Top 20 Books
For more great book recommendations, visit NHNE’s bookstore.
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Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-death Experience
By Kenneth Ring, Evelyn Elsaesser Valarino
While providing many accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs) from men, women, and children of all ages and backgrounds, Lessons from the Light is much more than just an inspiring collection of NDEs. In Lessons near-death expert Kenneth Ring extracts the pure gold of the NDE and with a beautiful balance of sound research and human insight reveals the practical wisdom held within these experiences.
As Stanley Krippner states, “In this remarkable book, Ring presents evidence that merely learning about the near-death experience has similar positive effects to those reported by people who actually have had near-death experiences. Kenneth Ring is one of the few authors whose gifts include the capacity to transform their readers’ lives.”
For more information about near-death experiences, go here.
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Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences
By Jeffrey Long, Paul Perry
Evidence of the Afterlife shares the firsthand accounts of people who have died and lived to tell about it. Through their work at the Near Death Experience Research Foundation, radiation oncologist Jeffrey Long and his wife, Jody, have gathered thousands of accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs) from all over the world. In addition to sharing the personal narrative of their experiences, visitors to the website are asked to fill out a one hundred–item questionnaire designed to isolate specific elements of the experience and to flag counterfeit accounts.
The website has become the largest NDE research database in the world, containing over 1,600 NDE accounts. The people whose stories are captured in the database span all age groups, races, and religious affiliations and come from all over the world, yet the similarities in their stories are as awe-inspiring as they are revealing. Using this treasure trove of data, Dr. Long explains how medical evidence fails to explain these reports and why there is only one plausible explanation—that people have survived death and traveled to another dimension.
For more information about near-death experiences, go here
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Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children’s Memories of Previous Lives
By Dr. Jim Tucker
Is reincarnation possible? Tucker’s book full of real-life evidence and an explanation of how quantum physics allows for it makes one think the better question may be Is it impossible? Basing his argument on a study of more than 40 years’ duration into the lives, present and past, of more than 2,500 children, psychiatrist Tucker makes a pretty solid case in favor of reincarnation. He opens with the story of William, born five years after his policeman grandfather, John, was killed, with birth defects similar to John’s fatal wounds. William was able, at three, to report John’s last moments, of which he couldn’t possibly have had any knowledge. Then there is the Turkish child who insisted on being called by the name of a man who had lived 50 miles away. Taken to the man’s town, the child proceeded to the man’s home and identified the man’s parents in a roomful of people. All the stories were checked by scientist-interviewers, and all potential deception was eliminated; hence, Tucker introduces powerful grounds for credulous speculation.
For more information about past life experiences and research, go here.
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Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot
By Andrea Leininger
This is the story of James Leininger, who — a little more than two weeks after his second birthday — began having blood-curdling nightmares that just would not stop. When James began screaming out recurring phrases like, “Plane on fire! Little man can’t get out!” the Leiningers finally admitted that they truly had to take notice. When details of planes and war tragedies no two-year-old boy could know continued — even in stark daylight — Bruce and Andrea Leininger began to realize that this was an incredible situation. Soul Survivor is the story of how the Leiningers pieced together what their son was communicating and eventually discovered that he was reliving the past life of World War II fighter pilot James Huston. As Bruce Leininger struggled to understand what was happening to his son, he also uncovered details of James Huston’s life — and death — as a pilot that will fascinate military buffs everywhere. In Soul Survivor, we are taken for a gripping ride as the Leiningers’ belief system is shaken to the core, and both of these families come to know a little boy who, against all odds and even in the face of true skeptics, harbors the soul of this man who died long ago.
For more information about past life experiences and research, go here.
