How could looking at Monet’s water lily paintings help save your company millions? How can checking out people’s footwear foil a terrorist attack? How can your choice of adjective win an argument, calm your kid, or catch a thief?   In her celebrated seminar, the Art of Perception, art historian Amy Herman has trained experts from many fields how to perceive and communicate better. By showing people how to look closely at images, she helps them hone their “visual intelligence,” a set of skills we all possess but few of us know how to use properly. She has spent more than a decade teaching doctors to observe patients instead of their charts, helping police officers separate facts from opinions when investigating a crime, and training professionals from the FBI, the State Department, Fortune 500 companies, and the military to recognize the most pertinent and useful information. Her lessons highlight far more than the physical objects you may be missing; they teach you how to recognize the talents, opportunities, and dangers that surround you every day.   Whether you want to be more effective on the job, more empathetic toward your loved ones, or more alert to the trove of possibilities and threats all around us, this book will show you how to see what matters most to you more clearly than ever before.

    And yet it is one of the richest, most memorable experiences an athlete will ever know.Some call it a natural --high.-- Others refer to it as being --in a zone.-- Whatever it's called, flow is an elusive and very sought-after psychological state that athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists have tried to understand, harness, and employ to their benefit since Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first coined the term back in the early 1970s.Now, in the first book devoted exclusively to flow in sports, the pioneering legend Csikszentmihalyi and sport psychology researcher Susan Jackson attempt not only to explain the phenomenon but also to identify the key conditions associated with its occurrence.The book begins with a description of what flow is and is not. Flow is defined as a person's total absorption into an activity. While it is always a peak, satisfying experience, it is not necessarily associated with peak performance on every occasion.Most of the book delves deeply into the key factors leading up to and accompanying the flow experience. The authors also recommend certain actions on the part of the athlete or coach to optimize the conditions in training and performance that allow flow to occur. The book is full of vivid examples, captivating quotes, and revealing research findings that enhance the authors' clear and insightful text.The sport setting is rife with opportunities to experience flow-be it in pick-up games or the Olympics. But until now, flow has been an infrequent, accidental, and even mysterious phenomenon to most athletes. With Flow in Sports, this optimal experience becomes both more familiar and more achievable. Get to know flow, and get into it. Find out what you've been missing.-

    As a Special Agent for the FBI’s National Security Division’s Behavioral Analysis Program, Dr. Jack Schafer developed dynamic and breakthrough strategies for profiling terrorists and detecting deception. Now, Dr. Schafer has evolved his proven-on-the-battlefield tactics for the day-to-day, but no less critical battle of getting people to like you. In The Like Switch, he presents these techniques for how you can influence, attract, and win people over. Learn how to think and react like your favorite TV investigators from Criminal Minds or CSI as Dr. Schafer shows you how to improve your LQ (Likeability Quotient), “spot the lie” both in person and online, master nonverbal cues that influence how people perceive you, and turn up or turn down the intensity of a relationship. Dr. Schafer cracks the code on making great first impressions, building lasting relationships, and understanding others’ behavior to learn what they really think about you. With tips and techniques that hold the key to taking control of your communications, interactions, and relationships, The Like Switch shows you how to read others and get people to like you for a moment or a lifetime.

    After all, a substantial number of decisions that we make in our everyday lives are quietly rooted in this one question: If something happened before, will it happen again? Is there such a thing as being in the zone? Can someone have a “hot hand”? Or is it simply a case of seeing patterns in randomness? Or, if streaks are possible, where can they be found?In The Hot Hand, Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Cohen offers an unfailingly entertaining and provocative investigation into these questions. He begins with how a $35,000 fine and a wild night in New York revived a debate about the existence of streaks that was several generations in the making. We learn how the ability to recognize and then bet against streaks turned a business school dropout named David Booth into a billionaire, and how the subconscious nature of streak-related bias can make the difference between life and death for asylum seekers. We see how previously unrecognized streaks hidden amidst archival data helped solve one of the most haunting mysteries of the twentieth century, the disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg. Cohen also exposes how streak-related incentives can be manipulated, from the five-syllable word that helped break arcade profit records to an arc of black paint that allowed Stephen Curry to transform from future junior high coach into the greatest three-point shooter in NBA history. Crucially, Cohen also explores why false recognition of nonexistent streaks can have cataclysmic results, particularly if you are a sugar beet farmer or the sort of gambler who likes to switch to black on the ninth spin of the roulette wheel.A brilliant investigation into when streaks exist and how they can be taken advantage of, The Hot Hand is essential reading for anyone who thinks they’ve got a shot.

