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Travels
Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am. When Michael Crichton -- a Harvard-trained physician, bestselling novelist, and successful movie director -- began to feel isolated in his own life, he decided to widen his horizons. He tracked wild animals in the jungles of Rwanda. He climbed Kilimanjaro and Mayan pyramids. He trekked across a landslide in Pakistan. He swam amid sharks in Tahiti. Fueled by a powerful curiosity and the need to see, feel, and hear firsthand and close-up, Michael Crichton has experienced adventures as compelling as those he created in his books and films. These adventures -- both physical and spiritual -- are recorded here in Travels, Crichton's most astonishing and personal work.
377 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
Michael Crichton
191 books17.6k followersMichael Crichton (1942-2008) was one of the most successful novelists of his generation, admired for his meticulous scientific research and fast-paced narrative. He graduated summa cum laude and earned his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1969. His first novel,
Odds On
(1966), was written under the pseudonym John Lange and was followed by seven more Lange novels. He also wrote as Michael Douglas and Jeffery Hudson. His novel
A Case of Need
won the Edgar Award in 1969. Popular throughout the world, he has sold more than 200 million books. His novels have been translated into thirty-eight languages, and thirteen have been made into films.
Michael Crichton died of lymphoma in 2008. He was 66 years old.
Michael Crichton died of lymphoma in 2008. He was 66 years old.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 733 reviews
February 12, 2021
The title is a bit misleading,this book is not entirely about travel,but a variety of subjects.
Crichton starts off with his difficult relationship with his father and not feeling any grief when his father died.
In addition to travel,the book is also about his medical career and the least interesting part to me was his belief in psychics.
An intrepid traveler,the places he chooses to visit are fairly unusual and show his fondness for adventure.
Of particular interest to me were the two chapters dealing with his travel experiences in Pakistan's Northern areas.
He travels the dangerous Karakoram Highway and finds it blocked by a massive landslide,somehow managing to get to the other side.He also finds himself in trouble on a mountain trail, but survives.
Searching for the mythical Shangri La,he visits remote Hunza in Pakistan only to find that its inhabitants are not as healthy,happy and long lived as he expected.
The second trip to Pakistan takes him to Baltistan and the Karokoram mountains which contain ten of the highest peaks in the world.The account of how local women treat his blonde wife is hilarious.
Other trips in the book take him to Mount Kiliminjaro,Rwanda,New Guinea,Malaysia and Bangkok. He describes his experiences with gorillas and sharks.
He goes to the Mayan pyramids and also describes his encounter with a three hundred pound turtle,which is laying eggs.In Bangkok he is taken by his friend to see a child brothel.
The most interesting part of his recollections about his medical career is his experience of dissecting a human cadaver and his initial unease in dissecting it.But eventually,he would cut through the head of the cadaver, and become pretty good at it.
In another chapter he describes the agony of screaming women about to give birth under the influence of drugs.It was a common practice during his early medical career,and rich women were "assisted" in giving birth using drugs.
Unhappy as a doctor,he would eventually quit to become a writer.His Harvard teacher didn't think much of his writing skills and he submitted an essay by George Orwell as his own.Orwell got a B- grade,too !
He also talks about working in movies as a director,once directing Sean Connery in stunts which were quite dangerous.That movie was based on his book,The Great Train Robbery.
The third part about his belief in psychics was of little interest to me.I skipped it.
The book is a mixed bag,though it's very personal and parts of it are very intense and interesting.
Crichton starts off with his difficult relationship with his father and not feeling any grief when his father died.
In addition to travel,the book is also about his medical career and the least interesting part to me was his belief in psychics.
An intrepid traveler,the places he chooses to visit are fairly unusual and show his fondness for adventure.
Of particular interest to me were the two chapters dealing with his travel experiences in Pakistan's Northern areas.
He travels the dangerous Karakoram Highway and finds it blocked by a massive landslide,somehow managing to get to the other side.He also finds himself in trouble on a mountain trail, but survives.
Searching for the mythical Shangri La,he visits remote Hunza in Pakistan only to find that its inhabitants are not as healthy,happy and long lived as he expected.
The second trip to Pakistan takes him to Baltistan and the Karokoram mountains which contain ten of the highest peaks in the world.The account of how local women treat his blonde wife is hilarious.
Other trips in the book take him to Mount Kiliminjaro,Rwanda,New Guinea,Malaysia and Bangkok. He describes his experiences with gorillas and sharks.
He goes to the Mayan pyramids and also describes his encounter with a three hundred pound turtle,which is laying eggs.In Bangkok he is taken by his friend to see a child brothel.
The most interesting part of his recollections about his medical career is his experience of dissecting a human cadaver and his initial unease in dissecting it.But eventually,he would cut through the head of the cadaver, and become pretty good at it.
In another chapter he describes the agony of screaming women about to give birth under the influence of drugs.It was a common practice during his early medical career,and rich women were "assisted" in giving birth using drugs.
Unhappy as a doctor,he would eventually quit to become a writer.His Harvard teacher didn't think much of his writing skills and he submitted an essay by George Orwell as his own.Orwell got a B- grade,too !
He also talks about working in movies as a director,once directing Sean Connery in stunts which were quite dangerous.That movie was based on his book,The Great Train Robbery.
The third part about his belief in psychics was of little interest to me.I skipped it.
The book is a mixed bag,though it's very personal and parts of it are very intense and interesting.
October 17, 2010
I found it appalling that Michael Crichton so calmly depicts waiting outside a brothel in Asia while his host has sex with children. I suppose we're supposed to think he's a good guy for not indulging himself, but the fact that he is having a conversation with someone while they wait, and never objecting or contacting authorities is shocking to me. As Edmund Burke said, "all that's necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing". After reading this book, I don't know that I'd even be able to think of Crichton as a good man.
The rest of the stories are ok, but a lot of his "travels" are metaphysical, which is not what I was expecting. Somehow, even ignoring the child sex slavery incident, he managed to portray himself as pretty much of a jerk. I haven't read all of his books, but a few were on my list to get to latter. After reading Travels, I think I'll just cross them off.
The rest of the stories are ok, but a lot of his "travels" are metaphysical, which is not what I was expecting. Somehow, even ignoring the child sex slavery incident, he managed to portray himself as pretty much of a jerk. I haven't read all of his books, but a few were on my list to get to latter. After reading Travels, I think I'll just cross them off.
December 19, 2018
At first when I started this I was like wtf? He's talking about being in med-school and I thought 'Oh no! This is going to be boarding as hell'
This turned out to be a really great book!
This isn't your standard memoir. Each part where Crichton tells about a trip he toke, it is written like a really great short story. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to everyone. I was actually sad when I finished with it.
He published this right before publishing Jurassic Park. I really wish he would have written a fallow up to this about the latter part of his life.
Book *****
Audiobook *****
This turned out to be a really great book!
This isn't your standard memoir. Each part where Crichton tells about a trip he toke, it is written like a really great short story. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to everyone. I was actually sad when I finished with it.
He published this right before publishing Jurassic Park. I really wish he would have written a fallow up to this about the latter part of his life.
Book *****
Audiobook *****
December 29, 2015
There are lots of good reasons not to like or to outright dislike Michael Crichton's Travels.
He shares very directly his understanding about how women differ from men during the 1980s compared to his experiences in the 60s and 70s. He studies things like psychic powers and auras and spoon bending. He gets married again and again. He might be at his most sympathetic while talking to a cactus. The chapter on Sean Connery felt too much like name dropping (though I liked Connery's advice: always tell the truth. That makes it their problem).
At times, I felt like Crichton learned the same lessons over and over (and over) without realizing that he was dealing with the same problem throughout his life.
The account ends with an essay criticizing the scientific community for its skepticism of psychic phenomena rather than the introspective conclusion I'd been expecting throughout the book.
Basically, it would be easy to dismiss the whole of this book using any one or two parts of it.
The only exception might be his descriptions of med school, which are raw and vividly described. I was impressed, and sometimes shocked, by these moments. I was also struck by how many doctors he met who felt powerless to help people.
But at all times in this memoir, I found myself thinking something like "here's a Harvard trained physician speaking candidly about auras and psychic powers and what he thinks about just about everything."
And I also recalled the scene at the end of Pulp Fiction when Jules explains that a dog is dirty, but it has personality. So it's not filthy. This book has personality, so I'm not inclined to dismiss it.
And let's not forget this advice from David Brooks, which goes something like "our character is defined by our attempts to wrestle with our personal flaws." Brooks does not mention our victory lap after defeating or solving our flaws. Our personal flaws, from what I can tell, are our personal flaws, and we should do our best to recognize and manage them perennially.
