Penny Sartori is a registered nurse who began researching Near Death Experiences (NDEs) in 1995 after one of her long-term intensive care patients begged her to let him die in peace. The event shook her deeply and eventually led her to enroll in a PhD program to research NDEs. The findings, along with the profound spiritual lessons that she has gleaned from her work, are published here.   During her academic work, Dr. Sartori studied three samples of ICU patients during a five year period. The first consisted of 243 patients from the first year of data collection who survived their ICU experience. Of those, two experienced an NDE, and two an out-of-body experience (OBE). The second cohort consisted of survivors of cardiac arrest during the five year period. Of those, 39 patients (or 18%) experienced an NDE. The third cohort consisted of all the patients who experienced an NDE during the five year period. Their stories are captured in her new book.  One patient in particular, patient number 10, stands out for Dr. Sartori. “He was in bad condition,” she says. “When we put him into bed he was unconscious and unresponsive. Later he reported an OBE. He was accurately able to tell us which doctor was in the room and what he had said while he was unconscious. He claimed to have met his deceased father and a Jesus-like figure. But the most extraordinary part was that afterwards he was able to use his hand, which had been paralyzed since birth. There is no medical explanation for how that healing occurred.”   When asked about the biggest takeaway from her research, Dr. Sartori says, “In medicine, we’re trained to believe that the brain gives rise to consciousness. My research into NDEs has made me question this prevailing paradigm, which admittedly is very widespread. The most important lesson for me has been a deeper appreciation for death and a whole lot less fear and anxiety about it.”   In addition to detailing dozens of case studies, the book also discusses childhood NDEs, differences in NDEs among different cultures, and the after-effects of NDEs--one of which is the inability, in some patients, to wear a wrist-watch.

    You’ll discover what you can do to put an end to the habitual thoughts and emotions that limit your consciousness. By tapping into traditions of meditation and mindfulness, author and spiritual teacher Michael A. Singer shows how the development of consciousness can enable us all to dwell in the present moment and let go of painful thoughts and memories that keep us from achieving happiness and self-realization.Copublished with the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) The Untethered Soul begins by walking you through your relationship with your thoughts and emotions, helping you uncover the source and fluctuations of your inner energy. It then delves into what you can do to free yourself from the habitual thoughts, emotions, and energy patterns that limit your consciousness. Finally, with perfect clarity, this book opens the door to a life lived in the freedom of your innermost being.

    For the first time, medical knowledge took on a precision that had formerly belonged only to mathematics. The body became something that could be mapped. Disease became subject to new rules of classification. And doctors begin to describe phenomena that for centuries had remained below the threshold of the visible and expressible.In The Birth of the Clinic the philosopher and intellectual historian who may be the true heir to Nietzsche charts this dramatic transformation of medical knowledge. As in his classic Madness and Civilization, Michel Foucault shows how much what we think of as pure science owes to social and cultural attitudes — in this case, to the climate of the French Revolution. Brilliant, provocative, and omnivorously learned, his book sheds new light on the origins of our current notions of health and sickness, life and death.

    The only way to create a healthy relationship with food and stop battling with your weight is to change the way you think about food. This is the missing piece of the eating puzzle.  Once you change your thinking, your eating and your body will change.  Simply by practicing the five steps presented in this book, you will never again need to worry about food or your weight. HERE'S HOW YOU WILL BENEFIT: Learn to make wise food and eating choices, permanently change the way you eat and think about food, end your weight struggle forever and free yourself from food worries, learn to accept your body.

    Beneath the surface, many anxieties, worries, and fears are associated with death. 'Relax, You Are Going To Die' is an invitation to examine your relationship with death and your ability to live with grace and dynamic vitality.The question of death and dying is an inseparable part of a spinning two headed coin. One side says "dying", and the other says "living". This book was written in order to help you see the spinning coin more clearly and to help you deepen your relationship to the mystery of living and dying, which is the basis of living a wise, kind, and beneficial life.

    A collection of truly comforting, down-to-earth thoughts and meditations -- including the authentic voices of survivors -- for anyone grieving the loss of a loved one.

    It is about being awake and in touch with what is going on here and now. When the Buddha was asked to sum up his teaching in a single word, he said, "Awareness." The Buddha taught how to see directly into the nature of experience. His observations and insights are plain, practical, and down-to-earth, and they deal exclusively with the present. In Buddhism Plain and Simple, Steve Hagen presents these uncluttered, original teachings in everyday, accessible language unencumbered by religious ritual, tradition, or belief.

    Mehmet Oz, Suzanne Somers has repeatedly opened up new terrain to health seekers worldwide. And now, with "Bombshell, " she does it again. Acting like your personal medical detective, she has found the most advanced scientists, doctors, and health professionals and gotten them to share jaw-dropping advances that will stop deterioration and set you on the path to restoration and healthy longevity.By taking advantage of these new bombshell advancements, you can live longer than ever with great quality of life, and experience a different way to age: with great health, strong bones, vitality, a working brain, and sizzling sexuality. All of it is yours for the taking if you are willing to make some simple, effective changes.In "Bombshell" you will learn about explosive medical secrets utilizing the groundbreaking technologies of today, or the very near future, that will allow us all to truly maintain the fountain of youth, including: How nanobots, small robots the size of blood cells, will be injected into the human bloodstream to clean the blood supply and literally wipe out today s most feared diseases How stem cell procedures, using one s own adult stem cells, can be used to prevent disease and even regrow body parts; including how Suzanne s breast was reconstructed after cancer with no implant in the first clinical trial of its kind in the United States How balancing hormones with bioidentical hormone replacement therapy can improve your internal health, well-being, vitality, looks, and sex drive How the cure to cancer might be just around the corner by preventing it at the source with injections of human, cancer-resistant white blood cells How a supplement to regrow telomeres at a cellular level will restore the human body to a younger internal age and reverse signs of aging such as disease, baldness, wrinkles, and loss of hearing and eyesight. And it s available now! One after another, she shares the breakthroughs that you can use today to keep you in top shape so you can embrace the near future and all it will have to offer."

    Each time she faced the death of a beloved pet, along with the pain came the same questions, to which she could find no answers. Then, mysterious things began to happen that she couldn’t explain, which led her on an incredible journey to uncover the truth. Along with her own extraordinary experiences, she compiled heartwarming and meaningful true stories of everyday people around the world, and discovered compelling evidence that forever erased her own doubts about an afterlife for animals.      This book provides enormous comfort and reassurance to anyone who has ever cherished a pet, and food for thought for anyone who has ever questioned the place of these beloved creatures in the larger scheme of things, both here on Earth and beyond.

    In college, I ran against Kenyans, and wondered whether endurance genes might have traveled with them from East Africa. At the same time, I began to notice that a training group on my team could consist of five men who run next to one another, stride for stride, day after day, and nonetheless turn out five entirely different runners. How could this be?We all knew a star athlete in high school. The one who made it look so easy. He was the starting quarterback and shortstop; she was the all-state point guard and high-jumper. Naturals. Or were they?The debate is as old as physical competition. Are stars like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, and Serena Williams genetic freaks put on Earth to dominate their respective sports? Or are they simply normal people who overcame their biological limits through sheer force of will and obsessive training?The truth is far messier than a simple dichotomy between nature and nurture. In the decade since the sequencing of the human genome, researchers have slowly begun to uncover how the relationship between biological endowments and a competitor’s training environment affects athleticism. Sports scientists have gradually entered the era of modern genetic research.In this controversial and engaging exploration of athletic success, Sports Illustrated senior writer David Epstein tackles the great nature vs. nurture debate and traces how far science has come in solving this great riddle. He investigates the so-called 10,000-hour rule to uncover whether rigorous and consistent practice from a young age is the only route to athletic excellence.Along the way, Epstein dispels many of our perceptions about why top athletes excel. He shows why some skills that we assume are innate, like the bullet-fast reactions of a baseball or cricket batter, are not, and why other characteristics that we assume are entirely voluntary, like an athlete’s will to train, might in fact have important genetic components.This subject necessarily involves digging deep into sensitive topics like race and gender. Epstein explores controversial questions such as:Are black athletes genetically predetermined to dominate both sprinting and distance running, and are their abilities influenced by Africa’s geography?Are there genetic reasons to separate male and female athletes in competition?Should we test the genes of young children to determine if they are destined for stardom?Can genetic testing determine who is at risk of injury, brain damage, or even death on the field?Through on-the-ground reporting from below the equator and above the Arctic Circle, revealing conversations with leading scientists and Olympic champions, and interviews with athletes who have rare genetic mutations or physical traits, Epstein forces us to rethink the very nature of athleticism.

    Danticat circles the many forms death takes, shifting fluidly from examples that range from Toni Morrison's Sula to Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, to deliver a moving tribute and work of astute criticism that will profoundly alter all who encounter it.

    Diligently treating the drug addicts of Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside with sympathy in his heart and legislative reform in mind can't be easy. But Maté never judges. His book is a powerful call-to-arms, both for the decriminalization of drugs and for a more sympathetic and informed view of addiction. As Maté observes, "Those whom we dismiss as 'junkies' are not creatures from a different world, only men and women mired at the extreme end of a continuum on which, here or there, all of us might well locate ourselves." In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts begins by introducing us to many of Dr. Maté's most dire patients who steal, cheat, sell sex, and otherwise harm themselves for their next hit. Maté looks to the root causes of addiction, applying a clinical and psychological view to the physical manifestation and offering some enlightening answers for why people inflict such catastrophe on themselves.Finally, he takes aim at the hugely ineffectual, largely U.S.-led War on Drugs (and its worldwide followers), challenging the wisdom of fighting drugs instead of aiding the addicts, and showing how controversial measures such as safe injection sites are measurably more successful at reducing drug-related crime and the spread of disease than anything most major governments have going. It's not easy reading, but we ignore his arguments at our peril. When it comes to combating the drug trade and the ravages of addiction, society can use all the help it can get. --Kim Hughes

    In this caring book, Gary Kowalski offers warmth, guidance and wisdom for anyone facing this loss. It is a compilation of heart-warming stories, verse and photographs to provide comfort.

    By telling stories of the rituals of his native West African Dagara culture, and of his own experiences in the tribal community, he makes a convincing case that the lack of ritual in the Western world is a fundamental reason that the fabric of society is unraveling. "The hurt that a person feels in the midst of this modern culture should be taken as a language spoken by the body," writes Somé. "Our soul communicates things to us that the body translates as need, or want, or absence. So we enter into ritual in order to respond to the call of the soul." The name Malidoma means "he who is to be friends with the stranger/enemy," and Somé, who has doctorates from the Sorbonne and Brandeis, abandoned his teaching career at Brandeis at the instruction of village elders to devote himself completely to speaking and, with his wife Sobonfu, conducting workshops on ritual."The question is, can the modern world find ways to perceive the subtle knowledge and imagery of the tribal world? Can Western understanding open a place for tribal visions of spiritual life and community rituals to enter? Malidoma Somé is uniquely qualified to find the thresholds between the worlds and hold the gates open." —Michael Meade

    Amy chronicles her harrowing medical journey from the first misdiagnosis to her astonishing recovery after her heart transplant, which is made all the more dramatic by the romantic bedside courtship with her future husband, and her uncompromising desire to become a mother. She presents a patient's perspective of life after a heart transplant with honesty.