The Quest Bookshop

After literally stumbling into orbs appearing as bright as light bulbs in photographs he was taking at a spiritual retreat, Dr. Klaus Heinemann immediately sensed that he was onto something profound. There was no choice but to convince himself that his notion was on solid grounds. Heinemann looked at thousands of pictures he had taken earlier, and thousands more would be taken to test the hypothesis that these light circles are nothing less than emanations from Spirit beings.

Dr. Míceál Ledwith had a similar experience after the orb phenomenon was first made known to him through the teachings of Ramtha. He began an intense and systematic study of orbs in all sort of situations, day and night, and in all sorts of atmospheric conditions, in order to discover all he could about their nature, the situations in which their presence could be most easily detected, and what implications they might have for our understanding of our own place in the cosmos. To date, he has amassed a collection of well over 100,000 images.

In The Orb Project, Ledwith and Heinemann present their fascinating discoveries, along with practical tips that amateur digital photographers can use to photograph orbs and properly distinguish them from "false" orbs that are really dust or water particles. They offer guidelines on deciphering the orbs' various patterns, features, and characteristics, based on their extensive research.

As Dr. Ledwith points out, once you develop a keen and sustained interest in photographing spirit entities, some quite interesting things begin to happen: the brain stops censoring these images, and you can begin to see with orbs with the naked eye-- in more color and detail than is visible to even a digital camera.

Ledwith and Heinemann also explore communication with orbs and what their existence means to our lives. The implications of a realization that we are "surrounded by a cloud of witnesses" are enormous and incredibly hopeful for the world at large.

Prayer...meditation...speaking in tongues. What do these spiritual activities share and how do they differ? Why do some people believe in God, while others embrace atheism? From the ordinary to the extraordinary, beliefs give meaning to the mysteries of life. They motivate us, provide us with our individual uniqueness, and ultimately change the structure and function of our brains.
In Born to Believe, Andrew Newberg, MD, and Mark Waldman reveal -- for the very first time -- how our complex views, memories, superstitions, morals, and beliefs are created by the neural activities of the brain. Supported by groundbreaking original research, they explain how our brains construct our deepest convictions and fondest assumptions about reality and the world around us. Using science, psychology, and religion, the authors offer recommendations for exercising your brain in order to develop a more life-affirming, flexible range of attitudes. Knowing how the brain builds meaning, value, spirituality, and truth into your life will change forever the way you look at yourself and the world.

Being fertile and fruitful can mean giving birth to a child -- but to have a fertile soul means to give birth to the true self a woman wants to be: to live a life filled with passion, strength, joy, and adventure. In The Way of the Fertile Soul, Dr. Randine Lewis outlines ten ancient Chinese medical and Taoist "secrets" that hold the little-known key to successfully conceiving babies, new dreams, and a fulfilling life for women at any phase in their lives.
The Way of the Fertile Soul encourages women to strive toward health, abundance, and a fruitful, joyous approach to life. By using diagnostic questionnaires, qi gong exercises, and guided meditations to help the reader understand how the elements of nature express themselves in her body, mind, and spirit, The Way of the Fertile Soul provides the tools to greatly increase a woman's chance of conceiving, identify imbalances, reduce stress, increase energy, and uncover her intrinsic creativity and express it fully.

Graham Christian - Library Journal

Lewis began her training in the Western medicine tradition, but her Ph.D. is in alternative medicine, and she has interned at the hospital in Dalian, China. Her aim is to uncover ten "secrets" in Chinese and Taoist tradition that will help women of all backgrounds realize their full potential-as wives and mothers, to be sure, but also as individuals with their own dreams and goals. Among the secrets she reveals are "Live from your joy" and "Reenergize yourself by repatterning." Lewis's book is engaging and interesting but disquieting to read: Chinese tradition is no less misogynistic than Western tradition, and Lewis has had to cherry-pick her way through her reading to find such strenuous affirmations of female potential. For most collections.

Over the course of ten international bestsellers including The Camino and Out on a Limb, Shirley MacLaine has firmly established herself as a fearless, iconoclastic thinker and seeker of truth.  Now, as she confronts the realities and rewards of growing older, MacLaine reflects on where her journey has taken her and the greater understanding of her own place in the universe that her experiences have brought into her life. 
 
