Hi all,

I know, I'm new here. :) I'm in the process of smoothing over any oversights and rough spots in a book I've written and am interested in some feedback on my second attempt at a potential jacket blurb... I need something that will have wide appeal obviously, but that will help me to sound like I'm not an extremist without sounding like an apologist per se... :)

Any thoughts on this greatly appreciated :)

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Ike's Wager
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A strange remedy…
Bob tells a friend that the pills his doctor prescribed for stomach pain aren’t working. The friend says he thinks the doctor misdiagnosed the pain and all he needs to do is tape a penny to his chest and that copper from the penny will absorb into his skin and cure his stomach pain. In spite of how silly it sounds to him Bob stops taking the pills and tries the penny. Oddly enough his stomach pain subsides. Several months later, Bob sees his doctor again about stomach pain. Remembering his friend’s advice Bob asks the doctor about the penny. The doctor insists that there’s no scientific evidence that it could affect his stomach and that he shouldn’t use the penny because it might give him a rash instead. Bob tries his doctor’s new prescription with no luck. After a few days he decides to try the penny again in spite of his doctor’s advice and his stomach pain subsides. Bob tells his friend how the doctor said it couldn’t possibly affect his stomach. The friend replies, “I know. I actually don’t know how it works. I only know that it works. People insist on knowing why it works, so that’s what I tell them.” Bob is aghast! How he could possibly use a remedy without knowing how it works? His friend replies, “when you learned to drive, did you insist on knowing how the engine of your car works, or did you just turn the key in the ignition?”

The hubbub over humbug…
There’s been a lot of hubbub recently over resurgence in the popularity of New Thought philosophies, New Age beliefs, Synchronicity and just plain positive thinking. An awful lot of folks seem to think they need to be staunchly rooted in the New Age camp or in the camp of determinist skepticism. There are other alternatives… The goal of determinists and spiritualists alike is happy, healthy, productive living. The mechanic and the soccer mom have very different ideas about internal combustion, yet they drive the same car and arrive at the same destination safely. A person may benefit from their choices without knowing why they benefit or even that they benefit. If a motorist believes petroleum-drinking hamsters power their car, they’ll arrive at the destination just the same.

An Experimental Solution
Ike’s wager suggests one way in which the impasse between determinism and consciousness may be bridged. With a focus on traditional, non-quantum scientific research into fields of medicine, economics, evolution, neurobiology, behavior and psychology and a liberal dose of humor Ike’s Wager makes a strong case in plain language that an individual’s best bet for health and prosperity may lie in choosing seven specific non-determinist beliefs and that everyone around them may also benefit, even if determinism is true. This book seeks to create a compatibility of interest by suggesting that determinists may be absolutely right and still objectively benefit from choosing an alternative belief. While it’s important that we acknowledge an inconvenient truth, this book reminds us that there can also be a useful illusion.