Customer Reviews

The Transmitter to God : The Limbic System, the Soul, and Spirituality

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

 

 

This book is not about what it is purported to be about.

About 20% of the content deals with neurology and spiritual experiences. The rest can only be described as wildly speculative material reminiscent of Von Daniken and Velikovsky.

A great deal of attention is devoted to the notion that a "super-race" of humanoids lived on Earth 15,000 years ago. Their advanced civilization, housed on the continent of Atlantis, was destroyed when the planet Venus, originally a moon of Jupiter, careened past Mars, stealing that planet's ocean and atmosphere, and came close to Earth, leaving much of the water here in its wake -- hence, stories of a big flood that appear in mythologies the world over.

The current theory of evolution may be problematic, but it is more believable than the author's suggestion that life was planted here, designed so new species would unfold in a carefully-crafted plan to terraform the planet in stages.

There is a large amount of graphic violence, including depictions of medieval torture. Numerous examples of clergy or prophets "gone bad" are given to demonstrate the "close connection" in the brain between spirituality, sex, and violence. The author asserts that gay men have waged a religious war on women, but he cannot provide any examples to back this up. Abraham and Jesus are described as sexual deviants. On the whole, the fact that spirituality has inspired acts of good is overlooked (as is any other fact that would counter his claims).

To be fair, the content that does deal with the stated topic seems to be on a sound footing. The evidence he offers more or less matches what I'd seen elsewhere regarding neurological aspects of spiritual experience. However, I didn't find these portions of the book particularly enlightening.

The editing and layout is extremely sloppy, and (as if it mattered) footnotes are not consistently provided.

I was suprised that this work was published by the University of California Press. The author has a penchant for endless citations of his own work to give creedance to various spurious claims. For example, on page 234 the claim is made that "it is well known that DNA can only be made by DNA" and that "the most sophisticated experiments have failed to produce DNA [from the presumed primordial soup]." There is then a citation of [Joseph 2000a]. The author seems to be unaware of the considerable work on the 'RNA world'. RNA is capable of acting as a storage molecule and can catalyze reactions as an enzyme. It isn't as stable a storage device as DNA, but it is plausible that it arose earlier and that proteins and DNA followed. In any event Joseph leaps forward to the 'obvious' conclusion that DNA arose somewhere other than earth and then was transported here via meteors or other beings.

If this is your cup of tea by all means drink. If you are expecting this book to speak about the neurophysiology of spiritual experiences you may be better served to explore, e.g., Austin's "Zen and the Brain" or d'Aquili and Newberg's "The Mystical Mind."

One of the earlier customer reviews states, "I was surprised that this book was published by the University of California Press." In fact, the book was NOT published by the University of California Press. It was published by a company called "University Press, California," that is located in San Jose, California.

Joseph's book mixes hard scientific evidence (though much of it unannotated in the bibliography, in the copy i received) with speculative flights. Based upon current neurological findings, of which Joseph is surely eminently qualified, he speculates upon the origin of manking and the God and Lord God mentioned in Summarian and Hebrew myths of creation. While it does not weaken his arguments about the presence of neuro anatomical regions that are activated during religious, sexual or aggressive behaviors, it places it upon a pseudo-scientific basis. The great divergence of ideas regarding the "true meaning" of mythologies of creation (from Jungian, extraterrestial, orthodox religious views) lends not too easily to Joseph's thesis. It seems that his empirical evidence and research is not convincing enough that he goes extrapolating from myths that cannot be scientifically proven. Perhaps it is his way of blending the mythopoetic with empirical thought, while calling for an open minded approach to "the transmitter to God." Many religious adherents of the Semitic traditions may find parts of the book offensive to their beliefs, yet he dpes present information and ideas in a manner that seeks to do scientific justice to how it is that these prophets allude to and claim communications from "God." His inclusion of abberant cults, such as Jamestown, Davidians, and Heavens Gate do not necessarily support his thesis, but tend to dilute it, unless we believe that Judaism, Christianity and Islam can be truly likened to the founders of these other groups. Definately thought provoking and an invaluable bibliography (though incomplete). His purpose seems to speculate on how it is that the brain, particularly the limbic system, is indeed a "transmitter" of spiritual and extra-mundane realities.

