This title consists of "Seven Meditation Lessons" written by Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind who was born in the State of Punjab, India in 1892. He came to the United States as a young pundit and taught the teachings of Sat Mat, the Spiritual Science of the Saviours whose teachings were founded by Guru Nanak in the fifteenth century. The basis of this religion is to connect the individual soul with its Divine source 'God', during its time here in this Universe. Dr. Thind teaches in this divine seven meditation lessons how the seeker of truth can connect to its own source through the daily practice of being silent and going within, and how to evolve their spiritual consciousness to a place they can overcome the world.

The author provides a detailed portrait of the Spiritual Baptist Faith and Orisha Work, two religions that share a common basis in the traditional religion of the Yoruba in West Africa. Specifically, the author studies the phenomenon of spirit possession, an integral aspect of worship in both religions. In the Spiritual Baptist Faith, a person who is possessed by the Holy Spirit retains his or her own identity, while in Orisha Work, those who are possessed by the orishas (spirits), become the spirits. Both types of possession are based on the Yoruba concept of self in which identity is dependent on the spirit which animates a physical body. This common basis of religions enables the respective populations to interact extensively and explains why an individual can experience both types of spiritual possession.

For millennia, ceremonies and initiation rites have helped societies survive and thrive by marking life transitions. In contemporary America, except for bar mitzvahs, graduations, and weddings, these rituals are conspicuous by their absence. Written for people in search of their true selves--particularly those on the verge of adulthood and those at a major crossroads such as divorce or carrier change--"Soulcraft restores the ritual to its rightful place as a crucial part of personal growth and self-employment. Exercises and insightful stories explain how to discover one's unique gift, or "soul purpose," to be shared with others through a ceremonial event. Drawing on ancient traditions, this vision quest serves as a modern rite of initiation.

"This book almost didn't exist. I was about to write a serious, heavy book entitled How To Save Western Civilization, as a sequel to my book How To Destroy Western Civilization and Other Ideas from the Cultural Abyss. But writing it was not making me happy, and reading it was not going to make anybody else happy either. And then I stopped just long enough for my guardian angel to squeeze through that tiny window of opportunity that I had opened up by my silence and to whisper this commonsense question into my subconscious: "Why not make them happy instead?" (Angels specialize in common sense.) I started thinking: Western civilization is neither healthy, happy, nor holy. Humor is all three. Humor is not only holy, it's Heavenly. And if you are surprised to be told that humor is Heavenly, you need to read this book because you reveal your misunderstanding of both humor and Heaven. If you ask, 'Is there laughter in Heaven?' my answer is: 'You can't be serious!'"

A primary premise of this special issue is that religious faith and spirituality comprise an integral component of lay discourse and lay theories associated with health. The articles included in this collection begin to fill a void and--at the same time--illustrate a role health communication fulfills within the behavioral sciences, emphasizing how everyday people make sense of health conditions in their daily living. Following the introduction, the next paper provides an integrated synthesis of the ways and means that religious faith and spirituality have been assessed, primarily through use of quantitative measures. The next two articles utilize instruments discussed in the previous review. The remaining papers utilize qualitative methods to begin to address the absence of specific understanding regarding religious faith and health communication, answering the challenge to health communicators to enrich the field through greater use of such methodological approaches to inquiry.

In this book Paramahansa Yogananda offers prayers and affirmations that beginners and experienced meditators alike can use to awaken the boundless joy, peace, and inner freedom of the soul. Includes introductory instructions on how to meditate. An encouraging guide that teaches us through our own experience how to spiritually enrich our everyday life. More than 700,000 copies sold.

The way in which people change and represent their spiritual evolution is often determined by recurrent language structures. Through the analysis of ancient and modern stories and their words and images, this book describes the nature of conversion through explorations of the encounter with the religious message, the discomfort of spiritual uncertainty, the loss of personal and social identity, the anxiety of destabilization, the reconstitution of the self and the discovery of a new language of the soul.

A stunning power lies at the heart of the Hawaiian islands. With unparalleled beauty and a rich sense of tradition, Hawai'i is truly a world apart--a magnificent culture unmatched in its modes of spiritual expression.

Celebrated author Scott Cunningham offers a sociological and historical perspective on the fascinating beliefs and practices of the Hawaiian people before the advent of Christianity. Discover traditional methods of divination, omen-reading, and sorcery; take a close look at the ways of the deities; learn about social customs, taboos, and superstitions; and see how ghosts and night marchers embody the Polynesian concept of the ever-present human spirit.

The spirituality of ancient Hawai'i was deeply rooted in the land, the wind, the rain, and the ocean. Hawaiian Magic & Spirituality will introduce you to its enduring legacy. An enchanting world of myth and magic awaits your discovery . . .

