Customer Reviews

The Nature of Things: The Secret Life of Inanimate Objects

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book suggests that just about everything, every object on the planet, has some sort of LIFE in it--life from the Earth itself, or life from the people that have handled it and left a little piece of themselves, their auras, behind.
It is some hardcore new age hippie stuff, but I'll tell ya, it's interesting. It really is.
Lyall Watson does a decent job at justifying his outlandish claims with numerous stories of wedding rings making their ways back their owners over impossible distances, statues bleeding and crying, and places that feel happy or sad or angry to everyone that enters them.
He makes a compelling argument, but his case suffers quite a bit due to the lack of credibility of many of his sources, such as the Enquirer and the Weekly World News and other tabloid stuff, and he never seems to go very far out of his way to confirm or deny anything he reports. The book's notes section is lacking at best, but it does have an index.
I really enjoyed this book, though I'd hardly consider it an infallible nonfiction source. I enjoyed the way it made me think differently...about things. I enjoyed the way it's helped me see the world.
Also, I was amused that its author was able to suspend skepticism enough to consider that candles might be alive, but never enough to consider that the soul might continue to live beyond death.

I enjoy the connections Watson makes between different areas of study. I have read and re-read this book a number of times, and it never gets boring. The details and events that Watson brings up are interesting to investigate further, and bring up a lot of chances for discussion.

I purchased Watson's book some time ago and I find it ageless. After reading his book, I found I have a new respect for inanimate objects. I have also had unusual experiences that made me realize that there is consciousness in inanimate objects. One I recall is purchasing a new Honda in the late 70's.
I was living in So. Calif. at the time - very little rain and I began getting water in the fuel tank. After three times, I began asking why. Then came the realization that I had given my Honda a female name and this car had a male energy. When I renamed him Charlie, I had no more problems. Bettye Johnson, award-winning author, Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls.

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.

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.