Comets, asteroids, fireballs, stones fall from the ancient skies, and plagues have generated a great impact on people's mind and writings since the beginning of time. Stories of towns and cities being destroyed, myths of the battles of the gods in the sky, and the legends of the great Flood. What if they were describing the real events of destruction in the ancient times?

Mike Baillie is a scientist of dendrochronology and an authority on the tree-ring records which brings to light of new evidences on what happened in the past. In the first part of the book, he discussed what dendrochronology is, and he helps the reader on an understanding of the tree-ring records as well the ice cores. From studying the tree-ring records, the author discovered the disturbing patterns to which seems to tell a story of the events that were considered to be myths or legends.

In this book, the author pointed out that the tree-ring records revealed the global environmental disturbances on specific time periods, such as 2354-2345 BC, 1628-1623 BC, 1159-1141 BC, 208-204 BC, and AD 536-545. These periods also known to coincide with the times of the Biblical flood, the Exodus event, plagues during King David's reign and the Ch'in dynasty, and the death of legendary King Arthur. And, the author goes further to discuss that there were number of cometary impacts, similar to the Tunguska event of 1908, that caused great environmental disasters including earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, and outgassing from ocean floor. These disasters were recorded by the trees.

A 270-page work, Exodus to Arthur would considered to be an outrage and controversial because it almost can be read as a "catastrophe theory." However, this book gave strong evidence to support the fact that there were cometary impacts in the historical times, and they were evidently recorded in tree growth rings and written down through the ages as myth or legends. It also aimed toward the general audience instead of scientists, and it is not written in a technical style.

Personally, I have enjoyed reading Baillie's book as it gave me a strong understanding of how important to know what really happened in our past, and how it would affect our future. Along with this book, I would recommend other works to support the fact of cometary impacts, including Mike Baillie's recent work: "New Light on the Black Death," Victor Clube's "Cosmic Serpent" and "Cosmic Winter," and Firestone's "The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes."

This book also support the fact that trees really do remembered and have a great deal of stories to tell.

Last night, I have watched one of my favorite movies, "The Matrix" as I have seen it many times. I would highly recommend this movie, and I am not talking about just the full trilogy. I am talking about the very first one, this one. There is alot of symbolism in this movie and certainly several aspects that would drive one mad and utter turns to disbelief if it were to be true. What if our reality is the Matrix? Don't start looking for the holes on your arms...yet.

Also, there was alot of dailogues between Neo and Morpheus that is memorable, including this one:

"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it. Were you listening to me, Neo? Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?"

The woman in the red dress is what we would consider to be temptation. There are those who tasted temptation, lived for it, and will die for it...even though it is a lie. Interesting, eh?

Go out and see this movie. It is surely a must see and there's a good deal to learn from it. But, if you're not into symbolism of the movie, the actions and fights were "awesome," as my inner child would say.

I have managed to read this book (published in 2008) because I was curious about its content. But, then after reading it, I just had to ask myself why this book even bothers being published at all. Overall from reading this book, there was rather a sense of disdainful and opinionated tone from the author. I cannot help but agree with some of the reviewers here that this book is just utter nonsense.

Throughout this book, there is rarely any citation at all and very few quotations (mostly from the "Book of Enoch" and the Bible). The book's "notes/bibliography" section is only five pages (p. 409-413), and they are in VERY small font. So, with a use of my magnifying glass, I have counted a roughly between 300 and 350 sources. First part of this section was the author's "opinionated" notes about the sources and the rest is the list of books (using just the title of the book and author's name; no other citations of the same). Some of the books listed were all the works of Rudolf Steiner, Robert Bauval, Graham Hancock, and Robert Temple. And, only one mention of Ouspensky's "In Search of the Miraculous" and Gurdjieff's "All and Everything" series.