Let spirituality enhance the effectiveness of your marriage and family therapy practice! The field of marriage and family therapy is starting to acknowledge that spiritual and religious issues are a valuable part of the lives of both clients and therapists. Spirituality and Family Therapy provides you with important information about this growing trend, including guidelines for therapists who are unsure how to integrate spiritual issues into their practice and detailed case studies that reveal how and why faith is a vital part of many clients' lives. Along with these features, you'll also find two unique conversational-style chapters where various authors explore their own beliefs and discuss the role of religion in their lives and careers. Spirituality and Family Therapy will help you understand your own spirituality, and use it as an important resource in your relationships with clients. In Spirituality and Family Therapy you'll learn about: the links between faith, fathering, and family therapy clinical applications for Christian mediation making altars as a way to help your clients come to terms with loss the ways spirituality helps parents cope with the death of a child ways to integrate the spirituality of the therapist into your work the value of faith in services for Alzheimer's caregivers integration of religion, gender, and spirituality in clinical practice

Shamans throughout much of Asia are regarded as having the power to control and coerce spirits. Many Asians today still turn to shamans to communicate with the world of the dead, heal the sick, and explain enigmatic events. To understand Asian religions, therefore, a knowledge of shamanism is essential.
Shamans in Asia provides an introduction to the study of shamans and six ethnographic studies, each of which describes and analyses the lives and activities of shamans in five different regions: Siberia, China, Korea, and the Ryukyu islands of southern Japan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The essays show what type of people become shamans, what social roles they play, and how shamans actively draw from the worldviews of the communities in which they operate. As the first book in English to provide in-depth accounts of shamans from different regions of Asia, it allows students and scholars to view the diversity and similarities of shamans and their religions. Those interested in spiritual specialists, the anthropological study of religion, and local religions in Asia will be intrigued, if not entranced, by Shamans in Asia.

Despite the growing literature on spirituality and its positive impact on well-being in health psychology, education, occupational psychology and leisure studies, it has been less examined in sport studies. Meaning and Spirituality in Sport and Exercise: Psychological Perspectives examines the many forms of spirituality in sport from a psychological perspective, from moments of transcendence and finding deeper meaning and value to prayer before an important competition or in adversity, such as a career-threatening injury. Based on the latest research and the Nesti's experience in applied sport psychology service delivery, this book covers a range of novel topics linking spirituality to athlete development, injury, exercise motivation, and ageing athletes, and offers applied, practical guidance for sport psychologists working with spiritual athletes. Offering a unique contribution to the study of spirituality in sport, and to sport psychology practice, this book is vital reading for any upper-level student or academic working in sport and exercise psychology, religion and sport, or the philosophy of sport, and any practising sport psychologist.

In popular culture, such diverse characters as occultist Aleister Crowley, Doors musician Jim Morrison, and performance artist Joseph Beuys have been called shamans. In anthropology, on the other hand, shamanism has associations with sorcery, witchcraft and healing, and archaeologists have suggested the meaning of prehistoric cave art lies with shamans and altered consciousness. Robert J. Wallis explores the interface between 'new' and prehistoric shamans. The book draws on interviews with a variety of practitioners, particularly contemporary pagans in Britain and north America. Wallis looks at historical and archaeological sources to explore contemporary pagan engagements with prehistoric sacred sites such as Stonehenge and Avebury, and discusses the controversial use by neo-Shamans of indigenous (particularly native American) shamanism.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203417577

In popular culture, such diverse characters as occultist Aleister Crowley, Doors musician Jim Morrison, and performance artist Joseph Beuys have been called shamans. In anthropology, on the other hand, shamanism has associations with sorcery, witchcraft and healing, and archaeologists have suggested the meaning of prehistoric cave art lies with shamans and altered consciousness. Robert J. Wallis explores the interface between 'new' and prehistoric shamans. The book draws on interviews with a variety of practitioners, particularly contemporary pagans in Britain and north America. Wallis looks at historical and archaeological sources to explore contemporary pagan engagements with prehistoric sacred sites such as Stonehenge and Avebury, and discusses the controversial use by neo-Shamans of indigenous (particularly native American) shamanism.

States of spirit possession, in which believer's feel themselves to be "possessed" by the deity and raised to a new plane of existence, are found in almost all known religions. From Dionysiac cults to Haitian voodoo, Christian and Sufi mysticism to shamanic ritual, the rapture and frenzy of ecstatic experience forms an iconic expression of faith in all its devastating power and unpredictability.;"Ecstatic Religion", first published in 1971 and now in its third edition, is an investigative study of these phenomena. Exploring the social and political significance of spiritual ecstasy and possession, it concerns the distinct types of functions of mystical experience - in particular, the differences between powerful male-dominated possession cults which reinforce established morality and power, and marginal, renegade ecstatics expressing forms of protest on behalf of the oppressed, especially women. I.M. Lewis's wide-ranging comparative study looks at the psychological, medical, aesthetic, religious and cultural aspects of possession, and covers themes including soul-loss, ecstatic trance, divination, erotic passion and exorcism. Probing the mysteries of spirit possession through the c

I.M. Lewis's wide-ranging comparative study looks at the psychological, medical, aesthetic, religious, and cultural aspects of possession, and covers themes including soul-loss, ecstatic trance, divination, erotic passion and exorcism. Probing the mysteries of spirit possession through the critical lens of anthropological and sociological theory, this fully revised and expanded third edition is of crucial importance for students of psychology, sociology, religious mysticism and shamanism.

