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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems
Psychic intuitive Char Margolis has amazed TV hosts from Larry King
to Regis Philbin--and millions of viewers--with her uncanny ability
to make contact with departed spirits. Now she shares her most
exciting experiences in this astonishing book. But this is much
more than a memoir-Char also tells you how to develop your own
psychic abilities. Her inspiring advice can help you to contact a
loved one's spirit, or enhance your innate ability to sense danger
or protect others. She also provides easy instructions for making
life-changing decisions-intuitively-about business, family, health,
and love
Discover:
* Why we don't have to fear death
* Nineteen questions that test your intuitive abilities
* Sure-fire ways to tell if a spirit is trying to contact you
* Expert guidance on evaluating an intuitive or psychic
message
* Methods to help you communicate with loved ones, guardian angels,
and spirit guides
* The messages you can find in dreams and daydreams
* Important facts about guarding against negative energies...and
much more
LET CHAR SHOW YOU HOW TO FOLLOW YOUR INTUITION TO...
..."hone in" on missing or misplaced objects
...psychically contact people or "accidentally" run into them
...choose or change a career intuitively
...do an intuitive health check, including discerning specific
conditions
...ease the pain of grief and losing a loved one
...expand your wisdom and happiness
...increase your ability to love
...prevent problems and attain goals in your life
"Nightshades is the record of one remarkable magician's exploration
of the inverse regions of the Tree of Life. Aleister Crowley's
Liber 231 provides the map and Kenneth Grant's Nightside of Eden a
travelogue. "Liber 231, apparently started life as a text within
the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, as an exercise to develop
astral and trance abilities or perhaps in other more elaborate
rites. The nightside aspect requires some care and alertness in
case of accident. The correct attitude is said to be one of self or
ego-less witness. Or maybe it's just one needs Or maybe it's just
one needs the use of an all-embracing rather than a limited kind of
identity and self-identification?" "The Nightside is always with
us. It's so much older than the Dayside. Before the light began to
shine, the night was there. Some assume that we are dealing with a
simple polarity. On one hand the radiant world of colours and
forms, more or less thinkable, reasonable and meaningful. Like the
pretty picture of the Tree of Life it has its scenic cites, its
hotels, restaurants, shopping opportunities and highways in
between. On the other hand the chaotic world of uncertain and
incomprehensible mysteries. Both of them connected by the voidness
that makes them possible. It looks symmetrical. But when you reach
the Nightside it doesn't work like that. The Nightside is not
simply a reflection of the dayside with a few confusing and spooky
bits thrown in. The Dayside is a tiny island of experience in a
huge ocean, the Nightside, full of currents, island chains and
continents of the possible and impossible. All and Nothing are
present everywhere. Our island is not the opposite of the
world-ocean, it is simply a tiny and comprehensible part of it."
Jan Fries Nightshades comprises 72 intense drawings prefaced by an
explanatory essay detailing the background and genesis of this
ultimate magical adventure.
The nineteenth and early twentieth century saw the emergence of a
controversial school of Russian thinkers, led by the philosopher
Nikolai Fedorov and united in the conviction that humanity was
entering a new stage of evolution in which it must assume a new,
active, managerial role in the cosmos. In the first account in
English of this fascinating tradition, George M. Young offers a
dynamic and wide-ranging examination of the lives and ideas of the
Russian Cosmists.
Suppressed during the Soviet period and little noticed in the West,
the ideas of the Cosmists have in recent decades been rediscovered
and embraced by many Russian intellectuals and are now recognized
as essential to a native Russian cultural and intellectual
tradition. Although they were scientists, theologians, and
philosophers, the Cosmists addressed topics traditionally confined
to occult and esoteric literature. Major themes include the
indefinite extension of the human life span to establish universal
immortality; the restoration of life to the dead; the
reconstitution of the human organism to enable future generations
to live beyond earth; the regulation of nature to bring all
manifestations of blind natural force under rational human control;
the transition of our biosphere into a "noosphere," with a sheath
of mental activity surrounding the planet; the effect of cosmic
rays and currently unrecognized particles of energy on human
history; practical steps toward the reversal and eventual human
control over the flow of time; and the virtues of human androgyny,
autotrophy, and invisibility.
The Russian Cosmists is a crucial contribution to scholarship
concerning Russian intellectual history, the future of technology,
and the history of western esotericism.
Hundreds of millions of people believe that Jesus came back from
the dead. This cogent, forcefully argued book presents a decidedly
unpopular view --namely, that the central tenet of Christianity,
the resurrection of Jesus, is false. The author asks a number of
probing questions:
Is the evidence about Jesus as it has been relayed to us over the
centuries of sufficient quantity and quality to justify belief in
the resurrection? How can we accept the resurrection but reject
magic at the Salem witch trials? What light does contemporary
research about human rationality from the fields of behavioral
economics, empirical psychology, cognitive science, and philosophy
shed on the resurrection and religious belief? Can we use
contemporary research about the reliability of people's beliefs in
the supernatural, miracles, and the paranormal to shed light on the
origins of Christianity and other religions? Does it make sense
that the all-powerful creator of the universe would employ miracles
to achieve his ends? Can a Christian believe by faith alone and yet
reasonably deny the supernatural claims of other religions? Do the
arguments against Christianity support atheism?
By carefully answering each of these questions, this book
undermines Christianity and theism at their foundations; it gives
us a powerful model for better critical reasoning; and it builds a
compelling case for atheism. Without stooping to condescension or
arrogance, the author offers persuasive arguments that are
accessible, thoughtful, and new.
"The Goetia" is the most famous grimoire after the Key of Solomon.
