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Fine Print—January 2010 Part 2




Quantum Supplements: A Total Health and Wellness Makeover with Vitamins, Minerals, and Herbs
Deanna M. Minich, Ph.D.
$12.95 QP, 9781573244206, Conari Press, www.conari.com

Minich, author of Chakra Foods for Optimum Health and An A–Z Guide to Food Additives, posits that all foods have a vibration, and eating the correct foods can help balance the chakras, but sometimes the body needs a larger dose than what can be obtained by eating a particular food.

In Quantum Supplements, Minich includes information about the healing properties of vitamins, minerals, and herbs, including decoctions, extracts, powders, and tinctures, and shows how these supplements can help balance the chakras.
The book features a chapter devoted to each chakra that includes a description, major life issues, and appropriate supplements to help heal the chakra, as well as healthy and unhealthy indications and body parts affected by an imbalance. Supplement information includes a description of and source for each one, its function, intake, deficiency, overuse, and interactions.

Quantum Supplements also includes helpful appendices: a chart illustrating each chakra and corresponding herbs and supplements, a chakra reference guide to physiological conditions, and a chart of recommended vitamin and mineral intakes for adult men and women. – Susan LosCalzo, Lofty Notions, Rutherfordton, N.C.


Parenting the Children of Now
Meg Blackburn Losey, Ph.D.
$14.95 QP, 9781578634606, Weiser Books, www.redwheelweiser.com

Indigo and Crystal children exhibit expanded human awareness, are sensitive, astute in matters of life and heart, and are part of a fast forward evolution of the consciousness of humanity. They are a new generation of the most gifted human beings, but we don’t know how to communicate with them. They are the guardians of humanity, and we need to empower these children now rather than make them forget who they are. In order to make these children fit the expected norm of society and our archaic school curriculum, they are diagnosed with ADD, ADHD, and bipolar disorders—and put on drugs.

Author Meg Blackburn Losey believes these children are here to help us remember what we have forgotten and that we are all connected. She tells us it is time to nurture the children, not socialize them by involving them in every activity imaginable.

Parenting the Children of Now addresses the needs of parents of Indigo and Crystal children by teaching them to understand their purpose in their lives and their children’s lives and how to discover their passions. It is a journey through self to accept possibilities available to use as human beings … a set of tools to help change ourselves and create healthy life skills for our children. These children’s needs are best met by parents who are not trying to be what everyone else wants them to be. We need to heal ourselves and learn how to become authentic and flexible.

Exercises for parents and another set for parents to do with their children can be found at the end of each chapter. – Lois A. Rogalski, Miss Lois’ Curiosity Shoppe, Benton, Ky.


Growing Your Inner Light: A Guide to Independent Spiritual Practice
Lara Owen
$14.00 QP, 9781582702438, Atria Books/Beyond Words Publishing, www.beyondword.com

Growing Your Inner Light is for people who have become disillusioned by traditional religion, yet are searching for an active spiritual connection all the same. Owen encourages the reader adopt a personalized daily spiritual practice that integrates older traditions in order to achieve inner peace, live with integrity, and be one with the surrounding world.

Owen guides the reader through a yearlong spiritual development, detailing 13 core lessons corresponding to the 13 lunar months beginning with a new moon. A goal of the spiritual journey is a gradual growing intensity of inner light through meditation, prayer, and development of intuition. – Lois A. Rogalski, Miss Lois’ Curiosity Shoppe, Benton, Ky.


The Religion of Thinness: Satisfying the Spiritual Hungers Behind Women’s Obsession with Food and Weight
Michelle M. Lelwica
$18.95 QP, 9780936077550, Publishers Group West/Perseus Book Group, www.pgw.com

Ten million women suffer from eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, and their related problems. Unmet spiritual needs are often masked by obsessions with eating and weight and fueled by a society that worships thinness. The Religion of Thinness details how women have been brainwashed into believing their bodies are flawed and appetites sinful, and encourages the reader to identify hidden spiritual needs and how to address them.

Lelwica explains how women can learn to love their bodies by practicing mindfulness, and proposes that while women mask the deeper needs of the spirit with these obsessions, women’s attitudes toward weight and food are social problems, not personal failures. It is never too late, she writes, to learn to love one’s body and treat it with loving kindness.

