God Is Not Dead is a fascinating guided tour of quantum physics, consciousness, and the existence and experience of God. University of Oregon physics professor Amit Goswami shows readers that God's existence can be found in clues that the science of quantum physics reveals.

Goswami helps readers to break through their "materialistic conditioning," viewing reality as defined by Newtonian physics, to become free through a quantum understanding and experience of consciousness and God. In fact, God Is Not Dead argues for a "quantum activism," leading a balanced life that incorporates both the quantum and material worlds—and an experience of consciousness.

God Is Not Dead will change how readers think—and experience—the nature of reality, the existence of souls, the power of dreams, the universality of love, the possibility of ESP, and the very mind of God.

Biography

Amit Goswami, PhD, is a theoretical nuclear physicist and member of The University of Oregon Institute for Theoretical Physics. He became best known as one of the interviewed scientists featured in the 2004 film What the Bleep Do We Know?.

A dazzling work of personal travelogue and cultural criticism that ranges from the primitive to the postmodern in a quest for the promise and meaning of the psychedelic experience.

While psychedelics of all sorts are demonized in America today, the visionary compounds found in plants are the spiritual sacraments of tribal cultures around the world. From the iboga of the Bwiti in Gabon, to the Mazatecs of Mexico, these plants are sacred because they awaken the mind to other levels of awareness--to a holographic vision of the universe.

Breaking Open the Head is a passionate, multilayered, and sometimes rashly personal inquiry into this deep division. On one level, Daniel Pinchbeck tells the story of the encounters between the modern consciousness of the West and these sacramental substances, including such thinkers as Allen Ginsberg, Antonin Artaud, Walter Benjamin, and Terence McKenna, and a new underground of present-day ethnobotanists, chemists, psychonauts, and philosophers. It is also a scrupulous recording of the author's wide-ranging investigation with these outlaw compounds, including a thirty-hour tribal initiation in West Africa; an all-night encounter with the master shamans of the South American rain forest; and a report from a psychedelic utopia in the Black Rock Desert that is the Burning Man Festival.

Breaking Open the Head is brave participatory journalism at its best, a vivid account of psychic and intellectual experiences that opened doors in the wall of Western rationalism and completed Daniel Pinchbeck's personal transformation from a jaded Manhattan journalist to shamanic initiate and grateful citizen of thecosmos.


From the Hardcover edition.

Publishers Weekly

Open City editor Pinchbeck's book debut is a polemic that picks up the threads that Huxley's The Doors of Perception, Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and counterculture idealism left in the culture. Charting his gradual transformation from a cynical New York litterateur to psychedelic acolyte, Pinchbeck uses elements of travelogue, memoir, "entheobotany" ("the study of god-containing plants") and historical research to ask why these "doorways of the mind" have been unceremoniously sealed, sharing Walter Benjamin's melancholy about the exasperating nature of consumerism: "We live in a culture where everything tastes good but nothing satisfies." Pinchbeck travels the earth in search of spiritual awakening through tripping, from Gabon to the Nevada desert. At happenings like the Burning Man festival or a plant conference in the Ecuadorean jungle, Pinchbeck meets "modern shamans" and tells their stories as they intersect with his. In his reporting, he manages to walk a difficult tonal tightrope, balancing his skepticism with a desire to be transformed. He thoughtfully surveys the literature about psychedelic drugs, but the most exhilarating and illuminating sections are the descriptions of drug taking: he calls this visiting the "spirit world," which is "like a cosmic bureaucracy employing its own PR department, its own off-kilter sense of dream-logic and humor... constantly playing with human limitations, dangling possibilities before our puny grasps at knowledge." There's little new drug lore here, but Pinchbeck's earnest, engaged and winning manner carry the book. (On sale Sept. 17) Forecast: Pinchbeck is a founding editor, along with Thomas Beller, of Open City, a kind of Paris Review for the '90s, and the son of artist Peter Pinchbeck and Beat memoirist Joyce Johnson. Portions of the book previously appeared in the Village Voice and Rolling Stone, where Pinchbeck is a contributor. Look for a few strong national reviews and solid sales, particularly among younger readers, who will turn out for the four-city tour. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Biography

DANIEL PINCHBECK is a founding editor of Open City, and he has written for such publications as Rolling Stone, Men's Journal, and The Village Voice, where sections of his book have previously appeared.


From the Hardcover edition.

Each day involves countless interactions with others–not only among family and friends but also with neighbors, coworkers, even telephone solicitors. An attitude of love may ot be your top priority in some of these encounters. But what if the ancient maxim “love your neighbor as yourself” applied to everyone, including those you meet in the most ordinary circumstances?

By giving love, instead of grabbing for it, you’ll become the person others want to love in return, no matter what their role in your life.

Relationship expert Dr. Gary Chapman applies the seven characteristics of authentic love to family life, friendship, the workplace, and beyond. Eye-opening personal assessments uncover relational strengths and weaknesses, while real-life stories and ideas for building habits of love will inspire you to grow into the complete person you were meant/created to be.

Capture a vision that will transform your relationships and make your corner of the world a better place–by choosing Love As a Way of Life.

Includes questions for personal reflection or group discussion.