Crichton could have self censored, and didn't. It takes guts to do that, and sometimes that goes a long way.
He shares very directly his understanding about how women differ from men during the 1980s compared to his experiences in the 60s and 70s. He studies things like psychic powers and auras and spoon bending. He gets married again and again. He might be at his most sympathetic while talking to a cactus. The chapter on Sean Connery felt too much like name dropping (though I liked Connery's advice: always tell the truth. That makes it their problem).
At times, I felt like Crichton learned the same lessons over and over (and over) without realizing that he was dealing with the same problem throughout his life.
The account ends with an essay criticizing the scientific community for its skepticism of psychic phenomena rather than the introspective conclusion I'd been expecting throughout the book.
Basically, it would be easy to dismiss the whole of this book using any one or two parts of it.
The only exception might be his descriptions of med school, which are raw and vividly described. I was impressed, and sometimes shocked, by these moments. I was also struck by how many doctors he met who felt powerless to help people.
But at all times in this memoir, I found myself thinking something like "here's a Harvard trained physician speaking candidly about auras and psychic powers and what he thinks about just about everything."
And I also recalled the scene at the end of Pulp Fiction when Jules explains that a dog is dirty, but it has personality. So it's not filthy. This book has personality, so I'm not inclined to dismiss it.
And let's not forget this advice from David Brooks, which goes something like "our character is defined by our attempts to wrestle with our personal flaws." Brooks does not mention our victory lap after defeating or solving our flaws. Our personal flaws, from what I can tell, are our personal flaws, and we should do our best to recognize and manage them perennially.
Crichton could have self censored, and didn't. It takes guts to do that, and sometimes that goes a long way.
January 15, 2008
After reading this book, I realized that I never want to meet Michael Crichton. Ever.
February 24, 2008
Usually I avoid the most popular books, but because of a high recommendation I decided to read up on Michael Crichton, the author of books like Jurassic Park and Congo.
The book begins with Michael, the medical student, figuring out how to use a chainsaw to cut the head of a cadaver in half. First I thought that he was a de Vinci doing some research for a book. However, he did attend medical school supported by his “side-job” of writing books. In the end he just didn’t fit the philosophy and society of being a doctor and began traveling.
He traveled the world when he realized that his knowledge was largely centered only in Western – American and European history. What about Africa? Asia? South America? Australia? He climbed mountain ranges, scuba dived through sharks, and lived with mountain gorillas. However, his real travels were in perceptions written with a candid and self-effacing prose. I especially love the chapter entitled “They”.
The seeds were planted in the doubts of his medical school training. How much of disease is because of mental attitude – not how is the mental attitude an effect of a disease? He would try psychics, healers, spend days talking to a cactus, and then goes traveling to an astral plane.
This is a wonderful book. Take a journey with him and you will go him places you never dreamed of.
The book begins with Michael, the medical student, figuring out how to use a chainsaw to cut the head of a cadaver in half. First I thought that he was a de Vinci doing some research for a book. However, he did attend medical school supported by his “side-job” of writing books. In the end he just didn’t fit the philosophy and society of being a doctor and began traveling.
He traveled the world when he realized that his knowledge was largely centered only in Western – American and European history. What about Africa? Asia? South America? Australia? He climbed mountain ranges, scuba dived through sharks, and lived with mountain gorillas. However, his real travels were in perceptions written with a candid and self-effacing prose. I especially love the chapter entitled “They”.
The seeds were planted in the doubts of his medical school training. How much of disease is because of mental attitude – not how is the mental attitude an effect of a disease? He would try psychics, healers, spend days talking to a cactus, and then goes traveling to an astral plane.
This is a wonderful book. Take a journey with him and you will go him places you never dreamed of.
November 15, 2017
Up[date: 15/11/17
I don't know why I was being coy in this review. Michael Crichton describes waiting for a mutual friend to come back from molesting a child, then listens to the man's description of what happened, without comment or criticism. But Crichton does complain a page later when the locals started laughing about his height. What a fucking asshole. Is anyone surprised that Hollywood is still full of fucking assholes?
This was a profoundly unpleasant, self-centered, non-practicing doctor who paid a psychologist high rates to tell him he didn't like himself enough. Only read the first 20 pages or so, but pay special attention to his strong complaints when people laugh at him for being tall, versus what happens 2 pages earlier. Hollywood must have loved him.
I don't know why I was being coy in this review. Michael Crichton describes waiting for a mutual friend to come back from molesting a child, then listens to the man's description of what happened, without comment or criticism. But Crichton does complain a page later when the locals started laughing about his height. What a fucking asshole. Is anyone surprised that Hollywood is still full of fucking assholes?
This was a profoundly unpleasant, self-centered, non-practicing doctor who paid a psychologist high rates to tell him he didn't like himself enough. Only read the first 20 pages or so, but pay special attention to his strong complaints when people laugh at him for being tall, versus what happens 2 pages earlier. Hollywood must have loved him.
April 10, 2008
Travels is one of my favorite books. I've read it at least three times in my life. It is Michael Crichton's autobiography detailing his life in medical school, but most of all his travels around the world. Each chapter is a new adventure and Dr. Crichton makes you feel as if you are right there with him! I definitely recommend this book to anyone that likes to travel or just wants a fun, entertaining, read.
February 28, 2016
‘the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.’ ~ T.S. Eliot
I believe that if you have truly travelled, you will no longer be the same person you started out as. So for me, travel automatically also includes inner change, be it intellectual, emotional, spiritual, social or personal. I'm also slowly learning the significance of events that change you as a person; things that may not necessarily be immediately significant but add up to make you the person you are. To that end, I loved this book because Crichton talks about his experiences and observations, how he looks at them retrospectively, how they have affected him over a period of time, what he learnt, his self-discoveries, his self-explorations, his open-minded trysts with psychic phenomena and his clinical attempts at understanding them scientifically.
Most critiques about the book seem to have had the wrong expectations from it. It's not a travelogue, in spite of what the title may convey. It's rather a memoir of sorts, with the first third of the book about his time as a medical student at Harvard from 1965-69 (where he offers an astonishingly honest view of life as a medical student, and where he also starts thinking and questioning his philosophies and breadth of knowledge), a second third of the book about his travel experiences (climbing Kilimanjaro, visiting Baltistan and Shangri-La, scuba diving with sharks, visiting mountain gorillas, etc), and another third of the book about his experiences with the metaphysical (meditations, talking to a cactus, bending spoons, spending time with psychics and healers, salt baths, auras, etc). You can actually see Crichton's discerning and open-minded approach to life further develop, as he questions, analyzes and deeply introspects along with you.
Somewhere, especially in the parts on psychic phenomena, I felt it was actually me who was in there, and for a non-fiction book, that is startlingly good. If nothing else, I have to confess rethinking my outright dismissive attitudes to a few and their effects, because Crichton has already asked most of the questions I would have if I was personally attempting to verify those phenomena. Crichton would, like any of us, have an opinion about a subject (such as, say, auras), until someone suggests otherwise, which, through long analytical monologues, disturbs him to the point that he wants to confirm it either way. His doubtful, analytical mind would then grapple with his personal experiences which seem to be proving otherwise, and his attempts at scientifically dissecting them, in order to understand, are a treat to read. In the end, I was vigorously nodding my head at his thoughts on whether in science we are forming theories based upon data or are actually letting our pre-conceived notions determine which data we let ourselves see.
A fantastic book, it informed, entertained, challenged, and engaged me as a reader and as a person.
I believe that if you have truly travelled, you will no longer be the same person you started out as. So for me, travel automatically also includes inner change, be it intellectual, emotional, spiritual, social or personal. I'm also slowly learning the significance of events that change you as a person; things that may not necessarily be immediately significant but add up to make you the person you are. To that end, I loved this book because Crichton talks about his experiences and observations, how he looks at them retrospectively, how they have affected him over a period of time, what he learnt, his self-discoveries, his self-explorations, his open-minded trysts with psychic phenomena and his clinical attempts at understanding them scientifically.
Most critiques about the book seem to have had the wrong expectations from it. It's not a travelogue, in spite of what the title may convey. It's rather a memoir of sorts, with the first third of the book about his time as a medical student at Harvard from 1965-69 (where he offers an astonishingly honest view of life as a medical student, and where he also starts thinking and questioning his philosophies and breadth of knowledge), a second third of the book about his travel experiences (climbing Kilimanjaro, visiting Baltistan and Shangri-La, scuba diving with sharks, visiting mountain gorillas, etc), and another third of the book about his experiences with the metaphysical (meditations, talking to a cactus, bending spoons, spending time with psychics and healers, salt baths, auras, etc). You can actually see Crichton's discerning and open-minded approach to life further develop, as he questions, analyzes and deeply introspects along with you.