As she looks back across the remarkable professional and personal milestones she has experienced so far, MacLaine is able to recognize the profound power of synchronicity at work.  Sage-ing While Age-ing explores a wealth of issues from health and nutrition, to spirituality, to life on other planets, to MacLaine's views about the greatest mystery of all: what happens after death.  
Filled with her trademark wit and candor, this is a powerful, provocative work that will delight and intrigue MacLaine's legions of fans and fellow travelers everywhere. 

Many of us feel called to respond to the ecological destruction of our planet, yet we feel overwhelmed, immobilized, and unable to deal realistically with the threats to life on Earth. Noted spiritual and environmental thinkers Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown contend that this crippling response to world crisis is a psychological defense mechanism that has been endemic since the years of the Cold War arms race, when we had to adapt within a single generation to the horrific possibility of nuclear holocaust.

Since its publication in 1983, Joanna Macy's book, Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age has sold nearly 30,000 copies and has been the primary resource for groups of men and women confronting the challenging realities of our time without succumbing to paralysis or panic. Coming Back to Life provides a much needed update and expansion of this pioneering work. At the interface between spiritual breakthrough and social action, Coming Back to Life is eloquent and compelling as well as being an inspiring and practical guide. The first third of the book discusses with extraordinary insight the angst of our era, and the pain, fear, guilt and inaction it has engendered; it then points forward to the way out of apathy, tio "the work that reconnects". The rest of the book offers both personal counsel and easy-to-use methods for working with groups in a number of ways to profoundly affect peoples' outlook and ability to act in the world.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Mathew Fox
1. To Choose Life
2. The Greatest Danger: Apatheia, The Deadening of Mind & Heart
3. The Basic Miracle: Our True Nature & Power
4. The Workthat Reconnects
5. Guiding Group Work
6. Affirmation: Coming from Gratitude
7. Despair Work: Owning & Honoring Our Pain for the World
8. The Shift: Seeing with New Eyes
9. Deep Time: Drawing on Past & Future Generations
10. The Council of All Beings: Rejoining the Natural World
11. Going Forth
12. Meditations for Coming Back to Life


Joanna Macy has developed an international following over the course of 40 years as a speaker and workshop leader on Buddhist philosophy and the deep ecology movement

The Barnes & Noble Review

What Orwell Didn't Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics is undoubtedly one of the most important books of the last few years, which is saying a lot, for the peculiar crises of our times have inspired a number of important political screeds. This anthology of essays was conceived when the deans of five American schools of journalism decided that it was time to address the state of public discourse in our country, especially the language used by politicians and journalists, which seems, in the words of the volume's editor, András Szántó, "to be divorcing itself from reality at an alarming rate." The journalism deans "were especially concerned about the waning power -- or inclination -- of the press to bring political rhetoric in line with fact" ix, believing that the line between debate and propaganda had become dangerously obscured.

Propaganda. Manipulation. Spin. Control. It has ever been thus-or has it? On the eve of the 60th anniversary of George Orwell's classic essay on propaganda (Politics and the English Language), writers have been invited to explore what Orwell didn't-or couldn't-know. Their responses, framed in pithy, focused essays, range far and wide: from the effect of television and computing, to the vast expansion of knowledge about how our brains respond to symbolic messages, to the merger of journalism and entertainment, to lessons learned during and after a half-century of totalitarianism. Together, they paint a portrait of a political culture in which propaganda and mind control are alive and well (albeit in forms and places that would have surprised Orwell). The pieces in this anthology sound alarm bells about the manipulation and misinformation in today's politics, and offer guideposts for a journalism attuned to Orwellian tendencies in the 21st century.