Also, as I was going through the book, there were a few minor mentions of alchemist Fulcanelli and esoteric Gurdjieff here and there. Then, my eyes caught on this one and only paragraph about Gurdjieff himself:

"Anyone with supernatural power is bound to suffer temptation. Perhaps the most charismatic and disconcerting initiate of the twentieth century was G.I. Gurdjieff. He deliberately presented his ideas in an absurd way. He wrote of an organ at the base of the spine that could enable everyone to see everything upside down and inside out, calling it the 'Kunderbuffer.' In this way he deliberately gave the power of the kundalini serpent, the reserve of unredeemed energy that lies coiled at the base of the spine, and which is central to Tantric practice, a laughable name. Similarly he wrote of gods in giant spaceships and that the surface of the sun is cool. Anyone who dismissed it showed himself unworthy. Anyone who persisted and was able to tune in found that Gurdjieff's spiritual disciplines worked.

Since his death it has emerged that he sometimes used his undoubted powers of mind control to prey on vulnerable young women." (p. 358)

The author's tone from above quote almost filled the entire book. And, he did not cite his source or where he gets the idea about Gurdjieff using his so-called "powers" to prey on young women. This is actually first time that I have read something about this regarding Gurdjieff himself. I have studied Gurdjieff's works and read biographies of him, and no where did it mentioned of Gurdjieff preying on "vulnerable young women." What source did the author inferred on this?

He claimed to have studied the esoteric subjects, but this book is full of contradictions and of his own interpretations and beliefs. If you are a student of esoteric traditions, this book brought up very familiar topics (most of them are mixed truth with lies). However, there is nothing "secret" that came from this book.

What was really suspicious about this book is the name of the author. This book has the name of "Mark Booth" for US, but "Jonathan Black" for UK. Pseudonym or not, it raised a red flag, one of so many.

Besides his clearly lack of complete research, author's writing style and organization lacks attention and clarity in such a way that I had trouble staying awake while reading it. Since this book is clearly nonsense, I cannot help but wonder if this book has an agenda: to distract the readers from reading Knight-Jadczyk's "The Secret History of the World," which was published in 2005.

In short, this book is a distraction.

With roughly 340 pages and fourteen chapters (including Introduction and Afterword), "The Great Mortality" is an informative and an interesting read on the historical study of The Black Death, an infamous disaster of the fourteenth century. In this work, John Kelly brought about the graphic details and accounts about the plague in vary of cities during the period of 1347 to 1351. The author did a great deal of research into secondary sources to bring together this work on the impact of the Black Death.

On the other hand, the author's writing style and organization of the book is a bit off. While it is an informative read, I found it a bit difficult to follow what the author is saying as most of it a bit repeating. It does not exactly flow, in my opinion, and I had to put it down a few times.

Personally, I think it is a good informative book for the lay person to understand the impact of the worst plague of medieval era, with millions dead within a few years. As for those of us who are knowledgeable on the subject, I found it to be a bit repetitive and it needed more sources, especially primary documents.

"The Quest for Comets" is a personal journey of the author, David H. Levy, in the search of comets and an understanding of the cosmic impacts. He brought forth the experiences and the wonders of the comet hunts as well of how he met Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker. This book is an account of the author's life from his early interests in comets up to his co-discovery of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 that eventually collided with Jupiter on July 16, 1994. With his own personal journey, he mixed in with the history of previous astronomers and historical sightings of comets as well comet impacts.

With roughly 265 pages and twenty chapters (including epilogue and afterword sections), this book is an intriguing narrative account and easy to read. Personally, I like the author's writing style and his approach to an understanding of comets.

This is certainly the book to be added to a study of comets.

John and Mary Gribbin has written an interesting work entitled "Fire On Earth," where the authors discussed the cosmic hazards and also focuses on the extinctions, Tunguska event, as well the works of Clube and Napier on "Cosmic Winters" and the work of Muller on "Nemesis" theory. This book contains roughly 260 pages and ten chapters.

