Customer Reviews

Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief

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Donna Kossy is a sensitive, well-educated writer who can explain even the most unusual-seeming beliefs intelligibly - and without being judgemental or acting superior.

In this book you'll discover religious movements, political movements, racism, health, art, and more. Are you aware of the Anti-Mucus diet? Did you hear about The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millenium General Assembly? Probably not - but Ms. Kossy has.

If there's a flaw here, it's that some of the summaries are unfortunately brief - the book could easily be twice as large. But it's a small complaint for a great product.

The "Reader from Cape Cod MA" is George Hammond himself. Which is why he's so specific--even citing the page number--about his own little "theory." And his comment about "peer reviewed literature" is particularly funny since his "theory" is "cited" all over the Internet as a classic example of crank, kook psuedo-science. Apparently he thinks being pointed out as a nutcase is the same thing as being cited in "peer reviewed literature."

If Ivan Stang's "High Weirdness By Mail" offered a glimpse into the world of kooks, crackpots, and the fringe, then Donna Koosy's "Kooks" is a five-star luxury cruise through the uncharted fringes of human belief. Miss Kossy takes the best and most outrageous parts of her "Kooks" zine and puts them together to give us an in-depth look at people so far out there, you'll have trouble believing that this stuff really exists at all...except that it's right here, in front of your own eyes. There are racist publications galore, UFO kooks, misunderstood pseudo-scientists, and other visionaries -- all of whom are given a fair, understanding, and honest look by Miss Kossy. Many of the most famous kooks are given in-depth presentations, including the Raelians, Wilhelm Reich, the trepanation folks, and lots lots more. Kossy believes in letting their words and their deeds speak for themselves, and this gives her more respect in both the eyes of the kooks, and in the eyes of the readers; besides, nothing she could ever write could possibly top the ranting of "Christian Technocracy." She's just too *sane.* Your brain will never be the same after this.

Donna J. Kossy has picked a fabulous topic to write on, however, her writing style comes across as flat and methodical. Fortunately the subject matter stands on its own. For me nothing illustrates the power that science exerts in our society like seeing how it is misinterpreted and scewed to fit religous belief. People like Paul Laffoley also illustrate the fine line walked between madness and genius.

Before the internet, it must've been a lot harder to collect a whole lot of crazy. This book sifts through the muck and gets to the good stuff. It's an extremely admirable task to wade through such brackish water, but the result is a mixture of curiosity, admiration, downward social comparison, and intrigue.

The book is divided into a large quantity of small articles. Kossy presents her kooks in such an objective manner. Considering some people think that men can become pregnant and that the inside of the Earth is hollow, it's amazing that she doesn't paint portraits of loons and loners but of humans you can empathize with. Sure, you and I might be perfectly content to believe that gravity exists, but someone out there has devoted their life to disproving it.

I came into this book expecting to experience tons of schadenfreude, but I didn't (well, maybe a little, I can't help it). Read this book. You owe it to yourself to understand how idiosyncratic the human mind can be. You might even become a better person through your tolerance.

Kossy divides this book up into sections from the "fringe" of belief covering religion, politics, science, conspiracy, ufos, etc. There is a lot of very interesting stuff in this and while certainly some, probably most, of the people and beliefs in this are easy to label as kooks and/or kookery I just don't like the very subtle condescending attitude towards the subjects featured in this book that permeates the tone of the authors writing. I mean just the title of the book itself expresses these sentiments. I like a lot of the stuff Feral House publishes but I have noticed this sort of smirking smarmy attitude in some of their other books too. Yeah there are a lot of quacks, kooks and nuts out there but just because somebody thinks outside the box or has a worldview different from the mainstream doesn't make them wrong, much less a kook. Overall the subject matter in this book is interesting and the writing itself is good but that subtle snobbery is still there. But some of the topics covered in this are British Israelism/Christian Identity, various hate whitey black racial religious sects, a feature on the late William Cooper, various ufo based religious sects, various alternative scientific beliefs, a feature on Paul Laffoley and lots that is just so far "out there" that I can't even begin to explain in this format. Overall this is a good read.

Something very unique. Kossy gives us very well researched and thought provoking accounts of some of the strangest, craziest, and often most brilliant minds this mad, mad world has ever produced. Kossy show us the genius of these mad men and women, yet never looses sight of the fact that they are, for the most part utterly insane (or are they?). Many of these people tread a fine line and some are perhaps just so far advanced that we simply can't fathom their reality. Highlights are Frances E. Dec, Esq. (who's paranoid delusions would make even Manson squirm) and Paul Laffoley(sp?), a serious scientist who's theories either rank at the most "out there" level of mad genius or might just bring humanity into a new Golden Age of understanding.

