Lilly, M.D.This book examines the sacred realms of self, religion, sex, science, philosophy, drugs, politics, money, crime, war, family & spiritual paths "with no holds barred, with courage & a sense of excitement." It provides readers with unique views of their own inner realities to help unfold new areas for growth & self-realization.

    Emerging in England in the 1650s as a radical sect challenging the status quo, the Quakers are now best known for their anti-slavery activities, their principled stance against war, and their pioneering work in penal reform. Famous Quakers include Thomas Paine, Walt Whitman, Lucretia Mott, Herbert Hoover, James Dean, Judi Dench, and A.S. Byatt. And while the group still maintains a distinctive worship method to achieve a direct encounterwith God, which has been at the heart of the movement since its beginning, Quakers today are highly diverse: some practice a protestant evangelicalism, others are no longer Christian. In this generously illustrated book, Pink Dandelion, the leading expert on Quaker Studies, draws on the latestscholarship to chart the history of the sect and its present-day diversity around the world, exploring its unique approach to worship, belief, theology and language, and ecumenism. It concludes by placing the Quakers in the wider religious picture and predicting its future.About the Series: Oxford's Very Short Introductions offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, and Literary Theory to History. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume provides trenchant and provocative--yet alwaysbalanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given topic. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how it has developed and influenced society. Whatever the area of study, whatever the topic that fascinates the reader, theseries has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.

    A combined edition containing two of Grisham's bestselling titles.

    An excursion into parapsychology.

    The ancient Taoist text that forms the central part of this book was discovered by Wilhelm, who recognized it as essentially a practical guide to the integration of personality.

    In this work of scholarly detection, biblical scholar Robert Eisenman introduces a theory about the identity of James, Jesus' brother, who was almost entirely marginalized in the New Testament. Drawing on early Church texts & the Dead Sea Scrolls, he reveals in this groundbreaking exploration that James, not Peter, was the real successor to the movement now called "Christianity." In an argument with enormous implications, he identifies Paul as compromised by Roman contacts. James is presented as not simply the leader of the Christianity of his day, but a popular Jewish leader, whose death triggered the uprising against Rome--a fact that creative rewriting of early Church documents has obscured. Eisenman reveals that characters such as "Judas Iscariot" & "the Apostle James" didn't exist as such. In delineating the deliberate falsifications in New Testament dcouments, he shows how James was written while anti-Semitism was written in. By rescuing James from oblivion, the final conclusion of James the Brother of Jesus is, in the words of The Jerusalem Post, "apocalyptic". Who & whatever James was, so was Jesus.

    for Social Anthropology in Oceania, Special Pubs. No. 1Hawaiian culture as it met foreign traders and settlers is the context for Sahlins's structuralist methodology of historical interpretation.

    Coomaraswamy. This extraordinary text unveils the cosmological meanings of root symbols organized under such general headings as: The Center of the World, Cyclic Manifestation, Symboic Weapons, Axial Symbolism and the Symbolsim of Passage, The Symbolism of Building, and The Symbolism of the Heart. Far more than a simple catalogue of myths and symbols from many traditions, Symbols of the Sacred Science lays the foundation for a universal esoteric symbology. In this work, Gunon demonstrates the fundamental unity-across all cultures and ages-of the images with which the Absolute clothes itself in its cosmic self-revelation.

    Professor Coakley is as familiar with the Bible and the Early Fathers as she is with the writings of Freud and Jung, and she draws heavily on Gregory of Nyssa's theology of desire in what she proposes. She points the way through the false modern alternatives of repression and libertinism, agape and eros, recovering a way in which desire can be freed from associations with promiscuity and disorder, and forging a new ascetical vision founded in the disciplines of prayer and attention.

    In an accident of karmic destiny, the young man plows into a Buddhist monk named Master Fwap who takes him on as a spiritual apprentice. Using snowboarding as a path to enlightenment, the charming and learned Master Fwap shows how, by freeing the mind and challenging the soul, one can master any mountain - and master himself.

