NB This note was posted here until, in
February 2004, I received threats from Rhawn Joseph. I ignored these
until my ISP, Easynet, told me to remove the page. I did so on March
9th 2004. I am reposting this now, April 2007, because I still think
it's helpful for people to know what happened.
Caution required! This book is published by UniversityPress,
California, which is a private publishing house and not part of the
University of California. Many scholars were invited to contribute and
did so in good faith, myself among them. The name of Rhawn Joseph was
not mentioned.
There were numerous problems leading up to
publication and many errors
appeared in my own contributions. For example, my affiliation was
wrongly given as “The University of England”! The book is poorly
produced, printed on low quality paper, and contains numerous spelling
and other mistakes. Most significant is that of the 32 chapters, no
less than 10 are by Rhawn Joseph, and they are on such topics as
“The myth of the big bang,”, “Creation science” and “The
death of Darwinism”.
I was promised a fee for my contributions but
never received it, in spite of repeated requests. I regretted my association with this book and wished
to have no further dealings with University Press, California.
I had also been invited by them to contribute to a later book on
"Mind, Brain and Consciousness". After
seeing Neurotheology I withdrew from participation in this book. I
also informed a few of the other contributors, whom I knew personally,
of my decision and at least one of them also withdrew.
Rhawn Joseph then cancelled the book. He also wrote to me saying
that I was deeply sick and needed help, which he could provide. He threatened legal action against
me, my university and my publishers. Fortunately both the University
and my publishers ignored the threats as well. It was only when my
ISP contacted me, saying that they had been threatened by Joseph,
could not afford to get into legal battles, and asked me to remove
it, that I did so.
In April 2003 Joseph informed me that
my chapters had been removed from any future printings or later
editions of Neurotheology and would be replaced with contributions by
William James - a great alternative!
One of the editors at UniversityPress California,
Sara Jess, posted the following review of the book on Amazon.com
6 of 7 people found
the following review helpful:
A Book Light Years Ahead of Its Time., April 9, 2003
|
Reviewer: Sara
Jess from San Francisco, CA United States |
This is a great and wonderful, sometimes disturbing book. It is
clearly ahead of its time. The chapters range from discussions of the
big bang and the origin of life to the coming of the
"anti-Christ" --an astronomical event which, according to
the author, has to do with "precession" and the slow
progression of the equinox from "house to house" i.e. the
Age of Pieces (the Fish) and the Virgo (Virgin) being replaced by the
Age of Acqurious and Leo (the Beast). I also enjoyed the chapters by
Newberg and Persinger which provide an overview of the neuroanatomy
and neurochemistry of religious experience. The chapters by Alper were
also very interesting. I guess what I liked best about this book is
that it is very scientific yet offers a variety of opinions from a
number of different scientists. There are over 30 chapters. The only
major flaw in this book, were the rather superficial and boring
chapters by "pop" writer Susan Blackmore. Why anyone takes
her serious is beyond me. I highly recommend this book. It has
something for everybody.
