In March 2020, Are Thoresen contracted Covid-19. Whilst convalescing from the disease and suffering great exhaustion, he experienced a breakthrough in his daily meditation. Although he has always been able to 'see' into the spiritual world, now deeper, unknown realms appeared to his inner vision. In the soapstone surround of the fireplace in his Norwegian home, he perceived the elemental beings and forces that make up the mineral at an atomic level. A few days later, an even deeper dimension revealed itself, in the form of a void or vacuum. Here, astonishingly, was an open portal to the entire cosmos... In Travels on the Northern Path of Initiation, Thoresen shares the results of his latest spiritual investigations, including a moving, life-changing encounter with 'the Light of the World'. He details the teachings he receives from the beings Vidar and Balder - who stand as guardians to the threshold of the outer etheric world - and characterizes the Northern way of initiation, which is based on merging, or 'fading', into nature. Thoresen documents Rudolf Steiner's descriptions of this path and shows how it is reflected in the Old Norse Poetic Edda, the Kalevala and von Eschenbach's Parzival. Based on painstaking research, he describes the individual qualities of the three elemental realms, and how the adversarial forces - seeking to corrupt human senses - hinder spiritual observation of them. Thoresen's book is a powerful personal testimony to the human potential for spiritual knowledge and experience in our time.

From meditation to reciting mantras or praying, spirituality is more and more often being recognized for its beneficial effects on health. In this volume, a team of experts from across disciplines including psychology, medicine, nursing, public health, and pastoral care offer reader-friendly chapters showing the state of the art in understanding this connection. Chapters include attention to special populations such as youth, HIV/AIDS patients, cancer patients, and those in hospice care. Contributors, all members of the Spirituality and Health Institute at Santa Clara University, aim to use the scientific understanding of the spirituality/health connection to promote better health for the general public. From meditation to reciting mantras or praying, spirituality is more and more often being recognized for its beneficial effects on health. In this volume, a team of experts from across disciplines including psychology, medicine, nursing, public health, and pastoral care offer reader-friendly chapters showing the state of the art in understanding this connection. Chapters include attention to special populations such as youth, HIV/AIDS patients, cancer patients, and those in hospice care. Contributors, all members of the Spirituality and Health Institute at Santa Clara University, aim to use the scientific understanding of the spirituality/health connection to promote better health for the general public. One focus of this volume is to show easy ways to incorporate spiritual practices in an environment that is often multicultural, multi-religious, stressful, hurried, and secular.

Focusing on the challenges of the transition to responsible, sustainable lifestyles, this book examines developments over the last decade in relation to: - the creation of awareness of consumer citizenship, civic involvement and environmental stewardship - research, projects and publications on education for responsible living - the creation and implementation of relevant teaching methods and materials - policies on education for sustainable consumption and lifestyles - global processes for education on sustainable development The articles deal with topics related to policy support, institutional approaches, educators, young people, and local communities. They draw attention to successful initiatives and reflect upon what still needs to be done. The book also looks at the roles that central actors such as PERL (The Partnership for Education and research about Responsible Living) play in this process.

At the threshold that divides the elemental and etheric worlds, Are Thoresen encounters two spiritual entities - Vidar and Balder, 'guardians of the threshold' - whose task is to protect the spiritual border from uninitiated intruders. Building on previous reports, Encounters with Vidar offers startling new esoteric teachings, gleaned - through processes of spiritual knowledge - from these enigmatic gods. Here, Vidar and Balder emphasize the importance of clairaudience as opposed to clairvoyance (the latter particularly being open to attack from adversary beings). Through the process of working with the communications, the author begins to experience a transformation of his head chakras, leading to an awakening of 'spiritual ears'. Whilst clairvoyance is like reading the holy script, clairaudience is akin to hearing the holy script, he learns. --- Amongst the wealth of fresh insights revealed here are the 'fourth aspect of the soul' (or 'time-karma-Christ'); the task of eurythmy today; the whereabouts of the contents of the School of Spiritual Science; and the work of 'Vulcan beings' and other planetary entities. Thoresen offers reflections on his travels to western England (with its connections to Troy) and southern Spain (with its legacy of Moorish occupation). His intention is not to create new dogmas or beliefs, but to testify to the living reality of metaphysical dimensions of reality - and humanity's latent ability to access them.

