By David R. Hamilton, PhD
Published September 2021
8 Hours 11 Minutes
320 Pages
I’m not a STEM girl. Never have been. I took as little math and science as necessary to get my humanity-leaning degrees and never looked back. So this might have seem like an odd audiobook choice for me.
Normally, I’m not too concerned about the science behind why choosing the right crystal to carry along helps my day, or understanding exactly what’s going on with my brain waves when I meditate. Still, there’s something compelling about understanding the science behind the “woo-woo”, or pseudo-science as skeptics would say. Even if it’s only to prove the skeptics wrong.
David R. Hamilton, PhD, used to be a chemical engineer, researching and testing pharmaceutical drugs. He noticed some clinical volunteers reacting positively to placebos, similarly to the medicated group, and became interested in the placebo effect, despite some naysaying from some of his colleagues. Granted, that’s an overly simplistic version of events and the potential genesis for the book, but definitely tells me that the author is someone who knows his stuff from the scientific side. Plus he has a fantastic Scottish accent, so I was more than happy to listen and learn from him for over eight hours.
The book delves deep into quite a few “woo-woo” topics: meditation, trapped emotions causing illness, the calming benefits of nature, reiki, telepathy, the power behind visualization, and crystals to name some of them. He explains the science behind each topic and goes into detail on several scientific studies that have been done – both conclusive and not. For many of these so-called pseudosciences, the health benefits are also explained. Anyone who partakes of meditation and reiki already understands many of those health benefits, I’d imagine. However, some were new to me. For example, I’d only given passing thought to color science being behind crystal spiritual meanings/benefits and I had no idea that they could help your plants grow through influencing the electromagnetic field. I have a few ailing plants and a new purpose for some small quartz crystals now.
Whether you approach this book from a scientific or a spiritual viewpoint, or you’re somewhere in the middle, it’s truly interesting and packed with a lot of information. And did I mention the author’s accent? Seriously, I could listen to him all day.
4.25 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐+
Until next time, thank you for visiting.
Ann Dudzinski 