1930. Among primitive races, in antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. This volume is a survey of the history of possession from the most ancient times down to the present day and in all countries of the inhabited globe, together with an analysis of its nature and relationship to other phenomena, such as hysteria and the manifestations of spiritualism. The subject treated is a very fascinating one, to the general reader as well as to the student of psychology and ethnology. It would be difficult to see the human race in a more fantastic light than that cast by these stories of possession.

SOULS OF TERROR is a fast-paced, well-researched thriller with fascinating characters whose lives become strangely entwined as they unravel a frightening mystery. The surprising climax will leave you forever questioning the thin line between fact and fiction. In the beginning . . .

A brilliant university student is brutally killed in New York as a young boy from an Oregon private school is whisked off to Switzerland. What is the connection and why is it so important to millions of people? Chris Thompson is ridden with guilt while searching for his son. Is young Michael the key to a deeply spiritual and terrifying mission?

Michael's attractive aunt Kate has a penchant for profanity and martial arts . . . and carries a heavy secret from her past. Dr. Paul Sung is an atheist and authority on the history of the New Age movement. His unfulfilling life in academia is about to change. Detective Mark Julian needs to solve a string of gruesome New York murders, so why was he sent to Europe?

Karl Heisman and his Group of Forty-Eight are a covert sub-group of a spiritual movement known as Anthroposophy. Does their strange karma include links to Freemasonry and the dawning of a New Age? Are they racist terrorists or is there a method to their madness? And who was Rudolf Steiner?

At this very moment, there are millions of cult members world-wide. Do you think you could never become one of them? Think again. Brenda Lee has written a heart-wrenching, yet inspiring tale about her battle to escape from a religious cult after enduring decades of dysfunction and abuse. "Out of the Cocoon" is a remarkable story about how a single visit from two seemingly "nice" strangers nearly cost her everything, including her life. This story begins at the pinnacle of the authors desperation, by relaying a chilling fantasy she created when she was twelve years old. After accomplishing her grisly, murderous task within the security of a dream, she poses a disturbing question that sets the stage for the rest of her story: What could make a child so angry that she would fantasise about taking away the lives of the two people who gave her life? To understand Brendas fragile emotional state, we have to go back to the beginning, when her childhood innocence reigned and unconditional love was abundant -- when she didnt feel all alone in the world. In subsequent chapters, author Brenda Lee transports the reader back in time to relive the innocence of her childhood on a 100-year-old farm in rural Pennsylvania, where her carefree days were filled by swinging from vines, raising farm animals as pets, romping through the forests with her cousins, and plunging from the hayloft. Once "The Friends" knock on the door, however, her childhood and innocence dramatically disappear. But Brenda Lee refuses to become a victim and, like a butterfly, she learns to change the world within her when her external world becomes unbearable. After surviving years of stifling oppression and isolation, Brenda emerges from her cocoon and struggles to take flight. As she tries to fit into society as a young adult, she learns some startling things about her family, this "wicked world", and herself. In time, she learns to forgive not only those who tormented her, but also the mother who disowned her.

The Ancient and Mystic Order of Rosae Crucis bills itself as a nonsectarian group whose members study the mysteries of the universe. Through weekly monographs, AMORC dispenses lessons in telepathy, telekinesis, and other supernatural activities.

Spiritual seekers might believe that AMORC can deliver on its promise to help them achieve cosmic consciousness. Skeptics might dismiss it as harmless nonsense.

Both would be wrong.

A former AMORC member, Pierre S. Freeman reveals the cult's hidden agenda, along with the advanced hypnotic techniques it employs to slowly gain control over the people who join. If you are thinking about becoming involved with the order, or you want to free yourself from its grasp, you will find the insider knowledge within "AMORC Unmasked" invaluable.

About the Author

Pierre S. Freeman was exposed to AMORC's mind-control techniques for twenty-four years. In his first book, "The Prisoner of San Jose," he describes his experiences with the order, and how he finally deprogrammed himself. Freeman is currently a successful analyst for several large financial institutions in the Minneapolis area.

It is God who sets apart and sanctifies the Sabbath day. He determines when it is. Today there is a group of believers targeting Messianics called "Lunar Sabbatarians" who teach that the weekly Sabbaths are "reset" every month to coincide with the new moons. We shall explore this issue in this book.