Contributors include: George Soros, Francine Prose, Drew Westen, George Lakoff, Victor Navasky, Nick Lemann, Orville Schell, Samantha Power, Mark Danner, Farnaz Fassihi, Francis Fitzgerald, Michael Massing, Aryeh Neier, David Rieff, Geoff Cowan, Patricia Williams

Biography

Orville Schell, the author of 14 books (nine of which are about China) has written for Wired, Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, The Nation, Salon, The New Yorker, Harper's and Newsweek. In the broadcast sector, Schell has served as correspondent for several PBS Frontline documentaries and an Emmy-winning program on CBS' 60 Minutes. He is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Alicia Patterson Fellowship, an Overseas Press Club Award and the Harvard/Stanford Shorenstein Award for covering Asia. Schell is currently the Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and the incoming Arthur Ross Director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society. He divides his time between Berkeley and New York.

András Szántó is a writer, researcher, and consultant. A member of the senior faculty of the Sotheby's Institute of Art in New York, he is a Visiting Scholar at New York University, a Senior Advisor to the Wealth and Giving Forum, and Director of the NEA Arts Journalism Institute for classical music and opera writers at Columbia University. Until 2005 he was Director of the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia. He is co-author and editor of four books and has written for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The American Prospect, Newsday, Interiors, Architecture, Print, I.D., The Art Newspaper, International Herald Tribune, Museum Practice, Variety. He lives inBrooklyn with his wife and son.

From the bestselling author of The Fate of the Earth, a provocative look at the urgent threat posed by America’s new nuclear policies
When the cold war ended, many Americans believed the nuclear dilemma had ended with it. Instead, the bomb has moved to the dead center of foreign policy and even domestic scandal. From missing WMDs to the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, nuclear matters are back on the front page.
In this provocative book, Jonathan Schell argues that a revolution in nuclear affairs has occurred under the watch of the Bush administration, including a historic embrace of a first-strike policy to combat proliferation. The administration has also encouraged a nuclear renaissance at home, with the development of new generations of such weaponry. Far from curbing nuclear buildup, Schell contends, our radical policy has provoked proliferation in Iran, North Korea, and elsewhere; exacerbated global trafficking in nuclear weapons; and taken the world into an era of unchecked nuclear terror. Incisive and passionately argued, The Seventh Decade offers essential insight into what may prove the most volatile decade of the nuclear age.

The New York Times - Martin Walker

There is little in Schell's book that is new, but his careful assembly of the available evidence will scare the pants off most readers. And so it should.

Biography

Jonathan Schell, author of The Unconquerable World (0-8050-4467-4) and The Fate of the Earth among many other titles, is the Nation Institute’s Harold Willens Peace Fellow. His “Letter from Ground Zero” column appears in The Nation regularly. He also writes for Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Affairs, and Tomdispatch.com. He is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.

Joseph Cornell, author of the highly-acclaimed Sharing Nature with Children, now offers adults a sensitive -- yet lively -- guidebook to a deeper awareness of nature. You will learn, not mere facts about nature, but how to get the feel of nature, through inspiring quotations from famous naturalists, stunning photography, and Cornell's ever-popular nature awareness activities -- simple, enjoyable activities that give you a direct, personal experience of the wonder and joy of nature.

Have you ever had an encounter with a wild animal either in nature or in your dreams in which it looked straight into your eyes? Did you feel a quickening in your heart? In that moment, your soul felt a connection with Spirit, even if you could not understand its full significance. Spirit Animals can change your relationship with animals forever. It offers the primal messages embodied by 24 wild animals, suggests how those meanings may apply to your life, and includes 24 moving stories of personal encounters with animals in the wild.QUOTE: I LOVE this book - it's words, and spirit. Use it to learn for yourself and to awaken these patterns of love that are never lost in your children, by reading these inspiring stories, these heartful words of calling, to them. All the world will be a better place for it. (Brooke Medicine Eagle, author of Buffalo Woman Comes Singing and The Last Ghost Dance: A Guide for Earth Images).

Author Biography: Victoria Covell grew up roaming the woods and seashore of Connecticut, looking for the hidden mystical— both forest fairies and mythical mermaids. She has lived in wild places in all four corners of the United States as well as in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Presently, she lives in a log cabin in the forest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains with her two sons, Seth and Noah Buchanan the award-winning illustrator of two Dawn books, Spirit Animals and Places of Power. One of her favorite pass-times is peering into a microscope at micro flora and fauna—the littlest Spirit Animals.

