORLD OF RADICAL CHANGE provides an exhilarating and provocative opportunity to share Dr. Jean Houston's "take" on where we are now. Written just at the turn of the millennium by this scholar, philosopher and global traveler and evocateur, Dr. Houston explores, among others, trends in education, , and cyberspace as she discusses and underlines the unique time in history in which we live - a "jump time" in global and individual consciousness. The chapter on "Peacemaking and the Global Longhouse" seems particularly relevant and helpful in light of the tragedies of September 11th. And because she is the author of many other powerful books - THE POSSIBLE HUMAN, THE SEARCH FOR THE BELOVED: JOURNEYS IN SACRED PSYCHOLOGY, A PASSION FOR THE POSSIBLE, MANUAL FOR THE PEACEMAKER: AN IROQUOIS LEGEND TO HEAL SELF AND SOCIETY, A MYTHIC LIFE: LEARNING TO LIVE OUR GREATER STORY, to name a few - it's easily possible to continue to follow Dr. Houston's always challenging and evocative explorations. To share the thoughts and speculations of this pioneer of the human potential movement (whose mind has been called a "national treasure") is to be stimulated and challenged to personally take an active and vital part in the transformations Dr. Houston sees taking place. Read it!