The Behaviour of Communicating. An Ethological Approach by W. John Smith (review)

74 Books seriesof chapters he then examines the different techniques used in studying how individuals and groups arrive at their own understanding of place. For example, he provides mental maps of varying degrees of complexity, statistical analyses of verbal descriptions of locations and comparisons of intuitive distance estimating. These chapters are principally a summary of the research methods used, with comments, followedby conclusions that at times are startlingly obvious. ‘Thereiscertainly a growing awareness amongst many environmental decision-makers that children have different requirements from adults.’ He concludes with a confusing chapter of suggestions,confusing , that is to me, entitled Creating a Senseof Place. Here Canter proposes a method to aid designers in their use of images. For such an important aspect of the work ofdesigners. what isneeded by them isnot a technical method but imagination to understand a particular environment, sensitivity to appreciate its historic pattern and humility in expressing their own aesthetic values. Supersensonics:TheSpiritual Physicsof All Vibrationsfrom Zero to Infinity. Christopher Hills. Univ. of the Trees, Boulder Creek, Calif., n.d. 607 pp., illus. Paper, $15.00 Reviewed by Richard I. Land* This large copiously illustrated and pleasantly reading book is about divining. The author is convinced that events cannot happen separately from consciousness and must always happen within consciousness (p. 41). He therefore presents the physical world subjectively,and discussesissuesin terms of radiation that results from vibrations that are associated with matter. The physicsdiscussed and the author’s understanding of the work of Einstein is only partly correct, making most of his discussions misleading. His descriptions of divining equipment are detailed but unscientific. Materials are only designated as ’wood‘. ‘dielectric’.’magnet‘,but, for example, the kind of wood and if it is dry or not is ignored: conductivity and measurements of radiation response is lacking and strength of magnets is not given, furthermore, the size of objects used can only be inferred from the pictures provided. The text, in three parts, blends together without a clear introduction or conclusions. The first part. Beyond Phenomena: The Science of Radiational Pardphysics, deals with The Perception on Unseen Worlds, Energy, Einstein and Consciousness, use of pendulums, fields, fluxes, apparatus of ‘supersensonics’ (including the Hills End-Fire Wave-Guide Stimulator and Radiator-HEFIGAR) and Consciousness and Light Energy-The New God-Cosmic Dust. This is followed by chapters on Light and on the Philosophy of Science and Supersensonic Detectors, the former with a section on color, a mixture of fact and fancy, with some of the facts rather wellpresented , considering thecontext. Although selectedstatements from a text can be misleading, let me offer a few wild assertions from the first chapters. ‘This book is ultimately about mechanisms of perception (bringing messagesfrom the environment ), although we will be researching specific vibrations and patterns of energy as they appear to our sensationsto come from objects and matter.’ ‘This volume is a first step because with it you hold the key to the mystery of your own psychic processes and, more important, those processesby which the evolutionary intelligencesare even now controlling your destiny as a human beingorasa CosmicBeing.’ ‘Ifwe think weknow it allor try to fit nature into some preconceived set-up in our consciousness, we will be automatically guaranteed failure in all that this volume sets out to do. The attitude of the student must be open-minded, which means forgetting entirely what you know already and learning something new.’ I havelong been fascinated by dowsing and diviner’s rods. For many years I have experimented with a simple hand held pendulum. While Hills mentions the recent work of Louis Turenne (1920’s), he has neglected an earlier Frenchman of considerable distinction in chemistry, color theory and divination , M.E. Chevreul (1786-1889), who ‘was a determined enemyofcharlatanism ineveryform, and acompletescepticasto the “scientific” psychical research or spiritualism which had *10 Trapelo Rd., Belmont, MA 02178, U.S.A. begun in this time’. [cf. BrcydopcrediuBri/u/rnicu, I 1 th edition (1910),vo1.6,p. 115,withreference toDela baguettedivinatoire, et des tables tournantes (1864)by Chevreul].It is a generallyheld belief that divining comes under motor automatism-‘a nonreflex movement of a voluntary muscle, executed in the waking state. but not controlled by ordinary waking...