Somewhere, especially in the parts on psychic phenomena, I felt it was actually me who was in there, and for a non-fiction book, that is startlingly good. If nothing else, I have to confess rethinking my outright dismissive attitudes to a few and their effects, because Crichton has already asked most of the questions I would have if I was personally attempting to verify those phenomena. Crichton would, like any of us, have an opinion about a subject (such as, say, auras), until someone suggests otherwise, which, through long analytical monologues, disturbs him to the point that he wants to confirm it either way. His doubtful, analytical mind would then grapple with his personal experiences which seem to be proving otherwise, and his attempts at scientifically dissecting them, in order to understand, are a treat to read. In the end, I was vigorously nodding my head at his thoughts on whether in science we are forming theories based upon data or are actually letting our pre-conceived notions determine which data we let ourselves see.
A fantastic book, it informed, entertained, challenged, and engaged me as a reader and as a person.
January 26, 2012
I thought I was really going to like this book, despite the fact that it really is *very* different than what you'd think. Much less about travel, and more about his life, period. The whole first section was about his experiences earning his medical degree, for example. That part was great, if quite dated. But then he began to come across as a very repulsive person, and I'm just glad he isn't an author I read much of, or he'd have ruined his books for me. Lots of dangerous, ridiculous New Age mumbo-jumbo...and then he visits a child whorehouse. Yes, he does. He goes in, looks at the the little 7 and 8 year old children being "sexy", and while he decides not to actually have sex with a child himself, his friends do. And he seems to make no judgements on this. He just smokes a cigarette and waits for them to finish. Nice. Really nice. I'll be avoiding anything more put out by Crichton, whether books or films.
March 18, 2020
This is a weird one.
Good:
The first part of the book, describing the author’s time in med school I found very interesting. A lot of his travel adventures are unique and exciting. You definitely get a window into his mind.
Bad:
The “mental trips” and visits to psychics that are all over this book did not resonate with me at all. I think the attempts to normalize astral projection, energies and mediums were ridiculous.
Ugly:
The casual mention of child prostitution in this book was disgusting. I don’t think I can dissociate Crichton from that story moving forward. I don’t know how it was published, frankly
Good:
The first part of the book, describing the author’s time in med school I found very interesting. A lot of his travel adventures are unique and exciting. You definitely get a window into his mind.
Bad:
The “mental trips” and visits to psychics that are all over this book did not resonate with me at all. I think the attempts to normalize astral projection, energies and mediums were ridiculous.
Ugly:
The casual mention of child prostitution in this book was disgusting. I don’t think I can dissociate Crichton from that story moving forward. I don’t know how it was published, frankly
August 3, 2020
I was 12 years old the summer that Jurassic Park hit theaters. Considering how ubiquitous CGI has become, it's easy to forget how revolutionary that movie was at the time. Using computers to animate photorealistic animals and insert them into a scene with real actors was unprecedented. Spielberg & Co. had to invent new technology as they went along to make the movie possible.
So I saw the movie, read the book, and then got obsessed with Michael Crichton for the rest of my adolescence. I read his books over and over. I wrote him a fan letter and the dude replied! I got a signed Jurassic Park postcard saying "Best wishes, Michael Crichton." That was nice.
I read Travels for the first time when I was 14 or 15. The book truly expanded my world. It was my introduction to places like Bhutan and Jakarta that I had never heard of before, and to new-age physic phenomena like auras and spoon-bending which I would later come to regard with rigid skepticism.
I'm currently reading The Brothers Karamazov. It's not quite the dense slog I expected it to be, I'm enjoying it, and yet I wanted something easy to read, concurrently. So I picked up my old, creased, paperback copy of Travels and gave it a go.
Why Travels? I think it's because I wanted to see how much I've changed since I was a teenager. Now I know where Afghanistan is. I know where Mount Kilimanjaro is. I know who James Randi is. How would this affect my perception of the book that my former self loved?
"It is not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw." I remembered the opening line, verbatim, 20 years after reading it. I remembered a lot. I was surprised by how many incidents from this book have stayed with me. Being pushed up Kilimanjaro. Hushing the British tourists while waiting in an elephant blind. Getting on an airplane with a sense of anxiety because you don't have any books to read or music to listen to. Taping the desk drawers of your London hotel room. Talking to a cactus. These are things that I have thought about many times over the last 20 years, apparently.
So what additional perspective do I have on the book 20 years later?
I still liked it. But with asterisks.
By the standards of the modern era, Crichton comes across as slightly sexist and arguably xenophobic. However, he also seems to be genuinely grappling with his sexism and biases in a way that was rare and forward-thinking for the time. He examined his thoughts and motives, and made a good-faith effort to change in a way that I found redeeming.
By the standards of any era, he comes across as insecure. Even though he has a chapter where his psychologist tells him he's insecure, I didn't really notice this at the time. Perhaps because I read it as an insecure 15-year-old, I couldn't see the forest through the trees. He lays his insecurities and phobias and limitations on the table, which is brave, but it also makes it difficult to like him at times.
As I suspected, it was more rewarding to read the book with an improved sense of geography. Knowing what I do now, a better title would have been "Vacations" rather than "Travels." Crichton was not an explorer or a trail-blazer in any sense. He paid money to go on guided, secure trips to exotic locales. It was adventure-tourism. And despite the fact that he was being coddled, he nevertheless approached each trip with hand-wringing anxiety. But that's what I found admirable: here's a guy whose temperament was best suited to sitting at a typewriter and daydreaming. He had difficulty relating to other people in a genuine way, bore physic scars from his troubled childhood, and lived with a lot of fear and insecurity. Despite all that, he forced himself to travel outside of his comfort zone, to see the world, to challenge himself, to grow. Someone with less courage would have simply stayed home.
I found myself disagreeing with him more than I did as a teenager. "We cause our diseases. We are directly responsible for any illness that happens to us." Nope. Sorry, no way. This is at best 10% true. Yes, there are psychosomatic symptoms, and we know that a person's outlook can affect their immune system. Depressed people get more colds, for instance. And yes, some illnesses like type 2 diabetes or lung cancer can be the result of bad decisions. But is it your fault if you're born with a cleft palate? Or dyslexia? If you are allergic to cats, is that the result of your thoughts? Many illnesses are determined or influenced by genes. Are genetic defects your fault? What about if someone breaks your arm and sends you to the emergency room?
It's all the more an astonishing claim for Crichton to make, considering that he died of cancer in 2008. I've had friends who've died of cancer. It's terrible and sad. In no way whatsoever would I entertain the notion that they caused their own death. It's not a matter of responsibility. It's winning the world's shittiest lottery. I'd be curious to know how much responsibility Crichton felt for his illness in his last days.
Now for my thoughts on the new-age stuff. When I first read the book as a teenager, I had never heard of spoon-bending, auras, chakras, or such. It seemed plausible. I tried to bend a spoon. It didn't work. I tried to see auras. It didn't work. I talked to a tree. Never heard back. Still, I kept an open mind. I remember giving my high school psychology teacher my copy of the book and asking him to read a few chapters. He returned the book to me the next day in class and said, "I don't buy it." We talked about it for a while. He basically said "Believe what you want to believe, but be careful going down that path. Don't believe this stuff on one guy's word alone." That was really good advice. Thanks Mr. Schmidt!
So, I don't think Crichton is lying or making things up. There are some things he writes that seem genuinely inexplicable. HOWEVER, I believe that if this stuff were true, then it would have been confirmed in a laboratory setting by now. Crichton anticipates this objection in his post-script. He writes that there are a number of phenomena that depend on altered states of consciousness, which are difficult to replicate in a laboratory setting, such as sexual intercourse or creativity. Um, I'm not sure if the set of a porno counts as a laboratory setting, but humans are fully capable of having sex while surrounded by bright lights, cameras, and an audience. And creativity is a pretty broad term. I agree it would be harder to write or compose with a bunch of lab-coated nerds breathing down your neck, but not impossible. Whatever.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle convinced himself that fairies were real. Crichton convinced himself that auras were real. I'll just agree with what he wrote in his post-script: if it's true, it will eventually be born out by science.
So I saw the movie, read the book, and then got obsessed with Michael Crichton for the rest of my adolescence. I read his books over and over. I wrote him a fan letter and the dude replied! I got a signed Jurassic Park postcard saying "Best wishes, Michael Crichton." That was nice.
I read Travels for the first time when I was 14 or 15. The book truly expanded my world. It was my introduction to places like Bhutan and Jakarta that I had never heard of before, and to new-age physic phenomena like auras and spoon-bending which I would later come to regard with rigid skepticism.
