Customer Reviews

Opening Minds: A Journey of Extraordinary Encounters, Crop Circles, and Resonance (MP3 CD)

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Do yourself a favor and buy "Vital Signs: A Complete Guide to the Crop Circle Mystery and Why It is NOT a Hoax" by Andy Thomas. The superb collection of color photographs from many times and places there will peak your interest and inoculate you from losing interest in this book, "Opening Minds," which you should read AFTER enjoying "Vital Signs." See also my review of "Vital Signs" for points I will not repeat here.

This book, while weak on photographs and illustrations, is stronger on thinking and cross fertilization. I drew three points out of it:

1) Humans are barely scratching the surface of what they can do with their full conscious and sub-conscious powers. Our culture has literally destroyed much of our inherent talent for thinking and intuiting and remote viewing and sub-conscious communications.

2) There is, according to this author, and I for one believe him, clear evidence that remote viewing, when focused on extra-terrestrial targets (e.g. Martian Scientists), appears to open channels for receiving from those extra-terrestrial targets, direct sub-conscious inputs and assistance.

3) Finally, that crop formations, both those that humans make and those that seem to appear as gigantic beacons to some form of intelligence viewing the Earth from afar, are a focal point where a blending of different energies take place--magnetic fields, light fields, thought fields.

I put both these books down in a pensive mood. There is so much that is going wrong with the world, and yet there is so much that could be gotten right if we just harnessed the distributed intelligence of everyone, including the five billion poor at the bottom of the pyramid. We are--despite our millions of years of so-called development as a species--evidently at the 2nd grade level, still pooping in our crib, throwing tantrums, spilling food and breaking things. One can only gasp at the potential of the human species if it ever "grew up."

These are both serious and very worthwhile books to buy and read.

Finally, the most informative book about crop circles. Fascinating reading. The reader will learn about topics such as remote viewing, quantum physics, and other "paranormal" topics. It is obvious that Dr. Hein has thoroughly researched these subjects. Not to be missed!

Crop circles demonstrating natural superconductor properties -- individuals accessing unlimited amounts of information by tapping into unseen resonant frequencies -- the possibility that extraterrestials are walking among us -- Dr. Hein's book "Opening Minds" offers credible scientific evidence in support of these claims. Aptly named, "Opening Minds" has expanded my way of thinking by awakening me to a multiverse of constantly vibrating, invisibile subtle energies that are the very building blocks of our existence.

Having read the compelling hard copy version of "Opening Minds," I had high hopes that the audio book would complement the written book. However, my hopes were dashed within five minutes of listening to Dr. Hein. How could a man who has given such excellent radio and television interviews morph into what sounded like a beginning reader?

Because "Opening Minds" is more of a scholarly work than a literary one, I anticipated that Dr. Hein would depart from the text to speak about the thought processes that prompted his creation of the book. Also, he might have added some personality and warmth to the pieces by adding anecdotal commentary and user friendly explanations of the complex concepts presented. Alas, the highly original and creative sound track that Dr. Hein composed to accompany his voice cannot make up for his verbatim, slow paced, and lumbering reading. In this audio book there is no sense that Dr. Hein feels any passion about this subject and, consequently, none is generated in the listener.

It seemed that Dr. Hein was as bored with this task as I was listening to him.

This book will blow your mind. Simeon Hein channels the ghost of Hamlet as he eloquently posits that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in most of our philosophies. His meditation is a guidebook into the worlds of alternative thinking that present themselves as viable expressions of creativity and human understanding taking the reader places she or he has probably never been before, yet, oddly enough, containing landscapes that seem strangely recognizable.
Writing about the occult sciences has been popular in the tradition of European literature since the 1500s when the Oxford English dictionary defined the term as "beyond the range of ordinary knowledge". These are just such the planes of being Hein encourages us to explore in his discussions of remote viewing, crop circles, resonance, and dreaded existentialism during this era of devotion to technology.
The first chapters of the book consider the Age of Illumination mentality we have inherited and how such clockwork versions of the world can lead us to feel trapped within mental walls while timeless, organic vignettes of a deeper reality are pictured just outside the window, out of reach. What Hein as bodhisattva leads the reader towards via discussions of Abbott's Flatland, the Butterfly Effect, sociological considerations of dystopias, and the rigidity of Western thought is truly simple: reconsider what it means to know and what it is to be in this best of all possible worlds.
The later chapters require a leap of faith on the reader's part as they discuss Ufology, government sponsored psychic research programs, and the residual energy created by the formation of crop circles. He also includes an interesting personal account of his entry into the world of alternative realities. However, the author doesn't try to convince or propagandize- he merely reports the phenomena as he experiences it.
Many writers, such a Fourier, Goethe, Nerval, and Strindberg have sought such fruitful, Orphic realms for the expression of the mind's untapped creativity. It is interesting to note that upon this reviewer's reading, several nights of extremely lucid dreaming occurred.
"Opening Minds" is essential reading for anyone who is fascinated by the topics it covers and who appreciates a writer who is in touch with the Jungian collective unconsciousness at a very deep, soulful level.

Hein narrates his first book, Opening Minds, in an amateurish, monotonous and anesthetizing drone that would cure the most resistant case of insomnia. Hein's unimaginative original sound track does not hide the fact that he has obvious difficulties in pronouncing his own text nor does it off-set the awkward pauses that punctuate the entire work.

The bonus features are the saving grace of this entire recording. The Bashar and Mother Earth channeling sessions will delight fans of both entities. Hein's acoustic selections run the gamut from well produced elevator music to the beautifully sublime voice of vocalist Elisa Brown. His radio and television interviews are engaging, informative and fun. Its a shame that Hein did not choose to narrate his audio book with the same authenticity that resonates in these vibrant interviews.

Dr Hein presents an exciting audio version of his book Opening Minds. I loved the book, but the audio version is even more excellent. Dr. Hein has an abundance of resonance in his voice that comes through to the listener.
The books presents many of out-of-the-ordinary, paradigm-shifting, and mind-opening true experiences. I especially enjoyed Dr. Hein's own musical soundtrack that accompanies the text.

This audio book is excellent. It's based on the notion that human knowledge is much more limited than we'd like to think. Because of this problem we're likely to ignore information that doesn't fit with our current preconceptions. We're even unaware of possible limitations on our ability to understand some kinds of phenomena.

Our approach to science often requires us to build on existing knowledge. To the extent that this knowledge is incorrect, so are the conclusions we make. Until we begin to take the approach that Dr. Hein does here and entertain new and different ideas, we are likely to continue to delude ourselves about the extent and breadth of human knowledge.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Opening Minds audio book. It has an even mixture of educational and entertaining material and the music helps move things along. Having read the book, it was fascinating to revisit these ideas again, listening to Dr. Hein as the narrator, guiding the listener through all these challenging topics. The production quality is excellent. I disagree with the reviewer below. That person obviously has never heard books on tape! Dr Hein couldn't have done better unless he sang it, for heaven's sake. The main thing a narrator needs is clarity and time for listener to absorb the info, appropriate pauses, etc. He did that. His voice is excellent and I loved it. The content is totally worthwhile: a good balance between scholarly and informal. How great to have Opening Minds in audio format for those of us on the go.

I found a few of his ideas to be interesting - but it was mostly a rehash of already printed ideas....and some ideas were outlandish