SpiritWorld
A New Earth - Eckhardt Tolle - The Power of Now
Intelligence in Nature - Jeremy Narby - The Cosmic Serpent
The Wisdom of Yoga - Stephen Cope
Shadows
in the Sun: Travels to Landscapes of Spirit and Desire--Wade
Davis
Powerful encounters with natural peoples and places around the
globe, including a riveting chapter on Voudoun rites.
Shamanic
Voices: A Survey of Visionary Narratives--Joan Halifax
Fascinating collection of first-hand accounts and interviews with
aboriginal shamans from around the world. Most depend on psychoactive
aids as they enter dream states and trances to heal their people.
Most accounts also include stories of the shaman's own training
and initiation, as well as the mythological context of their culture.
Layayoga:
The Definitive Guide to the Chakras and Kundalini--Shyam Sundar
Goswami
"Definitive" is right. This exhaustive and scholarly work is a
compendium of ancient teachings viewed in the light of the western
scientific search for the chakras in the physical body. It combines
a common-sense and practical approach to spiritual discipline
with a deep grasp of the principles involved. For the serious
student of yoga.
The
Web of Life: A New Understanding of Living Systems--Fritjof
Capra
A challenging read but worth it, as Capra opens our perspective
of living systems beyond conventional definitions, to include
microscopic and macrocosmic patterns and processes of self-regulation
and evolution.
The
Tao of Chaos: Essence and the Enneagram--Stephen Wolinsky
Wolinsky examines the concept of chaos as it comes to us from
quantum physics, compares it to a Taoist philosophy of emptiness,
and then completes the picture in a novel way with the human dimension
of psychology. The framework he uses for this last aspect is the
Enneagram, the ancient Sufi system for classifying human personality
types. Wolinsky has the rare insight to see the common element
in all nine types: a fear of going back to, or a denial of the
reality of, an original state of emptiness/fullness experienced
in the womb. If we can manage to overcome this block with clear
awareness, we can free ourselves from addictive distractions and
come face to face with the underlying peace of the void, knowing
our present unity with all creation.
The
Camino--Shirley MacLaine
Shirley is flakey and homespun by turns, delving into Lemurian
lore here, dealing with diarrhea under a chestnut tree there.
An engaging and candid self-portrait of the famous actress as
she sheds her layers of fame and becomes a pilgrim walking the
historic trail to northwestern Spain.
My
Best Self: Using the Enneagram to Free the Soul--Kathleen
Hurley and Theodore Dobson
An original and in-depth use of the ancient personality system,
the Enneagram, to aid modern readers in doing soul-work. The emphasis
here is on seeing and recovering the energy of the repressed center
to help balance the excesses of the dominant center. (The three
centers of intelligence are the Creative, the Intellectual, and
the Relational). One's "Original Wound" in early childhood can
then be brought into active healing and can give us an avenue
toward greater wholeness.
The
Other Bible--Willis Barnstone,
ed.
Over years of exploring various aspects of alternative spirituality,
I've found bits and pieces to compare
and synthesize, but I never saw them compiled in one handy
reference book like this. If looking to original texts is your
cup of tea, The Other Bible will surely help. Alternative--usually
censored and repressed--scriptures of mainstream religions do
exist; it's just a matter of keeping them alive.
Tantra:
The Path of Ecstasy--Georg
Feuerstein
... In all the welter of new age theories and out-of-this-world
channelled knowledge, there is really nothing new, when we dig
deep enough into the roots of ancient Vedic and Buddhist teachings.
The Tantric path--so easily misrepresented in the popular Western
view as mere sexual technique--is here illuminated as a spiritual
tradition in the highest sense. Not for everyone, perhaps; but
I think that's because the teaching is so pure, the Unity at its
heart, so all-encompassing. How many of us are ready to go so
far through and beyond the limited human scope, to identify with
universal oneness, with the radiant interplay between matter and
energy that makes up suns and our own enlivened cells? True, our
kundalini energy is the way we are given to experience such dynamic
force in its immediacy, and it happens that sexuality--when both
primal and fully conscious--is the starter motor for that cosmic
engine of procreativity.
Breathing--Michael
Sky
When it comes right down to it, what practice of spiritual, physical,
or emotional healing is more central than breathing. From the
ancient spiritual traditions to rebirthing and the new age, Michael
Sky gives us a powerful insights into this most basic life function.
