Elder Statesman Doctor

I really liked this book to start with, it has a lot of good fairly accurate info about life after death in it (based on what I know from reading dozens of books about life between lives and near death experiences), but is has a fatal flaw.

The flaw is, it was written by someone who has not yet cleared his mind from the stupid underlying paradigm given out by the various christian churches, who basically want you to fear a Lucifer or devil creature so you will run from him into their arms (and donate to their churches). Unfortunately the author has not risen quite high enough in his understanding to see that if there were a Lucifer, he would be doing God's Will, as there is nothing else he can do. Everything created is a part of God, so if there is a satan, he would also exist to do what God wants him to do, which may be to tempt us and to give us something to struggle against to strengthen ourselves.

But God is all love, so there cannot be any truly 'evil' forces at work, all hardships come to us to teach us lessons, there are no real and absolute dark forces or evil beings, only less evolved souls who have not yet learned and developed compassion for others. Other than this, he tells a good story and makes multiple important and interesting points.

This book should bear a label (and I fault Audible for the lack of it) warning: only for christians who literally believe many of the fables found in the Bible!
This book would be a total turn off for anyone who is: a) Jewish, b) Muslim, c) Buddhist, d) Zoroastrian,
e) atheist, f) Hindu, g) Jain, h) Universalist, i) non-Dualist, etc. It repeatedly talks about Jesus as the only way to God, gives inaccurate and incorrect info about Him as if He was ever actually separate from God, talks as a man does who has "studied" the bible all his life but never actually investigated it.

In other words, he says things that are outrageously incorrect. For example, he speaks of a quote from the book of Matthew as if Matthew himself said it. Apparently he has never actually studied ABOUT the Bible, or he would know it was written 70 to 100 years after Jesus's death, and he would know that Matthew was written up by an unknown author, who most likely never even met Jesus in the flesh, and wrote it based on the then still existant stories of Jesus, some of which were likely already inaccurate due to the way people telling each other stories they heard from someone else have a tendency to unconsciously alter them in the telling.

Aside from that, it pushes the idea that everything depends on believing in Jesus, which is basically a repulsive concept to people who also or alternatively believe in Buddha, Mohammed, Zoroaster, Meher Baba, Baha' u' llah, or any of multiple other high spiritual Masters who may have been fully in Union with or One with God.

Audible.com should issue a warning on all books like this that preach only to the christian community. I have probably wasted money on a dozen books that say nothing about being for christians only and give no indication that they are other than scientific or therapeutic books and do not advertise they are methods of spreading a particular religions philosophy.

Only somewhat. There were a lot of good parts but there was also some significant weakness in some of the structure. Specifically there were multiple times when things went wrong for the 'good guys' in unrealistic ways. For example, a doctor going in to see a dangerous criminal patient with no guards to back him up, or when people are taken hostage by someone, but apparently the entire police authority does not have any automatic processes that would notice or detect this is happening in a much more technologically advanced society than ours. Or the lack of ability in a police operating theater for a surgeon to just speak up and immediately request security to rush to where he is for protection or to apprehend the criminal!

Multiple moments of anxiety and suspense.

Excellent voice control, captures differences in voice for different characters well.

not really

Audible screwed up the placement of this as part of a series. They have it listed as #5 in the series. It SHOULD BE # 1, or listed as a prequel, as all the action in this occurs Before the action in Volumes 1 through 4 !

The truly accurate character depictions and the feel of reality of the emotions conveyed. This is a Fabulous book that not only fascinates and uplifts you, it makes you want to be a better human being yourself. It just doesn't get any better than this!!

Bella Lind, the 'hero' of the book. She is an accurate depiction of what a human being can truly be, both complicated and angry at times, yet able to rise above her own interests and selfish concerns to help her fellow men (and women).

Spot on! Excellent intonation, excellent simulation of a woman's voice and a Russian accent. You could really feel the differences between the characters by the way he altered his voice for the different people portrayed.

There were several moments in the book that moved me, and despite being a man, it actually brought me to tears at the end, and nearly so at several junctures prior to the end.

If you've ever liked Science Fiction, read this! I am blown away. This is BETTER Than Arthur C. Clarke. Part way into it I thought it might be similar to Rendezvous with Rama, but as it got towards the end, it far surpassed even the entire Rama trilogy, and all in one book. This is Amazing! Get it ! ! ! 10 stars! One of the best books I've ever read! (And I've read thousands.)

Yes, in fact I've listened to it a couple of times and physically read it 4 times! It is the absolute best summary of what is currently known in nutritional science today. The back of the book has over 1,000 scientific references so you can double check what the author says and see that it is indeed based on science, not just his opinion. I have personally gone back to the original research articles in several instances and especially in those areas which sounded the most different from previous info I had heard or read, and checked out the reliability of his statements. He proved to be true in every instance! In fact, in a couple of cases his explanation of what the study found was better than the abstract of the original article itself. This author has true intellectual and scientific integrity.

The China Study, as it's written by a Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry and is very solidly scientifically based, and comes to basically the same conclusions about what foods are best for humans to eat, and what should be avoided, and why.

He has a very friendly congenial sounding voice and is easy to relate to.

When I first read this book (after checking out a few sources to be sure of its accuracy), I felt like jumping for joy! I had found the ultimate prize among nutritional books. Prior to reading this I was probably one of the leading authorities on foods, nutritional supplements, vitamins, minerals and herbs and why they were good for you. After reading this my knowledge base was expanded Considerably, far more than I would have thought possible. This is the cat's meow of books on what to eat and why it's good for you, with clear explanations, and examples of people's health improving (not just losing weight) from many annoying chronic health conditions.

