January 17, 2008 -- Thursday afternoon

Reading Energy Medicine, The Scientific Basis, by James L. Oschman, and highlighting things he wants to remember, as well as notes to reference books that he will read next. The problem is, he said, that sometimes, in a good book, when you're done most of the book is highlighted.

He is interested in how consciousness reacts to physical matter. This is something that has been ignored in modern physics journals, but, he said, it's good science and it relates to his practice of Qigong (also spelled Chi Gung), a branch of Chinese medicine involving postures (like in martial arts), and breathing. There are also metaphysical aspects of Qigong, which, he said, the Chinese government prefers to ignore.

The book that got him into Qigong was Opening the Energy Gates of the Body: Gain Lilfelong Vitality, by Bruce Kumar Frantzis. He studied with teachers who had studied under Frantzis.

Though he reads a lot of text books and how to, he also loves the Potter books. He reads them over and over, from the beginning of the series, though, now that the last one has come out, he doesn't know if he'll continue with that.

He loves James Clavell, too.

His favorite book of all time--The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson. It presupposes that the plague killed off the entire European population and the world was inherited by Native Americans, India, China and Islam. It's history reinvented and it's brilliant.