"Armed with wit, insight, and truly astonishing research, Geoffrey Falk utterly demolishes the notion of the enlightened guru who can lead devotees to nirvana. This entertaining and yet deadly serious book should be read by everyone pursuing or thinking of pursuing the path of guru devotion." --John Horgan, author of "Rational Mysticism" "Stripping the Gurus is superb--one of the best books of its kind I have ever read. The research is meticulous, the writing engaging, and the overall thesis: devastatingly true. A stellar book." --Dr. David C. Lane, California State University Ramakrishna was a homoerotic pedophile. His chief disciple, Vivekananda, visited brothels in India. Krishnamurti carried on an affair for over twenty years with the wife of a good friend. Chogyam Trungpa drank himself into an early grave. One of Adi Da's nine "wives" was a former Playboy centerfold. Bhagwan Rajneesh sniffed laughing gas to get high. Andrew Cohen, guru and publisher of "What Is Enlightenment?" magazine, by his own reported admission sometimes feels "like a god." These are typical of the "wizened sages" to whom otherwise-sensible people give their devotion and unquestioning obedience, surrendering their independence, willpower, and life's savings in the hope of realizing for themselves the same "enlightenment" as they ascribe to the "perfect, God-realized" master. Why? Is it for being emotionally vulnerable and "brainwashed," as the "anti-cultists" assert? Or for being "willingly psychologically seduced," as the apologists unsympathetically counter, confident that they themselves are "too smart" to ever fall into the same trap? Or have devotees simply walked, with naively open hearts and thirsty souls, into inherent dynamics of power and obedience which have showed themselves in classic psychological studies from Milgram to Zimbardo, and to which each one of us is susceptible every day of our lives? Like the proud "Rude Boy" Cohen allegedly said, with a laugh, in response to the nervous breakdown of one of his devoted followers: "It could happen to any one of you." Don't let it happen to you. Don't get suckered in. Be prepared. Be informed. Find out what reportedly goes on behind the scenes in even the best of our world's spiritual communities. You can start by reading this book.

Description

Elisabeth's book is written to help those caught up in obsessive spiritual sects and guru movements. Recounting the extraordinary events of a long life filled with great joys and harrowing griefs, Elisabeth generously traces her soul journey of awakening for the benefit and inspiration of others.
After describing her almost idyllic childhood, she covers the circumstances that led to marriage and - despite her best intentions towards her family - to permanent separation from husband and children, and virtual incarceration and domination within a religious cult.
She relates how a virtually unknown James Bond figure snatched her away, and how they set up a new and happy life together before further vicissitude struck.
Animating the whole is the spirit of her endearing personality and indomitable perseverance; a truly inspiring book.

About the Author

Elisabeth Fraser had a lengthy career as a sales manager, editor and author for Jarrold Publishing. She is author of An Illustrated History of Scotland (1997) and has edited a number of other titles.
Elisabeth has been interested in spirituality for most of her life, and is now very involved in the Tibetan Buddhist field helping to promote talks and lectures from eminent Tibetan lamas and doctors in liaison with the monastery at Samye Ling.
She is based in Edinburgh.

From Haruki Murakami, internationally acclaimed author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood, a work of literary journalism that is as fascinating as it is necessary, as provocative as it is profound.

In March of 1995, agents of a Japanese religious cult attacked the Tokyo subway system with sarin, a gas twenty-six times as deadly as cyanide. Attempting to discover why, Murakami conducted hundreds of interviews with the people involved, from the survivors to the perpetrators to the relatives of those who died, and Underground is their story in their own voices. Concerned with the fundamental issues that led to the attack as well as these personal accounts, Underground is a document of what happened in Tokyo as well as a warning of what could happen anywhere. This is an enthralling and unique work of nonfiction that is timely and vital and as wonderfully executed as Murakami’s brilliant novels.

