Collection: Spirituality & Religion

'Reason and imagination and all mental chatter died down... I forgot my name, my humanness, my thingness, all that could be called me or mine. Past and future dropped away... Lighter than air, clearer than glass, altogether released from myself, I was nowhere around.' Thus Douglas Harding describes his first experience of headlessness, or no self. First published in 1961, this is a classic work which conveys the experience that mystics of all times have tried to put words to.

An Oxford professor of archaeology explores the unique history of magic--the oldest and most neglected strand of human behavior and its resurgence today

Three great strands of belief run through human history: Religion is the relationship with one god or many gods, masters of our lives and destinies. Science distances us from the world, turning us into observers and collectors of knowledge. And magic is direct human participation in the universe: we have influence on the world around us, and the world has influence on us.

Over the last few centuries, magic has developed a bad reputation--thanks to the unsavory tactics of shady practitioners, and to a successful propaganda campaign on the part of religion and science, which denigrated magic as backward, irrational, and "primitive." In Magic, however, the Oxford professor of archaeology Chris Gosden restores magic to its essential place in the history of the world--revealing it to be an enduring element of human behavior that plays an important role for individuals and cultures. From the curses and charms of ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish magic, to the shamanistic traditions of Eurasia, indigenous America, and Africa; from the alchemy of the Renaissance to the condemnation of magic in the colonial period and the mysteries of modern quantum physics--Gosden's startling, fun, and colorful history supplies a missing chapter of the story of our civilization.

Drawing on decades of research around the world--touching on the first known horoscope, a statue ordered into exile, and the mystical power of tattoos--Gosden shows what magic can offer us today, and how we might use it to rethink our relationship with the world. Magic is an original, singular, and sweeping work of scholarship, and its revelations will leave a spell on the reader.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A New York Times Notable Book

"Riveting, heartbreaking, sometimes difficult, always inspiring." --The New York Times Book Review

"An incredibly moving memoir about what it means to be a doctor." --Ellen Pompeo

As seen/heard on Fresh Air, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, Weekend Edition, and more

An emergency room physician explores how a life of service to others taught her how to heal herself.

Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white. Brought up in Washington, D.C., in a complicated family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central Philadelphia, when he told her he couldn't move with her. Her marriage at an end, Harper began her new life in a new city, in a new job, as a newly single woman.

In the ensuing years, as Harper learned to become an effective ER physician, bringing insight and empathy to every patient encounter, she came to understand that each of us is broken--physically, emotionally, psychically. How we recognize those breaks, how we try to mend them, and where we go from there are all crucial parts of the healing process.

The Beauty in Breaking is the poignant true story of Harper's journey toward self-healing. Each of the patients Harper writes about taught her something important about recuperation and recovery. How to let go of fear even when the future is murky: How to tell the truth when it's simpler to overlook it. How to understand that compassion isn't the same as justice. As she shines a light on the systemic disenfranchisement of the patients she treats as they struggle to maintain their health and dignity, Harper comes to understand the importance of allowing ourselves to make peace with the past as we draw support from the present. In this hopeful, moving, and beautiful book, she passes along the precious, necessary lessons that she has learned as a daughter, a woman, and a physician.

The national bestseller

From the author of the bestselling More Beautiful Than Before comes an inspiring book about loss based on his most popular sermon.

As the senior rabbi of one of the largest synagogues in the world, Steve Leder has learned over and over again the many ways death teaches us how to live and love more deeply by showing us not only what is gone but also the beauty of what remains.

This inspiring and comforting book takes us on a journey through the experience of loss that is fundamental to everyone. Yet even after having sat beside thousands of deathbeds, Steve Leder the rabbi was not fully prepared for the loss of his own father. It was only then that Steve Leder the son truly learned how loss makes life beautiful by giving it meaning and touching us with love that we had not felt before.

Enriched by Rabbi Leder's irreverence, vulnerability, and wicked sense of humor, this heartfelt narrative is filled with laughter and tears, the wisdom of millennia and modernity, and, most of all, an unfolding of the profound and simple truth that in loss we gain more than we ever imagined.

For those who don't believe in God--or don't know whether they believe--New York Times best-selling author Marya Hornbacher offers an insightful, moving approach to the concept of faith.

Many of us have been trained to think of spirituality as the sole provenance of religion; and if we have come to feel that the religious are not the only ones with access to a spiritual life, we may still be casting about for what, precisely, a spiritual life would be, without a God, a religion, or a solid set of spiritual beliefs.

