A new edition covering the latest scientific research on how the brain makes us believers or skeptics

Recent polls report that 96 percent of Americans believe in God, and 73 percent believe that angels regularly visit Earth. Why is this? Why, despite the rise of science, technology, and secular education, are people turning to religion in greater numbers than ever before? Why do people believe in God at all?

These provocative questions lie at the heart of How We Believe , an illuminating study of God, faith, and religion. Bestselling author Michael Shermer offers fresh and often startling insights into age-old questions, including how and why humans put their faith in a higher power, even in the face of scientific skepticism. Shermer has updated the book to explore the latest research and theories of psychiatrists, neuroscientists, epidemiologists, and philosophers, as well as the role of faith in our increasingly diverse modern world.

Whether believers or nonbelievers, we are all driven by the need to understand the universe and our place in it. How We Believe is a brilliant scientific tour of this ancient and mysterious desire.

Many readers of Guenon's later doctrinal works have longed to hear the tale of his earlier entanglement, and disentanglement, from the luxuriant undergrowth of so-called esoteric societies in late nineteenth-century Paris and elsewhere. The present work documents in excoriating detail Guenon's findings on what did, and did not, lie behind the Theosophical Society founded by Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott in 1875. Much further information has of course come to light during the 80 years since this book was written, but it has never been superseded as a fascinating record of the path of a master metaphysician through this maze. A sampling of chapter titles will convey a sense of the depth of this remarkable work: 'Madame Blavatsky's Antecedents', 'The Theosophical Society and Rosicrucianism', 'The Question of the Mahatmas', 'The Society for Psychical Research', 'Esoteric Buddhism', 'Esoteric Christianity', 'The Future Messiah', 'The Trials of Alcyone', 'The Anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner', 'The Order of the Star of the East', 'Theosophy and Freemasonry', 'The Political Role of the Theosophical Society'. Brotherhood of Luxor, which has recently attracted the attention of scholars of the occult. The Collected Works of Rene Guenon brings together the writings of one of the greatest prophets of our time, whose voice is even more important today than when he was alive. Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions, etc.

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. Miscellanea gathers together for Anglophone readers various articles by Ren Gunon and by 'Palingenius', his pseudonym during the time of La Gnose, a journal he founded in 1909. These articles have been divided into three categories: 'Metaphysics and Cosmology', 'Traditional Arts and Sciences', and 'Some Modern Errors'. A sampling of chapters: 'Monotheism and Angelology'; 'Spirit and Intellect'; 'Silence and Solitude'; 'The Empiricism of the Ancients'; 'Gnosis and the Spiritist Schools'; 'The Origins of Mormonism', 'On the Production of Numbers', 'On Mathematical Notation'; 'Initiation and the Crafts'; and 'The Arts & their Traditional Conception'. In the latter two chapters the author explains why initiation became necessary in the measure that humanity receded from the 'primordial state', explaining the reasons for the degeneration of the arts and crafts due to the 'fall' or descending trajectory of the present cycle. He nonetheless points out the possibility of an initiation into the 'lesser mysteries' based upon the craft of building which still exists validly in the West.

Rene Guenon (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. Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycles is a wide-ranging collection of articles that could just as well have been called Fragments of an Unknown History. Although they must remain fragments, as Guenon did not return to many of these themes again, it would have been regrettable to leave such fascinating articles buried in old journals, and so this posthumous collection is now offered to Anglophone readers for the first time. by two pieces on Atlantis and Hyperborea. Two sections follow, concerned respectively with the Hebrew Tradition and the Egyptian Tradition. The former comprises five articles concerned primarily with the Kabbalah and the Science of Numbers, and the latter includes three articles on Hermes and the Hermetic Tradition. Book reviews are inserted at relevant points. To lend the collection coherence, no other spiritual Traditions are here represented. A list of the Collected Writings of Rene Guenon has been provided for those who wish to investigate Guenon's metaphysical expositions on such topics as Christianity, Islam, the Greco-Latin Traditions, Celtism, etc.

In this little book, the author attempts to tell as clearly as possible the story of the development of magical and religious thought and practice. As the result of work on the historical aspect of the growth of civilization, the general principles of development of various forms of human culture have become clear and the author believed it was time to give the general reader some account of the progress made up to the present.