Author Biography: Noah Buchanan has always had a deep interest in the symbolic, mythic and heroic found in art and nature. He studied classical drawing and painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of fine Arts, the nation's oldest art school. He graduated from the University of Santa Cruz and is pursuing a Master's degree at the New York Academy of Art in New York City. Noah has illustrated two books for Dawn, the award-winning Places of Power and Spirit Animals, a joyous collaboration with his mother, Victoria Covell, the author.

Each of nature's creatures "passes the energy" in its own unique way. In this upbeat rhyming story, the food chain connects herbivores, carnivores, insects and plants together in a fascinating circle of players. All beings on Earth - from the anchovy to the zooplankton - depend upon the green plant, which is the hero of the story. Barbara McKinney's special talent shines again for being able to present the science curriculum so consisely, creatively, and cleverly.

Author Biography: Barbara Shaw McKinney is a teacher as well as a poet. From Manchester, Connecticut, McKinney draws on her experience as a mother, musician, and curriculum developer to promote quality education through workshops for teachers.

Author Biography: Chad Wallace is a young artist who created the oil paintings for Pass the Energy Please! at age twenty-four. He was raised and lives in Westchester County, New York, and has a cabin at Bear Mountain where he sometimes does art and always gets inspiration. He loves to hike and camp, and has worked as a youth activities director. Chad received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration from Syracuse University's School of Visual and Performing Arts.

Annotation

Rhyming text and illustrations present nature's food chains, from a simple seed to a top predator, demonstrating their natural links.

School Library Journal

Gr 1-5-McKinney presents the ecological food chain in a rhyming story. Couplets are frequently sketchy or vague. For example, in describing an owl, she writes, "Her wide yellow eyes, designed for the night,/get their glow from the reptile, captured in flight." Some rhymes are forced ("The vulture is known as a great opportunist/that preys on the fallen if finding it soonest") making the explanation of the links in the food chain even more confusing. Wallace's illustrations done in oil paints are large and colorful, showing fine details of birds, mammals, insects, and plants in their natural surroundings. There is no glossary to explain words such as "phytoplankton" and "zooplankton" and the rhymes that constitute the table of contents sacrifice understanding ("Link Number One-Born in the Sun").

The humble dandelion. By roadside or mountainside, it flowers every month of the year throughout the world, a fitting symbol of life. Its journey is our journey, filled with challenge, wonder and beauty. This popular, simple book is beautiful and touching.

Winner of Benjamin Franklin Award Silver Medal Award for Children's Picture Books - 1998

Reminiscent of Rose Fyleman's A Fairy Went A-Marketing and Barbara Helen Berger's classic A Grandfather Twilight, this beautifully illustrated story is profoundly simple and wise. With very few words at all, featuring lush and brightly colored full-page pictures, this is a simple tale of change and renewal. Through the story of one last dandelion seed afraid to "let go" into the autumn winds, the themes of trust and divine will are illuminated. The cycle of ripenings, dispersal, dormancy, and eventual sprouting brings wisdom to the once-frightened little seed. Surrender leads to discovery, and trust grows like the seedling rooted in the earth. It is not until the beautifully wrought ending that we glimpse a human—a little girl blowing on a dandelion "wisher"—showing the universal through a child's eyes(NAPRA Review)

A joyous, beautiful story. Arbo’s striking and impressive illustrations jump off each page full of color and detail. This fable of the seed will be a plus in many classrooms and will make a delightful bedtime story book. . . . A must for young readers. (C-Ville Weekly, Charlottesville, VA)

Author Biography: Joseph Anthony and Cris Arbo are husband and wife who live with their four girls in Buckingham, VA. The Dandelion Seed is their first book together. Cris is a professional artist who once was a vocalist with the London Symphony and the London Philharmonic. Among other things, Joseph has been a corrections officer and a traveling musician in the U.S. Navy.

