Sleeping With Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety [Paperback]

Wendy Kaminer (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 10, 2000

In Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials, social critic Wendy Kaminer illuminates the various ways in which society has come to value emotion over reason, faith over fact, and argues that declarations of intense belief have largely taken the place of rational discourse. In a world in which "How do you feel," seems to be a more frequently asked question than "What do you know," Kaminer's examination of the rise of spiritualism, the mushrooming junk science, and the habitual merging of political and evangelical speech, blazes with relevance and incisive wit.

Probing the amusing and ominous implications of rampant credulity in our age, Kaminer raises important questions, and provides a thoughtful and eloquent perspective on the perils of present-day irrationalism.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"It's easy to imagine a TV sitcom making fun of a character who visits psychics and astrologers and channels Sarah Bernhardt," opines Wendy Kaminer, "but virtually impossible to imagine it laughing at anyone who takes the Bible literally and believes that someone named Jonah once lived in a whale." She goes on to demonstrate that, despite the complaints from many religious people that the "secular media" mocks their beliefs, American culture still shows a high degree of respect for the faithful and pious, while popular hostility towards atheists continues to rise. But "why should it be socially acceptable to make fun of psychics and not priests?" That's one of many provocative questions Kaminer raises in Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials, a critical assessment of the extent to which U.S. society has succumbed to the irrational.

Kaminer goes on to sift her way through pop spirituality "classics" like The Celestine Prophecy and Conversations with God and visits seminars by New Age gurus (leaving her "amused and dismayed by the painful stupidities that people embrace to ease their fears of death"), but Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials is not merely an assault on religion--Kaminer also attacks purveyors of junk science, the influence of the recovered-memory movement on both feminism and the American court system, and the "cyberspacy" claims made by boosters of technological progress. Whether she's considering the extensive belief in UFOs and alien abductions or wondering why so many people worshipped Princess Diana in the hour of her death, Kaminer shows how an unrestrained culture of faith "encourages passivity, gullibility, and a childlike craving for authority." Rationalists will find her skepticism a refreshing tonic. --Ron Hogan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In this provocative collection of eight essays, social critic Kaminer grapples with the many manifestations of "irrationalism"Abelieving in something without material proofAin contemporary culture. The targets for her witty, unsparing critiques range from the New Age spiritualism of Deepak Chopra and The Celestine Prophecy, contemporary angel lore and accounts of alien abduction to the recovered memory movement, from school vouchers to the "junk science" basis for the "war on drugs." Kaminer makes clear that she is not criticizing the personal beliefs of individuals (and admits that she herself believes in the benefits of homeopathy, contrary to most scientific opinion), but rather is concerned with "the possible public consequence" of such beliefs, especially when held by a dominant or influential group in the body politic. With unrelenting logic and easy grace, Kaminer poses questions that may upset many readers. For instance, she asks why Americans were dumbfounded by the suicides of the Heaven's Gate "cult" members who presumed they would go to heaven in a flying saucer, when only a few weeks later millions of people celebrated the "irrational" belief in "Christ's ascent into heaven." Kaminer is most entertaining when debunking commonly held pieties, such as when she contends that we often ignore that organized religins "sanctify bad behavior, along with the good." Behind her cool prose and entertainingly casual manner loom important and necessary questions about what it means to live in a democracy based on justice and reason. Agent, Esther Newberg, ICM. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (October 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679758860
• ISBN-13: 978-0679758860
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.7 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,302,303 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A gutsy and bold manifesto against irrationalism February 4, 2000

By Glenn R. Boston

Format:Hardcover

This is the type of book that will infuriate narrow-minded religious extremists who are convinced, even though they have absolutely no proof or even half-way decent evidence, that their one little segment of religiosity is the absolute and final truth. In this courageous book, Wendy Kaminer takes on not only the New Age, which is something of an easy target given its silly excesses, but also organized religion and the simple, childish faith most Americans have in God and the afterlife. Kaminer points out that in modern America, open skepticism of religion is met with disdain and often hostility. (Think of it: What major politician, except for the quite possibly unhinged governor of Minnesota, has in recent times dared to say anything even slightly negative about religion?) Independent thinkers will love this book; the close-minded, WWJD-wearing absolutists who worship manical TV preachers, bash gay people, harass abortion clinics, advocate creation "science" and burn to make our country a theocracy instead of a democracy will hate it. More power to Wendy Kaminer's pen!

