an 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

A few good parts. mostly self indulgent rambling. If I did not have a policy of finishing a book I start I probably would have quit after the section on medical school. This may be the book that makes me rethink my finish what you started attitude towards reading. Could have spent my time on many better books

I confess I've never read a novel by Michael Crichton (though I have seen some of his films and films based on his works), but after reading this non-fiction book of his, I'm more inclined to give some of his fictional work a chance. True, his writing is not exactly Shakespearean in quality, but in terms of readability it is some of the best prose I've come across in quite a while - definitely a page-turner, as they say. The title of the book is somewhat misleading - it's not just about physical travel, but also about metaphysical 'travels', and some of the book isn't really about travel at all; the first few chapters are about his experiences as a medical student, although I found those stories to be just as interesting as any of the later ones. The book is a bit of a mish-mash, to be quite honest. Sometimes he sticks to recounting things that happened to him on a trip to a remote part of the world, and at other times he starts discussing his relationship issues, psychological queries, or problems with his father, for example. But for me, almost all of it was worth reading and kept me hooked. The epilogue is essentially an essay which was meant to be a speech he was to give to scientists skeptical of mystical phenomena - I found this the most well-written part of the book (perhaps because it is more formal), and the most persuasive. One of the things that most surprised me about Crichton is that he had this other side to him which didn't seem to appear in his fictional writings, which appear to be more based in rational science (although I could be wrong since I haven't actually read any of them beyond the usual synopsis). Anyway, I'm glad this was brought back into print by Vintage Books - I downloaded the e-book version and I read it and finished it faster than any other e-book I've read before, so I guess that says something in itself.

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.

Firstly, it is not a travelogue. It is partly the medical-school memoirs of the author. Partly, short accounts of his travels. Largely standard-fare and ignorable if you are not a Crichton fan. But surprise, surprise ! After chapters on sharks, gorillas and turtles turns up a chapter on mystical experiences. And this was not a one-off but the last 20-25% is about a variety of paranormal experiences personally experienced by the author. And ending with an excellent essay exhorting scientists to consider paranormal experiences with an open mind. I would highly recommend reading this part of the book which starts with the chapter titles "Cactus teachings". And I will certainly be picking up more on this and related topics.
Michael Crichton is my all-time fav author. And this was the only book by him that was still TBR and finally picked it up. And I may finally understand where the author's Sphere came from !

Had a difficult time getting through this one, but it was mostly enjoyable and interesting. It's less about travel and more about personal experience, written by a man who values self improvement and discovery, and an open mind.

This is great. I was fascinated how a man of Science explored the mystical and paranormal and reconciled within himself a respect for both sides.

It was surprising and interesting to read about Crichton's travels in the normal sense of the word and his 'inner travel' adventures. It's not your average 'travel' book.

The only bits that dragged for me were some of the relationship difficulties that he describes. I wanted to sympathise with him or her, but I decided that I couldn't care less and wanted to get back to the discoveries he makes during his travels.

Overall a really good read, thought provoking and satisfying.

Was all that new age stuff that Crichton explores back then a passing fad ? To some extent there seems less of it around these days. Or maybe, now that I have aged, I just dismiss it because I generally find this stuff tedious and maybe being youger equates to being more open minded.

But no..it's like believing in fairies at the bottom of the garden. I just don't buy it. More strength to Crichton though if nothing else he approaches with an open mind and reserves judgement. Maybe that's the lesson for me !

8 LESSONS I LEARNED FROM READING ‘TRAVELS’ BY MICHAEL CRICHTON

When I was younger, I was fascinated with books. Without the distraction of handheld screens or good TV shows, books had a way of transporting me to a far off place, filled with eccentric characters and locations that came alive in my young, imaginative mind. And for me, the best storyteller out there was Michael Crichton.

I hung on every word of his best selling books. The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Sphere, Congo, Rising Sun, The Great Train Robbery, the list went on and on.

Somewhere in the phase of rebellion that was my late teens and early 20s, my love for reading books waned. Luckily, this quarantine has given me plenty of free time and I have started opening (and actually reading) books again! So when I looked down and found a copy of ‘Travels’ by Michael Crichton in my hands, I knew I had to read it.

It’s one of Crichton’s few non-fiction book, and as you can guess by the name, it’s about his experiences traveling the world…as well as some other worlds. As a travel addict, naturally, I had to dig in and start reading it. And as usual with Crichton’s writing, the 376 pages go by quickly, as he weaves experience after experience into a long form campfire chat.

As I read through the stories of Crichton’s life, I learned a lot. Whether he was MEANING to teach his audience these lessons, or if he just had the urge to write his memoirs due to boredom, we will never know, as Crichton passed away in 2008.

I have put together a list of some of these lessons, which hopefully will inspire you to read this interesting and thought provoking semi-autobiography of one of the best novelists the world has ever seen.


