Tom Shroder

. Shroder skims over old stories about Ken Kesey, Owsley Stanley and Timothy Leary that have plagued authentic researchers for years. Instead, the author tells his complex story via three men: Rick Doblin, the founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies; Michael Mithoefer, a former emergency room doctor whose interest in exploring his own mind led him to become a trauma psychologist; and Nick Blackston, a U.S. Marine whose war experiences are characteristic of the waves of soldiers returning from war with catastrophic PTSD.” I’m not interested in hearing about three random guys, one is a soldier with PSD. I wanted a self-help book as the title explained, which would tell somebody how to heal their mind instead of just three incidence of three random guys. Plus from the preview it was really boring.… (more)

Fascinating book on the healing power of psychedelics. This book describes the discovery of LSD and carries the reader through more recent time to MDMA. I enjoyed the structure of this book as it weaves between the stories of three people; a Marine with PTSD who participated in a clinical trial, a former ER doctor who shifted his career to become a psychiatrist and is leading psychedelic research, and the director of MAPS who is fighting the government’s prohibition of psychedelics. Their stories are fascinating and enlightening. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the treatment of people with mental health disorders. Other substances, Ayahuasca and Psilocybin, are also mentioned in this book. Unfortunately, despite the proven effectiveness of these medicines book through clinical trials, these options remain illegal. (Except, I believe that Psilocybin is currently undergoing clinical trials.)… (more)

A riveting firsthand account of one man's mission to investigate and document some of the most astonishing untold phenomena of our time
All across the globe, small children spontaneously speak of previous lives, beg to be taken "home," pine for mothers and husbands and mistresses from another life, and know things that there seems to be no normal way for them to know. From the moment these children can talk, they speak of people and events from the past -- not vague stories of centuries ago, but details of specific, identifiable individuals who may have died just months, weeks, or even hours before the birth of the child in question.
For thirty-seven years, Dr. Ian Stevenson has traveled the world from Lebanon to suburban Virginia investigating and documenting more than two thousand of these past life memory cases. Now, his essentially unknown work is being brought to the mainstream by Tom Shroder, the first journalist to have the privilege of accompanying Dr. Stevenson in his fieldwork. Shroder follows Stevenson into the lives of children and families touched by this phenomenon, changing from skeptic to believer as he comes face-to-face with concrete evidence he cannot discount in this spellbinding and true story.… (more)

An interesting, yet exasperating book. Journalist Tom Shroder tags along on a few research trips of Dr. Ian Stevenson as he studies accounts of children remembering past lives. I've seen Stevenson's name for years, and bought this paperback years ago, I think in 2000. Stevenson has since passed, in 2007. Along the way, Shroder recounts a bit of Stevenson's life and works, but the focus is on some of the interviews during his research trip in Lebanon (among the Druse, who believe in reincarnation) and in India (among the Hindus, who believe in reincarnation).

Now, the whole point of the book, is retelling stories of children who remember past lives. (The subtitle of the book is "The Scientific Evidence for Past Lives," though the tagline on the paperback is "Compelling Evidence From Children Who Remember Past Lives.") If you've ever read those internet posts about children who tell their parents odd things, now imagine you locate the family. Unlike "past-life regressions" or your random weirdo who claims to be Napoleon or Cleopatra, or what have you, these cases seem to be folks coming back from the prior generation, and sometimes from the same family.

The problem with this book is there are just so many problems with these cases. Believers in reincarnation who want to prove it. Families who want some closure or continuation. Pressure, suggestions, faulty memories, selective remembering, etc. You can find holes and problems in every case, and Shroder tells you the problems. But, by the end of the book he seems to be a firm believer. Or firmish. For instance, on pp. 168-169, Shroder offers an entirely plausible skeptical account of how one of the cases may be all bunkum and no reincarnation. It actually makes sense. "Is that what you really think?" he is asked. "No," he says. Well, it made more sense to me.… (more)