    Think a win-win solution is the best way to make the deal? Think again.For years now, win-win has been the paradigm for business negotiation. But today, win-win is just the seductive mantra used by the toughest negotiators to get the other side to compromise unnecessarily, early, and often. Win-win negotiations play to your emotions and take advantage of your instinct and desire to make the deal. Start with No introduces a system of decision-based negotiation that teaches you how to understand and control these emotions. It teaches you how to ignore the siren call of the final result, which you can't really control, and how to focus instead on the activities and behavior that you can and must control in order to successfully negotiate with the pros.The best negotiators: * aren't interested in "yes"--they prefer "no" * never, ever rush to close, but always let the other side feel comfortable and secure * are never needy; they take advantage of the other party's neediness * create a "blank slate" to ensure they ask questions and listen to the answers, to make sure they have no assumptions and expectations * always have a mission and purpose that guides their decisions * don't send so much as an e-mail without an agenda for what they want to accomplish * know the four "budgets" for themselves and for the other side: time, energy, money, and emotion * never waste time with people who don't really make the decisionStart with No is full of dozens of business as well as personal stories illustrating each point of the system. It will change your life as a negotiator. If you put to good use the principles and practices revealed here, you will become an immeasurably better negotiator.

    In writing the book James Stewart asked himself: What is essential for a three-semester calculus course for scientists and engineers? Stewart's ESSENTIAL CALCULUS offers a concise approach to teaching calculus that focuses on major concepts and supports those concepts with precise definitions, patient explanations, and carefully graded problems. Essential Calculus is only 850 pages-two-thirds the size of Stewart's other calculus texts (CALCULUS, Fifth Edition and CALCULUS, EARLY TRANSCENDENTALS, Fifth Edition)-and yet it contains almost all of the same topics. The author achieved this relative brevity mainly by condensing the exposition and by putting some of the features on the website, www.StewartCalculus.com. Despite the reduced size of the book, there is still a modern flavor: Conceptual understanding and technology are not neglected, though they are not as prominent as in Stewart's other books. ESSENTIAL CALCULUS has been written with the same attention to detail, eye for innovation, and meticulous accuracy that have made Stewart's textbooks the best-selling calculus texts in the world.

    In The Ten Basic Principles of Good Parenting, Dr. Steinberg distills decades of research into a parenting book that explains the fundamentals of raising happy, healthy children, giving readers an invaluable map to help them navigate parenthood from infancy to adolescence.Dr. Steinberg found that the basic principles for effective parenting are simple and universal, and apply to all parents and children regardless of background. He explains each principle and shows how to put it into action, using anecdotes and examples: from “What You Do Matters” (parents make an enormous difference; children are not simply the product of their genes) to “Establish Rules and Limits” (how to provide structure in your child's life, and how to handle conflicts over rules) and “Help Foster Your Child's Independence” (help your child think through decisions instead of making them for him or her). Concise and authoritative, written with warmth and compassion, The Ten Basic Principles of Good Parenting is an intelligent guide to raising a happy, healthy child and to becoming a happier, more confident parent in the process.

    How to Disappear is the authoritative and comprehensive guide for people who seek to protect their privacy as well as for anyone who’s ever entertained the fantasy of disappearing—whether actually dropping out of sight or by eliminating the traceable evidence of their existence.

    Growing angrier by the day, she began skipping practices and drinking to excess. At a loss, her parents turned to an educational consultant who suggested Elizabeth be enrolled in a behavioral modification program. That recommendation would change her life forever.The nightmare began when she was abducted from her bed in the middle of the night by hired professionals and dropped off deep into a camp in the woods of AppalachiaAfter three brutal months, Elizabeth was transferred to a boarding school in Southern Virginia that in reality functioned more like a prison. Its curriculum revolved around a perverse form of group therapy where students were psychologically abused and humiliated. Finally, at seventeen, Elizabeth convinced them she was rehabilitated enough to “graduate” and was released. In this eye-opening and unflinching book, Elizabeth recalls the horrors she endured, the friends she lost to suicide and addiction, and—years later—how she was finally able to pick up the pieces of her life and reclaim her identity.

    Such an artist is able to transcend established thinking and help us redefine ourselves and our world. Today, a growing number of art critics, philosophers, and spiritual seekers believe that they have found that vision in the art of Alex Grey. Transfigurations, the follow-up to Grey’s Sacred Mirrors (1991)--one of the most successful art books of the 1990s--includes all of Grey’s major works completed in the following decade, including the masterful seven-paneled altarpiece Nature of Mind, called “the grand climax of Grey’s art” by Donald Kuspit. His portrayals of human beings blend anatomical exactitude with visionary depictions of universal life energy. Alex Grey’s striking artwork leads us on the soul’s journey from material world encasement to recovery of the divinely illuminated core.