‘If Anyone Can Be the Poster Boy for “Do What Makes You Happy, Instead of Taking Easy Success”, it is Michael Crichton’

Growing up reading his novels, I didn’t know much about Michael Crichton except his name. But from the first page of the book, it became apparent that this giant of a man (he stood 6’9) was a genius. And not the loosely thrown around term ‘genius,’ but an actual genius. He attended Harvard, but while at Harvard, he decided he didn’t really know what he wanted out of school. So in addition to his anthropology studies, Crichton enrolled in Harvard Medical School, because, why not? He talks about how his early experiences with medicine were so negative, he would faint when given an injection or when having his blood drawn. It seems that it was obvious to Crichton from an early age that he wouldn’t want to be a doctor. It seems even more obvious once he started medical school. But, still, he slugged through and graduated. All of a sudden, Michael Crichton was a doctor.

As I stated above, there was one problem. Michael Crichton didn’t want to be a doctor. He wanted to be a writer. He grew up learning how to tell stories on paper from his father, who was a journalist. He began writing at a young age, writing a 9-page puppet show with a large number of characters as an assignment in the 3rd grade. At just 14-years-old, he sold a travel article on his family’s adventure to Sunset Crater National Monument in Arizona. Who did he sell it to? The New York Times, of course.

So, with dreams of being a writer, what did Dr. Crichton do when he graduated medical school? Not practice medicine. He never practiced a day of medicine in his life. He wanted to be a writer. Why waste time with being a doctor? So in this day of age where seemingly every Instagram ‘Influencers’ screams from ‘Just quit your job and travel…do what makes you happy!’, well, Michael Crichton practically invented that trend. He could have easily become an MD, making a great living owning a private practice or as an ER doctor, but he chose to follow his dream and write instead, which could have made him live like many other starving artists. But through hard work, and of course, amazing content, he was able to become an incredibly successful author and director, making millions of dollars in the process. But, maybe he did second guess his decision, or wonder what his life could have been like. While he never lived the actual life of an ER doctor, he was enamored with the thought of it enough to create and write an entire TV series based on life in an Emergency Room. And I hear it was a success. Maybe you heard of ER?

‘Never Judge A Book (Or In This Case, Its Author) By Its Cover’

The first 80 pages of the book focus on Crichton’s time in Harvard Medical School. The first chapter in the ‘Travels’ section of the book hilariously shows how Crichton is a doctor, yet, not a doctor, as he deals with a neighbor’s medical issue in his West Hollywood apartment building. Why does 1/4 of a book about travel not actually talk about travel? Well I hate to break it to you, but its actually even more than that! While a large majority of the book does take place in other locations while Crichton is off on an adventure, a good amount of the book takes place in Harvard, Los Angeles and the Southern Californian desert. Is this a bad thing? Not at all. Crichton does a brilliant job of weaving through locations, and each location is tied to one central theme. Finding yourself.

Yes, that’s right. Michael Crichton, successful author of countless blockbuster books was always looking to find himself. I always assumed a man as successful as Crichton would have it all. Money, happiness, and all of the answers. But I could not have been more wrong.

‘It’s Never To Late to Find Your Love of Travel’

Michael Crichton didn’t start traveling until after he graduated medical school. I can relate to this as I never left the United States until I was 27 years old. With travel becoming easier and easier to accomplish thanks to the advancement of online booking and the plethora of travel research available on the internet, people are starting to experience the world at a younger age. But as I learned in my experience, and as Crichton drives the point home, it’s never too late to find your love of the experiences that travel can bring. Except, unlike Crichton, I hadn’t already written a New York Times Bestseller, The Andromeda Strain, before I began my international adventures.

‘Money Doesn’t Necessarily Make for Better Travel Experiences’

Like I mentioned above, Crichton had already written the The Andromeda Strain, which became a New York Times Bestseller while Crichton was in his final year of medical school. While I don’t know his specific financial situation, it is safe to assume he wasn’t living on a shoestring budget on his maiden voyage. As his career progressed and he wrote more blockbuster novels and began writing and directing movies such as Westworld and The Great Train Robbery, Crichton was not hurting for cash. He talks about the extravagant hotels he would stay in, such as the infamous Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore, but usually those quick luxurious stays were short, as he was in transit to get off the grid. He would then stay in tents while climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, small houses made of thatched grass with the local tribes in the remote highlands of New Guinea, and even a military base in Pakistan.

In almost all of his experiences in his travels, things ultimately go wrong. He rarely easily finds what he came to see, if he does at all. His money and his fame couldn’t always buy him success or comfort on his journeys.