Joseph should have titled this book: "Thought Experiments" for it is a mixture of fact and scientific speculation. The contents run the gamut from neurology, anthropology, physics, evolution, and sex and violence. The chapter on sex and religion is interesting for a number of reasons. In 2002, the Boston Globe received a Pulitzer for "breaking" the story on sex abuse and the Church. Perhaps Joseph should have received the Pulitzer because he broke the story in this book, which was published in 2000. Was this book ahead of its time? Maybe. In 2004, the scientific journal Nature reported on Neanderthals which might be a separate species of human. Joseph broke the story in 2000. In 2004, the Dept. of Defense released a study in which it was reported global warming could be so rapid, sea levels might rise by hundreds of feet and the northern hemisphere might subjected to an instant ice age. Yep, Joseph presented a similar analysis in this book, and he argues further the earth was buffeted by a similar instant ice age 10,000 years ago which destroyed the cities and civilization of the Cro-Magnon. Unfortunately, the speculations presented in this text are both its strength and weakness. I enjoyed his willingness to stretch the envelop and to challenge prevailing assumption, many readers might not be so inclined.

A reviewer (see below) complains that the author, Joseph, states that perhaps 50% of all Catholic Priests are homosexuals, and objects to Joseph's discussion about pedophile priests--claiming there is no proof. What a "morooon." The Transmitter to God was published two years ago, in 2000, and two years later the news media reports the astonishing news that perhaps 50% of all Catholic Priests are homosexuals and that Pedophile priests have been raping children. My hat is off to Joseph. He is clearly ahead of his time. Sex, is just one of the issues discussed in the Transmitter to God. Jospeh has chapters on religion and violence (two years before 9/11), evolution, genetics, the death of Dariwn, and he offers the reader a lot of intriguing speculation about the brain and spirituality which he then backs up with scores of scientific articles. If you looking for the same old comfortable platitudes, so that you will not have to think, then avoid this book. If you are looking for something new and exciting, for an author that thinks outside the box, this is the book for you.

Joseph's book contains abundant promise and abundant disappointment. Its bookends--the start and finish--provide provide reasonable interpretations of data from neurological and fossil research. The center, unfortunately, merely affords a bully pulpit for the author's unsubstantiated rants about religious literature, especially the Koran and the Bible. This juxtaposition of authority and speculation is paralleled by displays of scholarly writing (e.g., citing sources for stated views) at the outset and junior high writing (e.g., missing citations and bizarre interpretations of religious writ) in the middle. Joseph is to be commended for his imagination, but misrepresents his book as a scholarly contribution.

I was fascinated by the data making up the foundation of the author's arguments, even though the writing is a little dry sometimes. The conclusions sometimes seem a little remote from the data, but most are hard to argue with. If you enjoyed Julian Jaynes' 'Origins of Consciousness', you'll enjoy this whether you agree with his conslusions or not.

Anyone who has studied DNA knows that DNA can come only from DNA: Only DNA can produce DNA--...Dr. Joseph does not make this error. However, he also does not attribute the origin of DNA to the hand of God, but raises the possibility that it first originated on other planets--an idea which is being accepted by more and more astrobiologists. He does point out, however, as based on ancient glyphs from ancient Sumer and Babylon as well as the creation story in Geneses, that the "creation myth" could be reinterpreted as a mythical retelling of experiments in genetic engineering and genetic cloning. As a thought experiment, he says this would explain the sudden appearance of the "giants" that we are told about in Genesis and the fossile record: The Cro-Magnon people...This book is filled with insightful speculation and theorizing. It is also jammed packed with facts. Joseph then goes on to explain the evolution and the neurology of religious experience, including those brain structures which might explain why so many who claim to be men of god, engage in mass murder, or the rape of young boys. This is an incredible book published by the incredibly successful upstart in the world of publishing--University Press.

Joseph should have titled this book: "Thought Experiments" for it is a mixture of fact and scientific speculation. The contents run the gamut from neurology, anthropology, physics, evolution, and sex and violence. The chapter on sex and religion is interesting for a number of reasons. In 2002, the Boston Globe received a Pulitzer for "breaking" the story on sex abuse and the Church. Perhaps Joseph should have received the Pulitzer because he broke the story in this book, which was published in 2000. Was this book ahead of its time? Maybe. In 2004, the scientific journal Nature reported that Neanderthals might be a separate species of human. Joseph broke the story in 2000. In 2004, the Dept. of Defense released a study in which it was reported that global warming could be so rapid, that sea levels might rise by hundreds of feet and that the northern hemisphere might subjected to an instant ice age. Yep, Joseph presented a similar analysis in this book, and he argues further that 10,000 years ago, the earth was buffeted by a similar instant ice age which destroyed the cities and civilization of the Cro-Magnon. Unfortunately, the speculations presented in this text are both its strength and weakness. I enjoyed his willingness to stretch the envelop, many readers might not be so inclined.