Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Poetry

This is the type of book that will infuriate narrow-minded religious extremists who are convinced, even though they have absolutely no proof or even half-way decent evidence, that their one little segment of religiosity is the absolute and final truth. In this courageous book, Wendy Kaminer takes on not only the New Age, which is something of an easy target given its silly excesses, but also organized religion and the simple, childish faith most Americans have in God and the afterlife. Kaminer points out that in modern America, open skepticism of religion is met with disdain and often hostility. (Think of it: What major politician, except for the quite possibly unhinged governor of Minnesota, has in recent times dared to say anything even slightly negative about religion?) Independent thinkers will love this book; the close-minded, WWJD-wearing absolutists who worship manical TV preachers, bash gay people, harass abortion clinics, advocate creation "science" and burn to make our country a theocracy instead of a democracy will hate it. More power to Wendy Kaminer's pen!

Thank you, Wendy Kaminer, thank you! Finally someone has takena needle to America's infantile popular culture. The resultingdeflation is spectacular and hilarious. Problems with your relationships? It's not your fault - it must have been the sexual abuse dispensed by your parents all those years ago. Concerned about your health? It's not because of your high-fat/low exercise lifestyle. No, no, you're suffering the effects of nocturnal medical experiments by little gray men from outer space. Having trouble relating to your kids? It's certainly not your fault that you and your spouse are putting in sixty or seventy hours weekly at the office - it must be those nefarious day-care workers and their Satanic rituals! A disturbing trend rears its head throughout the book - that of many Americans to discard both reason and responsibility for the sake of blaming an imagined "other" for their problems. And since belief effectively trumps knowledge in the 1990s, all one needs is to believe - if your faith is strong enough, what your believe simply must be true. This is a society in which one quarter of adults surveyed do not know that the Earth goes around the sun once a year. The Kansas BOE has removed the requirement to teach about Darwin and evolution from state education standards rather than make some constituents uncomfortable. We have a political system in which presidential candidates fall all over themselves in their rush to explain their personal relationships with Jesus (as opposed to discussing policies and ideas). Ignorance, slackening educational standards and religio-political pandering are not signs of a quantum shift in human potential or a heartening return to traditional values. Our problems, both personal and societal, demand reasoned and rational discourse and personal responbility. They will not be solved by crystal stroking, recovered memory therapy or by calling on imaginary angels.

In a rare feat of courage and conviction, Kaminer manages a witty, perceptive challenge to not only the easy targets of New Age, conspiracy theories, and political correctness, but also the sacred cow of Christianity. She accurately indicts America's guiding religion as subscribing to many of the same tenets and irrational principles as some of the more ridiculous spiritual trends. Kaminer's unpredictability is also appreciated, for many Christians and self-help addicts are likely to label this book the product of a nihilistic liberal bent on destroying the social fabric. Instead, the author skewers all political persuasions, reserving barbed attacks for feminists, campus leftists (and censors), and the therapeutic Administration in Washington, in addition to the usual array of TV pundits, self-styled gurus, and obnoxious moral policemen. Still, the heart of Kaminer's argument, while humorously put, is rather sad in the end. We are a culture devoted not to the liberation of the mind, but its continual enslavement to superstition, untested and unprovable beliefs, and shallow spirituality. As a result, we transform individualism from a vital, inspiring journey through the history of human thought into a depressing, slumping parade of phobias, wounds, afflictions, and childish needs.

This not simply a case of an academic type looking down her nose at the ignorant masses. Wendy Kaminer provides compelling evidence why we should be disturbed by the creeping rise of irrationalism-especially when it affects public policy. Police departments are hiring psychics to investigate murders, and prosecuting sex crimes based on "recovered memories" of alleged victims; public school boards, even in the 1990s, are emboldened by community consensus to force sectarian religion on students.Kaminer asks the obvious questions that everyone else seems afraid to ask. Why should religious ideas be above public criticism? Why is it OK to ridicule Sun Myung Moon or New Age channelers, but not Billy Graham or the Pope? Are their beliefs any less silly? The jabs at irrationalism aren't limited to traditional religion. Kaminer has done her homework, sitting through self-help seminars of New Age gurus and tracing the history of positive-thinking, inner-child and codependency therapy, alien abduction accounts, and guardian angel garbage.The biggest laughs in this book come in quotations from the psychobabble of the 12-step recovery industry, and from the bestsellers of pop spirituality, such as Conversations with God, and The Celestine Prophecy. In Embraced by the Light, readers learn that people's souls may volunteer to be victims of accidents and murders to further some greater part of God's will.Thanks to the average American's scientific illiteracy, technological advances are viewed as "miracles," and New Age claims about "energy transformation" and "vibrations" seem as plausible as valid science. (As Elaine Boosler once observed, even popcorn is a miracle if you don't understand it.) New Age hucksters use terms adapted from vaguely-understood concepts like quantum mechanics to legitimize their speculations about life after death.Following a particularly absurd sample of pseudoscience from Deepak Chopra, regarding a place where "your hand exists before the Big Bang and after the universe's end in the heat death of absolute zero...the pre-quantum region that has no dimensions and all dimensions," Kaminer observes, "enigmatic or utterly incomprehensible statements may assure people of his authority. Gurus are supposed to understand truths about the universe that most of us can only sense as mysteries."Kaminer's wit makes this book a delight. As someone else said, she is a light in the fog. You will alternate between knee-slapping laughs and shaking your head over the numbness of our culture and the lost art of critical thinking.

Wendy Kaminer refreshingly skewers the prententious navel-gazers and self-righteous would-be theocrats who threaten our democracy. Her weapon? Reasoned skepticism. Finally, someone with the guts to stand up for rationality against the ubiquitous tide of nonsensical babblers, fuzzy-thinkers and holy rollers. Even the spineless media is blasted for its uncritical stance in relation to the more outlandish claims and efforts of mainstream religion. As good in its own realm as Carl Sagan's now-classic defense of science "The Demon-Haunted World." My short list of intellectual heroes now includes Wendy Kaminer.