‘It’s OK to Travel and NOT Know What You Are Looking For’

Crichton was on a constant journey of self-discovery. He freely admits every travel adventure he had taken was because he was unhappy with something in his day to day life. While his travels and experiences always had an actual, physical goal, it’s easy to see that this was not the actual purpose for his movements. His true desire was to escape what troubled him in his daily life and reset his inner self. While he knew what he came to see, what he didn’t know was what he had hoped to find.

‘Traveling’ Doesn’t Have to Refer to an Actual, Physical Destination’

When picking up a book called ‘Travels’ the last thing you would expect to be reading about is auras, chakras, psychics, fasting, spoon bending and conversations with a cactus. But, ultimately, a good chunk of the book is about just that. It becomes apparent that the term ‘Traveling’ doesn’t just mean getting on a plane and getting to the physical destination in his mind. In the end, in the pages of ‘Travels’ the author travels to Rwanda, Thailand, Pakistan, Kilimanjaro…and the Astral Plane.

Crichton was fascinated by achieving self-realization through the means above, as well as others. He details his journey in all of these experiences in great detail. What started as a curiosity quickly became real, as this Harvard educated MD claims that everyone has a degree of psychic ability. While I never really believed in any of what Crichton claims to have experienced, he doesn’t beat around the bush by telling the readers that HE believes in most of it. And in turn, who are YOU to judge his beliefs if you haven’t tried it for yourself. He drives that simple point home:

“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.”

He has a point. It looks like I may have to start thinking of ‘travel’ as more than just a stamp in my passport.

‘It’s About The Journey, Not The Destination!’

Ah, that age old cliched line we have all said and heard a million times. But Crichton masterfully details each of his experiences with little emphasis on the final result. The stories are all about his experiences attempting to achieve the final result, and the important lessons that the journey itself taught him.

One great example of this is when Crichton travels to Jamaica. He wants to visit a museum of early Jamaican artifacts in Spanish Town, so he and his girlfriend Terry set out. Crichton describes the tension as they realize this museum is in a rougher part of town. After a run in with some guys that left them shaken, Crichton leaves Terry in the car while he asks an unhelpful police officer where the museum is. As he returns to his car, he finds a man in his back seat as Terry sits up front. She tells Crichton that Lester is a tour guide and has offered to help. It quickly becomes obvious that Lester is not a tour guide, and he has no intention of getting out of the car. I won’t spoil the story, but the drama that ensues overtakes the sought after destination, and Crichton learns much more about himself from the experience than he does about Jamaican artifacts in the museum that he researched to help him craft his novel ‘Pirate Latitudes.’

‘Crichton Isn’t Always Likable, But He Sure As Hell is Honest’

As I stated above, Michael Crichton was an idol to me when I was younger. His books transported me out of my world and into his exciting fantasies. So when it became clear early on in the book that ‘Travels’ was his ‘memoir’ of sorts, I was excited to get to know the man that I looked up to growing up. At times throughout the book, I wish I hadn’t.

It’s obvious that Crichton could be kind of a jerk at times. And he never hides the fact that he was a damaged person. Maybe the most jarring experience in the book is when he talks about an experience entering a Thai brothel of underage girls with his friends. Now, it’s important to note that Crichton quickly writes that he had no interest and he left, but the way he casually recounts standing outside smoking a cigarette while waiting for his friend inside is hard to accept. But perhaps even more startling was the fact that none of the original book reviews I found from 1988, like the New York Times, even mention it.

Aside from this experience, Crichton displays his lack of interest in maintaining healthy relationships with the women he dates, and there is a number of them mentioned in this book (including 2 wives). But, through it all, he readily admits that his unhappiness was internal. His reaction to achieving his goal of directing a major motion picture? Disappointment, because what could he possibly do to top that now? Crichton comes off as slightly insecure and unhappy, which leads to his desire to travel, both physical and spiritual. Crichton beautifully describes how he takes each adventure to try to ‘find himself’ while concluding with the important lessons he learned along the way.

Through the course of the book, Crichton doesn’t attempt to hide his insecurities and the shortcomings in his personality. He is brutally honest about his life, and about himself, throughout the book. He could have easily crafted the stories to make you really like him as a person, but he doesn’t. Crichton is telling you HIS story about HIM…what good would lying to the readers be? His no-holds-barred honesty is appreciated as Crichton brings you on his wild journey of self discovery.

I hadn't traveled with the intention of learning about anything except myself.

The first time I read this book, probably twenty years ago, Crichton's experiences in the metaphysical made a lasting impression on me. He was a skeptic until he saw the evidence, and he describes lots of evidence in this book.

But don't believe him, he says. You don't have to take my word about chakras or healing energy or auras. You can find out about them yourself if you want to. Don't take my word for it. Be as skeptical as you like. Find out for yourself.

I learned a lot about the author. It was very interesting reading his travel journals.