From this book, I was certainly interested in the authors' discussion of the works of Clube and Napier in the chapter entitled "Cosmic Winters" and Muller's work briefly in the chapter entitled "Cycles of Doom." They also bring in a discussion of Oort clouds where at one point they stated that "a disturbance of the Opik-Oort cloud leads...to an increased chance of cometary collisions with the inner planets, probably producing repeated impacts on Earth" (p. 169), which is important to know. In the end, the authors attempted the proposal of a SpaceWatch project to provide a protection against cosmic impacts and urged the scientific community to take cosmic threat seriously.

Overall, this book is not filled with technicality and too scientific for such layperson. It is in fact subjective written and reads almost like a popular science book. Granted, some errors were discovered, but the authors have compiled and brought the data from the most important scientific works, including Clube's "The Cosmic Serpent" and "The Cosmic Winter" as well "Catastrophes and Evolution" to which I also recommend. In my opinion, it's a good book on the subject.

This book is one of the greatest classic and most influential works that I have ever read. Not only that, it is also the most prophetic novel as it seemed to reveal the culture to which we now live: a new generation being absorbed to a greatest extent in the worlds of cyberspace and mass media where we might as well be under the control of the extraterrestrial intelligence. This is certainly a book that cannot be put down, as I would surly recommend it.

I won't bring here a spoiler, but to say that this book will certainly leave you as uncertain as well wanting to know more and also not knowing what outcome will be. It is very easy to read and relatively a short book. I was quite amazed at the fact that this book was written over a half a century ago because I felt this book is very relevant today as it was then. It is both terrifying and most certainly an eye-opening read.

Recently, the author Arthur Clarke has passed away and he will greatly be missed. His works and legacy has the greatest impact on the modern culture. His classic works, especially "Childhood's End" and "2001: A Space Odyssey," are highly memorable.

First published in 1950, Immanuel Velikovsky wrote the most controversial, eye-opening, and well-written work entitled "Worlds in Collision," which brought forth a notion of a large comet having passed near Earth, causing a number of catastrophes that were depicted in the Earth mythologies, and this large comet is now known to be Venus. Then, the author discussed further about the planet Mars, which also made a near pass to Earth in the later period, causing more catastrophes. These events were occurred before the planetary system was orderly established as we now know it.

Besides the prologue and epilogue, this book consisted of two parts ("Venus" and "Mars"). The first part focuses on mythologies and legends surrounding the comet Venus and it near passes to Earth, causing such disasters and catastrophes as experienced by the ancient human beings. He used numerous accounts from any sacred writings, such as Egyptian, Hebrews, and many others. He also pointed out the "planet" Venus was documented to be absent from the early planetary system, which is interesting in itself. The second part of this book discussed the possible collision between Venus and Mars as depicted in mythologies to which the orbit of Mars was changed, and quite possibly made a near passes to Earth, causing further catastrophes and shifted Earth's orbit from 360 days a year to 365 days a year, after Venus made her first appearance in the solar system.

As the basic of this book, the author stated that the cataclysms of Earth in the historical times were caused by the close passes between Earth and Venus and between Earth and Mars. While his theory is considered controversial and outrageous, it is well worth a read since he based his researches on mythologies as well on geological records.

As for his research into the mythologies, he implied that the legends and stories do have some degree of accuracy and these legends tend to be overlooked by the modern scientists. He stated that:
"The answer to the problem of the similarity in the motifs in the folklore of various peoples is, in my view, as follows: A great many ideas reflect real historic content. There is a legend, found all over the world, that a deluge swept over the earth and covered hills and even mountains. We have a poor opinion of the mental abilities of our ancestors if we think that merely an extraordinary overflow of the Euphrates so impressed the nomads of the desert that they thought the entire world was flooded, and that the legend so born wandered from people to people. At the same time, geological problems of the origin and distribution of till, or diluvial deposit, are awaiting explanation.
(...)
Traditions about upheavals and catastrophes, found among all people, are generally discredited because of the shortsighted belief that no forces could have shaped the world in the past that are not at work also at the present time, a belief that is the very foundation of modern geology and of the theory of evolution...Scientific principles do warrant maintaining that a force which does not act now, could not have acted previously."
(p. 304 - 5)

The last line from above quote shows that there is an increase of ignorance in the scientific community because this book receives a little attention and a great deal of mockery, and this also applies to the current situation about comets. Scientists nowadays are focusing so much on the asteroids due to their apparent seen appearances and these comes at the time that are less frequent, and they are ignoring the seriousness of the comets due to their unstable orbit and unseen appearances.

