Mark Booth (1) (1955–)

There is a lot of information in this book. The first half in particular does a great job of explaining the esoteric history of the world as it progressed from mineral, vegetable and animals states and also idealism transitioning into materialism. The second half becomes more difficult to follow as it progressed through history. There are so many names of artists, philosophers, leaders, scientist that were involved in esoteric thought, secret societies and the movements of the world that is is difficult to keep things straight at times. Although it is all great information, it makes for something that really needs to be studied and dissected to fully understand, it is not information you can just casually read and expect to understand or recall fully… (mais)

Very intriguing. I really enjoyed the chronological layout and reading about the various history and myths spanning multiple cultures and how they relate. The way it is laid out does help see how modern views of the spiritual world have changed drastically over the years, but also let's the reader see that the world would not be what it is if it were not for older beliefs of the spiritual realm. My only complaint is sometimes I found the individual stories or myths to be lacking occasionally and would have liked a little more background or interpretation on some of the sections… (mais)

Insane book must have been written during a series of drug-induced hallucinations, or perhaps the author is just insane from the start. Presenting disproven theories as fact and combining every religion into a single narrative of human consciousness is a bit of an achievement, I guess. Sort of a "Theory of Everything" for esoteric beliefs. But while you can't read this book as a source of actual fact, it does meander around and introduce a number of interesting tidbits, such as the "Two Jesus" story. In fact, as a source of what really strange deluded people have believed for the last two millennia, this book is somewhat entertaining. I don't find it to be as badly written as some reviewers, but its assertion after assertion of pure nonsense does get a bit old after a while. Only by misinterpreting one thing after another does the author get his "coherent" history. I certainly don't know all of the subject matter he draws upon, but anyone who knows anything about how the bible was written and how the perception of Jesus's divinity changed over the centuries immediately sees that Black's interpretation of things is ridiculous. Can he actually believe this, or is it just a (rather hard, I would say) way to make money? Two stars for ambition and shamelessness, at least.… (mais)