Sphere
by Michael Crichton
List Price:
Our Price: $6.75
You Save: $12.25 (64%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Michael CrichtonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-06-23
ISBN: 0345418972
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of Sphere
Book Review: Crichton & The Law of Attraction
Summary: 5 Stars
The Sphere (1987) is Michael Crichton's metaphor for his own mind. The novel preceded Travels (1989); Crichton's autobiographical work that attempted to explain himself and his beliefs. The plot of Sphere, the characters, the style, the action, the setting, the monsters, the technology, the science are all mostly irrelevant. Nevertheless, that's what people focus on. And that is Crichton's conclusion--that people, humans, do not want, and cannot, function effectively if they (we) truly engage the world as who we are. We are "Source Energy" to use the "Law of Attraction" terminology. We have the power to create worlds and are solely responsible for what happens to us by virtue of our thoughts; but " ... we simply aren't prepared to control our thoughts," he says in The Lost World (1995). "We are directly responsible for any illness that happens to us," Crichton said in Travels. Here is where things get very interesting.
Crichton died in 2008 of cancer. He was 66. Cancer is said to be caused by: "Deep hurt. Longstanding resentment. Deep secret or grief eating away at the self. Carrying hatreds. `What's the use."' [Hay, Louise. (1982) Heal Your Body.] Before I go on, I want to be clear--I've read most of his work, like it, and have the greatest respect for him as a man and artist. He is the only person, only one, to have at the same time, the number one book, movie, and TV show. He's had books published posthumously. He was also married five times, and his latest child was born after he died. In other words ... he never stopped trying! I don't know what that speaks to--his character, the hopelessness of existence, or a failure to understand that which is true.
Three things appear to me: 1) Michael Crichton was a genius (He was also six-foot nine. He was a freak physically and mentally is one way to look at him.); 2) He had disdain and resentment for people in general; 3) Being that abnormal makes life difficult, even if it produces for you millions of dollars and world-wide fame. In Sphere, he tries to reconcile all things in the final segment titled, "THE POWER." He does this, essentially, by having conversations with himself under the guise of dialogue between characters, and finally with the Sphere itself - who ("I am not a who.") informs the protagonist, Psychologist Norman Johnson, that he, Johnson, already knows everything there is to know and that he already has the power to create anything he wants. What this is: Is a fictionalized version of the channeling of Abraham by Esther Hicks in all her books about the "Law of Attraction" (2004 - 2010); popularized by the book and DVD, The Secret (2006) by Australian Rhonda Byrne. Abraham is analogous to The Sphere. [The idea of a Law of Attraction, and that thoughts are manifested into reality, can be traced back to the New Thought Movement in late 19th Century America.]
Johnson, not surprisingly, decides that people cannot handle The Power, and that the secret should remain a secret. So he, and Crichton's other characters, use their power (imagination) to erase the knowledge that they gained--that they can manifest reality by thought--and so forget everything that happened; and invent a false narrative and present it as truth.
This novel delves into many of the issues I myself am struggling with regarding the Law of Attraction. Foremost is: That negativity is such a powerful force in one's mind it seems impossible to do what is directed by Abraham - that one choose the better feeling in any given moment. It seems so much easier to fall down the mineshaft than to imagine yourself ascending. To let go is to fall. To go with the flow is to follow the negativity. Look around. Being able to appreciate what looks like evil and ugliness is unnatural.
Crichton might be right. In the novel, he approaches this with a conversation between Norman and Beth, a female Zoologist. Norman is explaining to Beth about The Power, about how one's thoughts are manifested, conscious or unconscious, so if one will focus on the good, positive thoughts - then they are what will happen. (Choose the better feeling.) Beth responds by saying that is impossible: "How can you say to someone, `Don't think of a giant squid'? The minute you say that, they automatically think of the squid in the course of not to think of it." "It's possible to control your thoughts." Norman responds.
Clearly (Really Mark?) Crichton struggled with this concept his entire adult life. (As am I. Are you cracking up, Mark? Of course not. I'm perfectly sane. Just because ... doesn't mean that ... .)
The Law of Attraction states that: Wanted or unwanted - your dominant thoughts will be manifested. Crichton approaches this with a discussion about The Shadow--Jung's idea that the we are both what we desire and that which we don't desire. Our personality is both/and, not either or. We are both male and female, extraverted and introverted, thinking and feeling, courageous and cowardly ... though one facet is more dominant than the other within an individual, but to deny your shadow is to ask for trouble. (Ask and it is given. Hicks' first book.) Crichton articulates: To fear something, no matter that you might repress it, is to call it forth. The Law of Attraction concurs. Thus, Crichton has backed himself into a corner with no way out: (What's the use of living if his dominant thought is that people are stupid and nothing can change that.) His character, Norman Johnson, believes he has figured things out. Norman argues, to himself, that he acknowledges his unconscious, his shadow, and by so doing protects himself from manifesting his fears. Of course, that's a contradiction as Beth pointed out. By thinking about your dark side - the Universe will confirm it. Fear the giant squid and the creature appears. At one juncture, Norman and Beth attack one another.
Beth mutters: "You're a real son of a bitch, Norman, do you know that? You feel so terrible that you need to make everybody else just as low as you are."
She was talking about herself, he thought.
"You're so big on the unconscious, Norman. The unconscious this, the unconscious that. Jesus Christ, I'm sick of you. Your unconscious probably wants to kill us all, just because you want to kill yourself and you think everybody else should die with you."