'I wrote this book out of the needs I see at the present time. I see diseases being translocated to others - humans or animals - despite the good intentions of many therapists or doctors. The diseases are translocated because they do not exist in energetic patterns, but as expressions of spiritual beings. Energy and energy-patterns only exist in the physical world, but in the spiritual world there are only spiritual beings.' From ancient times, all cultures have known of the spiritual phenomenon of 'translocation' - the movement of a pathological entity from one human being to another, or from a human being to an animal. These pathological entities are spiritual beings, known as 'demons' in common parlance. Their translocation, says Are Thoresen, can take place as a result of conventional Western medicine, but also from the application of 'alternative' therapies such as homeopathy, acupuncture and herbal medicine. In order to have a positive therapeutic impact, Thoresen advises that practitioners, doctors and veterinarians need to acquire a deep understanding of the function and laws of pathological demonic entities and the means to influence them. Using the Middle Point or Christ-force, it is possible to transform - instead of simply translocating - the negative spiritual aspects that are at work in contemporary society. As the author states: 'I have written this book to try to investigate these possibilities, and to give my fellow travellers in spirit the insights, tools and ability to make such a change.'

`There is a physical world, which we all accept as real, but there is also a spiritual world, which interpenetrates this material world and is its cause and foundation. Between these two worlds exists a threshold that can be felt, seen clairvoyantly, traversed and passed through by anyone with a real desire to do so... At this threshold there is a guardian, whose task is to stop humans from passing across it unprepared...' - From the Introduction. Based on first-hand knowledge, Are Thoresen offers insights into the meaning of the threshold to the spiritual world. He describes his own experiences in encountering this threshold and going beyond it. But there are many thresholds to the spiritual world, he says, and many ways to pass them - as there are many aspects to the `guardian of the threshold' and versions of the so-called `animals at the threshold'. The worlds beyond, too, have a variety of different constructions - or, as the Bible says: `In my Father's house are many mansions'. The author describes the methods and techniques for opening the spiritual sense organs required to cross the threshold, and clarifies the differences between Imagination (seeing spiritual `pictures'), Inspiration (understanding those pictures) and Intuition (living `inside' the spiritual reality). Structuring the book on his own biography, Thoresen conveys many of the lessons he has learnt through decades of familiarity with the invisible dimensions. However, he warns that there is only one good reason to attempt to cross the threshold, and that is to serve God and humanity in the name of love. If we do it out of curiosity, or to enhance our personal development, it would be better not to try.

Focusing on the challenges of the transition to responsible, sustainable lifestyles, this book examines developments over the last decade in relation to: - the creation of awareness of consumer citizenship, civic involvement and environmental stewardship - research, projects and publications on education for responsible living - the creation and implementation of relevant teaching methods and materials - policies on education for sustainable consumption and lifestyles - global processes for education on sustainable development The articles deal with topics related to policy support, institutional approaches, educators, young people, and local communities. They draw attention to successful initiatives and reflect upon what still needs to be done. The book also looks at the roles that central actors such as PERL (The Partnership for Education and research about Responsible Living) play in this process.

Church members among the ethnic Somali population in the Horn of Africa constitute a culturally marginalized and persecuted minority. Despite more than a hundred years of Protestant missionary efforts, the growth of the church has remained slow and protracted. The very concept of "Somali Christian" accordingly continues to constitute a contradiction of terms in the mindset of most Somalis. Moreover, the few Christian congregations that have been established have most often remained unstable and in flux. Through empirical research, A Reconciled Community of Suffering Disciples: Aspects of a Contextual Somali Ecclesiology explores the background for such a development and interprets it within Somali cultural and religious patterns. By emphasizing the key aspects of contextual relevancy and theological coherence, it suggests a way forward for the Somali church. A Reconciled Community of Suffering Disciples is particularly relevant for courses on contextual theology in contexts of religious persecution. It offers insights for anyone with an interest in the Somali church and Somali culture in general.

Are Thoresen perceives demons and other spiritual beings as clearly as we see each other. He sees the demons that cause disease as well as the beings associated with medicinal plants and other substances that can promote health. He has witnessed how demons of disease leave the bodies of the sick and enter the healthy, thus causing contagion. Through his therapeutic work, Thoresen has learned that one cannot simply `fight' demons, as they will `translocate' to other people or return later. The only effective way to counteract these malign entities is to dissolve them through the boundless love of the being of Christ. The author presents a lifetime's knowledge - the fruit of more than half a century's practical and clinical experience - in the pages of this book, offering a better understanding of health and disease. He recounts numerous personal experiences of demonic entities and explains how demons are created. Thoresen advises on the prevention of the demonic effects of natural and artificial radiation, and how we can defend and ultimately free ourselves from demonic influence. A fascinating Addendum describes the phenomenon of poltergeists and the spiritual beings related to various drugs. Demons and Healing is a singular work, written out of precise vision and knowledge of the spiritual entities that surround us in everyday life.