This dramatic and sustained response to decades of research into near-death experiences (NDEs) is the first book to credibly bridge the gap between the competing factions of science and spirituality. Neither a religious argument touting NDEs as hard evidence for God, nor a scientific rebuke to religious interpretations, it balances investigation of these much-reported yet baffling phenomena, and brings fresh urgency to the study of our hopes for a life beyond.

Shamanism is one of the earliest and farthest-reaching magical and religious traditions, vestiges of which still underlie the major religious faiths of the modern world. The function of the shaman is to show his or her people the unseen powers behind the mere appearances of nature, as experienced through intuition, in trance states or during ecstatic mystical visions. Shamans possess healing powers, communicate with the dead and the world beyond, and influence the weather and movements of hunting animals. The psychological exaltation of shamanism trance states is similar to the ecstasies of Yogis, Christian mystics and dervishes. Shamanism: An Introduction traces the development of shamanism in its many fascinating global manifestations. Looking at shamanic practises from Siberia to China and beyond, it provides an accessible guide to one of the world's most ancient, notorious and frequently misrepresented spiritual traditions. Placing special emphasis on the climate, geographic and cultural pressures under which shanic customs arose and continue to be observed, Margaret Stutley summarizes and clearly explains the logic of a faith whose fantastical elements hold a special place in popular imagination.

Shamanism is one of the earliest and farthest-reaching magical and religious traditions, vestiges of which still underlie the major religious faiths of the modern world. The function of the shaman is to show his or her people the unseen powers behind the mere appearances of nature, as experienced through intuition, in trance states or during ecstatic mystical visions. Shamans possess healing powers, communicate with the dead and the world beyond, and influence the weather and movements of hunting animals. The psychological exaltation of shamanism trance states is similar to the ecstasies of Yogis, Christian mystics and dervishes. Shamanism: A Concise Introduction traces the development of shamanism in its many fascinating global manifestations. Looking at shamanic practises from Siberia to China and beyond, it provides an accessible guide to one of the world's most ancient, notorious and frequently misrepresented spiritual traditions. Placing special emphasis on the climate, geographic and cultural pressures under which shanic customs arose and continue to be observed, Margaret Stutley summarizes and clearly explains the logic of a faith whose fantastical elements hold a special place in popular imagination.

Paradise is not some far-off distant time or place, nor is it beyond death. It is here and now ,according to Howard Cooper—one of the most eloquent new voices in spirituality. The Alphabet of Paradise contains twenty-six chapters, A–Z, on such topics as: Awe • Bodies • Creativity • Dreams • Emotions • Food • Humor • Illness • Justice • Kabbalah • Love • Money Throughout each, Cooper uses the ancient Jewish mystical interpretive technique of PaRDeS, examining: • The Plain or literal meaning of the subject • Reminders, hints, or allusions that the subject evokes • Deeper spiritual meanings • And the Secret or mystical meanings that are sometimes present Demonstrating a remarkable range of cultural understanding and spiritual insight—from Salman Rushdie to soccer to sauerkraut—The Alphabet of Paradise uncovers the mystical meaning of our everyday lives.

This accessible study of Northern European shamanistic practice, or seidr, explores the way in which the ancient Norse belief systems evoked in the Icelandic Sagas and Eddas have been rediscovered and reinvented by groups in Europe and North America. The book examines the phenomenon of altered consciousness and the interactions of seid-workers or shamanic practitioners with their spirit worlds. Written by a follower of seidr, it investigates new communities involved in a postmodern quest for spiritual meaning.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203398335

'This transformational book will help you calm your mind, remove negativity and find inner peace.' Jay Shetty, author of Think Like a Monk 'The perfect manual for the mind, bringing deep insight to today's world and offering practical tools for transformation' Gelong Thubten, author of A Monk's Guide to Happiness _______________________________________________________________________________ In this hectic, modern world, the practice of meditation is the greatest way to calm your mind and find peace. A collection of teachings from one of the world's wisest minds, the lessons in this book have transformed the lives of people across the world and have never been more pertinent. In this book world-renowned meditation master, Lama Yeshe,shares how meditation enabled him to overcome the strains and pressures of modern life and find peace - and reveals how we can all do the same. He teaches us that our minds are infinite like the sky, which can easily become clouded with stress and emotions, but with meditation we are able to see beyond the clouds and free our minds of obstacles. With practical steps on breathing, posture, forgiveness, relationships and establishing a meditation routine, this is the definitive guide for beginners and experienced meditators alike to learn from the wisdom of a globally revered meditation master.

Author Biography:
Neil Price is a Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. He has written extensively on the Viking Age, and has conducted research projects in France, Iceland, Russia and Sápmi (Lappland).