If you care about your health, and especially if you have any chronic health conditions (CAD, diabetes, arthritis, RA, sarcoidosis, etc.) read this book, at a minimum it will (if you follow the dietary and lifestyle changes it advocates) make you feel much better, and be able to function at a higher level!

I love and believe in God, however, I am intelligent enough to know the bible is full of inaccuracies and contradictory statements (as well as some uplifting and wonderful ones also). Because of this I look for more universal truths and more open mindedness towards other religions and beliefs. To me this was too intimately tied to the bible and just not open minded enough.

Perhaps the worst part was her frequent references to the "Devil," and how to overcome him! As if there really is such a fictitious character. The devil referred to in the bible is a 'straw man,' or a metaphor for the bad things people do. There is no Actual being that is the devil. A long and thoughtful meditation on this even without reference to the many other revealed works and sayings of God (as can be found in most other religions' sacred books) will reveal this to you, as, if God is everything, then the 'devil' must also be a part of God. Therefore the devil is an aspect of God that may be tempting you, in order to help you build strength and charaacter. This book is not deeply spiritual and does not reflect that, but seems to fall into the relatively elementary trap of thinking the devil is a real being!

Read the Bhagavad Gita and see what Krishna said, read about Buddha's life and his sayings, and you will realize that the one and the same God repeatedly manifests on Earth in various forms and with slightly different messages, depending on people's development at the time, but He always gives the same loving message.

So, the bottom line is, if you are a standard American christian, you will probably like this book, but for intellectuals, Buddhists, Hindu's, Muslims, Bahai's, and those with more knowledge of the true depths of spiritual knowledge (such as mystics and sufi's) this book may prove quite frustrating or impossible to listen to after too many references to imaginary characters like the 'devil!'

Dr. Dyer recommended this book. Perhaps if I read it in a physical form I'd appreciate it. It seems like there may be some interesting material in it, however, it is virtually impossible to get to. It starts out with a woman with an excellent narration voice reading it, then for what can only be assumed to be purely ego reasons, the author takes over, completely ruining it!!
His voice and inflection are Perfect for using to teach people in a Speech or drama class Exactly How NOT to speak or narrate. He has a relatively deep sleep invoking voice made Much worse by the absolutely Perfect Monotone that is guaranteed to lose your attention.
He also says at the beginning that he will simplify things verbally so everyone can understand his points. Then he goes out of his way to blow his own vocabulary horn to prove how many big words he knows. I am a physician with a very large vocabulary, and I understood every word he used, but he certainly did not try to do anything other than sound pedantic (and use words like that!) and every few sentences he would "name drop" another big word to prove how important his discoveries were.
He really needs to have this book re-recorded with the woman's voice that started it, and to re-write it so that it is simplified, not in concept, but into using 'normal' vocabulary, rather than trying to show off how much like a professor he can sound.
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I'm sorry, but I found this to be virtually worthless due to his totally boring voice making me fade out repeatedly every few minutes. It might serve as a great cure for insomnia for those needing that! Best wishes. Wish I could have gotten to the gems without sleeping through them!

At this point of writing I'm about 3/4's through the book, and it has NOTHING to do with the title! The first 50 minutes or more are an interview with a guy who claims to be psychic, but he doesn't talk AT ALL about how to become one. He talks about his own views of the universe which I'll say sound about 80% correct from my own extensive readings and experiences, but nothing about "how to " at all. Following that is a completely different interview about a woman who does paintings of angles etc., again, nothing about how to develop these abilities, only their own stories. Very Disappointing. I wanted a manual on how to actually become or get to be a psychic.

I am deeply disappointed that someone else gave this a two star rating. I myself, when I first started listening, and realized this was a theatrical performance with the performer's own story interwoven in, was at first disappointed. I thought, what the hell is this? I want to hear an accurate biography, not some dummy's performance of some part of Tesla's life. However, as I listened, I discovered that Mike Daisey performance was MAGNIFICENT ! He is enthralling, and fascinating. His stories about his own life (in part) as well as about Nikola Tesla were all extremely well written and performed. I wish I had his story telling ability, as he can keep an audience eagerly waiting to hear what he has to say next. Now, rather than giving him a 1 or 2 star rating as I was considering in the first few minutes when I realized this is not a book, I am wishing I could give more than 5 stars to make up for the other guy (or gal) who may have had my reaction, and instead of listening on, may have quit before he realized how good this was. Definitely buy it, and listen. I'm now doing searches for more of his material, it was great!

This man surprises by occasionally referring to his losses in a debate, but mostly refers to the importance of being overly educated and pompous like he is. And his pomposity is most overbearing when he mispronounces American words in his pseudo British accent. For example, he mispronounces "cache" as "cash - a", which is correctly pronounced "cash", ignoring the "e" at the end of the word. If he didn't do similar mispronunciations some 50 or 100 times with multiple words, I wouldn't mention this, but I found it most irritating that he couldn't look these up before recording this. Next the book disappoints by spending all it's time on talking about how to win in a debate, not about public speaking, which is what I thought at least a reasonable amount of time would be devoted to. Next, the book is extremely outdated, with all his arguments coming from the 1980's. This desperately needs to be updated, being some 20 years behind the times. His references are so old they don't include the Fall of the Soviet Empire, much less 9/11 etc. Finally, the only reason I didn't give one star is because there is some rudimentary information about how to research a debate that may be of interest to someone on the Harvard Debate Team.