Help! I’m reaching out to my blog community because I don’t know where else to turn – and I trust you all for your excellent research and thoughtfulness, so I figured, why not ask.
I’ve been asked to moderate a metaphysical book club at our local bookstore, and while I truly enjoy reading anything in this genre, not everyone agrees with my choices. It’s funny; our regular book club seems happy enough to give new titles a shot – I mean, isn’t that the point of a book club? To read things you might not have read otherwise? We’ve had some rousing discussions about some incredible books, always enjoyable as a result of the wine in which we indulge! But for this genre, for some reason, people are VERY opinionated. Plus there’s the issue of, what IS a “metaphysical” book – is it just “new age” or quantum spirituality, or does it include things like religion, witchcraft, the occult, UFOs and alternative history and conspiracy?
Really I don’t know anymore; our first meeting last month was a great success, as we were honored to have Hank Wesselman himself, along with his beautiful wife, attend our discussion of his book Spiritwalker. For those of you who don’t know, he had an incredible out-of-body time travel experience which shattered his peaceful, scholarly outlook on life – and it happened here on the Big Island. He admitted quite readily he believes we are in for a global catastrophe when the gigantic ice sheet covering Antarctica slides off into the ocean creating a tsunami the likes of which we cannot even imagine. Next month we’re reading Kahuna Healing by Serge Kahili King, as a follow-up to Dr. Wesselman’s book – I’m half way through and already very impressed with the wealth of information there about Hawaiian Huna. Another title we’re sure about is Daniel Pinchbeck’s 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. But afterwards we tried to decide on upcoming titles and I got quite a few ruffled feathers, a few ‘I read that already and it sucks’, or ‘that’s not metaphysical’, and even ‘that’s too long and difficult.’
So – any suggestions? Anyone?
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Here are a few:
A Secret History of Consciousness by Lackman:
http://www.amazon.com/Secret-History-Consciousness-Gary-Lachman/dp/1584200111/ref=sr_1_2/103-1276641-1039808?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189953253&sr=1-2
When the Impossible Happens by Grof:
http://www.amazon.com/When-Impossible-Happens-Adventures-Non-ordinary/dp/159179420X/ref=pd_sim_b_5_img/103-1276641-1039808?ie=UTF8&qid=1189953253&sr=1-2
Extraordinary Knowing by Elizabeth Mayer:
http://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Knowing-Science-Skepticism-Inexplicable/dp/0553803352/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-1276641-1039808?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189953557&sr=1-1
and
Entangled Minds by Dean Radin:
http://www.amazon.com/Entangled-Minds-Extrasensory-Experiences-Quantum/dp/1416516778/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-1276641-1039808?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189953606&sr=1-1
All are well written and extremely thought-provoking!
-Andy
Fantastic, Andy! THANK YOU for responding with such great titles, they all sound great. This is what I need!!!
Much aloha to you!
A Metaphysical Bookclub–how interesting! …and as far as what constitutes metaphysical, if you are the moderator, then you have the final say!
I was in a small informal (fiction) bookclub in graduate school, and the choices were basically made by decree of the small group of club ‘founders’. …or at least the people who had the best attendance. You might also create your own list of contenders (including some of Andy’s great suggestions), and vote. Or perhaps use an existing list like the one here
http://www.whatismetaphysics.com/metaphysicalbooks.html
I will have to attend your bookclub sometime, Angela–do you have an email list or newsletter? I have been meaning to read 2012 for quite a while now, anyway…
Hi Angela,
Sounds like a great idea to advance some useful book reading. As for ‘metaphysical’ – as the name implies, isn’t it anything that goes ‘beyond’ the physical?
Some suggestions of books that have been useful to me:
– ‘The Global Brain Awakens: Our Next Evolutionary Leap’ – by Peter Russel
- ‘High Priests, Quantum Genes’ – by Michael Hayes
- ‘Science and the Reenchantment of the Cosmos: The Rise of the Integral Vision of Reality’ – by Ervin Laszlo
- ‘Among the Dervishes’ – by Omar Burke
- ‘The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge’ – by Jeremy Narby
- ‘The Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution’ – by P.D. Ouspensky
- ‘The World to Come’ – by Ruth Montgomery
- ‘Starseed Transmissions’ – by Ken Carey
– ‘Hidden Truth, Forbidden Knowledge’ – by Steven Greer
My Bestest wishes!!
A big thank you for your responses, Brian and Kingley! This should all help us immensely. I think what we’ll do is have a few options available and have the book club members vote on upcoming titles, so the book store owners can have them ordered in time.
Brian, do you live on the Big Island? You can contact Kona Stories (link button on upper right) and they can put you on their email list for upcoming events like book clubs.
Again, many mahalos!!
“A Suggestive Inquiry in the Hermetic Mystery” – Mary A. Atwood
“Quicksilver Heritage” – Paul Screeton
“Temple of the Phallic King: The mind of India: Yogis, Swamis, Sufis, and Avataras” – Pagal Baba
“Claiming Sacred Ground: Pilgrims and Politics at Glastonbury and Sedona” – Adrian J. Ivakhiv
“Cymatics: A Study of Wave Phenomena & Vibration” – Hans Jenny
I read a book a day — mainly on this subject. The main problem is books that are “too Western” — meanly conflating science with nonwestern philosophy.
