Simon Mollat woke up in the dunes of Arambol Beach, Goa, India with an agonizing hangover. The year was 2000 and the apocalypse was still a figment of collective imagination - the millennium celebration had lasted Simon for four consecutive months. A more enlightened soul would have enjoyed the sunrise, but not Simon. He was being pissed on by a stray dog, and somewhere in the back of his mind Pink Floyd wandered in and around his aching head. Is there anybody out there? Once he had been a promising young man from the land of the midnight sun. Current status? Man on the lam suffering from depression and aimlessness, a stray dog's pissing post. His thoughts turned to the stones he'd stuffed in his pocket during the night, the boat he could easily "borrow" that could take him away, far into the water. He would slip out of the boat and dive downward and away from all of his suffering. Something intervened and took Simon out of his suicidal head and the recurring Pink Floyd soundtrack; it was something itchy and stuffed in the neck opening of his t-shirt. It was a balled up piece of paper with the photograph of a withered Indian man and a message that read, "Freedom from this 'me'" and signed by someone named Raman Kavalam. It smelled of incense and made Simon think of sects, robes, and cultist brainwashing. Simon was by no means a religious person, he didn't even believe in God. But something compelled him forward to seek out this Raman Kavalam, something much larger than himself. And, so begins the odyssey of Simon Mollat's spiritual awakening. Within the Space of the Moment takes readers on an unforgettable journey from despair and outer pleasure to inner peace and the feeling of being intensely alive.

This history of Sufi conceptions of the hereafter - often imagined as a place of corporeal reward (Paradise) or punishment (Hell) - is built upon the study of five medieval Sufi Qur'an commentaries. Pieter Coppens shows that boundary crossing from this world to the otherworld, and vice versa, revolves around the idea of meeting with and the vision of God; a vision which for some Sufis is not limited to the hereafter. The Qur'anic texts selected for study - all key verses on seeing God - are placed in their broader religious and social context and are shown to provide a useful and varied source for the reconstruction of a history of Sufi eschatology and the vision of God.

In love and happy, with a marriage that back home in Colombia people would kill for, Tom and Naomi Barnes, pursue their dream of prosperity and the perfect family in a London brimming with opportunity. While Tom works long hours for a super-hedge fund, Naomi becomes the ghostwriter for fellow prep school mum and Haitian immigrant Solange Wolf with whom she shares parallel lives. Tom becomes increasingly successful and soon the family are living the dream. But as money and prestige increase, Naomi can't shake the paranoia that comes from accelerated wealth and a culture of maledicion. When Solange suddenly announces that the manuscript they have been working on was all based on secrets and lies, Naomi, whose own life is beginning to unravel, starts to doubt not only Solange's grasp on reality but her own and she begins to seriously question the very foundation of her love and marriage to Tom, with devastating consequences.

Now available in paperback, The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements surveys key themes such as charismatic leadership, conversion and brainwashing, prophecy and millennialism, violence and suicide, gender and sexuality, legal issues, and the portrayal of New Religious Movements by the media and anti-cult organizations. Several categories of new religions receive special attention, including African new religions, Japanese new religions, Mormons, and UFO religions. This guide to New Religious Movements and their study brings together 29 world-class international scholars, and serves as a resource to students and researchers. The volume highlights the current state of academic study in the field, and explores areas in which future research might develop. Clearly and accessibly organised to help users quickly locate key information and analysis, the book includes an A to Z of key terms, extensive guides to further resources, a comprehensive bibliography, and a timeline of major developments in the field such as the emergence of new groups, publications, legal decisions, and historical events.

The shocking truth about some of the most disturbing, criminal cults that have ever existed. How did Charles Manson inspire his "family" to launch a campaign of murder? What twisted ideology lay behind horrific events like the Waco Siege, the Aum Shinrikyo's poison-gas attack on the Tokyo metro, and the mass suicides and murders of Jonestown? Why did the suicidal adherents of Heaven's Gate believe doomsday was at hand? How did the idealistic commune of Rajneeshpuram collapse into shocking controversies, involving biological terrorism and attempted murder? Cults Uncovered explores these and many more strange and disturbing factions and sects from all over the world to expose terrifying stories of manipulation, coercion, abuse, and murder.

John Henry Newman (1801-90) described writing this account of his religious development as 'one of the most terrible trials that I have had'. Having inspired and led the Oxford or Tractarian Movement before he abandoned Anglicanism for the Church of Rome, Newman regularly found himself the target of virulent anti-Catholic prejudice in Victorian England. The Apologia was his autobiographical response to a public attack by the novelist Charles Kingsley on his personal integrity. With it he not only convinced a suspicious public of the sincerity of his beliefs, but he also produced a literary masterpiece which has often been compared with St Augustine's Confessions.