NAPRA Review

Reminiscent of Rose Fyleman's A Fairy Went A-Marketing and Barbara Helen Berger's classic A Grandfather Twilight, this beautifully illustrated story is profoundly simple and wise. With very few words at all, featuring lush and brightly colored full-page pictures, this is a simple tale of change and renewal. Through the story of one last dandelion seed afraid to "let go" into the autumn winds, the themes of trust and divine will are illuminated. The cycle of ripenings, dispersal, dormancy, and eventual sprouting brings wisdom to the once-frightened little seed. Surrender leads to discovery, and trust grows like the seedling rooted in the earth. It is not until the beautifully wrought ending that we glimpse a human—a little girl blowing on a dandelion "wisher"—showing the universal through a child's eyes.

In this first of a trilogy, the Universe tells its own life story of chaos and creativity, science and struggle. Time after time the Universe nearly perishes, then bravely triumphs and turns itself into new and even more spectacular forms. Eventually it turns stardust into you. This story begins in the very beginning, and ends with the formation of Earth. The second book tells of tiny new living things and ends with giant dinosaurs (available spring 2003). In the third book, mammals rise and so do you (available spring 2004).
About the Authors: Jennifer Morgan’s work as a storyteller, author, educator and environmental advocate flows out of her love of the natural world and cosmology. As former director of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey, she started numerous educational and marketing programs for farmers and consumers, both locally and nationally. Currently she is an adjunct staff member at Genesis Farm, teaching the Sacred Universe Story. A portion of Ms. Morgan’s royalties from the sale of this book are donated to earth literacy centers. Her storytelling evolved from bedtime stories for her son who wanted to know more and more, even the texture of the edge of the Universe. She believes that our cosmology stories fundamentally shape us—our relationships, our work, our play, our culture, our institutions, our everything.

Dana Lynne Andersen, M.A., is a multi-media artist, playwright and teacher with degrees in philosophy and consciousness studies. Her paintings, often very large in size, explore the swirling forces of energy that underlie matter and seek to reveal life's numinous mystery. She believes that as our "depth perception" expands -billions of galaxies discovered in our lifetime! - it is also essential to expand perception inwardly to the vastness within. She is founder of Awakening Arts, a network of artists who "affirm the noble purpose of art as a vehicle for uplifting the human spirit."

Annotation

Presents a history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the formation of Earth, in the form of a letter written by the thirteen-billion-year-old universe itself to an Earth child.

Thomas Berry

That the Universe can now tell its story through Jennifer’s voice and Dana’s art, is the culmination of centuries of scientific inquiry.

Here is a unique blend of love song and non-fiction - celebrating the care that exists between the parents and offspring of many species. Baby mountain goat is guided up high cliffs. Baby beaver learns to build well. Baby bat is held in mother's protective embrace, upside-down. And your baby will learn to delight in nature's wonders. A "sweet dream bedtime" book for nature lovers of all generations!

Children's Literature

This enchanting board book based on the original picture book is half lullaby, half nature lesson. Hodgkins effectively intertwines a soothing rhythm that begins with the phrase, "if you were my baby…" with facts about the parent/offspring relationship in many animal species. Hodgkins's lullaby does a nice job explaining how animal parents help their babies take their first steps toward independence, while at the same time reassuring youngsters that the parent is also close at hand. Hodgkins ends the book with the human narrator kissing his child goodnight and explaining how he will also allow his child to become independent—but first he will tuck him in. Laura Bryant's crisp, color-saturated illustrations include detailed close-ups of the animals in their natural environments—otters in a kelp bed, bison on a prairie, and bats on a tree limb, for example. The book's language is descriptive enough to make it a compelling read aloud (or lullaby), but is easy enough for emerging readers to try on their own, as well.

A simple, small act of kindness may go much farther than you think. Brian wasn't looking for anything in return when he gave his mother a great big hug. Brian's hug set in motion a series of unselfish acts that reached more people "and even animals" than he could ever know. This is a story that happens every day, with infinite variation, among good-hearted people everywhere. of kindness may go much farther than you think. Brian wasn't looking for anything in return when he gave his mother a great big hug. Brian's hug set in motion a series of unselfish acts that reached more people "and even animals" than he could ever know. This is a story that happens every day, with infinite variation, among good-hearted people everywhere.