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal #4 focuses on inclusive, quality education, galvanizing efforts for substantial educational reform around the globe. Progress is being made but are the initiatives being upscaled and mainstreamed rapidly enough? Has caring become an essential aspect of learning? Have cooperative learning and creativity been given enough attention? Are teachers receiving sufficient support? These are some of the questions raised by Victoria Thoresen as she considers the goals and challenges iterated in the SDG. Thoresen argues that unless implementation of the new definitions of inclusive, quality education are prioritized everywhere, sustainable development will be severely hampered and, conceivably, misdirected. She examines the recent evolution of education in light of political and commercial ambitions, technological advancements, and knowledge creation and sharing. Key concerns relating to education for and learning about sustainable development are identified and major obstacles to achieving inclusive, quality education for all are discussed.

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal #4 focuses on inclusive, quality education, galvanizing efforts for substantial educational reform around the globe. Progress is being made but are the initiatives being upscaled and mainstreamed rapidly enough? Has caring become an essential aspect of learning? Have cooperative learning and creativity been given enough attention? Are teachers receiving sufficient support? These are some of the questions raised by Victoria Thoresen as she considers the goals and challenges iterated in the SDG. Thoresen argues that unless implementation of the new definitions of inclusive, quality education are prioritized everywhere, sustainable development will be severely hampered and, conceivably, misdirected. She examines the recent evolution of education in light of political and commercial ambitions, technological advancements, and knowledge creation and sharing. Key concerns relating to education for and learning about sustainable development are identified and major obstacles to achieving inclusive, quality education for all are discussed.

Having misused women, power and the life-energy of his followers, the Seeker must overcome his demons - not figuratively but literally - in the astral, etheric and physical dimensions of reality. But in order to face them, he must first cross the threshold to the spiritual world... Transforming Demons takes us on an astonishing journey - from contemporary Norway to Ancient Atlantis, to Ireland and India - where we encounter leprechauns, dragons, evil spirits, hallucinogenic drugs, and a mysterious golden cross with a red ruby at its heart. With hubris, arrogance and deceit, the Seeker has abused his magical powers in previous existences. If he is finally to resolve his knotted karma, he must first confront his misdeeds, and the demons that were created as a result. Then he must learn to transform those demons in order to free them - and him - from the weight of his past. This is a remarkable true memoir that crosses lifetimes, thousands of years and manifold dimensions. It is an authentic story of transformation and redemption on the path to self-knowledge, freedom and love.

In an extraordinary study that takes us from the mythical times of Atlantis to a past life in the Chinese court of the Emperor Yu the Great, through to the failing medical systems of the present day, Are Thoresen comes to some striking conclusions with relevance to us all. Having previously brought to light the reality of spiritual translocation - the movement of pathological entities that cause disease - Thoresen now reveals the roots of this phenomenon in pre-history. The corruption of healing methods, in both conventional and alternative medical fields, harks back to the introduction of the five-element system in traditional medicine. This philosophy was founded by the legendary figure of the Yellow Emperor - a god in folk religion and the author of an influential book on which Chinese medicine is based. The Yellow Emperor, says Thoresen, was an incarnation of a mighty spiritual being whose influence has shone through the centuries. But this being seeks to deceive humanity. Its malign teaching is the reason that most diseases - and the demonic entities that cause them - are translocated, causing further suffering. Are Thoresen describes his past life as the foremost healer in the court of Yu the Great, two thousand years before the birth of Christ. The emperor, overshadowed by a powerful entity, ultimately becomes dissatisfied with his chief medical adviser and plots his demise. The Lucifer Deception presents this gripping narrative as well as offering profound spiritual insights into illness and healing in the present day.

Now in its fourth edition, Port Designer's Handbook is the definitive guide to the layout, design and construction of harbours and port structures. Fully in line with the latest PIANC recommendations, this book covers all aspects of port planning and design from the impact of natural conditions on harbours, to health and safety, and the maintenance and repair of port structures as well as channel and harbour basins. . Particular attention is given to the impact from ships, including berthing requirements, ship dimension tables and container terminals. This fully revised edition has also seen the material updated to provide coverage of - new design and construction methods of the quay structures - floating berth structures for large vessels - detailed evaluation of the necessary mooring system - evaluation of the bollard system and layout - new design and evaluation of the fender system according to the new PIANC recommendation - concrete in port structures - and much more. With an intuitive layout where the reader can easily find information on practical construction methods, Carl A. Thoresen's guide is an essential purchase for all practicing port and harbour engineers, designers and contractors, as well as students new to this continually developing area.