It is the tail end of the sixties in Los Angeles, in that seemingly split second of time when all hell broke loose and the conformity of the "Leave it to Beaver" fifties would forever be shed. That's when Maureen Tadlock hit the streets, her mother divorced for the forth time, with no rules or constraints, twelve years old saying she was fifteen, cruising the boulevards, dropping acid, in an endless carnival of parties and characters that were both innocent and outrageous. But as "the Fates" would have it the law would soon intervene and reset her course on an odyssey of greater meaning and further adventure while continuing to ride the wave of a cultural revolution. In her search for home, family and love in a world that from the beginning felt alien, Maureen Tadlock explores the borderlands of inner experience, creative expression and the transcendent, mythical meaning of her life as a young woman.

""The Weakness of Gravity" is a magic carpet ride of imagination and adventure, bikers, barrio boys, hippie houses and harrowing cross-country trips. Securely moored in the unwavering and addictive voice of Maureen Tadlock, the memoir tells a tale of fearlessness and uncompromising creative expression during a time when the country flared with hope and revolution. A must read that may very well change your life."

Suzanne Kingsbury, author of The Summer Fletcher Greel Loved Me and The Gospel According to Gracey.

"A superbly written memoir, "The Weakness of Gravity" is a moving, haunting account of Maureen Tadlock's coming of age and emerging consciousness of self in relation to place, home, love, community and creative expression in her life. It is told with genuine humor and an evenly hovering attention that recreates scenes, places, and moments in history with spare but telling details. She recounts experiences of non-ordinary states of consciousness in such a way that they are compelling, intriguing, and just part of the story so that they are not jarring to the reader, but linger as vivid and beautiful images in the reader's mind."

James Sparrell Ph.D.

"There is a magical quality to Maureen's writing that allows the personal and temporal incidences of her life that she invokes to become transparent and reveal something larger and timeless."

Francis X. Charet Ph.D.

The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage-originally published in 1900, translated by Samuel Mathers from a 15th-century French document-was purportedly written by Abraham for his son Lamech. Within this volume are three books. The first book is Abraham's autobiography in which he speaks to his son. The second book is an explanation of the purification rituals necessary to bring the magician's personal demon under his control. And the third book details what feats can be accomplished once the practitioner is able to use a form of magic controlled and directed through sigils of magic words written on a grid. Anyone with an interest in the occult will find this an interesting, though perhaps impractical, guide for exploring mystic arts.

This is a book about curses. It is not about curses as insults or offensive language but curses as petitions to the divine world to render judgment and execute harm on identified, hostile forces. In the ancient world, curses functioned in a way markedly different from our own, and it is into the world of the ancient Near East that we must go in order to appreciate the scope of their influence. For the ancient Near Easterners, curses had authentic meaning. Curses were part of their life and religion. They were not inherently magic or features of superstitions, nor were they mere curiosities or trifling antidotes. They were real and effective. They were employed proactively and reactively to manage life’s many vicissitudes and maintain social harmony. They were principally protective, but they were also the cause of misfortune, illness, depression, and anything else that undermined a comfortable, well-balanced life. Every member of society used them, from slave to king, from young to old, from men and women to the deities themselves. They crossed cultural lines and required little or no explanation, for curses were the source of great evil. In other words, curses were universal. Because curses were woven into the very fabric of every known ancient Near Eastern society, they emerge frequently and in a wide variety of venues. They appear on public and private display objects, on tomb stelae, tomb lintels, and sarcophagi, on ancient kudurrus and narûs. They are used in political, administrative, social, religious, and familial contexts. They are the subject of incantations. They are tools that exorcise demons and dispel disease; they ban, protect, and heal. This is the phenomenology of cursing in the ancient Near East, and this is what the present work explores.

Since William Penn presided over the state's only official witch trial in 1684, witchcraft and folk magic have been a part of the history of the Keystone State. English and German settlers brought their beliefs in magic with them from the Old World--sometimes with dangerous consequences. In 1802, an Allegheny County judge helped an accused witch escape an angry mob. Susan Mummey was not so fortunate. In 1934, she was shot and killed in her home by a young Schuylkill County man who was convinced that she had cursed him. In other regions of the state, views on folk magic were more complex. While hex doctors were feared in the Pennsylvania German tradition, powwowers were and are revered for their abilities to heal, lift curses and find lost objects. Folklorist Thomas White traces the history and lore of witchcraft and the occult that quietly live on in Pennsylvania even today.