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Healing Dreams
By Marc Ian Barasch
There was a time when author Marc Ian Barasch treated dreams as “nocturnal reshufflings of the mental deck; as fantasy and wish fulfillment; as psychic leftovers; those emotional coffee grounds and crumbled up impulses toward sex and violence ditched nightly down some inner Disposall.” But then the vivid, ominous dreams began in which Barasch saw his neck being probed, tortured, speared, and even removed. Convinced something was terribly wrong, he went to a doctor who eventually confirmed what Barasch’s dreams had been telling him: he had thyroid cancer. That’s when Barasch’s fascination with the power of dreams began. The result is a breakthrough book that calls upon 15 years of research as well as hundreds of real-life dreams to expertly explore this mysterious frontier. Readers can expect excellent, poetic prose (Barasch is the former editor in chief of New Age Journal) that speaks to the transformative powers within the bizarre, shape-shifting landscape of the dream world. He helps readers see when a dream reveals a personal calling, a warning from a diseased body, or an insight that can help dreamers overcome the wounds or beliefs that hold them back. Barasch reaches far beyond the typical dream analysis into the more ambitious realms of spiritual turning points, personal relationships, and mystical opportunities. For many readers this will be a life-altering book, one that forever shifts the dreamer’s approach to dreams as well as the conscious world.
For more information on dreams, including a summary of this book, go here.
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UFOS: GENERALS, PILOTS AND GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS GO ON THE RECORD
By Leslie Kean
An Air Force major is ordered to approach a brilliant UFO in his Phantom jet over Tehran. He repeatedly attempts to engage and fire on unusual objects heading right toward his aircraft, but his missile control is locked and disabled. Witnessed from the ground, this dogfight becomes the subject of a secret report by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
In Belgium, an Air Force colonel investigates a series of widespread sightings of unidentified triangular objects, and he sends F-16s to attempt a closer look. Many hundreds of eyewitnesses, including on-duty police officers, file reports, and a spectacular photograph of an unidentifiable craft is retrieved and analyzed.
Here at home, a retired chief of the FAA’s Accidents and Investigations Division reveals the agency’s response to a thirty-minute encounter between an aircraft and a gigantic UFO over Alaska, which occurred during his watch and is documented on radar.
Now all three of these distinguished men have written breathtaking, firsthand accounts about these extraordinary incidents. They are joined by Air Force generals and a host of high-level sources — including Fife Symington III, former governor of Arizona, and Nick Pope, former head of the British Defence Ministry’s UFO Investigative Unit — who have agreed to write their own detailed, personal stories about UFO encounters and investigations for the first time.
They are coming forward now because of Leslie Kean, an investigative reporter who has spent the last ten years studying the still unexplained UFO phenomenon. Kean reviewed hundreds of government documents, aviation reports, radar data, and case studies with corroborating physical evidence. She carefully examined scientifically analyzed photographs and interviewed dozens of high-level officials and aviation witnesses from around the world. With the support of former White House chief of staff John Podesta, Kean draws on her research to separate fact from fiction and to lift the veil on decades of U.S. government misinformation. Throughout, she presents irrefutable evidence that unknown flying objects — metallic, luminous, and seemingly able to maneuver in ways that defy the laws of physics — actually exist.
No one yet knows what these objects are, even though they affect aviation safety and possibly national security. The phenomenon has been officially acknowledged by numerous foreign governments. For these reasons and many others, Kean concludes that the UFO problem must be more widely recognized and ultimately solved through an unbiased scientific investigation. The material presented throughout this landmark book is sobering, unflinching, and undeniably awe-inspiring, and moves us toward a goal of properly addressing this worldwide mystery.
For more information about Leslie Kean, her book, and UFOs in general, go here.
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The Future of the Body: Explorations Into the Further Evolution Of Human Nature
By Michael Murphy
Esalen cofounder Murphy has produced a massive tome that could become a bible of the New Age movement. His main thesis is that each of us harbors latent metanormal capacities rooted in biological evolution: ESP, clairvoyance, extraordinary movement abilities, uncanny somatic awareness and self-regulation, superabundant vitality and universal love, among others. Our genetic inheritance, he argues, predisposes us toward developing these powers, which can be mediated by Christian grace, the Tao or the workings of Buddha Mind, and also can be developed through specific practices. These include psychotherapy, fitness training, martial arts, meditation, biofeedback and prayer. Murphy’s claims for extraordinary human potential are annotated with references to 3000 sources, ranging from physiological studies of meditators to reports of near-death experiences. In closing he scans the impulse toward wholeness in ancient and modern cultures and warns of the mental imbalance that misuse of transformation discipline can cause. An exciting synthesis.