I'm currently reading The Brothers Karamazov. It's not quite the dense slog I expected it to be, I'm enjoying it, and yet I wanted something easy to read, concurrently. So I picked up my old, creased, paperback copy of Travels and gave it a go.
Why Travels? I think it's because I wanted to see how much I've changed since I was a teenager. Now I know where Afghanistan is. I know where Mount Kilimanjaro is. I know who James Randi is. How would this affect my perception of the book that my former self loved?
"It is not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw." I remembered the opening line, verbatim, 20 years after reading it. I remembered a lot. I was surprised by how many incidents from this book have stayed with me. Being pushed up Kilimanjaro. Hushing the British tourists while waiting in an elephant blind. Getting on an airplane with a sense of anxiety because you don't have any books to read or music to listen to. Taping the desk drawers of your London hotel room. Talking to a cactus. These are things that I have thought about many times over the last 20 years, apparently.
So what additional perspective do I have on the book 20 years later?
I still liked it. But with asterisks.
By the standards of the modern era, Crichton comes across as slightly sexist and arguably xenophobic. However, he also seems to be genuinely grappling with his sexism and biases in a way that was rare and forward-thinking for the time. He examined his thoughts and motives, and made a good-faith effort to change in a way that I found redeeming.
By the standards of any era, he comes across as insecure. Even though he has a chapter where his psychologist tells him he's insecure, I didn't really notice this at the time. Perhaps because I read it as an insecure 15-year-old, I couldn't see the forest through the trees. He lays his insecurities and phobias and limitations on the table, which is brave, but it also makes it difficult to like him at times.
As I suspected, it was more rewarding to read the book with an improved sense of geography. Knowing what I do now, a better title would have been "Vacations" rather than "Travels." Crichton was not an explorer or a trail-blazer in any sense. He paid money to go on guided, secure trips to exotic locales. It was adventure-tourism. And despite the fact that he was being coddled, he nevertheless approached each trip with hand-wringing anxiety. But that's what I found admirable: here's a guy whose temperament was best suited to sitting at a typewriter and daydreaming. He had difficulty relating to other people in a genuine way, bore physic scars from his troubled childhood, and lived with a lot of fear and insecurity. Despite all that, he forced himself to travel outside of his comfort zone, to see the world, to challenge himself, to grow. Someone with less courage would have simply stayed home.
I found myself disagreeing with him more than I did as a teenager. "We cause our diseases. We are directly responsible for any illness that happens to us." Nope. Sorry, no way. This is at best 10% true. Yes, there are psychosomatic symptoms, and we know that a person's outlook can affect their immune system. Depressed people get more colds, for instance. And yes, some illnesses like type 2 diabetes or lung cancer can be the result of bad decisions. But is it your fault if you're born with a cleft palate? Or dyslexia? If you are allergic to cats, is that the result of your thoughts? Many illnesses are determined or influenced by genes. Are genetic defects your fault? What about if someone breaks your arm and sends you to the emergency room?
It's all the more an astonishing claim for Crichton to make, considering that he died of cancer in 2008. I've had friends who've died of cancer. It's terrible and sad. In no way whatsoever would I entertain the notion that they caused their own death. It's not a matter of responsibility. It's winning the world's shittiest lottery. I'd be curious to know how much responsibility Crichton felt for his illness in his last days.
Now for my thoughts on the new-age stuff. When I first read the book as a teenager, I had never heard of spoon-bending, auras, chakras, or such. It seemed plausible. I tried to bend a spoon. It didn't work. I tried to see auras. It didn't work. I talked to a tree. Never heard back. Still, I kept an open mind. I remember giving my high school psychology teacher my copy of the book and asking him to read a few chapters. He returned the book to me the next day in class and said, "I don't buy it." We talked about it for a while. He basically said "Believe what you want to believe, but be careful going down that path. Don't believe this stuff on one guy's word alone." That was really good advice. Thanks Mr. Schmidt!
So, I don't think Crichton is lying or making things up. There are some things he writes that seem genuinely inexplicable. HOWEVER, I believe that if this stuff were true, then it would have been confirmed in a laboratory setting by now. Crichton anticipates this objection in his post-script. He writes that there are a number of phenomena that depend on altered states of consciousness, which are difficult to replicate in a laboratory setting, such as sexual intercourse or creativity. Um, I'm not sure if the set of a porno counts as a laboratory setting, but humans are fully capable of having sex while surrounded by bright lights, cameras, and an audience. And creativity is a pretty broad term. I agree it would be harder to write or compose with a bunch of lab-coated nerds breathing down your neck, but not impossible. Whatever.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle convinced himself that fairies were real. Crichton convinced himself that auras were real. I'll just agree with what he wrote in his post-script: if it's true, it will eventually be born out by science.
April 14, 2013
It is easy to fall in love with Crichton’s writing. It immediately grasps you as solid writing. It is funny, easy, polished, gripping when it needs to be, authentic in both styles – fiction and memoir – and it stays with you long after the reading has ended. There is not a single excess word in all his writing; there is a purpose for every word, every phrase, and every chapter. You just know you are in the presence of great writing.
In the span of 353 page book, it is not until after the first 80 pages recounting the challenges of his medical days (1965-1969) that he begins to share his extensive travels. These first 80 pages offer many clues into Crichton’s shaping character and his priorities in pursuing his passions of writing and travel, despite the incurred cost and expended efforts on a career in medicine.
Crichton’s overall experience during medical school and especially his clinical rotations are disturbing, scary, gory, amusing and frequently daunting. It is the daunting that eventually leads him to quit medical school – the tough choices of bad or worse that a doctor has to make, the changes he observes in the doctors from human to robot for adaptation and survival in their environment, and the loose laws around malpractice which cost patients their lives or their limbs with hardly any punishment more than a slap on the wrist of the responsible doctor – these were the daunting observations that while tolerated and accepted at the time as the norm by his peers, Crichton was not able to live with. So he quit medicine.
His accounts of psychiatry are extremely funny. Crichton considered entering psychiatry when he was turning away from general medicine, but his clinical rotations proved his assumptions true – at least for him – that psychiatry does not really help people. There are two groups who dominate the clientèle in Crichton’s view: those who are severely disturbed and need help, for whom psychiatry does not make do much and certainly does not effect cures, and those who make up the self-indulgent, absurdly wealthy crowd for whom psychiatry is a glorified form of treatment and he had no interest to help them.
And this brings me to what Crichton does best in this book – and something that I found outright hilarious: He would form an opinion about a subject and act in accordance with that opinion, until someone suggests the opposite view, which, through long analytical monologues, disturbs him to the point that he switches to the opposite end of the opinion spectrum, and adjusts all his actions accordingly. Perhaps, on significant issues this would seem like a person who does not believe in anything, and therefore falls for anything – but these were all petty affairs, such as visiting a psychiatrist – whom he finds to be a waste of time – until his friend tells him that the guy probably would not make time to see him anyway – leading Crichton to panic that perhaps his case is not interesting or important, and he makes an appointment right away!!!
The chapter dearest to my heart is on his experience with the Mountain Gorillas. The dialogue between the scientist and Crichton before his journey up the mountains to see the gorillas:
“I wouldn’t study gorillas”, Nicole said.
“Why not”, I asked.
“They are men.”
“Gorillas are men?”
“Yes, of course”.
Gorillas are not animals, they are same as men. The Gorilla story is chilling, sad, beautiful and more. As Crichton comes to see these gorillas close-up, he “drifted into a feeling of extraordinary enchantment. Never in my life had I experienced anything like it. To be so close to a wild creature of another species, and yet to feel no threat…I never wanted to leave.”
In the span of 353 page book, it is not until after the first 80 pages recounting the challenges of his medical days (1965-1969) that he begins to share his extensive travels. These first 80 pages offer many clues into Crichton’s shaping character and his priorities in pursuing his passions of writing and travel, despite the incurred cost and expended efforts on a career in medicine.
Crichton’s overall experience during medical school and especially his clinical rotations are disturbing, scary, gory, amusing and frequently daunting. It is the daunting that eventually leads him to quit medical school – the tough choices of bad or worse that a doctor has to make, the changes he observes in the doctors from human to robot for adaptation and survival in their environment, and the loose laws around malpractice which cost patients their lives or their limbs with hardly any punishment more than a slap on the wrist of the responsible doctor – these were the daunting observations that while tolerated and accepted at the time as the norm by his peers, Crichton was not able to live with. So he quit medicine.