This is a very radical concept to confront. For example the best book on Gurdjieff — “In Search of the Miraculous” is amazing, except when Ouspensky adds his own comments! Unfortunately people were quick to follow Ouspensky because he was Western and wasn’t the real teaching!
An amazing way to understand Gurdjieff is to read the book “Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality” trans. by Charles Luk. This is a very explicit and real training book but utilizes the exact same principles of Gurdjieff.
The problem is that all of science is based on symmetry (as per math professor Ian Stewart’s recent book “Why Beauty is Truth”).
Alchemy and shamanism rely on asymmetry whereby the resonance does not have a one-to-one correspondence with phonetic symbols. Very simply, yet radically, in Pythagorean harmonics 2:3 is yang and 3:4 is yin with 2:3 as the Perfect fifth which resonates infinitely. In Western science the Perfect Fifth is “compromised” into a logarithmic circle.
This connection between harmonics and math is not made clear but is detailed in my blogbook:
http://mothershiplanding.blogspot.com — read the “Secret of the Greek Miracle” chapter, although it’s all connected.
Another excellent writer is Buddhist Professor and Ch’an Master Nan, Huai-chin.
Haven’t heard of him? That’s right! Because he’s the real thing unlike the 99% of other metaphysical books.
Master Nan is a best-seller in China and he details how Buddhism got turned into just conceptual, psychological training without any real paranormal shamanic effects. Why? Because the body must be transformed along with the mind.
He has several books and I had to read each one three times just to get the jist of what he was saying. He’s truly amazing and a real yoga master.
Those are my favorite books. Of course a real teacher in the West is Master Chunyi Lin, author of “Born a Healer.” I took classes from him and his spring forest qigong system is amazingly accessible to all levels and yet truly powerful for healing. Master Chunyi Lin works with the Mayo Clinic and he sat in full-lotus in a cave in China without food, without water, without sleep — for at least 30 days.
He does long distance healing and does phone healing but you can order his book and self-educational course at http://springforestqigong.com.
Hi, Angela…
I don’t know if you are still moderating this book club, but you and they might consider my newly released book, The Essence of Reality.
In it, I illustrate the flow of life — how we recreate patterns in our lives that reflect our own inner nature, how our relationships, our health, our success or failure stems from inner elements. I discuss how to look within to change, rather than continue to try to manipulate the world out there, much as we learned to manipulate our mothers as we grew from infancy into childhood.
But I also look at common spiritual disciplines and religions, pointing out value where it exists and fallacy where it is presented as truth, traditional or esoteric.
There is a Oneness to the flow of life. Fully aware of that Oneness, having deleted the many fallacious notions of our western culture, I illustrate the flow in EoR with unique clarity.
Your book club would benefit from the read.
The Essence of Reality — check out the website at http://www.nehrer.net, or get the book.
All my best…
– Tom
There’s a great new book out “Global Awakening” by Vipin Mehta. Its metaphysics and political science wrapped up into one great book! Check out the author’s website, vipinmehta.com for a synopsis, background on the author, and even photos showing the many people already reading this book. I’d like to know if you still post on this blog, and if so I would really appreciate it if you would feature this book. Please email me, thanks!
Hello, I read your entry query and wanted to add my own 2 cents, if I may be so bold. I recently published “Reality Creation 101″, which is a spiritual self-help book about healing the unconscious in order to become a conscious creator.
“This book gives you the tools, knowledge, and awareness to completely revamp your unconscious mind to create the life you really want.”-T. Harv Eker author of #1 NY Times best seller Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
“Sometimes in order to create what you want, you have to get rid of what you don’t want. I like this book because it addresses the difficulties that people can face in life. It doesn’t take the reader for granted.”-Dr. Joe Vitale author of #1 best seller The Attractor Factor
“Reality Creation 101 is a beautifully written book with a practical step-by-step process for a more fulfilling life. Regardless of where one may be on the spiritual path, new insights will certainly be found.”-John Randolph Price author of #1 best seller The Super Beings
“Christopher Pinckley uses an almost clairvoyant eye to get to the essence of what can stand in the way of making us more attractive to our own greater power and to the infinite possibilities that are in store for us in the world. For anyone who is stuck in a rut without knowing why, this book can educate, inspire and transform.”-Claudia Sheftel Luiz the 2008 Winner of the Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Award
I would be honored to send your bookclub a review copy for your consideration.
Many blessings to you all!
Christopher A. Pinckley, cpt
http://www.holisticfitness4u.com
1) “Don’t Read This Book If You’re Right”
htp://www.DontReadThisBook.net/books/#dontread
2) “The Invisible Wold and Other Obvious Things”
htp://www.DontReadThisBook.net/books/#invisible
3) “TERRA: Return of the Divine Feminine”
htp://www.DontReadThisBook.net/books.htm/#terra
anything by Caroline Myss would be great for book discussons. My own book (just released) Memoirs of the Bathtub Psychic: The True Story of a Clairvoyant and Her Dogs (19 five star reviews in one month on amazon.com). Brand new book by Joann Davis – The Book of the Shepherd: The Story of One Simple Prayer, and How it Changed the World (translated into 20 languages already).