In this book, Velikovsky did a good work on showing how the cosmic impacts or collisions can have such disastrous consequences for Earth and they were experienced by the prehistoric people as portrayed in many legends, myths, and stories across the globe. This was further discussed and verified with more scientific evidence in other works, such as Victor Clube's "Cosmic Winter," which I would strongly recommend.

Velikovsky's "World in Collision" revealed to be quite interesting and an eye opening read. It showed a great attention to the historical events as well a view of the bigger picture to which Earth takes part of. There is a lot of detail in this book gives one a food for thought. I found it to be one of the most important works in existence. While it contains some truth and a few theological/scientific errors, this book is surly a must read.

It is not just the historic events that may or may not interest the readers, but this book, along with other works on the similar subject, would give one a working knowledge about the cosmic events because something wicked this way may come...

"And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved,
and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll:
and all their host shall fall down...
For my sword shall be bathed in heaven...
And the streams...shall be turned into pitch,
and the dust into brimstone,
and the land shall become burning pitch.
It shall not be quenched night nor day;
the smoke shall go up for ever."
(as quoted in "World In Collision," p. 220)

"The Wave" series are the unique and extraordinary journey of Laura Knight-Jadczyk as well bringing forth the answers to the burning questions that one may have. When one reads from these series, one's perception of the reality will greatly be changed and might even begin to question one's own belief system. In this volume as it is the sixth, one will experience the dangers of the unseen Control System and the author's further experiences with her Petty Tyrants. With roughly 330 pages and nine chapters with an additional of two appendixes, this book is a further narrative from the fifth volume of "The Wave: Petty Tyrants." It also included the events and discussions surrounding the infamous "Philadelphia Experiments" as well the mysterious deaths of Morris K. Jessup and Stefan Marinov.

I personally found this book to be quite a fascinating and an insightful read as I came to an understanding about the true nature of our reality. Nothing is as what they appear to be. The author also brought forth the moral understanding about ourselves and our interactions with other individuals, including our own Petty Tyrants.

"The Wave: Book Six – Facing the Unknown" is most certainly an eye-opening experience and most certainly a book that just cannot be put down. With a sincere opinion, I would recommend this book.

"Snakes in Suits" is one of the most essential works on psychopathy, as well gives the reader the working knowledge of how psychopaths operate in the job industry, especially in the corporate workplace. Not only will this book to help the reader to understand how corporate psychopaths operate, but it will give a great deal of insights and helpful tips on how to deal with them and how to protect oneself from them.

I give high praises to Hare for this work on the subject. This book is well written and easy to read as well an eye opening experience. I surly would recommend this book.

Psychopaths are ruthless, emotionless, and consciousness individuals to which they only serve themselves at the expense of others. All words coming out of their mouths would be lies, and if you are appeared as "important" or special to them, it is a safe bet that they are using you.

With this book as a tool and a guide, the readers would be able to identify each pathological individual and understand them more clearly as well to protect oneself from them. I would recommend the readers to study other works that discussed with the certain aspects of the study on the psychopaths, including "Without Conscience" (by Robert Hare), "The Mask of Sanity" (by Hervey Checkley), "The Sociopath Next Door" (by Martha Stout), "In Sheep's Clothing" (by George Simon), and Andrzej Lobaczwski's "Political Ponerology." With these works, one will have a good deal of working knowledge of the phenomenon of psychopaths in our world, in our governments, in our workplace, in our neighborhood, and even in our homes.