His accounts of psychiatry are extremely funny. Crichton considered entering psychiatry when he was turning away from general medicine, but his clinical rotations proved his assumptions true – at least for him – that psychiatry does not really help people. There are two groups who dominate the clientèle in Crichton’s view: those who are severely disturbed and need help, for whom psychiatry does not make do much and certainly does not effect cures, and those who make up the self-indulgent, absurdly wealthy crowd for whom psychiatry is a glorified form of treatment and he had no interest to help them.
And this brings me to what Crichton does best in this book – and something that I found outright hilarious: He would form an opinion about a subject and act in accordance with that opinion, until someone suggests the opposite view, which, through long analytical monologues, disturbs him to the point that he switches to the opposite end of the opinion spectrum, and adjusts all his actions accordingly. Perhaps, on significant issues this would seem like a person who does not believe in anything, and therefore falls for anything – but these were all petty affairs, such as visiting a psychiatrist – whom he finds to be a waste of time – until his friend tells him that the guy probably would not make time to see him anyway – leading Crichton to panic that perhaps his case is not interesting or important, and he makes an appointment right away!!!
The chapter dearest to my heart is on his experience with the Mountain Gorillas. The dialogue between the scientist and Crichton before his journey up the mountains to see the gorillas:
“I wouldn’t study gorillas”, Nicole said.
“Why not”, I asked.
“They are men.”
“Gorillas are men?”
“Yes, of course”.
Gorillas are not animals, they are same as men. The Gorilla story is chilling, sad, beautiful and more. As Crichton comes to see these gorillas close-up, he “drifted into a feeling of extraordinary enchantment. Never in my life had I experienced anything like it. To be so close to a wild creature of another species, and yet to feel no threat…I never wanted to leave.”
July 20, 2019
Un libro INCREÍBLE, real realmente bueno, el mejor que he leído durante el último tiempo, aunque tiene un par de partes que me molestaron mucho... la forma en que trata a algunos animales, y el exceso de presuntuosidad, UGH. Pero mantengo las cinco estrellas finales porque al menos el tipo es honesto y tiene autocrítica, y se nota que viaja su propio viaje con entereza de espíritu, y la mayoría de las veces (con esas horribles excepciones) me cayó bien.
Además, es ¡tan interesante! El señor cuenta desde sus años de medicina en Harvard hasta sus incursiones en el new age, pasando por todo tipo de viajes, expediciones y experiencias curiosas. Y no cuenta TODA su vida, sino que solo los pasajes que le parecen dignos de contar y compartir. O sea que tampoco viene a dar la lata.
Me gustó mucho. ¡Es muy bueno! Aunque difícil de encontrar. Yo pude leerlo, porque la mamá de una amiga me lo había prestado hace VEINTE AÑOS, cuando yo era una colegiala y él era un cincuentón tincudo... y hoy soy una mujer adulta y él está muerto (le tocó a los 66, de cáncer). Es raro y un poco tétrico de pensar. Y también motivador, a lo carpe diem.
Y sí, ¡se lo devolveré ahora a la mamá de mi amiga! Con un libro extra de regalo, para compensar la desaparición. La verdad es que se me había olvidado que lo tenía. Y estoy un poco feliz de no haberlo leído entonces, porque creo que todavía era muy péndex para entenderlo como lo entendí ahora.
En fin, muy recomendado.
UPDATE: Lo bajo a cuatro estrellas. Es que igual no puedo darle los máximos honores a alguien que maltrata animalitos, aunque haya sido "para conocerlos mejor" (serpientes). Y hay otras partes bastantes cuestionables en el libro también.
Además, es ¡tan interesante! El señor cuenta desde sus años de medicina en Harvard hasta sus incursiones en el new age, pasando por todo tipo de viajes, expediciones y experiencias curiosas. Y no cuenta TODA su vida, sino que solo los pasajes que le parecen dignos de contar y compartir. O sea que tampoco viene a dar la lata.
Me gustó mucho. ¡Es muy bueno! Aunque difícil de encontrar. Yo pude leerlo, porque la mamá de una amiga me lo había prestado hace VEINTE AÑOS, cuando yo era una colegiala y él era un cincuentón tincudo... y hoy soy una mujer adulta y él está muerto (le tocó a los 66, de cáncer). Es raro y un poco tétrico de pensar. Y también motivador, a lo carpe diem.
Y sí, ¡se lo devolveré ahora a la mamá de mi amiga! Con un libro extra de regalo, para compensar la desaparición. La verdad es que se me había olvidado que lo tenía. Y estoy un poco feliz de no haberlo leído entonces, porque creo que todavía era muy péndex para entenderlo como lo entendí ahora.
En fin, muy recomendado.
UPDATE: Lo bajo a cuatro estrellas. Es que igual no puedo darle los máximos honores a alguien que maltrata animalitos, aunque haya sido "para conocerlos mejor" (serpientes). Y hay otras partes bastantes cuestionables en el libro también.
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September 23, 2020Διαβάστε και ελληνική κριτική στις βιβλιοαλχημείες.
I promise! This is the last Crichton for this month. In October I'll have 4 and by November until next August just 1.
This book was a surprise. I was expecting it to be a wonderful experience but it turned out to be my worst Crichton!
Yes! I admit it. I, a huge fan of Crichton who has read 30 of his books hated some parts of this book.
Well, shit happens.
This book had 2 surprises.
By the title I assumed the obvious.
That this was going to be travel writing, all about Crichton's travels in exotic places.
All about Crichton's adventures in dangerous places.
But the 1st part consisting of 80 pages was all about his medical years, at Harvard University.
And I was sure I was going to be disappointed.
Surprise number 1. This 1st part was my favourite and the most interesting.
The 2nd part was all about his travels BUT only 17/28 chapters were the actual travels, the physical ones around the world.
The other 11 were chapters about mysticism, yoga, tarot, spoon bending, auras, astral protections, astrology, chakras and other spiritual mumbo jumbo shite.
Surprise number 2
I felt cheated!
I wanted more about his actual travels, hiking in Pakistan, mountain climbing in Kilimanjaro, snorkelling with sharks, tracking gorillas in Congo, filming in Ireland, but no.
He wrote a 20+ pages chapter about people shooting energy from their fingertips as if they were Darth Sidious. And I was like: "What the fuck am I reading?!
20 pages of shit like this and only 3! pages about the Mayan ruins in Mexico.
If I exclude the spiritual travels, this was a decent book about Crichton's experiences at Harvard Medical School, his travels around the world and his personal life, (his bad relationship with his father and the absence of grief during his funeral (a tough chapter to read), his first divorce etc.)
I didn't care if he believed in auras, in divination, in spoon bending, in astral experiences, and of course I wasn't persuaded by his 20+ pages postscript titled Sceptics at Cal Tech were he tries to show the relationship between (real)science and pseudo(science) and shed some truth on the latter one. I wasn't convinced.
I wanted more about his Medical Years, more about his Physical Travels, more about his Personal life and much less than his Spiritual 'Travels'.
Read
June 12, 2020an incredibly unpleasant man the world is better without, thank god he didn’t actually go into medicine. If you’re wondering if he actually hates women and loves being racist as much as every male lead (or, “every lead”) in his books the answer is of course yes. Yes he does. Somehow despite my incredibly low opinion of him as a person I still found the degree of this pretty surprising! You’re proud you just barely avoided exploiting your csa victim adult patient and that you didn’t quite rape a child in Thailand? One time you felt bad for being really really shockingly racist but then felt better when you realized the people you were treating as a spectacle didn’t think very highly of you? What? He is more neurotic and Spiritual than i would have guessed, i feel like his work would have even more fun if he had gone into that all more. I guess I agree with him in a general way about real abilities sometimes existing that by nature don’t lend themselves to scientific verification. If he had focused on the psychic stuff and his daddy issues and left out all of his worst opinions, which is most of them, this would have been a purely fun funky ride but, like with all his normal books, the romp is continually interrupted by how all around awful he is
February 8, 2009
This book came highly recommended, but I was disappointed in Crichton's travel book. There were several stories relating to Crichton's experiences in exotic places, but much of it was preoccupied with his early years in medical school and later, dealings with meditation, mystics, and his inner journey, which was not at all what I was expecting or looking for. And the picture the author paints of himself through these adventures is not altogether a flattering one.
The one good thing that came out of my reading this book was my decision to write a travel book of my own. I've certainly been to as many interesting places as Crichton, and had just as many interesting experiences. So I've started gather my notes. Look for it 2012.
The one good thing that came out of my reading this book was my decision to write a travel book of my own. I've certainly been to as many interesting places as Crichton, and had just as many interesting experiences. So I've started gather my notes. Look for it 2012.