In Waiting, Hornbacher uses the story of her own journey beginning with her recovery from alcoholism to offer a fresh approach to cultivating a spiritual life. Relinquishing the concept of a universal "Spirit" that exists outside of us, Hornbacher gives us the framework to explore the human spirit in each of us--the very thing that sends us searching, that connects us with one another, the thing that "comes knocking at the door of our emotionally and intellectually closed lives and asks to be let in."

When we let it in and only when we do, she says, we begin to be integrated people and csn walk a spiritual path. There will be many points along the way where we stop, or we fumble, or we get tangled up or turned around. Those are the places where we wait.

Waiting, you'll discover, can become a kind of spiritual practice in itself, requiring patience, acceptance, and stillness. Sometimes we do it because we know we need to, though we may not know why. In short, we do it on faith.

Attain wealth, prosperity, and abundance with The Witches' Wealth Spell Book

Add a little bit of magic to your daily life with this pocket-sized guide for spell casters of all levels. With spells and incantations for wealth, success, prosperity, and more, this charming collection is perfect for anyone with a penchant for the magical.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - For readers of Proof of Heaven, the astonishing story of a woman with an extraordinary psychic gift--and a powerful message from the Other Side that can help us to live more beautifully in the here and now.

Laura Lynne Jackson is a wife, a mother, a high school English teacher--and a psychic medium. Where most believe an impenetrable wall divides the world between the living and the dead, Jackson sees brilliant cords of light. She has dedicated her life to exploring our connection to the Other Side, conversing with departed loved ones, and helping people come to terms with loss. In The Light Between Us, she writes with clarity and grace, addressing the eternal questions that vex us all: Why are we here? What happens when we die? How do we find our true path in this life? Laura Lynne Jackson's story offers a new understanding of the vast reach of our consciousness and enlarges our view of the human experience.

Praise for The Light Between Us

"A brilliant milestone marking our passage toward comprehending the deeper truths of our existence."--Eben Alexander, M.D., author of Proof of Heaven and The Map of Heaven

"I read The Light Between Us with great joy, savoring the wonderful stories and messages of hope. It is a book filled with wisdom and love, exploring the deep bonds that keep us eternally connected to our soul mates."--Brian L. Weiss, M.D., author of Many Lives, Many Masters

"A spiritual game-changer . . . For those suffering a terrible loss, you will find peace and comfort in her story. For those who question the afterlife, you will become a believer."--Laura Schroff, co-author of An Invisible Thread

"Straightforward, unassuming, and profoundly generous . . . Brave, honest, and beautiful, this book is a treasure."--Mark Epstein, M.D., author of Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart

"One of the most insightful and inspiring books about mediumship I have ever read."--Gary E. Schwartz, author of The Afterlife Experiments and The Sacred Promise

In this life-changing book, writer and spiritual coach Neal Allen, teaches us a stunning new method for quieting the inner critic.

"Better Days will help you get to know your inner critic, and quiet its yammering, and in so doing, get to know the person you were born to be." - Anne Lamott, Author of Dusk Night Dawn, Bird by Bird and others

What if your superego has it wrong?

That snarky little bully in your head...you know the one.

You've lived under its weight for decades.

I'm a fraud, I'm lazy
I need to work harder
I need to be tougher, funnier, calmer...
I need to stay quiet, look pretty, stop showing off
I need to put others before me, I need to put myself first
I need to be perfect
I need to hide who I really am

Sound familiar?

You know that its scolding voice is harmful to you, but you can't will it away. You accept a life with short periods of peace and long stretches of stress and anxiety. But you don't have to.

In this revolutionary new book, Better Days: Tame Your Inner Critic, writer and spiritual coach, Neal Allen, examines a critical aspect of the human psyche that often gets ignored - the superego.

Building on Freud's idea that the superego necessarily forms a person's moral conscience, Neal explains how this voice in your head develops in childhood as a survival mechanism, but when no longer needed for protection, camps out in your mind like a personal parasite. A parasite that doesn't belong.

Through simple and engaging exercises and explorations, Neal leads you into meeting, confronting, and ultimately quieting your own inner critic.

By shedding off the burden of the superego, you can overcome tired patterns of reward and punishment, reduce the self-talk that harms you, and ultimately clear an open space for the life you deserve, one that is gentler and more peaceful.

Just imagine...if all that nasty, negative chatter in your head just evaporated ... what would you do next?

Better days are just ahead.

The cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project and pioneer behind the compassionate care movement shares an inspiring exploration of the lessons dying has to offer about living a fulfilling life.

Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road. Death is always with us, in the marrow of every passing moment. She is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight, helping us to discover what matters most.

Life and death are a package deal. They cannot be pulled apart and we cannot truly live unless we are aware of death. The Five Invitations is an exhilarating meditation on the meaning of life and how maintaining an ever-present consciousness of death can bring us closer to our truest selves. As a renowned teacher of compassionate caregiving and the cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, Frank Ostaseski has sat on the precipice of death with more than a thousand people. In The Five Invitations, he distills the lessons gleaned over the course of his career, offering an evocative and stirring guide that points to a radical path to transformation.

The Five Invitations:
-Don't Wait
-Welcome Everything, Push Away Nothing
-Bring Your Whole Self to the Experience
-Find a Place of Rest in the Middle of Things
-Cultivate Don't Know Mind

These Five Invitations show us how to wake up fully to our lives. They can be understood as best practices for anyone coping with loss or navigating any sort of transition or crisis; they guide us toward appreciating life's preciousness. Awareness of death can be a valuable companion on the road to living well, forging a rich and meaningful life, and letting go of regret. The Five Invitations is a powerful and inspiring exploration of the essential wisdom dying has to impart to all of us.

In this outstanding new translation, commissioned by Ireland's renowned Abbey Theatre to commemorate its centenary, Seamus Heaney exposes the darkness and the humanity in Sophocles' masterpiece, and inks it with his own modern and masterly touch.

Sophocles' play, first staged in the fifth century B.C., stands as a timely exploration of the conflict between those who affirm the individual's human rights and those who must protect the state's security. During the War of the Seven Against Thebes, Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, learns that her brothers have killed each other, having been forced onto opposing sides of the battle. When Creon, king of Thebes, grants burial of one but not the "treacherous" other, Antigone defies his order, believing it her duty to bury all of her close kin. Enraged, Creon condemns her to death, and his soldiers wall her up in a tomb. While Creon eventually agrees to Antigone's release, it is too late: She takes her own life, initiating a tragic repetition of events in her family's history.

In HEALING: Beyond Pills & Potions, Dr. Steve Bierman elucidates the profound impact of ideas on health and healing--ideas of both patients and caregivers. In doing so, he not only teaches how simple refinements of everyday communication can be used to achieve stunning outcomes; he also explains the powerful principles that drive ideas to actualization, and thereby lays the foundation for deep and lasting cures. Further, he unravels the mystery of placebo, ritual and hypnosis to teach both patients and caregivers how to avoid harm and promote health.
As an Emergency Physician, Dr. Bierman was featured on NBC's Dateline performing painless procedures, like simple injections, laceration repairs, and even childbirth. But his studied words and gestures did far more than prevent pain, they also produced astonishing physical outcomes: dangerous heart rhythms converted to normal, hemorrhages arrested and constricted airways dilated.
In private practice, Dr. Bierman went even further along "the communication continuum" to forestall auto-immune diseases, shrink deadly tumors, relieve depression and ensure bloodless surgeries. Many of his cures seem like miracles. And yet, as Dr. Bierman explains, they are the inevitable consequence of a new and expanded understanding of disease causality and the focused power of ideas to access our Healer Within.
If you are looking to sustain your health or retain your personal sovereignty in times of illness, Beyond Pills & Potions will teach you how to achieve those worthy goals. If you are a caregiver, regardless of your specialty, HEALING: Beyond Pills & Potions will improve your outcomes and bring new excitement and gratification to your work.

The modern world doesn't acknowledge but is nevertheless haunted by spirits-angels, demons, and saints. In our time, many yearn to break free of the prison of a flat, secular materialism, to see and to know reality as it truly is. What is this spiritual reality like? How do we engage with it well? How do we permeate everyday life with spiritual presence? In The Lord of Spirits: An Orthodox Christian Framework for the Unseen World and Spiritual Warfare, Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick provides a distillation and expansion of the material in the popular podcast The Lord of Spirits, which he co-hosts with Fr. Stephen De Young.

Motivated college and adult students can read and write Hebrew in just six weeks. Students with no previous Hebrew exposure, or those who just need a quick review, will learn phonetic Hebrew reading, script writing, and a basic Hebrew vocabulary of 100 words.

This primer satisfies the entry requirements for any Hebrew language program and is a particularly apt introduction to Hebrew: A Language Course.