Ken Wilber is the "long-sought Einstein of consciousness research," having been generously regarded as such since the late 1970s. Ken Wilber is "a genius of our times." Ken Wilber is "the world's most intriguing and foremost philosopher." Ken Wilber's celebrated ideas have influenced Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Jeb Bush, Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, and a host of other luminaries, spiritual and otherwise. Writer Michael Crichton, leadership guru Warren Bennis, playwright Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues), alternative-therapist Larry Dossey, the Wachowski Brothers (directors of The Matrix), and a handful of rock stars have all lent their voices in support of the "integral" community. Yet Ken Wilber, his seemingly valid theories of consciousness, and the increasingly unquestioning community of "second-tier" spiritual aspirants surrounding him and participating in his Integral University, are not what they appear to be. "NORMAN EINSTEIN": THE DIS-INTEGRATION OF KEN WILBER will show you why the community around Wilber is being increasingly called a "cult," even by former members who have seen it first-hand.

Slavery Of Faith...the quietly kept story of a young woman's escape through the jungles of Jonestown, Guyana the morning of the massacre November 18, 1978 and her struggles to live in the aftermath.

November 18, 2008 marks 30 years since the Jonestown, Guyana Massacre/Suicides and the death of its founder, the Reverend Jim Jones.

Escaping Jonestown, Guyana the morning of November 18,1978 with nine others, Leslie Wagner-Wilson then twenty one years old, trekked thirty seven miles through the jungle with a 40-pound care package strapped to her back with a sheet, her son, later to be known as the youngest survivor of Jonestown. That evening, she would be told that Jonestown was gone along with her plan to escape and return with her father, Richard Wagner who was a part of the Concerned Relatives to free the rest of her family. Amongst the carnage would be her husband, mother, brother, sister, niece, nephew, sister in law, brother in law and the friends she had grown up and loved since 13.

Slavery of Faith reveals the life of a thirteen year old coming of age in the heart of People's Temple Disciples of Christ Church where the pastor Jim Jones, exhorted his followers to consider him divine and to call him "Father" while he touted his extra-marital affairs from the pulpit. The world of Jim Jones was one of inverted ideals, isolation and alienation. However, what began as a church that appealed to peoples inner spirit to help others, was turned into a living hell. Yet it was a place she would go, half a continent away, to be with her 2 year old son, who'd been taken to Jonestown by Jim Jones as he made his exodus to Guyana. It shares the horrors of Jonestown - the labor punishment squads, suicide drills, sleep deprivation, drugging, and humiliations. It also takes the reader through the escape that she says was revealed to her in the spirit.

Thirty years since Jonestown, Slavery of Faith also chronicles her return to the U.S. under a veil of secrecy in fear of the "death squads," her fight to maintain her faith in her most darkest hours; suffering survivors guilt, drug addiction, a family suicide, and finally redemption. It shares her journey through psychological and spiritual jungles to reach a place of remembrance-- to "live their love and not their deaths." Faith has allowed her the resiliency to as she states "tuck and roll" and discover that through pain, tragedy and joy, her life has found divine order.

This is the book Ellen G. White has been accused of copying. H.L. Hastings' "The Great Controversy between God and Man" was published in January, 1858, and was reviewed by James White just months before he published his wife's own version of "The Great Controversy." Included is Ellen White's original 1858 version - much different than the oft-revised edition promoted today. Both books in this one volume By comparing these two Great Controversies of 1858, you can determine for yourself the extent of E.G. White's inspiration from visions, and inspiration from one of the most popular Second Advent Movement writers of her time - Horace L. Hastings.

This anthology provides rare access to key original documents illuminating Mormon history, theology, and culture in the United States from the nineteenth century to today. Brief introductions describe the theological significance of each text and its reflection of the practices, issues, and challenges that have defined and continue to define the Mormon community. These documents balance mainstream and peripheral thought and religious experience, institutional and personal perspective, and theoretical and practical interpretation, representing pivotal moments in LDS history and correcting decades of misinformation and stereotype. The authors of these documents, male and female, not only celebrate but speak critically and question mainline LDS teachings on sexuality, politics, gender, race, polygamy, and other issues. Selections largely focus on the Salt Lake--based LDS tradition, with a section on the post--Joseph Smith splintering and its creation of a variety of similar yet different Mormon groups. The documents are arranged chronologically within specific categories to capture both the historical and doctrinal development of Mormonism in the United States.