This is a hard pass unfortunately. If you're hoping for a Crichton version of King's "On Writing", you're going to be extremely disappointed. This isn't that; Crichton barely touches on his writing in this book. If you're looking for a Crichton version of Gilbert's "Big Magic," well this isn't that either. He doesn't really try to impart any lessons to the reader, other than perhaps 'be more open minded.' To the extent this book has a Self-Help genre feel to it, it's clearly self-help for Crichton, not you.

If you're just a Crichton fan generally, again I can't recommend this to you. I went in to this book a huge Crichton fan, and came away mostly wishing I hadn't read it. It's little more than a narcissistic retelling of Crichton's vacations, and oh by the way he happens to find out during his endless adventures that he's a master of every quack fad you can think of, from astral projection to aura reading. You already knew he was a terrific writer, but I bet you didn't know he's secretly been Dr. Strange since the 1970's. Oy. (Oh and the child prostitution part that several of the other reviewers are apoplectic about is indeed as gross and weird as they say. He almost plays it for comedic effect, and it's just...icky. Maybe that was the point, but either way it doesn't make me want to recommend the book to you.) Bottom line: There are better books than this. If you just want to read some Crichton, skip this one and pick up virtually any other book he's ever written. Andromeda Strain, Sphere, Jurassic Park, etc. etc.

This is a frustrating book for someone like me. The cover pictured on Goodreads suggests it is basically about international travel. The cover of my edition should have hinted to me that it would not be specifically about that, given the stars on it. Anyway, this book is about three separate things: Crichton's training as a doctor, Chricton's international travel and what he calls his "inner travel." I'm going to talk about all three.
In the first part, Crichton discusses his education and training as a doctor. Crichton may strike you as misogynist and sexist now - and entirely too privileged - but he seems like he was a remarkably progressive doctor who really did care about patients. At least according to Chricton, this partly why he quit. If you can take him at face value - and you should be wary because he admits to writing this much later - this part is interesting both in how it illuminates institutional dysfunction and how it portrays the struggles of a smart, sensitive person in an institutional setting. (By the way, if you've read A Case of Need, which was written while he was working in these hospitals, it does seem like Chricton is giving a pretty fair account of himself, his feelings at the time and his problems with these hospitals.)
Next, we have the travel parts of the book divided into two types. The first time is international travel. These follow a pattern: Chricton goes somewhere or does something which he thinks he understands or can do and finds out he has grossly underestimated it - be it the task or the culture. Chricton then reflects upon what he learned. He does this over and over again and it makes him seem rather foolish and flawed. ?Now, he is writing with the benefit of hindsight so it's very possible he didn't understand a lot of this at the time. Like most great travel writing, Chricton's strength is to admit his personal struggles. (Nobody wants to read a travel writer who just has a ball and never struggles like a real traveler struggles.) Chricton may not be likable but he is relatable, which is key for me. But a number of these pieces are very brief and they get briefer as we get deeper into the other type of travel. If the book was just made up of this, or just made up of the medical section and this, I probably would have rated it fairly high, even though I would still prefer Paul Theroux.
But then we have the "inner travel." Look, whatever works for you, which makes you more mentally/emotionally healthy, you should do. If believing psychics makes you healthier, then that's fine. If "removing an entity" on the astral plain makes you healthier in the long-term, do it. That's not the problem I have with Chricton's discussion of his paranormal experiences. My problem is two fold. First of all, I always thought Chricton was a man of science. He has that reputation through his novels and for some public stances he's taken - cough Climate Change cough - where he has presented himself as such. But, second, and more importantly, I have no problem with religious beliefs unless you tell me I need to accept the truth of your religious beliefs. Chricton starts out telling us these things have happened to him - that I would already have a hard time to accept - but by the end of the book is insisting this is all real and just not yet understood, rather than just saying "this is a thing that happened to me." (There's a postscript in my edition which is much more forceful than the rest of the book.) James Randi will pay you $1 million if you can prove this stuff is real but nobody has. That should be enough. I don't understand why Chricton thought he could see auras or what have you, and if it made him feel better about himself, that's fine, but don't tell me this shit is real. It's not. The reason it cannot be observed by scientists is not because it's a form of creativity, it's because it's not in objective reality - whatever it is is completely subjective experience in your brain. (The postscript made me more mad, where Chricton goes on a tirade about scientism as if the existence of scientism - an ideology that only some scientists are really guilty of - is proof that the paranormal exists. It's absurd.)
The "inner travels" stuff was endlessly frustrating for me due to both Chricton's endless credulity -as if his subjective experience is a substitute for double blind testing - and his constant hedging about these experiences. Also, his final chapter about direct experience under-girds much of current political problems; yes, we should all try to have more experiences, but when you only trust your own personal experience, you reject the collective knowledge of humanity and that regularly leads you to insane beliefs, like the idea that a person can read your mind, that you can see an aura, or that a crowd of people which is clearly smaller than another crowd is actually bigger you were there.