John's third book, "20 Ways to Increase Your Psychic Abilities," is a series of practical how-to lessons in psychic development that will take you by the hand and walk you step-by-step through the learning process as you discover how to: successfully learn and practice psychometry; accurately interpret your dreams; begin to understand and read the Tarot cards; safely conduct your own seance; practice effective candle magic; make your own amulets and talismans; practice healing; record spirit voices; attract the perfect mate; and much more.

As an internationally known professional psychic John is frequently asked by his worldwide clientele, "How can I develop my own psychic abilities?" In response to those requests John has authored this book to help anyone to increase their own psychic powers, and to apply those powers in practical ways in order to better their lives and the lives of others.

The reader doesn't have to have any psychic knowledge or training to be able to use this book right away. The complete beginner can begin with the first chapter and learn to practice psychometry successfully, and then proceed through the book and learn other exciting, entertaining, and useful techniques. And someone with above average psychic abilities and understanding may still find some useful theory and knowledge that they can apply, as well as new food for thought.

From the foreword written by JV Johnson (Ghost Hunters TV show. Host - Paranormal IRL; Beyond Reality; The Independence Gang. publisher/editor of TAPS Para-magazine.): "In 20 Ways to Increase Your Psychic Abilities, John offers the same guidance for any who look to broaden their spectrum of understanding. John presents a straightforward and eye-opening approach to unleashing your psychic potential. As he says, '...like all things, practice and consistency is key.' You will find him to be an inspiration as I have for the years I have known him. And, even though you may not have the chance to meet John personally, through his books and his words, you will find in him, as I did, a true friend." JV Johnson.

John Russell has been a professional psychic for 50 years. Internationally known, he has provided psychic readings for clients in over 40 countries. John filmed a TV pilot for The History Channel in which he psychically explored the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. For over 15 years he has been a popular featured guest, heard worldwide, on many radio shows and podcasts.

Over the last year and a half John has been interviewed over 100 times, including appearances on: Coast to Coast AM with George Noory - The Unexplained with Howard Hughes (UK) - FATE Magazine Radio with Kat Hobson - Beyond Reality with JV Johnson - Darkness Radio with Tim Dennis - Shifting the Paradigm with Cristina Gomez - The Unidentified Celebrity Review with Luis Jimenez; and many more.

Also available by John Russell: "Riding with Ghosts, Angels, and the Spirits of the Dead" and "A Knock in the Attic."

"When something is bothering you--a person is bugging you, a situation is irritating you, or physical pain is troubling you--you must work with your mind, and that is done through meditation. Working with our mind is the only means through which we'll actually begin to feel happy and contented with the world that we live in." --Pema Chödrön

Pema Chödrön is treasured around the world for her unique ability to transmit teachings and practices that bring peace, understanding, and compassion into our lives. With How to Meditate, the American-born Tibetan Buddhist nun presents her first book exploring in depth what she considers the essentials for a lifelong practice.

More and more people are beginning to recognize a profound inner longing for authenticity, connection, and aliveness. Meditation, Pema explains, gives us a golden key to address this yearning. This step-by-step guide shows readers how to honestly meet and openly relate with the mind, embrace the fullness of our experience, and live in a wholehearted way as we discover:

- The basics of meditation, from getting settled and the six points of posture to working with your breath and cultivating an attitude of unconditional friendliness
- The Seven Delights--how moments of difficulty can become doorways to awakening and love
- Shamatha (or calm abiding), the art of stabilizing the mind to remain present with whatever arises
- Thoughts and emotions as "sheer delight"--instead of obstacles--in meditation

"I think ultimately why we practice is so that we can become completely loving people, and this is what the world needs," writes Pema Chödrön. How to Meditate is an essential book from this wise teacher to assist each one of us in this virtuous goal.

Learn the myths and legends behind this beloved goddess plus practices and suggestions for making Hekate part of your spiritual path.

Courtney Weber (author of Brigid and The Morrigan) offers an informed, accessible journey through the lore and history of Hekate, the ancient goddess of crossroads, ghosts, and witchcraft, and reflects on Hekate's relevance today. Tools and techniques for incorporating this goddess into your personal journey round out the book.

Similar to her other works, Weber strikes a balance between the scholarly and the spiritual. Her exploration of Hekate combines solid research with practical, modern applications. The spiritual content is accessible to anyone with an interest in witchcraft, regardless of their faith or background.

Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of Hekate, exploring original mythology, historical context, and contemporary connotations, concluding with spells and personal rituals. The final chapter is a grimoire full of rituals, offerings, and other practices designed to help readers align themselves with this extraordinary goddess. The book also explores magickal ethics, what it means to be a witch in the twenty-first century, and best practices for successful witchcraft.