Anatomy of an Obsession : The Best Worst Book I ever read

I recently went on a buying spring. I do this from time to time since it helps keep my materialistic urges in check. Rather than impulse buying a sports car, instead, I buy about a $100 worth of crap off of Amazon.com and it seems to satisfy the same urge.

A raft of new books just floated into my collection last week and I am working my way through the pile. As I mentioned before on this blog I am currently reading 'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins. I am about a third of the way through the book and, other than agreeing with pretty much everything Dawkins says, I don't have much to say about it. In fact, my only criticism of Dawkins (so far) has to do with human psychology (a topic he seems to entirely ignore, that is other than openly ridiculing) rather than his views from a scientific perspective.

I got tired of reading 'The God Delusion' because it was way too much of 'been there, done that'. I will finish it, but a light diversion was certainly in order.

The other day I picked up 'The Hunt for Zero Point' by Nick Cook and after only the first few paragraphs I knew I wouldn't put it down until it was finished. The reader reviews on Amazon.com are excellent, and pretty much reflect anything I might have to say about it as well.

In short, this is a book written by a fairly reputable editor for 'Jane's Defense' about the idea that the US Government may have developed anti-gravity technology (with help from Nazi flying saucer technology). The fact that he is (or was) a man who maintained a certain degree of respect and authority, yet was commenting on this wacky topic, is significant in and of itself.

What the book is really about is one mans obsession. Let me make abundantly clear that Nick Cook is an excellent writer. I honestly believe he could write a book about how he went to the mailbox and paid his bills and make it sound quite riveting.

I empathize with Nick Cook's novel because I went through my own period of obsession at one time in the past. I was, years ago, obsessed with the topic of UFOs in particular and, to a lesser extent, the paranormal in general. I wasted enormous amounts of intellectual resources and purchased and read numerous books before I finally became bored with the topic.

In the end I think I concluded that UFOs are real, that UFOs do not particularly affect my life, and that unless the freaking UFOs actually show themselves in some overt fashion I no longer give a crap; or something like that. (I also conclued that about 25 percent of the general population experiences paranormal phenomena; and i will have more to say about that when I rebut Dawkins.)

Nick Cook, as an editor for Jane's, was always hovering at the edges of black military programs and was used to using rigorous reporting techniques to ascertain the best and most significant information about various defense projects.

According to Nick's version of his own personal myth, one day a fax showed up on his desk that was copy from a magazine in the 1950's where someone stated that, with just a little effort, (say equivalent to that which was exerted to produce the atomic bomb) anti-gravity could be solved.

For whatever reason, after years of having already being exposed to every wacky conspiracy theory and UFO story in the books, this bit of information caught Nick's fancy. He began researching this, and then researched some more, and the researched yet more again.

His basic thesis is that in the 1950's there was public knowledge of a technology that could lead to a breakthrough in anti-gravity and, shortly thereafter, that knowledge was subsumed into 'black' programs and removed from the light of day.

Nick spins an incredible narrative of his own personal journey trying to unravel the mystery of this problem through ever more fleeting and tantalizing clues. Given his incredible personal resources he flies around the world and interrogates the top people in the world who would know if such a thing were actually true. In classic X-Files fashion he spins a tale that leaves the reader ever eager to know what clue he next uncovers.

The only problem in all of this is that, in the end, after having read hundreds of pages of an extraordinarily highly entertaining narrative he finally concludes he never found out a single damned thing!

In trying to seek some sense of closure for his book he makes reference to some wacko in Canada who allegedly produced some paranormal phenomena in his laboratory that some weirdos in the US military took a vague interest in.

One of the things I love about these kinds of books is that they site the fact that some 'high level US military organization' took an interest without ever acknowledging the fact that just as the general population is comprised of some highly gullible individuals, so are some of the members of the US government.

Who says some guy in the US military isn't into the paranormal? Of course there are some guys like that, and some of them are in a position of authority and can pursue their personal interests by investigating a weirdo in Canada.

Nick Cook destroys his own premis by closing with a reference to the MEG device (and patent) by Bearden and others. How amusing is it that while the appendix to the book was added in 2002 now, five years later, we learn that the entire MEG affair was a complete boondoggle and that Bearden, if you didn't already know in the first place, is a scam artist of the highest caliber.

Nevertheless, that is not what the book is about. It is about becoming obsessed with a subject to such an extent that it entirely consumes your mind and spirit. So much so that you are willing to put your profession, personal relationships, and even your life at risk to try to unravel an alleged 'mystery' that has been withheld from you by forces beyond your control.

Nick presents his personal an experience with such delightful prose and pathos that I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I only warn that he doesn't have a freaking thing to say about anti-gravity, UFOs, or top-sekrit gummint black projekts. He does, however, have a lot to say about obsession, trying to understand the 'unknown' and how it can consume the mind, body, soul, and personal resources of an individual.

I will have more to say about the other books on my reading list fairly soon...