October 14, 2018
This book could be divided into three parts: Crichton's time as a medical student at Harvard; his travels; and his foray into psychic stuff, so I'll divide my review up the same way.
➽ Harvard Medical School
I love this book so much, and I haven’t even reached the part that I picked the book up for (the travels, of course). In this first part, Crichton describes his time as a medical student at Harvard and what lead him to quitting medicine just as he graduated to become a writer instead. (And side note: this is making me question my life choices all over again. Between Crichton’s disillusionment with medicine and a conversation with my brother I had yesterday about life in the hospital and how being a doctor isn’t all that fulfilling, I’m re-thinking everything I’ve wanted to do in my own life. Ugh.) But back to the book. It was so interesting to see how differently medicine was practiced nearly fifty years ago.
➽ Travels
It starts in LA where Crichton had moved to be in the movie business. In the apartment complex he moved into, the manager listed “MD” after the title because he thought it added more prestige to the place, so every time there was a medical emergency, the doorman would end up calling Crichton, who wasn’t licensed to practice medicine. And a series of funny events ensued (well, they were funny when they weren’t sad).
Psychiatry In the next chapter, Crichton starts seeing a psychiatrist because his wife wants to get back together, but he doesn’t. She uses reverse psychology to get him to start seeing one when he doesn’t want to by telling him, this doctor is so busy he probably won’t be able to see you anyway. He takes that as a challenge and immediately makes an appointment. They start talking and he helps Crichton realize that he’s rather insecure about his life despite all his successes. He helps talk him through several of his next dating relationships as well. But my favorite part is just that someone so successful as Crichton needed help and reached out too. It’s okay to be in therapy and it doesn’t make you any less of a person.
In Thailand, he discovers that despite how much he’s traveled throughout his life, he isn’t very culturally aware and actually hasn’t seen most of the world outside of North America and Western Europe and he decides to change that. This chapter may have also contained my least favorite part of the book when they go to visit a "whore house". I was so disgusted and sad he would have even stepped foot into that place in the first place.
In Shangri-la, he visits the people of Hunza where he claims that people live to be 140 years old on a diet of apricots and are immune to disease.
Upon doing some research, it turns out that Shangri-la is just a ficitional place mentioned in a 1933 novel by James Hilton. As for the Hunza valley, it’s a real mountainous valley in Pakistan. This is the only scientific article I could find about the matter, and it turns out this claim is not exactly true. This journal article also touches on the matter.
And I won't summarize the rest of it because it's definitely worth a read!
➽ Psychic stuff
This is the part of the book that I could have done without, but he does make a good case for it at the end of the book in his postscript.
In conclusion, I’ve had this on my TBR for like 10 years now. Not sure how I even first heard of it, but I’m so so so glad I finally decided to pick it up. <3 I want more books like this in my life. Random ones you won’t see any book bloggers or bookstagrammers talking about, ones that were published decades ago, ones without pretty covers, but ones that mean so much to me.
Random stuff I learned:
➽ "During the Korean War, post-moretms on young men had shown that the American diet produced advanced arteriosclerosis by the age of 17.
➽ “I demonstrated a great value to keeping a diary, and have kept one even since. I reread Franklin’s Autobiography, and noted that he kept a record of himself, as I did, for exactly the same reasons. This most practical and observant of men had decided that careful record-keeping was the only way to find out what he was really doing.”
➽ “The creator of Sherlock Holmes was a Scottish physician, a lapsed Catholic, a vigorous athlete, and a Victorian gentleman. Although he is most closely associated with the cool, deductive mind of his fictional detective, Conan Doyle showed an interest in spiritualism, mysticism, and metaphysics even in medical school. His stories frequently contained a strong element of the supernatural; in such works as The Hound of the Baskervilles there is a continuous tension between a supernatural and a mundane explanation for events.”
➽ “Unaccustomed to direct experience, we can come to fear it. We don’t want to read a book or see a museum show until we’ve read the reviews so that we know what to think. We lose the confidence to perceive for ourselves. We want to know the meaning of an experience before we have it.
We become frightened of direct experience, and we will go to elaborate lengths to avoid it.
I found I liked to travel, because it got me out of my routines and my familiar patterns."
➽ “Has anyone in this room had their tonsils and adenoids removed? Has anyone had a radical mastectomy for breast cancer? Has anyone been treated in an intensive care unit? Has anyone had coronary bypass surgery? Of course, many people had.
I said, Then you’re all knowledgeable about superstitions, because all these procedures are examples of superstitious behavior. They are procedures carried out without scientific evidence that they produce any benefit. This society spends billions of dollars a year on superstitious medicine, and that is a problem—and an expense—far more important than astrology columns in daily newspapers, which are so vigorously attacked by the brainpower of CSICOP.
And I added, Let’s not be too quick to deny the power of superstition in our own lives. Which of us, having suffered a heart attack, would refuse to be treated in an intensive-care unit just because such units are of unproven value? We’d all take the ICU. We all do.
I then went on to mention the many cases of fraud in research science. Isaac Newton may have fudged his data;4 certainly Gregor Mendel, father of Mendelian inheritance, did.5 The Italiano mathematician Lazzarini faked an experiment to “determine the value of pi, and his result went unquestioned for more than half a century.6 British psychologist Sir Cyril Burt invented not only his data, but research assistants to gather it.7 In more recent years, there were cases of fraud involving William T. Summerlin of Sloan-Kettering, Dr. John Long of the Harvard Medical School, and Dr. John Darsee of the Harvard Medical School.”
➽ “There are, in fact, well-studied subjects who appear to defy scientific explanation—in particular the famous medium of the last century, Mrs. Piper, who was championed by William James, professor of psychology at Harvard. Mrs. Piper was subjected to intense scrutiny for nearly a quarter of a century, but no skeptic was ever able to demonstrate fraud or trickery.”
➽ Harvard Medical School
I love this book so much, and I haven’t even reached the part that I picked the book up for (the travels, of course). In this first part, Crichton describes his time as a medical student at Harvard and what lead him to quitting medicine just as he graduated to become a writer instead. (And side note: this is making me question my life choices all over again. Between Crichton’s disillusionment with medicine and a conversation with my brother I had yesterday about life in the hospital and how being a doctor isn’t all that fulfilling, I’m re-thinking everything I’ve wanted to do in my own life. Ugh.) But back to the book. It was so interesting to see how differently medicine was practiced nearly fifty years ago.
➽ Travels
It starts in LA where Crichton had moved to be in the movie business. In the apartment complex he moved into, the manager listed “MD” after the title because he thought it added more prestige to the place, so every time there was a medical emergency, the doorman would end up calling Crichton, who wasn’t licensed to practice medicine. And a series of funny events ensued (well, they were funny when they weren’t sad).
Psychiatry In the next chapter, Crichton starts seeing a psychiatrist because his wife wants to get back together, but he doesn’t. She uses reverse psychology to get him to start seeing one when he doesn’t want to by telling him, this doctor is so busy he probably won’t be able to see you anyway. He takes that as a challenge and immediately makes an appointment. They start talking and he helps Crichton realize that he’s rather insecure about his life despite all his successes. He helps talk him through several of his next dating relationships as well. But my favorite part is just that someone so successful as Crichton needed help and reached out too. It’s okay to be in therapy and it doesn’t make you any less of a person.
In Thailand, he discovers that despite how much he’s traveled throughout his life, he isn’t very culturally aware and actually hasn’t seen most of the world outside of North America and Western Europe and he decides to change that. This chapter may have also contained my least favorite part of the book when they go to visit a "whore house". I was so disgusted and sad he would have even stepped foot into that place in the first place.
In Shangri-la, he visits the people of Hunza where he claims that people live to be 140 years old on a diet of apricots and are immune to disease.
Upon doing some research, it turns out that Shangri-la is just a ficitional place mentioned in a 1933 novel by James Hilton. As for the Hunza valley, it’s a real mountainous valley in Pakistan. This is the only scientific article I could find about the matter, and it turns out this claim is not exactly true. This journal article also touches on the matter.
And I won't summarize the rest of it because it's definitely worth a read!
➽ Psychic stuff
This is the part of the book that I could have done without, but he does make a good case for it at the end of the book in his postscript.
In conclusion, I’ve had this on my TBR for like 10 years now. Not sure how I even first heard of it, but I’m so so so glad I finally decided to pick it up. <3 I want more books like this in my life. Random ones you won’t see any book bloggers or bookstagrammers talking about, ones that were published decades ago, ones without pretty covers, but ones that mean so much to me.
Random stuff I learned:
➽ "During the Korean War, post-moretms on young men had shown that the American diet produced advanced arteriosclerosis by the age of 17.