Publishers Weekly

Chapman follows up his five million-copy bestseller The Five Love Languages with this wise, heartfelt guide to cultivating seven traits that lead to loving relationships. Whereas his work on love languages explored the primary ways people give and receive love, this book explores the nitty-gritty of an entire "attitude of love," with chapters on kindness, patience, forgiveness, humility, courtesy, generosity and honesty. Each chapter includes quizzes, questions for reflection and ideas for applying that chapter's teachings. All self-help books run the risk of cliché, but Chapman manages to make tried-and-true material feel fresh through carefully chosen examples from his pastoral counseling practice and his own life. The chapter on forgiveness is especially powerful, as Chapman advocates forgiveness as a daily habit, not an occasional bequest. Although Christian faith provides the scaffolding for his program and a concluding chapter makes the need for God's help explicit, Chapman's judicious counsel can be implemented by people of many religious traditions. This book is head and shoulders above the bulk of self-help literature precisely because it is not about "self" so much as helping others. (July 15)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Biography

Dr. Gary Chapman is the author of twenty-five books, including the New York Times bestseller The Five Love Languages, with more than 4 million copies in print. A popular speaker and an internationally respected marriage and family life expert, he hosts the daily radio program A Love Language Minute. Dr. Chapman is director of Marriage & Family Life Consultants, Inc. He and his wife, Karolyn, have two adult children and two grandchildren and live in North Carolina.

The American Indian medicine wheel was an ancient way of creating sacred space and calling forth the healing energies of nature. Now, drawing on a lifetime of study with native healers, herbalist and ethnobotanist E. Barrie Kavasch offers a step-by-step guide to bringing this beautiful tradition into your own life--from vibrantly colorful outdoor circle designs to miniature dish, windowsill, or home altar adaptations. Inside you’ll find:

• Planting guides for medicine wheel gardens in every zone, from desert Southwest to northern woodlands

• A beautifully illustrated encyclopedia of 50 key healing herbs, including propagation needs, traditional and modern uses, and cautions

• Easy-to-follow herbal recipes, from teas and tonics to skin creams and soaps--plus delicious healing foods

• Ideas for herbal crafts and ceremonial objects, including smudge sticks, wind horses, prayer ties, and spirit shields

• Seasonal rituals, offerings, and meditations to bless and empower your garden and your friends, and much more

Practical, beautiful, and inspiring, The Medicine Wheel Garden leads us on a powerful journey to rediscovering the sacred in everyday life as we cultivate our gardens . . . and our souls.

Library Journal

The transcendental nature of gardening is the focus of this pair of books. Both discuss humans' innate need to cultivate and nurture the earth. Ethnobotanist and herbalist Kavasch (American Indian Healing Arts) delves into Native American mystical symbolism to describe how to put together a garden that heals body and soul. He clearly explains the basic layout of a "medicine wheel" garden a circular arrangement built along axes running north/south, east/west, and even into the air and into the ground and how to adapt it to every zone. Also covered are traditional plants and why certain colored plants belong in the different quadrants of the circle. He also offers an illustrated encyclopedia of 50 healing herbs, as well as recipes that incorporate those herbs. Norfolk, a retired English osteopath, uses a much less structured approach in his lovely meditation on the importance of gardening in today's hustle-and-bustle society. During his 40 years of practice, he observed that his happiest and healthiest patients were green thumbs. Here, he introduces his concept of the "soul garden." He draws from literature and scientific studies, among other sources, to back up his claim that, like Voltaire's Candide, people would be happier and less stressed out if they would just sit back and watch their gardens grow. Kavasch's book is recommended for public libraries whose patrons appreciate Native American mysticism and gardening; Norfolk's is recommended for all public libraries. Pam Matthews, M.L.S., Olmsted Falls, OH Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Coloring the circular designs known as mandalas is a relaxing, meditative activity enjoyed by adults and children alike. The mandalas in this book are specially designed to provide a creative encounter with the Divine as a feminine presence. The archetypal imagery of the circle—appearing in the form of organic shapes of nature, the curves of the female body, the womb and childbirth rituals, the circular turning of cosmic rhythms, or geometric designs conveying the primal energy of the Goddess—celebrates the full range of the sacred feminine, from gentle and motherly to fierce and challenging.

An introductory essay traces the stream of the sacred feminine from prehistoric sources through modern spiritual traditions and the work of contemporary scholars of psychology and religion. Mandalas for coloring include designs based on ancient European artifacts, traditional Hindu yantras, and contemporary art. Full-color illustrations provide inspiration, and instructions for drawing your own geometric mandalas add to the creative possibilities. Coloring Mandalas 3 will appeal particularly to individuals and groups who wish to explore spirituality as a pathway to deeper meaning and personal growth.

 

Plates 8, 9, and 10 

 

Mandalas 12 and 17 

Biography

Susanne F. Fincher is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Registered Art Therapist based in Atlanta, Georgia, who offers personal growth experiences through creative self-expression in workshops and other events. She is the author of Creating Mandalas and Coloring Mandalas.

Drawing the traditional circular designs known as mandalas is a meditative practice, a healing exercise in times of crisis, and a pleasurable act of creativity. As a symbol of the Self, the mandala provides a connection to our innermost being. The forty-eight drawings presented here for coloring include designs inspired by forms of nature, Native American and Tibetan sand paintings, Hindu yantras, Turkish mosaics, the illuminations of Hildegarde of Bingen, and the art of M.C. Escher. These mandalas are organized according to the Great Round of Mandala, a scheme of twelve archetypal stages that represents a complete cycle of personal growth. Thus, to do the coloring book from start to finish will carry the reader through a balanced experience of change, guided by the accompanying text.

Biography

Susanne F. Fincher is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Registered Art Therapist based in Atlanta, Georgia, who offers personal growth experiences through creative self-expression in workshops and other events. She is the author of Creating Mandalas and Coloring Mandalas.