From Buddha to LeBoyer, his sources are right on the mark, and
through the clear, compelling writing--full of practical exercises
we can do even as we read--we can more fully grasp, first hand,
the importance of our first and every breath.
Maya
Cosmogenesis 2012--John Major Jenkins
...This book is a challenge and a delight.
Jenkins does a thorough job of scholarship in astronomy and mythology
to solve long-standing puzzles about the Mayan view of the cosmos.
Famous for their timekeeping, the Mayans now can be understood
to have had a visionary grasp of the galactic year, the 26,000
year cycle of precession, and to have imbued it with the significance
of religious meaning. Jenkins does not presume to lay out in concrete
terms what the event of 2012 portends: but he does paint a clear
picture of how celestial events will line up over ancient Mayan
monuments, and how this display corresponds to the mythological
tradition. With the additional influences of hallucinogenic substances,
and the mystery of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way,
we are in the realm of speculation and imagination. Jenkins does
his part well here, too; but ultimately we can only look to the
winter solstice of 2012 with a sense of increased wonder and readiness
for a transformation of consciousness. If nothing else, the turning
of a new galactic year gives us a sign saying, "Now is a time
of rebirth, of starting over. Are you ready to move forward with
us, your mothering stars, into a new cycle, a new beginning?"
Madouc--Jack
Vance
...concluding volume of the stellar
Lyonesse trilogy. The headstrong young princess has an excuse:
she's half fairy. Here's but a tiny jewel from this invented world
of old Europe, a mere footnote in the marvelous text:
sklemik:
*Untranslatable: a fairy word signifying
(1) passionate receptivity or involvement with each instant of
life; (2) a kind of euphoria induced by close attention to unpredictable
changes in the perceived surroundings as one instant metamorphoses
into the next; a dedicated awareness to NOW; a sensitivity to
the various elements of NOW. The concept of sklemik is relatively
simple and quite bereft of mysticism or symbol.
Playing
in the Zone: Exploring the Spiritual Dimensions of Sports--Andrew
Cooper
...intriguing look at what makes top
athletes tick, and how we more ordinary mortals can reach deeper
to perform better
Breaking
the Death Habit: The Science of Everlasting Life--Leonard
Orr
The father of rebirthing pulls out all the stops in this tribute
to Babaji, Jesus and the other immortal yogi masters. Down to
earth prose reads easily--and there are simple practices outlined
to enable anyone to join the ranks of the living for as long as
we're having fun. For an early glimpse at the rebirthing movement
Orr pioneered, see Rebirthing in the New
Age, below.
The
Power of Flow: Practical Ways to Transform Your Life with Meaningful
Coincidence-Charlene
Belitz and Meg Lundstrom
...A comprehensive primer on synchronicity
and flow, with techniques and exercises to inspire us to give
ourselves further to these currents of deliverance. Nothing new
here, but a good job of covering what is, after all, the most
important ground to walk on.
Liquid
Light of Sex: Kundalini Rising at Mid-Life Crisis--Barbara
Hand Clow
...Fills a fascinating niche between
tantra and astrology, cover such topics as the chiron square and
outer-planet transformation points. "The point of life on
earth is growth and experience, not adult control of all realities."
Synchronicity:
Science, Myth and the Trickster--Allan
Combs and Mark Holland
...Wonderfully comprehensive survey
of the intellectual currents surrounding synchronicity. Erudite
yet readable. Covers physics, neuroscience, psychology, myth,
divination, famous case histories.
The Mayan Oracle
...This western hemisphere answer to
the I Ching has always told me what I most needed to hear, just
when I most needed to hear it. My new favorite book of personal
prophecy and just plain universal wisdom.
Read an excerpt from it - click
here.
Something
in this Book is True--Bob
Frissell
...A student of Leonard
Orr and Drunvalo Melchizidek, Frissell follows his cult classic
Nothing in this Book is True...with this
patchwork sequel. His laziness is apparent here as he throws together
correspondence aimlessly tacked with personal anectdotes, tapes
of conversation, workshop notes, quotes from other writers. Still,
it's profound and well written in terms of explaining key and
interlinked concepts and fields of thought. And all about the
most important things to write about these days: earth changes,
soul changes, dealing with our emotions. Whether we call them
our emotional body or our shit, we have--it seems to be the consensus
among the helping professions--to wade through it to get relief
from it. Frissell does engage us with a personable presentation
of heady stuff, core stuff of contemporary and ancient wisdom.