Donna Kossy writes an engaging, humorous, and dedicated survey of a wide sampling of lunatic fringes past and present; messianic crazes, Anglo-Israelites, and other religious hysteria; conspiracy theories pathetic to beyond bizarre; random mad prophets; people who seek enlightenment by drilling holes in their skulls with power drills; and more! Funny, sad, frightening, and even thought-provoking by turns--after all, the kooks of today are quite often the heroes of tomorrow, and vice versa--modern heroes turn into tomorrow's historical lunatics

Donna Kossy's book Kooks is carried throughout by the ones who fear to say nothing and beleive everything. An excellent example of this is the book's obvious star, Dan Scott Ashwander. Ashwander is the star of Kooks, saved by Kossy for the tantalizing end. Why is that? Because he is not an anti-Semite/anti-Nubian kook like Mark Margoian or a UFO/last days kook like William "Bill" Cooper. Ashwander is a sincere nice guy who is like a teddy bear kook. Kossy even states he is the nicest guy to talk to. Also, Ashwander really only offends two groups in his Kook article. One is Germans by claiming the German race is evil and the source of all resistance to a united world capital of Jerusalem, Israel. Second, Ashwander does offend Marian Roman Catholics by claiming he was born of virgin birth via his mother Lois Blanche Ashwander in Hanceville, Alabama. Ashwander thinks he is the reincarnation of people like Pliny the Elder, Hippocretes, John Wilkes Booth, and King Arthur (the fictional not historical one). Kossy makes Ashwander the most interesting kook by far. She explores how two Cobramen are after Ashwander. One is Paul the Cobraman, a Cobraman with the most evil mind power of any Evil Eternal Ashwander has ever met. The second is a Cobraman called Cowboy who is a redneck Cobraman who wears cowboy hats and boots to highlight his giant Cobra head. Ashwander tells Kossy how the leader of the Evil Eternals is a woman named Posky who teleported into the body of a woman who rose from the dead and is now dating a reincarnated Adolf Hitler. Reincarnated versions of Winston Churchil, Bentio Mussolini, Franciso Farnco, and Hitler all seemed to stalk Ashwander during his life. Churchill was Ashwander's pastor. Hitler was Ashwander's Sunday school teacher. Franco was a high school basketball player in Ensley, Alabama. and classmate of Ashwadner (apparently at the same time he was facist ruler of Spain!). Finally, Mussolini was a fellow mental patient with Ashwander who followed him around. Albert Eistein also seemed to have a habit of following Ashwander around in Kooks and then coming out of the television to spit at Ashwander. Ashwander also claims to have these visions of John Foster Dulles smiling in reverse order. These facts make Kooks the book to read. Ashwander's unique presence in Kooks makes it a true classic. There are other neat Kooks like the black, Jew, Muslim, and Asian hating Margoian who beleives that G-d created white people before the Noah deluge. Margoian is not very politically correct in Kooks when it comes to blacks. Ashwander does not call African descended people Nubians, African Americans, or blacks but opts instead to refer to them only as apes. Margoian is also vehiment that Abraham Lincoln is a traitor to mankind and Jesse Jackson is a pimp. Then there is the UFO officianado Bill Cooper who thinks UFO occupants the Greys and Nordics are really demons and angels. Is this because they come from the sky or possess immense power? No, Cooper's reason is these are the last days because Israel has been reinstated. Cooper, after showing great Biblical knowledge, tries to convince the reader he is not a religious man. If he believes Greys are demons and a Israel yet to fufil its Abrahmic Covenant proves the last days; he obviously is religious. Kooks also has the real annoying pyschos whose idealism you just love to hate. These include the schizophrenic Flat Earth Socitey who allegedly know the Earth is flat because some man and woman in a picture declared it. Then comes Rael, a New Age spiritualist with the audicity to have a symbol with a Swastika (Nazi symbol) inside of the Mogen (Star of) David. That is not even the end of Kooks, there are people in it covinced that the evil ruler of hell is in fact a DINOSAUR. Some black Muslim kooks in the book use Isaac Asimov and his sideburns as evidence that the white paleman looks more like an ape than the Nubian black man. Why cannot anyone agree they are both NOT apes! Kooks also has a fresh mix of anti-semite pollacks, last day prophets of doom, and people who insist Yeshua (Jesus of Nazareth) was black and not white. The book Kooks does have its weak spots. One is how Kossy seems to have only average knowledge of all total conspiracy theory. She is a sociologist and does not use as much eschatology, history, psychology, political science, or anthropology backgrounds to view these people with an open mind and a laughing heart. Also, some of the Kooks she picked are not that intresting and others she left out. By just going in the area of Groom Lake she could have found a few Area-51 kooks but never did. She could have found better kooks by going to local gun toater meetings, conspiracy/citizen groups, UFO conventions, and prophecy study groups. But she never did. However, the most detrimental aspect of Kooks is Kossy's selection of the most schizophrenic kooks. She should have picked more credible kooks who make you think. Why should you view credible kooks with an open mind? The reason is that those who first said the Earth was round; not the center of the universe; evolution existed; abortion should be legal; and humans were not the only sentient beings in the universe...were once considered to be kooks. So if Galileo, Copernicus, Drake, Sanger, Darwin, Scopes, and Wesley were at one time considered Kooks, then Ashwander and some of the non-racists kooks are in very good company.

As a physicist and research psychologist I find Donna Kossy's approach to Kookdom highly refreshing. Seldom does a veteran scholar and able writer survey really rare material. The author's memorable prose shows that she is both sympathetic to the persecuted scientist as well as poignantly devastating to the incompetent kook. Devilish intent is clearly sorted from simple ignorance, and any genuine scholarship does receive due note. Of particular interest in the latter regard is her handling of George Hammond's theory on page 247, which has subsequently appeared in the peer reviewed literature. In that case, Kossy may have been the first one to spot the emergence of a genuine scientific discovery. Kossy's nose for news and flatfooted style of scholarly detective work is unsurpassed. Thanks a million Donna Kossy for a fascinating book.