This volume contains a transcription of a hitherto unpublished
manuscript of the Lemegeton which includes four whole grimoires:
"Liber Malorum Spituum seu Goetia"; "Theurgia-Goetia"; "Ars
Paulina" (Books 1 & 2); and, "Ars Almadel". This was owned by
Dr Thomas Rudd, a practising scholar-magician of the early
seventeenth century. There are many editions of the "Goetia", of
which the most definitive is that of Joseph Peterson, but here we
are interested in how the "Goetia" was actually used by practising
magicians in the 16th and 17th century, before the knowledge of
practical magic faded into obscurity. To evoke the 72 demons listed
here without the ability to bind them would be foolhardy indeed. It
was well known in times past that invocatio and ligatio, or
binding, was a key part of evocation, but in the modern editions of
the "Goetia" this key technique is expressed in just one word
'Shemhamaphorash', and its use is not explained. This volume
explains how the 72 angels of the Shem ha-Mephorash are used to
bind the spirits, and the correct procedure for safely invoking
them using special seals incorporating the necessary controlling
angel, whose name is also engraved on the breastplate and Brass
Vessel.
This book offers a comparison of lay and inquisitorial witchcraft
prosecutions. In most of the early modern period, witchcraft
jurisdiction in Italy rested with the Roman Inquisition, whereas in
Denmark only the secular courts raised trials. Kallestrup explores
the narratives of witchcraft as they were laid forward by people
involved in the trials.
For about two decades John W. Loftus was a devout evangelical
Christian, an ordained minister of the Church of Christ, and an
ardent apologist for Christianity. With three degrees--in
philosophy, theology, and philosophy of religion--he was adept at
using rational argumentation to defend the faith. But over the
years, doubts about the credibility of key Christian tenets began
to creep into his thinking. By the late 1990s he experienced a
full-blown crisis of faith.
In this honest appraisal of his journey from believer to atheist,
the author carefully explains the experiences and the reasoning
process that led him to reject religious belief. The original
edition of this book was published in 2006 and reissued in 2008.
Since that time, Loftus has received a good deal of critical
feedback from Christians and skeptics alike. In this revised and
expanded edition, the author addresses criticisms of the original,
adds new argumentation and references, and refines his
presentation. For every issue he succinctly summarizes the various
points of view and provides references for further reading. In
conclusion, he describes the implications of life without belief in
God, some liberating, some sobering.
This frank critique of Christian belief from a former insider will
interest freethinkers as well as anyone with doubts about the
claims of religion.
Tis title provides impressive dossier on the phenomenon of
Saturnism, offering a new interpretation of aspects of Judaism,
including the emergence of Sabbateanism. This book explores the
phenomenon of Saturnism, namely the belief that the planet Saturn,
as described by ancient astrology, influenced Jews, reverberating
into Jewish life. Taking into consideration the astrological
aspects of Judaism, Moshe Idel demonstrates that they were
instrumental in the conviction that Sabbatei Tzevei, the
mid-17th-century messianic figure in Rabbinic Judaism, was indeed
the Messiah. Offering a new approach to the study of this
mass-movement known as Sabbateanism, Idel also explores the
possible impact of astrology on the understanding of Sabbath as
related to sorcery and thus to the concept of the encounter of
witches in the late 14th and early 15th century. This book further
analyzes aspects of 20th-century scholarship and thought influenced
by Saturnism, particularly lingering themes in the works of Gershom
Scholem and seminal figure Walter Benjamin. "The Robert and Arlene
Kogod Library of Judaic Studies" publishes new research which
provides new directions for modern Jewish thought and life and
which serves to enhance the quality of dialogue between classical
sources and the modern world. This book series reflects the mission
of the Shalom Hartman Institute, a pluralistic research and
leadership institute, at the forefront of Jewish thought and
education. It empowers scholars, rabbis, educators and layleaders
to develop new and diverse voices within the tradition, laying
foundations for the future of Jewish life in Israel and around the
world.
With a mix of serious rational analysis and hilarious observations
Holy Unbelievable looks at why so many people still believe in the
existence of a divine being. The biblical text is examined and its
many contradictions and absurdities laid bare. Is The Bible the
source of human morality? Did Noah really build an ark? It is fair
to say that PC Dixon is not convinced. Whether you are a believer
or not this book offers much food for thought and plenty of
amusement. 'This book is intended to make you think: That's a good
point and also laugh from time to time. Hopefully simultaneously in
many cases.' - PC Dixon
Ren Gunon (1886-1951) is undoubtedly one of the luminaries of the
twentieth century, whose critique of the modern world has stood
fast against the shifting sands of recent philosophies. His oeuvre
of 26 volumes is providential for the modern seeker: pointing
ceaselessly to the perennial wisdom found in past cultures ranging
from the Shamanistic to the Indian and Chinese, the Hellenic and
Judaic, the Christian and Islamic, and including also Alchemy,
Hermeticism, and other esoteric currents, at the same time it
directs the reader to the deepest level of religious praxis,
emphasizing the need for affiliation with a revealed tradition even
while acknowledging the final identity of all spiritual paths as
they approach the summit of spiritual realization. The present
volume, first published in 1958 by Gunon's friend and collaborator
Paul Chacornac, whose bookstore, journal (first called Le Voile
d'Isis, later changed to tudes Traditionnelles), and publishing
venture-ditions Traditionnelles-were so instrumental in furthering
Gunon's work, was the first full-length biography of this
extraordinary man to appear, and has served as the foundation for
the many later biographies that have appeared in French, as well as
the lone biography in English, Ren Gunon and the Future of the
West, by Robin Waterfield. Its translation and publication in
conjunction with The Collected Works of Ren Gunon represents an
important step in the effort to bring Gunon's oeuvre before a wider
public.
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