Who cares if it's mostly second-hand? We thank Frissell for doing
his homework for us, keeping up with the hottest trends, and putting
it all together in a good read that we can find, to be honest,
difficult to put down. Keywords you might find here include: spiritual,
psychological, self-help, new-age, personal development, neurolinguistic
programming, prosperity consciousness, rebirthing breathing, conscious
breathing, present time, now, Be Here Now, perfection of all that
is, vajrayana, flow, timelessness, quantum theory, parapsychology,
holographic principle, chaos theory, fractal geometry, unity consciousness,
universal mind, flower of life, forgiveness, integration, transformation,
original joy?
Rebirthing
in the New Age--Leonard Orr
and Sondra Ray
...A classic by the founders of a worldwide
movement of breath therapy, prosperity consciousness, release
from parental disapproval, and belief in physical immortality.
Told with vivid personal recollection and searing, experienced
insight.
Focusing--Eugene Gendlin
...A no-nonsense, step-by-step approach
for contacting a "felt sense" of emotion and its causes
in present time.
The
Way of the Lover: The Awakening and Embodiment of the Full Human--Robert
Augustus Masters
...This book is written to knock socks
off at every point, and to keep them off. The spiritual heat is
on: can you handle the fire?
Jewel
in the Lotus: The Sexual Path to Higher Consciousness--Sunyata
Saraswati and Bodhi Avinasha
...A complete yet readable course in
Tantric practice and Kriya Yoga: the best I've seen on the subject.
Accompanies a set of 3 videos.
Journey
of Awakening: A Meditator's Guidebook--Ram
Dass
...A compendium of spiritual practices
and approaches to truthful living. No one could have done it better
than the author of Be Here Now.
The Last Self Help Book Before Getting
Results--Jerome Lund
...the simplest, most effective and
liberating approach to self-help I've seen, redefining "spiritual"
in sensible and practical terms ("universal mind and power")
and empowering us with our connection to it.
When
Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times--Pema
Chodron
...Buddhist nun brings teachings to
everyday language and life; when things are tough, we can embrace
the opportunity to get real. Every sentence strikes to the heart
of truth.
Crow
Dog: Four Generations of Sioux Medicine Men--Leonard
Crow Dog and Richard Erdoes
...from Wounded Knee I to Wounded Knee
II. First-hand stories of one family integral to native struggles
for survival, with lessons for us all.
Time
and the Art of Living--Robert
Grudin
...an ambitious topic: handled with
mastery, grace, and great insight
Close
Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abduction, UFOs, and the
Conference at MIT--C.D.B.
Bryan
...spiritual? Maybe not; but you'll
be sleeping watchfully after reading this
Storming
Heaven: LSD and the American Dream--Jay
Stevens
...traces the pschedelic movement's
origins, peaks and crash: an expert view
The Five Tibetans-Christopher
S. Kilham
...best concise book on yoga and meditation
I've seen
Nothing in This Book is True, But it's Exactly How Things
Are-Bob Frissell
...rewrites the definition of out-there
to include what's in-here. This book satisfies the left-brain's
wish to know; for the right-brain sequel, see Something
in this Book is True, above.
The interesting thing about Nothing
is, there's a lot about aliens and so on which does strain credulity.
But there's also a strong core of chapters in that book about
"sacred geometry" which is undeniably, graphically true to our
left-brain brand of knowing. From that core you can believe whatever
you like about the rest--and in this book it's all there laid
out in plain view.
For a pricier but more original handling
of all this material, you can go to Bob Frissell's mentor Drunvalo
Melchezedek. Drunvalo has a new book out called The
Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life.
Neurospeak-Robert Masters
...exercises to enhance body-mind awareness
Hyperspace-Michio Kaku
...an almost understandable tour of
the higher physics
Warriors
of the Rainbow--Willoya
and Brown
...The original retold legend that inspired
Greenpeacers
Legend of the Rainbow Warriors-McFadden
...priceless interviews with native
elders and visionaries
Providence-Daniel Quinn
...behind the scenes of Ishmael; Quinn's own spiritual odyssey
The
Quickening-Stuart
Wilde
...irreverent guide to spiritual freethinking
Emerson: The Mind on Fire-Robert
Richardson
...complete biography by one who knows
Emerson inside and out
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