Drawing on a wealth of new evidence, pioneering research psychologist David DeSteno shows why religious practices and rituals are so beneficial to those who follow them-and to anyone, regardless of their faith (or lack thereof). Scientists are beginning to discover what believers have known for a long time: the rewards that a religious life can provide. For millennia, people have turned to priests, rabbis, imams, shamans, and others to help them deal with issues of grief and loss, birth and death, morality and meaning. In this absorbing work, DeSteno reveals how numerous religious practices from around the world improve emotional and physical well-being. With empathy and rigor, DeSteno chronicles religious rites and traditions from cradle to grave. He explains how the Japanese rituals surrounding childbirth help strengthen parental bonds with children. He describes how the Apache Sunrise Ceremony makes teenage girls better able to face the rigors of womanhood. He shows how Buddhist meditation reduces hostility and increases compassion. He demonstrates how the Jewish practice of sitting shiva comforts the bereaved. And much more. DeSteno details how belief itself enhances physical and mental health. But you don't need to be religious to benefit from the trove of wisdom that religion has to offer. Many items in religion's "toolbox" can help the body and mind whether or not one believes. How God Works offers advice on how to incorporate many of these practices to help all of us live more meaningful, successful, and satisfying lives.

Discover some of the world’s most awe-inspiring and holy places, from Stonehenge to Uluru, and Walden Pond to Angkor Wat. Humans have always searched for and created meaning in the world around them, whether in breathtakingly stunning natural features and phenomena, acknowledging the ancient home of a particular faith or movement, or honouring the location of a significant event. In this beautifully illustrated guide, Alice Peck discusses what makes a place spiritual – whether reaches of time, geography, the provision of sustenance or inspiration, or mystery and magic – and then explores 80 such locations around the globe. Rather than a comprehensive travel guide, the description of each one includes a detail or tip – something beautiful, strange, relatively unknown or unfamiliar – to allow readers to deepen their focus and perhaps experience the place in a different way than they might expect. If you are unable to travel at this time, this book will help you plan your next adventure. And if you are trying to limit your carbon footprint, each destination is accompanied by a related meditation, prayer, practice or quotation to help you connect to the spirit of it from your own home.

Each of us is made of the same "stuff," yet we continuously see each other and the world around us as dissimilar and separate. It's important to see ourselves as part of a greater entity. In "Wholarian Vision, " author Katrina Mayer presents a new way of seeing the world and bringing it together. With prose, stories, and poems interspersed, Mayer introduces the Wholarian vision-a process of being connected to all things and to all people in order to see others without prejudice or bias. "Wholarian Vision" introduces and explains this new concept and describes how it affects the mind, body, and spirit. It discusses both the Wholarian world and the relationships within it. With the goal of bringing the world together through a global perspective, "Wholarian Vision" shows how we all originate from one and we will always be part of one. Our actions, our choices, our lives, and our voices are the message of one heart, one world, and one love.

Millions of people, who have started to awaken to the spiritual side of life, find a spiritual teaching, start to apply that teaching, and then gradually get caught in the age-old ego games. They use the spiritual teaching to prop up their sense of being the favorite sons or the chosen people. The ego always manages to turn any spiritual teaching into a false path-the outer path, which makes you think that you can qualify for the ascension by changing other people or the world. The human ego uses all kinds of tricks to justify its own choices, especially its unwillingness to change. The ego will seek to make you believe that it cannot, is not allowed to or does not need to rise beyond its current level. Thus, in order to rise from one level of consciousness to the next, the you will have to transcend the corresponding aspect of the ego. The real spiritual path is an inner path, where you realize that the only way that you can qualify for your ascension is to change yourself-your sense of self. Thus, to find the true spiritual path that leads to your real freedom from mortal struggle, you have to find the secret path beyond ego. For those who are open to the existence of universal spiritual teachers who have already followed the path beyond ego, this book offers a unique perspective on what the ego is and how it originated. What better way to go beyond ego than to learn from teachers who are already there. In this book, many Masters - Jesus, Mother Mary, Gautama Buddha, El Morya, Saint Germain and others - give their teachings about finding the secret path beyond the ego-based consciousness. Having experienced the subtleties of the human ego, the Masters give practical guidance for recognizing and transcending the ego. This will empower you to find true freedom and awaken your full potential as an individualization of God. This is an indispensable guide for all serious students of new spirituality.

In "The New Revelation" the first dawn of the coming change has been described. In "The Vital Message" the sun has risen higher, and one sees more clearly and broadly what our new relations with the Unseen may be. As I look into the future of the human race I am reminded of how once, from amid the bleak chaos of rock and snow at the head of an Alpine pass, I looked down upon the far stretching view of Lombardy, shimmering in the sunshine and extending in one splendid panorama of blue lakes and green rolling hills until it melted into the golden haze which draped the far horizon. Such a promised land is at our very feet which, when we attain it, will make our present civilisation seem barren and uncouth. Already our vanguard is well over the pass. Nothing can now prevent us from reaching that wonderful land which stretches so clearly before those eyes which are opened to see it.