It was a warm, sunny, Tuesday afternoon. I was waiting at the red light at a busy interchange when another motorcycle pulled up next to me, in the same lane, also now waiting to go home, or to a friend's house, or maybe shopping. The very next thing he did was watch me fly like a circus aerial act, bouncing off car roof tops, and sailing all the way across the huge intersection.

With no prior intention, I was on my way to meet my maker and face up to the life that I had been living until then-all initiated by a drunk in an old, four-door sedan who had no plans on even slowing down.

Resuscitated over and over on the asphalt, I was eventually rushed to the hospital, where my wife was repeatedly told that I would not be alive much longer. Not being a believer of that kind of talk, she took peace in her heart that I would survive to be with her and our two little boys.

Now, having been comatose for two weeks, I awoke frightened and was told that I had little hope of much of a recovery. I was then confronted with Jesus himself, right there in that hospital room.

What He asked me over and over at that point clarified my beliefs and gave me the confidence to continue on. I call that encounter a pure miracle and thank God that I was The DOA Who Made It

Religious organizations face a real crisis. Our culture has changed and change will accelerate. In times of stability organizations grow to a size that challenges their ability to sustain themselves. We have begun a time of cultural instability. In times of stability large organizations thrive. In times of instability small organizations thrive. The hope for religious organizations in this culture is found in small, autonomous, connected organizations which each carry our hopes and dreams into the future. Making that kind of transition is difficult. This book gives you a road map to make it happen. The future of your organization requires that you let go of your past structure. This book is something to hold on to as you grasp for the future. There is a future. We invite you to be part of it.

This book answers the question to the most concealed practice in the Bardo Todol, commonly known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. What is the true intent of the Secret of the Four Wisdoms Gathered into the Clear Hollow Mysterious Passage of Vajrasatva? After eliminating all other possibilities you will discover that Trekcho and Togal are the one answer to this mystery. The encounter with the Vajrasatva Mystery is an Imbedded Clue to Trekcho and Togal which reveal Clear Light Evenness, not only in the after death state, but equally in the living state. Trekcho, Letting Go and Togal, the Four Stages of Soaring On or Skull Crossing are the deepest secrets of Dzogchen, the Natural Great Completion. In Nyingma these are restricted secret practices kept from the public eye. Whereas, in the Kagyu school and Bonpo tradition these same methods are open to one and all. You are the decider on these two attitudes. Let your thought be lighted by the words of the Lion of the Sakyas, "Ananda? I have set forth the Dharma without making any distinction of esoteric and exoteric doctrine; there is nothing, Ananda, with regard to the teachings that the Tathagata holds to the last with the closed fist." I hope you will find the freedom of your own experience in the detailed observations and in depth examinations of these secret methods of Dzogchen. The text is in no way, nor tries to be a teaching text, a manual, nor a guidebook on Trekcho and Togal or Bardo, for I am in no way at all, a teacher, an expert nor a guide in these practices. Nor do I ever wish to be one. This essay is an answer to a life long question I have had since reading the Bardo Thodol as a young person. "What is the true meaning of Vajrasattva, the Mysterious Passageway and the Union of the Four Wisdoms?" It just so happens that after one goes through all possibilities of what this means one finally comes to the sacred secret teachings of Dzogchen's Trekcho, Togal and Bardo. So I have had to explain what little that I know about these special secret practices to answer the primary question this text attempts to answer. Why wade through the torrent of concepts on this when we can go directly to the clear, most reasonable and satisfactory answers that leave no shadow of hesitation? Vajrasattva stands for the Primordial Clear Light Void as Love and Compassion. The secret Mysterious Way of the pure Clear Passage of Vajrasatva is the Kati, running from the Heart to the Eyes. Within this Kati are the Four Lamps. From Clear Light, through the Open Kati these Lamps give forth an arising to the Four Togal Appearances. Since it is found in the highest wisdom texts from Dzogchen on Trekcho, Togal and Bardo and Tibetan's favorite book on guidance in the afterlife, it is worthy of taking a serious look.