Satanic channels of today are represented in anarchism, communism, socialism, nazism, atheism, fascism, occultism and modernism. As occultism seems to be a subject which the average reader has avoided for some reason, the author presents this edition to set at rest confused and troubled minds.

This volume deals with temple ritual texts from ancient Mesopotamia, in particularfrom the cities Uruk and Babylon. Key question is whether they are a reliable source of information on the cult practices in Uruk and Babylon during the Hellenistic period.
In the book an extensive description is presented of the festivals, rituals, ceremonies and offerings in Hellenistic Mesopotamia. The appendix consists of a selection of the most important temple ritual texts, which are presented in transliteration, translation and with philological comments. Four plates with so far unpublished text fragments are also included.
The evidence clearly shows how important the public cults were in Hellenistic times, at least until the first century B.C., and how active the Mesopotamians were in matters of religion and cult during this period.

Found in this work are historical sketches of magic and witchcraft in England and Scotland. It was not the author's purpose in this volume to attempt a general history of magic and alchemy, or a scientific inquiry into their psychological aspects. He confined himself to a sketch of their progress in England and to a narrative of the lives of our principal magicians. It is also devoted to a historical review of witchcraft in Great Britain, and an examination into the most remarkable witch trials.

Found in this very old and rare book is a collection of ancient and modern alchemical and rosicrucian emblems, quickened with metrical illustrations, both moral and divine, and disposed into lotteries, that instruction and good counsel, may be furthered by an honest and pleasant recreation. Written in Old English. Due to the age and scarcity of the original we reproduced, some pages may be spotty, faded or difficult to read. Illustrated

This translation and commentary on the Ugaritic texts is aimed at general readers as well as students and specialists in biblical, classical and religious studies. The Ugaritic texts have long been recognized as basic background material for Old Testament study. Ugaritic deities, myths, religious terminology, poetic techniques and general vocabulary are widely encountered by the attentive reader of the Hebrew Bible. This edition has a modern translation and commentary based on scrutiny of the original tablets and recent academic discussion. While addressing the needs of accurate translation, it also attempts to take seriously demands for a readable English version.

With letters written from December 1910 to January 1919, inclusive. Being the authorized messenger for the Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order and consequently in close touch with them, Mr. Heindel was continuously receiving and giving out occult information to his students relative to the past, present and future evolution of life and form, which on account of his tutelage under the Brothers of the Order, he was able to verify for himself and to which he was able to add many details. The letters in this book give many side lights on the Rosicrucian philosophy and many practical, helpful hints for living the life of the Christian mystic.

This work is a collection of intriguing short stories by Temple Thurston. Found in this volume are the following stories: The Rosicrucian; Back to Burmah; The Archbishop; Dance, Little Lady; The Bigamist; Mr. Simmonds' Bit O Business; Virgin; Dementia; The Cherry Tree; Elizabeth; Skeleton in the Cupboard; Grey Quakers.

This book of magic and politics uses quotes from classic books to show the connections between the two throughout history.

Originally published under the title The Story of Early Chemistry. Tells the story of the development of chemical knowledge and science, from the beginning of time to the end of the 18th century. Contents: practical chemistry of the ancients; earliest chemical manuscripts; theories of the ancients of matter and its changes; early alchemists; chemical knowledge of the Middle Ages; chemistry in the 13th century; chemistry of the 14th and 15th centuries; progressive 16th century; chemical currents in the 16th century; chemistry of the 16th century; the 18th century, rise and fall of the Phlogiston theory; development of pneumatic chemistry in the 18th century; early ideas of chemical affinity; Lavoisier and the chemical revolution.

Rosicrucian Library, Volume No. V. Included in this volume are the secret teachings of Tibet, divided into twelve books entitled: obligations that relate to man considered as an individual; passions; woman; consanguinity, or natural relations; providence, or the accidental differences of men; social duties; religion; man considered in general; man considered in regard to his infirmities and their effects; of the affectations of man, which are hurtful to himself and others; the advantages man may acquire over his fellow creatures; manifestations of karma.

Volume 1: The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross. Authentic and spurious organizations as considered and dealt with in treatises originally published and issued in monograph form.