Since the dawn of history people have used charms and spells to try to control their environment, and forms of divination to try to foresee the otherwise unpredictable chances of life. Many of these techniques were called "superstitious" by educated elites.
For centuries religious believers used "superstition" as a term of abuse to denounce another religion that they thought inferior, or to criticize their fellow-believers for practising their faith "wrongly." From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, scholars argued over what 'superstition' was, how to identify it, and how to persuade people to avoid it. Learned believers in demons and witchcraft, in their treatises and sermons, tried to make 'rational' sense of popular superstitions by blaming them on the deceptive tricks of seductive demons.
Every major movement in Christian thought, from rival schools of medieval theology through to the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment, added new twists to the debates over superstition. Protestants saw Catholics as superstitious, and vice versa. Enlightened philosophers mocked traditional cults as superstitions. Eventually, the learned lost their worry about popular belief, and turned instead to chronicling and preserving 'superstitious' customs as folklore and ethnic heritage.
Enchanted Europe offers the first comprehensive, integrated account of western Europe's long, complex dialogue with its own folklore and popular beliefs. Drawing on many little-known and rarely used texts, Euan Cameron constructs a compelling narrative of the rise, diversification, and decline of popular 'superstition' in the European mind.

On December 23, 2007, a small private plane carrying author Kim Klein's thirteen-year-old daughter, Talia, Talia's father and her best friend crashed into the side of a volcano in Panama, killing all on board except the friend. A month after Talia's death, she started to speak from the afterlife.

The book developed from my gradual realization that spirituality was a normal characteristic in the human race, but that in recent millennia it had regressed in the everyday awareness of most people, especially those belonging to what they regarded as a cultural society. Only so-called primitive peoples retained a spiritual outlook. My book describes how this has come about, especially the negative influence of organized religions on individual spirituality, and the resulting deterioration in most human societies. Finally I suggest how mankind can become again spiritual during their Earth lives. Michael Higgins

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

Helena Blavatsky's translations of three fragments of ancient Buddhist wisdom, sourced from texts such as The Book of Golden Precepts, are contained in this thought-provoking volume. A valiantly sought collection of sage advice and spiritual instruction, The Voice of the Silence offers readers advice on inner growth. Principally the text echoes the principles of Buddhism, advising readers to put aside personal desires and focus upon fostering the inner wealth of the soul to achieve a life of contentment. Blavatsky's book was published as part of her personal investigations into ancient wisdom pertaining to the human soul and reality. Her hunt turned up the formerly obscure fragments which she painstakingly translated. Although existing scholars generally poured cold water upon her efforts, which they considered a haphazard grouping of ancient precepts and mysticism, the reception was warmer among readers discovering the theosophist principles of spiritualism for the first time.