It takes a while, but eventually Crichton makes clear the point of this book and that is that he feels we should not outright dismiss the paranormal until we’ve actually investigated it for ourselves, as he has. I have to admit, as a firm advocate of the scientific method that he was able to bend my ear a bit. Hard science talks of other dimensions. Could some people have an ability to access some parts of them? For me it still requires a scientific method to prove it outright. Crichton may have experienced some real phenomena, but as he allows himself, maybe he’s just been in sou Cal too long. Mass hysteria seems more likely to me to be at the root of some of his experiences more than anything else. ( )

Good. Enjoyed the parts on travel. Misleading-turned out mostly to be about metaphysical phenomenon.

An appropriate read as I start week #2 of being away from home traveling, sitting in an airport I've never been to before.

I've enjoyed all of Micheal Crichton's fiction - under his name or one of his pseudonyms. I enjoyed learning about his early life and that he wrote books to pay for med school. I really did enjoy reading about his travels and how the travels changed him. When he started getting into the paranormal and spiritual side of his inner travels, I lost a bit of enthusiasm about this book. ( )

Usually I avoid the most popular books, but because of a high recommendation I decided to read up on Michael Crichton, the author of books like Jurassic Park and Congo.

The book begins with Michael, the medical student, figuring out how to use a chainsaw to cut the head of a cadaver in half. First I thought that he was a de Vinci doing some research for a book. However, he did attend medical school supported by his “side-job” of writing books. In the end he just didn’t fit the philosophy and society of being a doctor and began traveling.

He traveled the world when he realized that his knowledge was largely centered only in Western – American and European history. What about Africa? Asia? South America? Australia? He climbed mountain ranges, scuba dived through sharks, and lived with mountain gorillas. However, his real travels were in perceptions written with a candid and self-effacing prose. I especially love the chapter entitled “They”.

The seeds were planted in the doubts of his medical school training. How much of disease is because of mental attitude – not how is the mental attitude an effect of a disease? He would try psychics, healers, spend days talking to a cactus, and then goes traveling to an astral plane.

This is a wonderful book. Take a journey with him and you will go him places you never dreamed of. ( )

Some great early material about his medical studies and some of his travels, but goes completely off the rails when he gets into spoon bending, auras and exorcism. ( )