[.ca] Kinship with All Life: Simple, Challenging, Real-Life ... (ISBN 0060609125)

Petting a Fly:
This is my all-time favorite book, and I am a voracious reader. I have taken its teachings to heart, and it has changed my life, along with the Kamana program (www.kamana.org). On June 24, 2004, I was sitting outside, and noticed a large fly sunning herself nearby. She was beautiful! (I am guessing female, because females are larger than males.) After admiring her a few minutes, I examined her from about 6 inches away. She had beautiful orange eyes with silver markings along the inside edges, four serrated/veined stripes down her back, transluscent wings, mottled/checkered abdomen, hairy legs, and definite feet. I later found it was Musca domestica. Recalling this "Kinship with All Life" book, I invited her to climb onto my hand. She did! I asked her if she wanted to play "Toss Up". Then I jerked my hand up, she flew off, and before my hand came down she had flown back down onto my finger. I tried again, even harder, but she firmly grasped my finger. I figured she didn't want to play any more. I asked her if she wanted me to pet her. She crawled off my finger onto the lid of lawn trimmings bin. I petted her three or four times with my left index finger. Then she crawled 2 inches away, sat a minute, then flew to a nearby flower. Overall, an amazing experience, and one I would not have thought to try if I had not read this book.

One of the BEST I've read:
This is a GREAT book! The fact that it was written a number of years ago, only adds to the fact that it is also rational. Written in a time where not many people believed or cared about animals feelings, it describes how the author's life is touched by an exceptional animal. He considers himself rational, but realizes-through teachings from Strongheart-that he needs some work. Far fetched?. . . Not at all. When you read the book in it's entirety, you'll experience Boone's life with Strongheart as if you were there. His chapters about energy being the common thread in all living things is not to be missed. It is one of the clear explanations as to how and why animals (including us)communicate the way we do. Perhaps if (reviewer) scoval300 would open his heart to a non-human friend he'd realize there is much more to that unconditional love they send to us all. Need glasses?

Inspirational:
When my friend gave me this book to read, I groaned inwardly. "Oh no," I said to myself, "not another cutsy-cutsy book about animals." Boy was I wrong! This little book is one of the most profound I have ever read. I certainly will never look at another creature ever again without recognizing the consciousness inhabiting it. The majority of the book is about the author's consciousness-raising experience with an amazing dog named Strongheart, who taught the author that every creature has within it an aware being. The story of the author's unfoldment of awareness is simply mind-blowing. I am going to buy and give away copies of this little book to all of my friends. It's NOT just about animals, and communication with them, but about life, the universe, and everything (no joke!). From his interaction with animals the author gained insight into the nature of existence itself. Even if every story in the book was made-up, it still wouldn't detract from it's impact -- these are well-written stories which all have a deep and inspiring message. I can't recommend this book highly enough, I consider it a must-read for every human being. Published in 1954, it is still in print, which should tell you something about the quality of this narrative. Enlightening and inspirational!

Delicate and profound, way ahead of its time:
Someone I know received an old copy of this book from the estate of an elderly English lady. What a gift! It is a series of stories about how a man learns to treat other living beings as his fellows rather than his inferiors. Sounds simple, but is it? Reading this book, one feels in contact with an open-minded and open-hearted individual, gifted with a rare willingness to be taught by life, who was rewarded richly for it. This book is both about animals and about the spiritual lessons the author receives from them. He emphasizes that it is on a spiritual level, and not the intellectual one, that "kinship with all life" is real. Certainly this book is in harmony with the great mystics of all religions, of whose teachings Boone appears to have been well aware. To think that these writings date from the 1940s and 50s! One can only admire such an individual. I finished the book with the impression that it was not only decades but perhaps centuries ahead of its time, and that it will someday be regarded as a lost classic, standing far apart from and above its age.

A Bit Far Fetched, I'd Say:
A weird book, written many years ago. I really think the author is a bit delirious---friendship with a fly..........? Judge for yourself. It has its good points, is easy and fast reading--makes some valid points about how humans should treat animals, that is true, but the whole book is just a bit far fetched. I would not recommend it.