    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

    . . .  The Church of Africa is committed in the name of the Lord Jesus to keeping unchanged the teaching of God and of the Church."— Robert Cardinal Sarah In this fascinating autobiographical interview, one of the most prominent and outspoken Catholic Cardinals gives witness to his Christian faith and comments on many current controversial issues. The mission of the Church, the joy of the gospel, the “heresy of activism”, and the definition of marriage are among the topics he discusses with wisdom and eloquence.Robert Cardinal Sarah grew up in Guinea, West Africa. Inspired by the missionary priests who made great sacrifices to bring the Faith to their remote village, his parents became Catholics. Robert discerned a call to the priesthood and entered the seminary at a young age, but due to the oppression of the Church by the government of Guinea, he continued his education outside of his homeland. He studied in France and nearby Senegal. Later he obtained a licentiate in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, followed by a licentiate in Sacred Scripture at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum of Jerusalem.At the age of thirty-four he became the youngest Bishop in the Catholic Church when John Paul II appointed him the Archbishop of Conakry, Guinea, in 1979. His predecessor had been imprisoned by the Communist government for several years, and when Archbishop Sarah was targeted for assassination John Paul II called him to Rome to be Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. In 2010 Pope Benedict XVI named him Cardinal and appointed him Prefect of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum. Pope Francis made him Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2014.

    The Druid Magic Handbook is the first manual of magical practice in Druidry, one of the fastest growing branches of the Pagan movement. The book breaks new ground, teaching Druids how to practice ritual magic for practical and spiritual goals within their own tradition. What sets The Druid Magic Handbook apart is that it does not require the reader to use a particular pantheon or set of symbols. Although it presents one drawn from Welsh Druid tradition, it also shows the reader how to adapt rites and other practices to fit the deities and symbols most meaningful to them. This cutting edge system of ritual magic can be used by Druids, Pagans, Christians, and Thelemites alike!The first manual of Druidic magical practice ever, replete with spell work and rituals.John Michael Greer is a highly respected authority on all aspects of Paganism.

    Not only did it compel analysis of the religious and philosophic dogmas of past centuries, but it also stimulated the aspirations of thousands of people in all walks of life. As a result, H. P Blavatsky found herself deluged with requests for a simpler presentation of the ancient wisdom-religion. Her response was THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY.Written in the form of question and answer, this book unfolds in easily understood language the fundamental principles of theosophia or "divine wisdom"-a term in use, the author tells us, as far back as the third century of our era when Ammonius Saccas founded his Eclectic School in order to show the common origin of the "thousand tenets" of the many religious sects of both East and West. Seen as parts of a cosmic pattern, the themes of death and rebirth; fate, destiny, free will, and karma; God and prayer, as well as the sevenfold nature of man's constitution, reveal a practical and inspiring philosophy for everyday living.Students will find the Glossary ofSome 250 terms invaluable.Verbatim with the original edition of 1889

    In this classic work, world-renowned scholar Adin Steinsaltz answers the major questions asked by modern Jews about the nature of existence in God's universe. The title The Thirteen Petalled Rose is taken from the opening of the classic Jewish text on mysticism, the Zohar, and refers to the "collective souls of the Jewish people," which scholars have likened to the fullness of a rose and its thirteen petals. Along with a new preface by the author, this edition contains a new chapter on prayer that provides the most up-to-date account of the Kabbalistic view of devotion. Another new chapter recounts and interprets the prophet Elijah's Introduction to the Zohar. "Steinsaltz possesses a mind of the quality that occurs perhaps once or twice in a generation, or several generations... In [The Thirteen Petalled Rose] one can encounter the classical Jewish mystical view of reality, delineated lucidly, concisely, profoundly and, what is so rare, believingly. It is an utterly authentic expression of Judaism yet so unknown even among the well-informed and therefore so necessary, so welcome." (Herbert Weiner, Oxford University)