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Creating Union: The Essence Of Intimate Relationship
By Eva Pierrakos
Creating Union can help you achieve vibrant partnerships of fearless loving and mutual self-fulfillment. It provides insights into the deeper meaning of inevitable relationship difficulties. With a wise and gentle voice it will guide you in resolving difficulties while compassionately answering practical questions about sexuality, spirituality, divorce, fear of intimacy, creating mutuality, and how to keep the spark alive in long-term relationships.
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The Integral Vision
By Ken Wilber
Philosopher, psychologist and mystic Wilber (A Brief History of Everything) delivers on the subtitle’s far-reaching promise. In a scant 200+ pages chock-full of handsome illustrations and spare, Zen-like diagrams and tables, he forges ahead on his established path, posing, What if we attempted to find the critically essential keys to human growth, based on the sum total of human knowledge now open to us? His answer is a kind of meta-structure of human experience and, more importantly, human potential. His Integral Map, or Integral Operating System (IOS), of quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types is drawn from developmental psychology, worldviews, multiple intelligences, gender studies, the nature of consciousness, etc. If this sounds heady and extremely ambitious, it is. Wilber asserts that the IOS approach to life permits all fields of endeavor at last to speak with one another in a common language. Clearly, however, spirituality dominates much of his thought. Not for the faint of brain, Wilber’s work is still accessible and at times surprisingly practical. Some language spirals up majestically, recalling great Eastern texts. Reminiscent in spirit and watershed import of Ram Dass’s Be Here Now, Wilber’s work may well become a popular classic for explorers on the frontiers of humanity. Named one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of the Year 2007.
For more information on all things integral, go here.
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Integral Life Practice Book
By Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, Adam Leonard, and Marco Morelli
Integral Life Practice (ILP) is not just a new approach to self-development and higher awareness, but a way of making sense of — and making the best use of — the full spectrum of insights, methods, and teachings for cultivating a more open, balanced, and integrated life. ILP condenses East and West, ancient and cutting edge, within a highly flexible and contemporary system that you can use whether you’re a professional, a mom, a student, an athlete, an engaged spiritual practitioner (including a beginner) — or anyone who sincerely desires to lead a life of freedom and fullness.
For more information on all things integral, go here.
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Grace & Grit
By Ken Wilber
Ten days after transpersonal psychologist Wilber married Terry Killam in 1983, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. This harrowing account of her losing battle against disease is unusual in several respects. Killam (who changed her first name to Treya) shared her husband’s belief in the “perennial philosophy” of the world’s wisdom traditions embracing rebirth, enlightenment and the all-pervasiveness of Spirit. Her condition tested their faith simultaneously. Her lengthy, candid journal entries, interwoven with his narrative, form a tremendously moving love story. Killam, who died in 1989, combined orthodox treatment with such alternative therapies as diet, meditation and psychotherapy. Wilber disputes the imputed New Age view that mind alone causes all physical illness. He intimately participated in his wife’s ordeal, and here presents cancer as a healing crisis, an occasion for self-confrontation and growth.
For more information on all things integral (including Ken Wilber), go here.
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Stripping the Gurus: Sex, Violence, Abuse and Enlightenment
By Geoffrey D. Falk
“Armed with wit, insight, and truly astonishing research, Geoffrey Falk utterly demolishes the notion of the enlightened guru who can lead devotees to nirvana. This entertaining and yet deadly serious book should be read by everyone pursuing or thinking of pursuing the path of guru devotion.”
– John Horgan, author of Rational Mysticism
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“Stripping the Gurus is superb — one of the best books of its kind I have ever read. The research is meticulous, the writing engaging, and the overall thesis: devastatingly true. A stellar book.”
– Dr. David C. Lane, California State University
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“This gripping and disturbing book should be read by anyone who finds themselves revering a spiritual teacher.”
– Susan Blackmore, author of The Meme Machin
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“No one involved in contemporary spirituality can afford to ignore this book. It exposes the darker side of modern spiritual movements, those embarrassing — sometime vicious or criminal — reports which the leaders of these movements prefer to hide. With wit and humility, and without abandoning the verities of religion, Falk has provided a corrective critique of groups that peddle enlightenment and transcendence. A must!”
– Len Oakes, author of Prophetic Charisma
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For more great book recommendations, visit NHNE’s bookstore.
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