There are over 600 New Religious Movements (NRMs) in Great Britain alone, and more than 2000 in the United States. A Reader in New Religious Movements provides an introduction to the main teachings of a selection of these organizations, focusing on those that are well established in the West. The contemporary and in some cases controversial NRMs covered include the Unification Church, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Family, Osho, Soka Gakkai International and the Western Buddhist Order.

There are over 600 New Religious Movements (NRMs) in Great Britain alone, and more than 2000 in the United States. A Reader in New Religious Movements aims to provide an introduction to the main teachings of a selection of these organizations, focusing on those which are well-established in the West. The contemporary - and in some cases controversial -- NRMs covered include The Unification Church, The International Society for Krishna Consciousness, The Family, Osho, Soka Gakkai International and the Western Buddhist Order.

The Rhetoric of Religious Cults takes as its departure point the notion that 'cults' have a distinctive language and way of recruiting members. First outlining a rhetorical framework, which encompasses contemporary discourse analysis, the persuasive texts of three movements - Scientology, Jehovah's Witnesses and Children of God - are analysed in detail and their discourse compared with other kinds of recruitment literature. Cults' distinctive negative profile in society is not matched by a linguistic typology. Indeed, this negative profile seems to rest on the semantics and application of the term 'cult' itself.

Presenting a non-scholarly resource replete with sketches of history and beliefs, insights, trivia and unexpected details about very many of the world's largest, smallest, oldest and strangest beliefs, faiths and religions. It is a succor for the legion of intellectually curious and perhaps some of the answers to a lot of big questions--from the religion of Elvis to the Nation of Islam, Kabbalah to Dreamtime, Druids to Opus Dei, Satanism to the Church of England, and Jedi Knights to the Church of Country Sports, together with many others.

Were most cults and new religions simply passing fads of the late-twentieth century, or are some of them still growing today? What new sects have emerged, and what dangers do they present? How should Christians respond? Bible teacher and apologetics expert Ron Rhodes has cataloged 40 groups in this concise and easy-to-use handbook. Readers will appreciate Ron's thorough research and his reader-friendly style. His brief examination of each group includes a short history of the sect or new religion an explanation of the group's major doctrines the Christian apologetic response This informative guide includes a list of "Apologetic Power Points," which provides readers with a fast-paced summary of the foundational truths of biblical Christianity.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Unique among books about the Wiccan Sabbats, Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Samhain to Ostara takes a different approach to explaining the holidays by taking an in-depth look at half of the Wheel of the Year. Rather than dissecting each holiday, Ashleen's goal is to take a broader look at them, explaining how and why we celebrate each, along with how the celebration of one leads to the next.

The first of two new titles from Ashleen offers a vision of the holidays we celebrate from October to March. This book covers each holiday by first giving us its history and original customs, then explaining its place in modern life. Stories are shared for each Sabbat to reconnect us with our lore and bring new meaning to current practice. Ashleen includes ideas for rituals that are ideal for practicing solitaries, covens, or Wiccan families, with special sections on what children of various ages are ready to learn about these holidays.

Mrs. E.G. White, the prophetess, leader, and chief founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, claimed to be divinely inspired by God the same as were the prophets of the Bible. Every line she wrote, whether in articles, letters, testimonies, or books, she claimed was dictated to her by the Holy Ghost, and hence must be infallible. These claims are subject to fair investigation. Her people accept and defend these claims strongly. Her writings are read in their churches, taught in their schools, and preached by their ministers the same as the Holy Scriptures. Their church stands or falls with her claims. From reading the church's books about her, one would never know that she ever made a mistake, plagiarized, practiced deception, or wrote alleged inspired writings which had to be suppressed. The public has a right to know the other side of the life of Mrs. White.

Are Masonry and Christianity truly compatible? Using their concise question-and-answer style, noted researchers John Ankerberg and John Weldon look at the basics of the issue, examining Masons' claims and terminology and asking such critical questions as-- Is Freemasonry a religion? What do Masons teach about Jesus Christ? What do Masonic symbols represent? Is the God of the Bible also the God of the Masonic Lodge?

Easy to follow and practical, this thought-provoking resource will help readers understand one of North America's most widespread organizations--and the beliefs of people belonging to it--in light of the clear teaching of the Bible.