73 of 77 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Cuts through the fog of spirituality November 28, 1999

By J. Davis

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This not simply a case of an academic type looking down her nose at the ignorant masses. Wendy Kaminer provides compelling evidence why we should be disturbed by the creeping rise of irrationalism-especially when it affects public policy.

Police departments are hiring psychics to investigate murders, and prosecuting sex crimes based on "recovered memories" of alleged victims; public school boards, even in the 1990s, are emboldened by community consensus to force sectarian religion on students.

Kaminer asks the obvious questions that everyone else seems afraid to ask. Why should religious ideas be above public criticism? Why is it OK to ridicule Sun Myung Moon or New Age channelers, but not Billy Graham or the Pope? Are their beliefs any less silly?

The jabs at irrationalism aren't limited to traditional religion. Kaminer has done her homework, sitting through self-help seminars of New Age gurus and tracing the history of positive-thinking, inner-child and codependency therapy, alien abduction accounts, and guardian angel garbage.

The biggest laughs in this book come in quotations from the psychobabble of the 12-step recovery industry, and from the bestsellers of pop spirituality, such as Conversations with God, and The Celestine Prophecy. In Embraced by the Light, readers learn that people's souls may volunteer to be victims of accidents and murders to further some greater part of God's will.

Thanks to the average American's scientific illiteracy, technological advances are viewed as "miracles," and New Age claims about "energy transformation" and "vibrations" seem as plausible as valid science. (As Elaine Boosler once observed, even popcorn is a miracle if you don't understand it.) New Age hucksters use terms adapted from vaguely-understood concepts like quantum mechanics to legitimize their speculations about life after death.

Following a particularly absurd sample of pseudoscience from Deepak Chopra, regarding a place where "your hand exists before the Big Bang and after the universe's end in the heat death of absolute zero...the pre-quantum region that has no dimensions and all dimensions," Kaminer observes, "enigmatic or utterly incomprehensible statements may assure people of his authority. Gurus are supposed to understand truths about the universe that most of us can only sense as mysteries."

Kaminer's wit makes this book a delight. As someone else said, she is a light in the fog. You will alternate between knee-slapping laughs and shaking your head over the numbness of our culture and the lost art of critical thinking.

103 of 112 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars A marginal book at best. December 12, 1999

By Richard S. Sullivan VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

The very first words in the introduction by Kaminer are: "Before I begin my critique of irrationalism, I have a confession to make: I go to a homeopath." She then goes on to explain how homepathic medicine has helped her. She also states in her defense that "I have [only] the vaguest understanding of antibiotics." One hour on the Internet would have provided her with a wealth of sites explaining in laymen's terms how antibiotics work.

Later on she dismisses out of hand any research into differences between men and women stating: "Of course, my own perspective on research on cognitive sex differences is bound to be colored by my belief in the justice of sexual equality.These are puzzling statements from one professing to make the case for rational thinking. To confuse equality with sameness is almost a point of disqualification for one professing to be an expert in this area. Of course, she could believe in sexual equality and still see that men and women have cognitive differences. She seems quick to dismiss any empirical evidence that she thinks might challenge one of her cherised beliefs, something she criticizes others for doing throughout the book. There is a ton of good solid research in this area (much of it being done by women, surprised?) that she ignores or dismisses out of hand as being sexist in nature.

The book on the whole is about average. If you have read or are familiar with much of the current thinking in the skeptics or rationalists movement most of her points will be old hat. There doesn't seem to be any central themes or points she wants to make, and it mostly comes off as one reviewer says here as a rant. It also comes off as books often do, as note cards strung together.

For a dollar or two more buy:

Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder By Richard Dawkins. It's a much better book and the writer does not confuse his on desires with rationalism.