➽ “I demonstrated a great value to keeping a diary, and have kept one even since. I reread Franklin’s Autobiography, and noted that he kept a record of himself, as I did, for exactly the same reasons. This most practical and observant of men had decided that careful record-keeping was the only way to find out what he was really doing.”
➽ “The creator of Sherlock Holmes was a Scottish physician, a lapsed Catholic, a vigorous athlete, and a Victorian gentleman. Although he is most closely associated with the cool, deductive mind of his fictional detective, Conan Doyle showed an interest in spiritualism, mysticism, and metaphysics even in medical school. His stories frequently contained a strong element of the supernatural; in such works as The Hound of the Baskervilles there is a continuous tension between a supernatural and a mundane explanation for events.”
➽ “Unaccustomed to direct experience, we can come to fear it. We don’t want to read a book or see a museum show until we’ve read the reviews so that we know what to think. We lose the confidence to perceive for ourselves. We want to know the meaning of an experience before we have it.
We become frightened of direct experience, and we will go to elaborate lengths to avoid it.
I found I liked to travel, because it got me out of my routines and my familiar patterns."
➽ “Has anyone in this room had their tonsils and adenoids removed? Has anyone had a radical mastectomy for breast cancer? Has anyone been treated in an intensive care unit? Has anyone had coronary bypass surgery? Of course, many people had.
I said, Then you’re all knowledgeable about superstitions, because all these procedures are examples of superstitious behavior. They are procedures carried out without scientific evidence that they produce any benefit. This society spends billions of dollars a year on superstitious medicine, and that is a problem—and an expense—far more important than astrology columns in daily newspapers, which are so vigorously attacked by the brainpower of CSICOP.
And I added, Let’s not be too quick to deny the power of superstition in our own lives. Which of us, having suffered a heart attack, would refuse to be treated in an intensive-care unit just because such units are of unproven value? We’d all take the ICU. We all do.
I then went on to mention the many cases of fraud in research science. Isaac Newton may have fudged his data;4 certainly Gregor Mendel, father of Mendelian inheritance, did.5 The Italiano mathematician Lazzarini faked an experiment to “determine the value of pi, and his result went unquestioned for more than half a century.6 British psychologist Sir Cyril Burt invented not only his data, but research assistants to gather it.7 In more recent years, there were cases of fraud involving William T. Summerlin of Sloan-Kettering, Dr. John Long of the Harvard Medical School, and Dr. John Darsee of the Harvard Medical School.”
➽ “There are, in fact, well-studied subjects who appear to defy scientific explanation—in particular the famous medium of the last century, Mrs. Piper, who was championed by William James, professor of psychology at Harvard. Mrs. Piper was subjected to intense scrutiny for nearly a quarter of a century, but no skeptic was ever able to demonstrate fraud or trickery.”
June 2, 2013
I'm actually only in the "medical school" chapters, but I love them enough to rate this book highly already. I've never been a huge fan of Crichton's fiction, but I always liked his prose and I'm delighted to be reading this account of his life, philosophy, struggles, and revelations. Thanks for recommending, AL!!!
Update 6-1-13:
I loved the beginning of this book chronicling mediical school; and I very much enjoyed most of his travel journals (though I did find myself leaning toward bitterness when realizing how many exotic, expensive places he's had access to his whole life). But near the end it got very new-agey and I found it difficult to understand how an intelligent, scientific person could so easily give credence to things I myself do not believe are possible. He did express a good deal of doubt and initial resistance, so that tempered my irritation somewhat. But in the end he endorses and presents as real many things that just seem imaginary to me. Either he's just done a great job of convincing himself and thus he "sees" what he wants to see; or I'm genuinely missing out on an entire plane of existence.
Update 6-2-13:
I was premature in delivering that review, as I was a couple chapters away from the end and jumped to conclusions. Chricton actually did a great job closing up the book with a persuasive defense laid out logically and objectively of his "transformation" from an academic/scientific/traditional thinker to one who allows for and believes in at least the possibility of metaphysical and psychic phenomena. I still fall more on the skeptical side, but I loved his final speech (never delivered) addressing the CSICOP. The author redeemed himself to me by acknowledging that his views may not be shared by the majority and he has no interest in "converting" anyone to believe in psychic powers. I liked his assertion that reality is never fully known, and the idea that science is the pinnacle of reason and must always be the accepted explanation of any phenomenon is only what we've been taught to believe in the Western world. I enjoyed his review of the concept of theories and whether in science we are forming theories based upon data or are actually letting our pre-conceived notions determine which data we let ourselves see.
I was also very impressed with his assessment of the continual shift away from direct experience via the ubiquity of electronic media and its constant assault on our senses and mind. I'm in full agreement about the resulting bewilderment and the alien pace of information processing forced upon most of us in this part of the world. I continue to do all I can to stay free of such influences, and I sincerely hope to take his advice to heart and travel as much as possible in attempts to reset myself, promote lifelong self-assessments, and directly experience the world.
Update 6-1-13:
I loved the beginning of this book chronicling mediical school; and I very much enjoyed most of his travel journals (though I did find myself leaning toward bitterness when realizing how many exotic, expensive places he's had access to his whole life). But near the end it got very new-agey and I found it difficult to understand how an intelligent, scientific person could so easily give credence to things I myself do not believe are possible. He did express a good deal of doubt and initial resistance, so that tempered my irritation somewhat. But in the end he endorses and presents as real many things that just seem imaginary to me. Either he's just done a great job of convincing himself and thus he "sees" what he wants to see; or I'm genuinely missing out on an entire plane of existence.
Update 6-2-13:
I was premature in delivering that review, as I was a couple chapters away from the end and jumped to conclusions. Chricton actually did a great job closing up the book with a persuasive defense laid out logically and objectively of his "transformation" from an academic/scientific/traditional thinker to one who allows for and believes in at least the possibility of metaphysical and psychic phenomena. I still fall more on the skeptical side, but I loved his final speech (never delivered) addressing the CSICOP. The author redeemed himself to me by acknowledging that his views may not be shared by the majority and he has no interest in "converting" anyone to believe in psychic powers. I liked his assertion that reality is never fully known, and the idea that science is the pinnacle of reason and must always be the accepted explanation of any phenomenon is only what we've been taught to believe in the Western world. I enjoyed his review of the concept of theories and whether in science we are forming theories based upon data or are actually letting our pre-conceived notions determine which data we let ourselves see.
I was also very impressed with his assessment of the continual shift away from direct experience via the ubiquity of electronic media and its constant assault on our senses and mind. I'm in full agreement about the resulting bewilderment and the alien pace of information processing forced upon most of us in this part of the world. I continue to do all I can to stay free of such influences, and I sincerely hope to take his advice to heart and travel as much as possible in attempts to reset myself, promote lifelong self-assessments, and directly experience the world.
June 18, 2018
Some of the travel essays were amazing. Witty, elucidating, and cogent. Beautifully written with his very human and universal emotions coming off the page. Some of his insights on relationships were mind shaking. His different perspective fresh and illuminating. And some of his irrational and non-scientific beliefs were shocking. But overall a book about what it is to be human. Interesting and a good read. On par with and certainly better than some of his fiction.
December 23, 2011
This is a collection of short essays about Crichton's days at Harvard Med School and internship, the various travels and expeditions that he made throughout his life, and his metaphysical journeys. I was very interested in reading the chapters about the latter, expecting that I would be reading about his experiences with meditation, zen, religion, philosophy...etc. Indeed, it began with that, but before long we find Mr. Crichton visiting psychics, going on retreats, playing with auras, and attending spoon bending parties. Strange things start happening and I found them hard to believe, especially coming from a former doctor and skeptical critic of global warming and second-hand smoke.
Crichton's writing is wonderful, the stories are personal and interesting, and each one ends with a bit of insight. He was a very intelligent and thoughtful person, and I really liked him for most of the book, but when someone expects me to believe that you can bend a spoon with your mind...I'm sorry - I just can't buy that one. If you can bend a spoon, then bending the handle of your ceramic coffee cup should be no problem, show me that! Or, instead of bending the spoon, why not s t r e t c h it out like silly putty...why does't anyone do that? Because it isn't real, that's why!
So I ended up enjoying the book and the author less and less as I continued reading. I don't know what to think of Crichton now...I somewhat believe that he may have been a mixed up person. For sure, a complex person. The book does delve into issues that he had growing up.
Worth reading, but it seems to be an artifact of the New Age era and probably some confused or wishful thinking on Crichton's part, may he rest in peace...