Author Biography: When David Rice was seven years old, he observed a small dog trying to wake its mother which had been killed by a passing car. As he watched the grieving puppy's vain attempts, he was struck by the depth of sadness and pain. David's lifelong interest in feelings - both animal and human - comes through in his books, Do Animals Have Feelings Too?, Lifetimes and Because Brian Hugged His Mother. Lifetimes introduces some of nature's longest, shortest and most unusual lifetimes and the lessons we can learn from them. Because Brian Hugged His Mother shows how a chain reaction of kindness can spread through a whole school and community as a result of a single hug. David Rice is retired elementary and special education teacher, currently residing in southern California.

Annotation

When Brian hugs and kisses his mother one morning, the act starts a chain reaction of kindness and consideration that spreads throughout the town and eventually comes back to him.

Napra Review - Patricia Monaco

What happens to a hug after you give it? Brian doesn't even think about it when he hugs his mom in he morning and tell tells her "you're the best mom in the whole world"! But his simple act starts a chain of reactions that brings happiness and satisfaction to a vast circle of people he will never even know. Rice's loving and gentle lession in the art of random acts of kindness has just the right tone to appeal to younger children, enhanced by the brightly hued, watercolor-soft artwork.

Do animals have feelings? Until recently most scientists didn't think so. They thought that most animals behave instinctively - that they don't have feelings such as happiness, sadness, grief, vengefulness, or compassion.Many scientists are now changing their minds. Close observation of animals is tending to show that animals may have feelings quite similar to human feelings. This collection of true animal behavior, witnessed by naturalists and others, is both heartwarming and thought-provoking. This is retired teacher, David Rice's third book for Dawn.

Author Biography: When David Rice was seven years old, he observed a small dog trying to wake its mother which had been killed by a passing car. As he watched the grieving puppy's vain attempts, he was struck by the depth of sadness and pain. David's lifelong interest in feelings - both animal and human - comes through in his books, Do Animals Have Feelings Too?, Lifetimes and Because Brian Hugged His Mother. Lifetimes introduces some of nature's longest, shortest and most unusual lifetimes and the lessons we can learn from them. Because Brian Hugged His Mother shows how a chain reaction of kindness can spread through a whole school and community as a result of a single hug. David Rice is retired elementary and special education teacher, currently residing in southern California.

Annotation

Through facts and anecdotes, investigates the question of whether animals experience feelings such as compassion, loyalty, grief, joy, vengefulness, and helpfulness.

American Booksellers Association

Most pet owners would put forth the idea that their pet shares some human qualities, such as loyalty and faithfulness. This book makes the case for "feelings" in animals in the wild, as well. Grief, compassion, deceitfulness, cleverness, love of beauty, and many more attributes usually associated only with humans are shown in various animals — and not only those mammals most closely linked with humans. The book is well laid out with each attribute defined for young readers. Several examples of the way in which the quality appears in different animals are given. The illustrations maintain interest for even the youngest listeners, and questions are raised to encourage further discussion. this is an excellent resource for parents and teachers looking for ways to initiate discussions with children about what qualities are important to us — human and animal.

John Denver's poignant lyrics of the birth of a dolphin are both a lullaby and a paean to "dolphin kind," as adapted in this gorgeous picture book. Denver embraces the unique, almost mystical quality of a baby dolphin as "giving hope to life as all we must." Hardback edition includes the musical score and a CD of John Denver singing this beautiful song.

Annotation

A picture book adaptation of John Denver's song Ancient rhymes, celebrating the birth of a dolphin.

Seth Berg - Children's Literature

The lyrics of this John Denver song are illustrated with one to three short lines for every double page illustration. The story/song celebrates the birth of a baby dolphin in a strained poetic style with lines such as, "Giving hope to life as all we must, and teach us how their grace to share." Although this is part of a "Nature" book series, there is a lot of artistic license taken with the science—including the new-born dolphin leaping high out of the water for its first breath. The murky blue artwork resembles a tasteless new-age bedspread print and might appeal to young infants who like any depiction of ocean life. The book ends with a biography explaining John Denver's Dolphin experiences, and sheet music for the song. It is "A Sharing Nature With Children Book." 2004, Dawn Publications, Ages 3 to 6.