    Or how about, "You're depressed? Just get over it!" Easier said than done, right? Or here's a favorite, "They have a pill for that now, you know."Unfortunately, such naive armchair psychology rarely works for someone suffering from the very real plight of depression. All it does is seek to trivialize depression and characterize depressed people as "whiners" who have nothing better to do than to "complain about their lives." But the truth is, depression is a very real problem. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that, on any given day, 121 million people worldwide suffer from depression. And depression rates continue to increase - for example, kids exhibit depression at nearly ten times the rate of previous generations. Theories abound as to why depression rates are increasing, but regardless of the cause, this scourge continues to rob its victims of happiness, joy, and the capacity to give and receive love.So why "Depression For Dummies," when there's already a glut of self-help books on the market peddling so-called cures and remedies for depression? Because this book satisfies the need for a straight-talking, no-nonsense resource on depression. The only agenda of "Depression For Dummies" is to present you with the facts on depression and explain the options for dealing with it. Rest assured, this is no infomercial in a yellow and black cover.Here's just a sampling of what you'll find in "Depression For Dummies": -Demystifying the types of depression-Discovering what goes on in the body of a depressed person-Detecting and diagnosing depression-Seeking help through therapy and medication-Modifying depressed behavior and solving life's headaches-Dealing with depression resulting from grief and relationship issues-Cutting through the hype of alternative treatments for depression-Moving beyond depression: Avoiding relapses and pursuing a happy life-Top Ten lists on getting rid of a your bad mood and helping your kids and other family members out of depressionSo, whatever your level of depression - whether you suffer from occasional bouts or you find yourself seriously debilitated by depression - "Depression For Dummies" can give you the insight and tools you need to once again find enjoyment and happiness in life. All it takes is one step.

    The Joyous Cosmology is Alan Watts’s exploration of the insight that the consciousness-changing drugs LSD, mescaline & psilocybin can facilitate “when accompanied with sustained philosophical reflection by a person who is in search, not of kicks, but of understanding.” More than an artifact, it is both a riveting memoir of Watts’s personal experiments & a profound meditation on our perennial questions about the nature of existence & the existence of the sacred.

    With a generous 5.5" x 8.5" page size, this Summit Classic Press edition is printed on heavyweight 60# bright white paper with a fully laminated cover featuring an original full color design. Also included is a new, original biographical sketch discussing the author and his work. Memory: How to Develop, Train and Use It is a time-tested, comprehensive study of the concepts and principles of memory improvement, written by New Thought and self-improvement pioneer William Walker Atkinson. Presented in a straightforward manner in plain language, the text guides the reader through a study of the general concepts of memory improvement and the application of these doctrines. The systematic, straightforward style of Atkinson's work makes the often abstract concepts accessible to all readers, as he explores topics like the subconscious retention of information, various systems for memorization, and the key roles of attention and association in the memory process.Atkinson's work teaches specific methodologies for training the eyes and ears for memory improvement, and offers specific approaches to improving your memory for names, faces, places, numbers, events, music, specific facts, stories, words and sentences, and more.For over one hundred years western students have been aided in their study of self-improvement principles, New Thought philosophy and eastern teachings by the writing of William Walker Atkinson, also known by his pseudonym, "Yogi Ramacharaka." William Walker Atkinson (1862-1932) was an incredibly prolific American writer who published extensively in areas of yoga, the occult, eastern mysticism, personal development, and related subjects. A successful businessman and attorney, Atkinson suffered what may have been a nervous breakdown in the late 1880's and, in the course of his recovery, became immersed in the "new thought" movement, eastern mysticism, and yoga.Atkinson was a popular self-improvement and personal development writer, a leading voice in the New Thought movement and a serious and devoted student of Hindu philosophy and yoga, and was a major force in introducing these concepts to the United States. His writings are still widely read and well-respected, and his "Yoga Philosophy and Oriental Occultism" is considered an excellent basic text for the western layman.

    This comprehensive and clear guidebook by Scott Cunningham has introduced over 200,000 readers to the secrets of over 100 gems and metals. Learn how to find and cleanse stones and use them in divinations, spells, and tarot card readings. Discover how to determine the energies and stories contained within each stone, and the symbolic meanings of a stone's color and shape. Also included in this classic guide:A 16-page, full-color insert, new with this edition Birthstone and jewelry magic lore Tables listing both planetary and elementary rulers of stones, magical intentions, and magical substitutions

    Within these pages meet love goddesses and disease demons, guardians of children and guardians of cadavers. Discover Celtic goddesses and goddesses of the Kabbalah, female Buddhas, African Powers, Dragon Ladies, White Ladies, Black Madonnas, the Green Man, the Green Fairy, lots and lots of ghosts, djinn, mermaids, fairies, and more. From the beneficent to the mischievous, working with these spirits can bring good fortune, lasting love, health, fertility, revenge, and relief. Discover:The true identities of over one thousand spirits (as well as their likes and dislikes)How to communicate with specific spirits for your own benefitHow to recognize these spirits when they manifest themselvesThe mythological and historical events associated with specific spiritsThe colors, days, numbers, and astrological signs associated with specific spiritsThe Encyclopedia of Spirits also provides an overview of the role of spirit communication throughout history and a general guide to working with spirits. No matter what your life's problems or desires, this book can guide you to the right spirits who can help fulfill your dreams. For the spiritual adept, the amateur, or the simply curious, the Encyclopedia of Spirits will inform, inspire, and delight.