Crichton's writing is wonderful, the stories are personal and interesting, and each one ends with a bit of insight. He was a very intelligent and thoughtful person, and I really liked him for most of the book, but when someone expects me to believe that you can bend a spoon with your mind...I'm sorry - I just can't buy that one. If you can bend a spoon, then bending the handle of your ceramic coffee cup should be no problem, show me that! Or, instead of bending the spoon, why not s t r e t c h it out like silly putty...why does't anyone do that? Because it isn't real, that's why!
So I ended up enjoying the book and the author less and less as I continued reading. I don't know what to think of Crichton now...I somewhat believe that he may have been a mixed up person. For sure, a complex person. The book does delve into issues that he had growing up.
Worth reading, but it seems to be an artifact of the New Age era and probably some confused or wishful thinking on Crichton's part, may he rest in peace...
June 9, 2013
I think I first saw the cover of this book when I was about 13 and the mystery of it grabbed me even then. It’s a hard to find book. Not as popular as Crichton’s works of fiction. But I happened upon a copy a few weeks ago and devoured it in two days.
Travels is the story of Crichton’s life from Harvard medical school to internationally acclaimed author of Sphere and Jurassic Park. But what makes it more than a jerk-off self-important autobiography is how Crichton talks openly and honestly about his search for truth and meaning in life. His adventures– and misadventures– span the entire world and beyond, venturing into the realm of metaphysics and transcendental meditation.
We travel with Crichton to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and witness the disintegration of his marriage. We venture into the jungles of Africa to visit the last wild gorillas with him. He takes us meditating in the California desert, and introduces us to a talking cactus. Crichton spent his life researching the edges of humanity, the fringes of what we are capable of. At time, what he finds is disappointing. But I was left with more of a sense of how we are all connected to each other, possibly on a quantum mechanics level, even.
Reader beware, this nonfiction book pushes the boundaries of believability at points, especially toward the end as Crichton begins to see auras and discovers he might be possessed by a few demons.
But it was a hell of a ride and everything I had hoped it could be. And I have a profound respect for the writer, now. Not just for his economy of words but for his gall to be so honest with his readers.
Travels is the story of Crichton’s life from Harvard medical school to internationally acclaimed author of Sphere and Jurassic Park. But what makes it more than a jerk-off self-important autobiography is how Crichton talks openly and honestly about his search for truth and meaning in life. His adventures– and misadventures– span the entire world and beyond, venturing into the realm of metaphysics and transcendental meditation.
We travel with Crichton to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and witness the disintegration of his marriage. We venture into the jungles of Africa to visit the last wild gorillas with him. He takes us meditating in the California desert, and introduces us to a talking cactus. Crichton spent his life researching the edges of humanity, the fringes of what we are capable of. At time, what he finds is disappointing. But I was left with more of a sense of how we are all connected to each other, possibly on a quantum mechanics level, even.
Reader beware, this nonfiction book pushes the boundaries of believability at points, especially toward the end as Crichton begins to see auras and discovers he might be possessed by a few demons.
But it was a hell of a ride and everything I had hoped it could be. And I have a profound respect for the writer, now. Not just for his economy of words but for his gall to be so honest with his readers.
August 1, 2018
This was my second time reading this (it's been a little over 10 years since the last read) but I really enjoyed it again. It's a "page turner," and it confirmed something I've been noticing this year: it's super-interesting to read memoirs that are only slightly out-of-date (versus, you know, Ben Franklin's memoir). This was written about Crichton's literal travel plus his metaphysical experiences in the '70's and '80's, and it was so intriguing to notice the big and little changes that have come about since then. Even Crichton's thoughts and attitudes are interesting, and sometimes anachronistic. Anyway, if you like Crichton's book/film work you'll like this, and if you want to blast back in time to the '80's cutting-edge "New Age" lifestyle of corny mysticism and neon fanny packs here you go!
September 4, 2023
This book was read to me. A very interesting autobiography. It seemed to me an open honest
account, sometimes self critical . Crichton is a very talented writer and that talent pervades
his own account of his tragically short life.
account, sometimes self critical . Crichton is a very talented writer and that talent pervades
his own account of his tragically short life.
May 10, 2024
Like hanging out with one of my heroes. And because it’s a Crichton book, I learned so much.
January 2, 2011
Michael Crichton, ubermensch (medical doctor, best-selling novelist, screenwriter and film director--all by the age of 30), wrote a book about traveling, both to places like Borneo and Tibet, as well as to inner destinations: spirituality, astral-projection, self-hypnosis, spoon-bending, channeling, etc.
Clearly, for all his remarkable intellectual gifts, Crichton was not given a spiritual barometer when he was young. So, after seeing his inadequate responses to life's difficulties, he set out to undesrstand the unseen world. This is what he found:
"I believe the experiences reported in this book are reproducible by anyone who wishes to try. I went to Africa. You can go to Africa. You may have trouble arranging the time or the money, but everybody has trouble arranging something. I believe you can travel anywhere if you want to badly enough. And I believe exactly the same thing is true of inner travel. You don't have to take my word about chakras or healing energy or auras. You can find out about them if you want to. Be as skeptical as you like. Find out for yourself."
I was astounded as well by Crichton's warts-and-all honesty. He openly discusses his romantic failings, his personal weaknesses, and his ignorance. He reveals what the rest of us mortals suspect: that even the Olympians have troubles. He also reveals how a true student of life deals with doubt: he sets out to get the information to either prove or disprove it.
So, in my opinion, if honesty is esteemed as highly as it should be, Crichton was not just a great artist, he was also a great human being and this book deserves your consideration.
Clearly, for all his remarkable intellectual gifts, Crichton was not given a spiritual barometer when he was young. So, after seeing his inadequate responses to life's difficulties, he set out to undesrstand the unseen world. This is what he found:
"I believe the experiences reported in this book are reproducible by anyone who wishes to try. I went to Africa. You can go to Africa. You may have trouble arranging the time or the money, but everybody has trouble arranging something. I believe you can travel anywhere if you want to badly enough. And I believe exactly the same thing is true of inner travel. You don't have to take my word about chakras or healing energy or auras. You can find out about them if you want to. Be as skeptical as you like. Find out for yourself."
I was astounded as well by Crichton's warts-and-all honesty. He openly discusses his romantic failings, his personal weaknesses, and his ignorance. He reveals what the rest of us mortals suspect: that even the Olympians have troubles. He also reveals how a true student of life deals with doubt: he sets out to get the information to either prove or disprove it.
So, in my opinion, if honesty is esteemed as highly as it should be, Crichton was not just a great artist, he was also a great human being and this book deserves your consideration.
July 1, 2016
I really wish if I hadn't read this book. I had such an image of Crichton as a perfect, well read scientist and man in general. Some of the things he did in his life I find appaling and they didn't really make sense, especially for a man with his level of education and upbringing. Also, the writing style itself in this book was filled with clichés and it was, to say the least, tacky and unlike his writing style in Fiction, which was well executed and beautiful. I cannot believe that this is the same man who wrote Jurassic Park, The Lost World and Congo, books that left me mystified till this day. This is my first experience with travel books and he kind of made me hate traveling to unique places. Whenever he travelled to some exotic site, he was never fully happy or satisfied. The most boring of all was his "journey" to discover his inward self. PLEEAASSEE....
June 19, 2014
Before reading this my impression of Crichton was that he seemed incredibly smart, was scientific in his thinking, and was very straight-laced. However, after reading this book, which is part travelogue and part autobiography, almost everything I guessed about him (except being incredibly smart) turned out to be wrong. Crichton discusses his fascination with seeing people's auras, channeling other energies, psychics, etc and spends a lot of his time learning how to do these things. You get the impression of a man who carries deeply rooted dysfunctions and doesn't feel like he fits in with the world. The entire book comes off as painfully honest and that makes it even more interesting.
December 1, 2014
Ardent Michael Crichton fan, so the review would be a bit biased.
I loved it!
It was a knowledgeable treat along with very powerful writing. For instance, I came to know about how unfair and cruel the US was (and probably still is) to unwed mothers.
It was also nice to know how Michael transformed his career from a medical field to becoming a full-time author and then experimenting with being a director.
All in all, a great read. Highly recommended!
I loved it!
It was a knowledgeable treat along with very powerful writing. For instance, I came to know about how unfair and cruel the US was (and probably still is) to unwed mothers.
It was also nice to know how Michael transformed his career from a medical field to becoming a full-time author and then experimenting with being a director.
All in all, a great read. Highly recommended!
May 1, 2007
I haven't given his fiction the time of day, but I was captivated by his real life experiences. He certainly knows how to tell a story, and man, he has some good ones. I can def. see where he gets his fuel for writing based on his reservoir of adventures.
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