He felt a shuddering chill. Beth, with her lack of self-esteem, her deep core self-hate ... saw herself as victim ... [and] failed to see how she had done it to herself, he thought. (p.321)
Good stuff ... if I'm right.
What are your dominant thoughts about yourself? Where do they come from? Crichton looks at this question through the mind of his protagonist Psychologist ... does childhood and biology decide, as Freud thought? Born introverted and neurotic -- then denigrated, humiliated, neglected ... Isolated, feeling alone, and that nobody cares about you - is it possible to have good thoughts about yourself? Or, has the damage been done and it irreversible? (Enter psychotherapy and/or drugs, and/or belief.)
Crichton posits in Sphere, the only way out is to deny, or repress, The Power, your power. In effect, disempowering yourself and keeping everyone ignorant.
Crichton's life and death are a testament to his genius and to ... I don't know - that he was right? He died for a cause? He says in The Lost World that humans are the only species that will die for a belief - which is a product of mind, which then becomes reality. Abraham says that a belief is just a thought you keep thinking. Keep thinking the thought and soon your belief manifests in the real world.
Crichton says via "Source" in Sphere: ... "imagining is what makes it happen. You imagine wonderful things and you imagine terrible things, and you take no responsibility for the choice."
Norman responds in his mind: "But you are somebody different from me, separate. You are not me."
"Yes I am. You imagined me."
"Tell me more."
"There is no more."
Thus, with our love/hate relationship with oil, we called forth the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. With our love/hate relationship with drugs - we assure increasing violence regarding the use of drugs. With our love/hate relationship with war - we assure its inevitability. With our love/hate relationship with wealth - we assure the continuous boom/bust cycle and widening gap between rich and poor. With our love/hate relationship with foreigners we guarantee xenophobia. Because we have the power to create whatever it is we want; but are more comfortable not accepting responsibility and blaming others, we think we can have our cake and eat it, too. The Law of Attraction says you may have your cake, eat it, and then bake another one.
Another issue Crichton examines is what happens when two people have conflicting desires, or imaginings. What happens then? The Law of Attraction says take care of yourself, choose to feel better than you do at any moment; and choose to see only the best in others, and that then will manifest to the benefit of all. Everybody wins. Again, that is simply much easier said than done, or imagined. Fear and negativity creeps in, and tends to dominate. What if, what if, what if ... .
One final comment, I watched the movie, Sphere - a waste of two dollars. The beauty of the written word versus a moving picture is: With words, one can slow down time, enough so as to examine all that is happening now, what has happened in the past, and what is imagined in the future.
At least--Crichton was willing to look at the possibility that he might be culpable for his own cancer and powerless to prevent it.
Summary of Sphere
"A page-turner...Chichton's writing is cinematic, with powerful visual images and nonstop action. This book should come with hot buttered popcorn."NEWSWEEK
A group of American scientists are rushed to a huge vessel that has been discovered resting on the ocean floor in the middle of the South Pacific. What they find defines their imaginations and mocks their attempts at logical explanation. It is a spaceship of phenomenal dimensions, apparently, undamaged by its fall from the sky. And, most startling, it appears to be at least three hundred years old....
"The suspense is real."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
From the Paperback edition.
Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton is possibly the best science teacher for the masses since H.G. Wells, and Sphere, his thriller about a mysterious spherical spaceship at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, is classic Crichton. A group of not-very-complex characters (portrayed in the film by Sharon Stone, Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, and Queen Latifah) assemble to solve a cleverly designed roller coaster of a mystery while attempting (with mixed success) to avoid sudden death and expounding (much more successfully) on the latest, coolest scientific ideas, including the existence of black holes. Somehow, Crichton manages to convey the complicated stuff in utterly simplistic prose, making him, as his old pal Steven Spielberg puts it, "the high priest of high concept." Yet there is more to Crichton than science and big-ticket show biz. He is also, as any reader of his startling memoir Travels knows, a bit of a mystic--he is entirely open to notions spouted by spoon-bending psychics that most science writers would scorn. Sphere is not only a gratifying sci-fi suspense tale; it also reflects Crichton's keen interest in the unexplained powers of the human mind. When something passes through a black hole in Crichton's fiction, a lesson is learned. The book also contains another profound lesson: when you're staring down a giant squid with an eyeball the size of a dinner plate, don't blink first.
Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Killing Groundby JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowningby Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princessby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Saharaby Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.80
Price in other shops:
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Marsby Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
Andromeda Strainby Michael Crichton
Arrow Books; Published: 1995-10-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.40
Congoby michael crichton
Ballantine; Published: 1993; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.49
Eaters of the Deadby Michael Crichton
Harper; Published: 2009-04-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.62
Price in other shops:
Rising Sunby Michael Crichton
Ballantine Books; Published: 1992-11-23; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.29
Price in other shops:
The Lost Worldby Michael Crichton
Ballantine Books; Published: 1996-09-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.93
Price in other shops:
Jurassic Parkby Michael Crichton
Ballantine Books; Published: 1991-11-13; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.97
Price in other shops:
Congoby Michael Crichton
Harper; Published: 2009-04-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.57
Price in other shops:
The Great Train Robberyby Michael Crichton
Harper; Published: 2008-10-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.53
Price in other shops:
The Andromeda Strainby Michael Crichton
Harper; Published: 2008-10-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.59
Price in other shops:
Timelineby Michael Crichton
Ballantine Books; Published: 2003-11-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.85
Price in other shops: