Now there is a clear trail to the answer, and it leads through the dense jungle of quantum physics, Zen, and subjective experience, and arrives at an unexpected destination. In this tour-de-force of scientific investigation, Evan Harris Walker shows how the operation of bizarre yet actual properties of elementary particles support a new and exciting theory of reality, based on the principles of quantum physics-a theory that answers questions such as "What is the nature of consciousness, of will?" "What is the source of material reality?" and "What is God?"

    In A New Earth, renowned spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle describes how our current ego-based state of consciousness operates. The purpose of this book is to bring about a shift in consciousness, or in his words, an awakening. An essential part of this awakening is the recognition of the ego, and our attachment to things, the past, and enemies. In Oneness With All Life, Eckhart Tolle has picked the essential phrases and paragraphs-the gems of the book-that he feels are most important and reorganized them so readers can focus on the most powerful ideas. Beautifully packaged with evocative artwork and design, it is the perfect gift for anyone with a well-worn copy of A New Earth who wants deeper insight into this seminal work.

    Then, in a dramatic change, described by scientists as 'the greatest riddle in human history', all the skills & qualities that we value most highly in ourselves appeared already fully formed, as tho bestowed on us by hidden powers. In Supernatural Hancock sets out to investigate this mysterious before-&-after moment & to discover the truth about the influences that gave birth to the modern mind. His quest takes him on a detective journey from the beautiful painted caves of prehistoric France, Spain & Italy to rock shelters in the mountains of S. Africa, where he finds extraordinary Stone Age art. He uncovers clues that lead him to the Amazon rainforest to drink the hallucinogen Ayahuasca with shamans, whose paintings contain images of 'super-natural beings' identical to the animal-human hybrids depicted in prehistoric caves. Hallucinogens such as mescaline also produce visionary encounters with exactly the same beings. Scientists at the cutting edge of consciousness research have begun to consider the possibility that such hallucinations may be real perceptions of other dimensions. Could the supernaturals 1st depicted in the painted caves be the ancient teachers of humankind? Could it be that human evolution isn't just the meaningless process Darwin identified, but something more purposive & intelligent that we've barely begun to understand?AcknowledgementsPart 1: Visions 1: Plant that enables men to see the dead 2: Greatest riddle of archeology 3: Vine of souls Part 2: Caves 4: Therianthropy5: Riddles of the caves6: Shabby academy 7: Searching for a Rosetta Stone8: Code in the mind 9: Serpents of the Drakensberg10: Wounded healer Part 3: Beings 11: Voyage into the supernatural 12: Shamans in the sky 13: Spirit love 14: Secret commonwealth15: Here is a thing that will carry me away16: Dancers between worlds Part 4: Codes 17: Turning in to channel DMT18: Amongst the machine elves19: Ancient teachers in our DNA?20: Hurricane in the junkyard Part 5: Religions 21: Hidden Shamans22: Flesh of the GodsPart 6: Mysteries 23: Doors leading to another world Appendices Critics & criticisms of David Lewis-Williams' Neuropsychological theory of rock & cave artPsilocybe semilanceata-a hallucinogenic mushroom native to Europe / Roy Watlng Interview with Rick StrassmanReferences Index

    Known as Peak Experiences (PEs), these periods of extreme mental, emotional, and creative invigoration have often resulted in great achievements. Bestselling author Colin Wilson has long pursued the nature of PEs, and here are the results of his 40-year investigation. Through a wealth of engaging anecdotes, he reveals how the PEs of such historical figures as Yeats, Blake, and Sartre, among others, influenced their work. Plus, he offers clues to unlocking this spiritual power in our own lives.

    In the tradition of unsolved historical mysteries like David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon and Douglas Preston's The Lost City of the Monkey God, Brian Muraresku’s 10-year investigation takes the reader through Greece, Germany, Spain, France and Italy, offering unprecedented access to the hidden archives of the Louvre and the Vatican along the way.In The Immortality Key, Muraresku explores a little-known connection between the best-kept secret in Ancient Greece and Christianity. This is the real story of the most famous human being who ever lived (Jesus) and the biggest religion the world has ever known. Today, 2.4 billion people are Christian. That's one third of the planet. But do any of them really know how it all started?Before Jerusalem, before Rome, before Mecca—there was Eleusis: the spiritual capital of the ancient world. It promised immortality to Plato and the rest of Athens's greatest minds with a very simple formula: drink this potion, see God. Shrouded in secrecy for millennia, the Ancient Greek sacrament was buried when the newly Christianized Roman Empire obliterated Eleusis in the fourth century AD.Renegade scholars in the 1970s claimed the Greek potion was psychedelic, just like the original Christian Eucharist that replaced it. In recent years, vindication for the disgraced theory has been quietly mounting in the laboratory. The rapidly growing field of archaeological chemistry has proven the ancient use of visionary drugs. And with a single dose of psilocybin, the psycho-pharmacologists at Johns Hopkins and NYU are now turning self-proclaimed atheists into instant believers. No one has ever found hard, scientific evidence of drugs connected to Eleusis, let alone early Christianity. Until now.Armed with key documents never before translated into English, convincing analysis, and a captivating spirit of quest, Muraresku mines science, classical literature, biblical scholarship and art to deliver the hidden key to eternal life, bringing us to what clinical psychologist William Richards calls "the edge of an awesomely vast frontier."Featuring a Foreword by Graham Hancock, the New York Times bestselling author of America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization.

    Hofstadter's collection of quirky essays is unified by its primary concern: to examine the way people perceive and think.

    Black-and-white photographs.

    Co-editor Eduardo Punset--one of Spain's most loved personages for his popularization of the sciences--interviews an impressive collection of characters drawing out the seldom seen personalities of the world's most important men and woman of science. In Mind, Life and Universe they describe in their own words the most important and fascinating aspects of their research. Frank and often irreverent, these interviews will keep even the most casual reader of science books rapt for hours.Can brain science explain feelings of happiness and despair? Is it true that chimpanzees are just like us when it comes to sexual innuendo? Is there any hard evidence that life exists anywhere other than on the Earth? Through Punset's skillful questioning, readers will meet one scientist who is passionate about the genetic control of everything and another who spends her every waking hour making sure African ecosystems stay intact. The men and women assembled here by Lynn Margulis and Eduardo Punset will provide a source of endless interest.In captivating conversations with such science luminaries as Jane Goodall, James E. Lovelock, Oliver Sachs, and E. O. Wilson, Punset reveals a hidden world of intellectual interests, verve, and humor. Science enthusiasts and general readers alike will devour Mind, Life and Universe, breathless and enchanted by its truths.

    The most potential you can have on your contemplative path is a trusted teacher like Jack Kornfield, who stands out as one of the most helpful and encouraging Western instructors for newcomers to the art of meditation.With Guided Meditation, this renowned Buddhist teacher brings you six practices that will open the door to the serenity and joy of meditation, and serve as your foundation for years to come.Offering you precise guidance through every step of these transformational practices, Kornfield introduces you to:Basic sitting practice—The essential starting point for nurturing nonjudgmental spaciousness• The heart-opening techniques of lovingkindness and forgiveness meditation to help you discover liberation from suffering• A visualization exercise for overcoming difficulties by making direct contact with the voice of your highest wisdom• The gratitude and joy meditation, which nourishes an innocent rejoicing in life itself• Mind Like Sky—a practice to enter "original mind," the pure space of awareness that is consciousness itselfSince the time of the Buddha, meditation taught under the guidance of an expert has proven to be the easiest and most effective way to begin. Whether you are just starting out with meditation or have decided to reconnect with the ground of your practice, Jack Kornfield's Guided Meditation provides concise and gentle training of the heart and mind to enjoy the fruits of this centuries-old art.Course objectives:Apply the six guided meditation practices to cultivate love, awareness, and wisdom• Practice each of the six guided meditation practices as a way to cultivate stillness and "knowing"• Explore mindfulness practices related to awareness of the breath, loving kindness, forgiveness, visualization, gratitude, and the spaciousness of consciousness

    The result of that journey is a gorgeous, evocative meditation on fate, death, consciousness, and what it means to be human.The Darker the Night, The Brighter the Stars weaves a scientist's understanding of the mind - its logic, its nuance, how we think about what makes a person - with a poet's approach to humanity, that crucial and ever-elusive why. It's a story that unfolds through the centuries, along the path of humankind's constant quest to discover what makes us human, and the answers that consistently slip out of our grasp. It's modern medicine and psychology and ancient tales; history and myth combined; fiction and the stranger truth.

    Fearlessly pondering life’s end, Holloway examines how doubts too often paralyze people. He explains, “A sentence is not finished till it has a full stop, and every life needs a dying to complete it … Our brief finitude is but a beautiful spark in the vast darkness of space. So we should live the fleeting day with passion and, when the night comes, depart from it with grace.” Written in the context of organized religion’s structural difficulties, Looking in the Distance is a highly personal and meditative work that helps us better understand the myriad ways in which the human search for wholeness and healing can be approached. Accessible, funny, inquisitive and ever hopeful, it will inspire all who read it.

    Tart (b. '37) is known for work on the nature of consciousness & altered states, as a founder of transpersonal psychology & for research in scientific parapsychology. His Altered States of Consciousness ('69) & Transpersonal Psychologies ('75), are widely used texts instrumental in making these areas part of modern psychology. He's currently ('05) a Core Faculty Member at the Inst. of Transpersonal Psych. (Palo Alto) & a Sr Research Fellow of the Inst. of Noetic Sciences (Sausalito), as well as Prof. Emeritus of Psych. at the U. of California, Davis, where he served for 28 years & emeritus member of the Monroe Inst. board of advisors. He was the holder of the Bigelow Chair of Consciousness Studies at the U. of Nevada in Las Vegas & has served as a Visiting Prof. in East-West Psych. at the California Inst. of Integral Studies, as an Instructor in Psychiatry at the School of Medicine of the U. of Virginia & a consultant on government funded parapsychological research at the Stanford Research Inst. (SRI Internat'l).Introduction1 Some general views on altered states of consciousnessAltered states of consciousness/ Arnold M. LudwigDeautomatization & the mystic experience/ Arthur J. Deikman A special inquiry w/Aldous Huxley into the nature & character of various states of consciousness/ Milton H. Erickson2 Between waking & sleeping: the hypnagogic state. Ego functions & dreaming during sleep onset/ Gerald Vogel, David Foulkes, Harry TrosmanSome preliminary observations w/an experimental procedure for the study of hypnagogic & related phenomena/ M. Bertini, Helen B. Lewis, Herman A. Witkin3 Dream consciousness. Theories of dream formation & recent Studies of sleep consciousness/ David Foulkes Toward the experimental control of dreaming: a review of the literature/ TartA study of dreams/ Frederik van EedenDream theory in Malaya/ Kilton StewartThe 'high' dream: a new state of consciousness/ Tart4 Meditation. On meditation/ Edward W. MaupinIndividual differences in response to a zen meditation exercise/ Edward W.E. Maupin Experimental meditation/ Arthur J. Deikman Meditative techniques in psychotherapy/ Wolfgang Kretschmer5 Hypnosis. Hypnosis & the concept of the generalized reality-orientation/ Ronald E. ShorThree Dimensions of hypnotic depth/ Ronald E. ShorHypnosis, depth perception & the psychedelic experience/ Bernard S. AaronsonThe psychedelic state, the hypnotic trance & the creative act/ Stanley KrippnerPsychedelic experiences associated with a novel hypnotic procedure, mutual hypnosis/ TartAutogenic training: method, research & application in medicine/ Wolfgang Luthe6 Minor psychedelic drugs. Marijuana (cannabis) fact sheet/ Bruin Humanist ForumThe effects of marijuana on consciousness/ Anon.Psychedelic properties of genista canariensis/ James FadimanSubjective effects of nitrous oxide/ Wm JamesInhalation psychosis & related states/ Frederick B. Glaser7 Major psychedelic drugs. Current status & future trend in psychedelic research/ Robert E. MogarImplications of LSD & experimental mysticism/ Walter N. Pahnke, Wm A. Richard Attitude & behavior change thru psychedelic drug use/ Joseph DowningIpomoea purpurea: a naturally occurring psychedelic/ Chas Savage, Willis W. Harman, James FadimanPsychedelic agents in creative problem solving/ Willis Harman et al.Psychedelic experiences in acute psychoses/ Malcolm B. Bowers Jr, Daniel FreedmanGuide to the literature on psychedelic drugs/ Tart8 The psychophysiology of some altered states of consciousnessAn electroencephalographic study on the zen meditation (Zazen)/ Akira Kasamatsu, Tomio HiraiSome aspects of electroencephalographic studies in yogis/ B.K. Anand, G.S. Chhina, Baldev SinghOperant control of the EEG alpha rhythm & some of its reported effects on consciousness/ Joe KamiyaReferencesAuthor IndexSubject Index

    Working with imaginative and often hilarious computer simulations, he analyzes the roots of catastrophe, showing city planners in the very act of creating gridlock and disaster, or public health authorities setting the scene for starvation. The Logic of Failure is a compass for intelligent planning and decision-making that can sharpen the skills of managers, policymakers and everyone involved in the daily challenge of getting from point A to point B.

    This book is a fascinating and accessible summary of Roger Penrose's current thinking on those areas of physics in which he feels there are major unresolved problems. It is also a stimulating introduction to the radically new concepts that he believes will be fruitful in understanding the workings of the brain and the nature of the human mind.

    Today, it’s a chronic, low-level interference that affects everyone, sometimes with devastating results. In Strength in the Storm, one of the 20th century’s great spiritual teachers addresses this issue. Drawing on his observations of modern life and his teachings, this compact book shows readers how to make the small choices every day that help them build better families, work environments, and communities — transforming themselves in the process. With gentle wisdom and humor, Easwaran offers specifics on finding the calm center of chaos. He urges readers to take their time, showing how it is the mind, not external events, that drive a sense of urgency and restlessness. He stresses meditating on words that embody one’s highest ideals, allowing them to take root and bring about wonderful life changes. Additional inspirational passages invite the reader to achieve deeper healing and reflection.