The Religion of Thinness is not a cureall for eating problems, but instead is a way to change one’s mindset about weight and eating by becoming more accountable through everyday thoughts and choices. – Lois A. Rogalski, Miss Lois’ Curiosity Shoppe, Benton, Ky.



One Soul, One Love, One Heart: The Sacred Path to Healing All Relationships
John E. Welshons
$14.95 QP, 9781577315889, New World Library, www.newworldlibrary.com

One Soul, One Love, One Heart is a like a wonderful therapy session that provides the reader with concepts and techniques to open the heart to loving.

Part I, “Seeing the Light,” encourages the reader to love and forgive those people who may be difficult to love. Part II, “Freeing the Light,” examines the societal norm of isolation, which increases suffering and leads to self-centered and self-destructive lifestyles in which people take very little responsibility for their actions. Part III, “Being the Light,” applies the previous concepts to all relationships—with our souls, our bodies, our minds, parents and other family members, the community, nature, and God. Exercises throughout the book facilitate opening the heart in order to become more aware that we are all one.

Welshons, author of Awakening from Grief, also includes the Indian concept of ashramas—the four segments of human life—and many Buddhist views of the concepts of love and forgiveness.

This book would be excellent for those who are ready to open their hearts and minds to new ways of being in this world. – Susan LosCalzo, Lofty Notions, Rutherfordton, N.C.


The Proof: A 40-Day Program for Embodying Oneness
James F. Twyman with Anakha Coman
$19.95 HC, 9781401926403, Hay House, www.hayhouse.com

In his movie of the same name, Twyman asked a woman to hide a book anywhere within the continental United States and focus intently on that spot. He found the book, thus illustrating that we are all connected, that we are all One.

The Proof includes 40 “microspiritual” exercises to help the reader tune into other people’s thoughts and experience oneness for himself. The first 30 lessons are designed to identify, face, integrate, and heal all areas of darkness that keep people separated; the final 10 help the reader “remember the truth about who you are” by exploring such themes as communion, vision, intimacy, the journey, and the mystery of oneness.

Each exercise is accompanied by an affirmation, famous quotes related to the lesson, and a discussion between Twyman, author of The Moses Code and Emissary of Light, and Coman, founder of the FireHeart Sanctuary (www.wearethelovers.com). – Susan LosCalzo, Lofty Notions, Rutherfordton, N.C.

 
The Heretic’s Daughter
Kathleen Kent
$13.99 QP, 9780316024495, Back Bay books, www.hachettebookgroup.com

The Heretic’s Daughter is a personal account of the Salem Witch Trials, written by a direct descendant of one of the victims who was hanged in 1692 in Salem, Mass.
Kathleen Kent writes in the voice of her seven times great-grandmother, Sarah Carrier, the daughter of Martha Carrier, adding the element of fiction to weave together family stories that were passed down through the generations about her ancestor.

Written in the language of colonial times, with colorful expressions from those days, it brings to life those terrible times when people lived in fear of being accused of witchcraft for such things as a neighbor claiming his livestock became ill after a visit from the accused.

Well written while painting a graphic picture of those trying times, the book will be of interest to historians, particularly those with a penchant for colonial American history, as well as feminists and those interested in psychology, sociology, politics, and even criminology.

Sarah Carrier, the protagonist, is 8-and-a-half-years old as the book begins and 11 at the time her mother and later herself and her brothers are arrested for witchcraft. While her mother, the heretic, goes to the gallows refusing to confess to something she did not do, she instructs her daughter to agree to everything she may be accused of and thus save herself. Of particular interest is how similar those times are to modern day plea bargains when one is encouraged to confess to a lesser crime when, in fact, he/she may be guilty of no crime at all.

A conversation with the author, a bit of Salem Witchcraft history, and additional recommended reading at the back of the book lend a personal touch, giving the reader the opportunity to get to know the author. For Kent, a Dallas, Texas author, this is a first novel and the result of five years of research.

While the victims of the Salem Witch Trials were not necessarily Wiccan, the book would do well placed among Wiccan books where it will capture the attention of modern day witches interested in learning about the earlier persecutions. – Arlene Shovald, Ph.D., Fresh Start Therapies, Salida, Colo.


Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership and Changing the World
Linda Tarr-Whelan
$24.95 HC, 9781605091358, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, www.bkconnection.com

This is a “must have” book for any woman who seeks to achieve advancement while working in corporate America. In Women Lead the Way, Linda Tarr-Whelan provides women with skills that can be used to climb the corporate ladder while making the business world a better place for everyone. The U.S. ranks 27th out of 128 countries in the world in women’s advancement. “The U. S. Congress is made up of 83% men and 17% women. This representation of women places the United States 69th in the world.” Women currently occupy between 16% and 20% of leadership positions. Tarr-Whelan says that the proven tipping point is just 30%, which she calls the “30% Solution.” This means that when women hold 30% of top-level jobs, the focus will be on the agenda rather than on gender. Women will then be able to bring their concepts of collaboration, diversity, communication, and consensus to the table.

Tarr-Whelan provides women with research data, how-to tips, and women’s personal stories to guide women along this path. Each chapter includes a quiz where women can assess where they are and a box called “This week I will …” to give women steps that can be taken immediately. She gives the tools to “help readers wedge the door open and bring more women through and up”.

In Part I she gives the reader facts that can be used to promote confidence and support requests for change. In Part II she gives the tools for women to maximize their leadership potential. This book is very inspirational and can motivate women to be all that they can be thus making the world a better place.

Linda Tarr-Whelan is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos, which is a progressive think tank. She also worked for women’s progress under both the Carter and Clinton administrations and was named by Ladies’ Home Journal as one of the 50 most powerful women in Washington. – Susan LosCalzo, Lofty Notions, Rutherfordton, N.C.


You Don’t Have to Be Buddhist to Know Nothing: An Illustrious Collection of Thoughts on Naught
Joan Konner, Editor
$17 HC, 9781591027577, Prometheus Books, www.prometheusbooks.com

The concept of “nothing exists” cannot easily be accepted by those raised on Western thought, which is based on Aristotelian logic. Westerners consider “nothing exists” a self-contradictory statement. Few take the time to perceive or acknowledge that something can “be” and yet “not be”—instead, they feel, it is either/or.

In You Don’t Have to Be a Buddhist to Know Nothing, Konner has compiled views of writers, philosophers, poets, and other thinkers from all walks of life who have expressed the reality and necessity of “nothing,” illustrating that “nothing” is here, even if it can’t be seen, felt, or touched.

Fortunately, however, Konner argues that Eastern thought and spiritual traditions are being integrated into Western culture through enlightenment, leading more Westerners to accept the paradox of nothing. As Konner, editor of The Atheist’s Bible, writes in her introduction, “What you make of your Nothing is what you make of your life.” – Lois A. Rogalski, Miss Lois’ Curiosity Shoppe, Benton, Ky.


WorldShift 2012: Making Green Business, New Politics, and Higher Consciousness Work Together
Ervin Laszlo
$14.95 QP, 9781594773280, Inner Traditions, www.innertraditions.com

In 1993, Ervin Laszlo founded the Club of Budapest, “an informal international association of individuals of high ethical standard and moral integrity,” and WorldShift 2012 is considered the organization’s “handbook of conscious change.”

Forewords by Deepak Chopra and Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as quotes from other visionaries such as Ekhart Tolle, Paul Hawken, and Albert Einstein, augment WorldShift 2012’s message that we can no longer continue with “business as usual.” Laszlo, author of 85 books including a four-volume World Encyclopedia of Peace, explains that if we did, our current world crisis would become a catastrophe. He explains that we need to transition from the three Cs of “conquest, colonization, and consumption” to “connection, communication, and consciousness.”

A discussion of the Mayan prophecies for 2012 and “values to forget” (for example, the practice of conspicuous consumption) segues into a challenge for readers to update their ethics and evolve their consciousness in order to achieve “syntony”—being tuned in to the surrounding world.

Laszlo believes that if a world shift in consciousness occurred around 2012, then a more evolved consciousness could be in place by 2032. Laszlo then envisions the potential future in 2032, where he interviews two young people about how their world is different from the world of their youth in 2012—a very uplifting and foreseeable future for all. –Susan LosCalzo, Lofty Notions, Rutherfordton, N.C.


Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future (and A Way to Get There from Here)
Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., and Steve Bhaerman
$25.95 QP, 9781401925802, Hay House, www.hayhouse.com

Bruce H. Lipton, who has a Ph.D. in cell biology, continues the merging of science and spirituality that he began in his excellent first book, The Biology of Belief. Along with him in this book is Steve Bhaerman, who has been writing and performing comedy as Swami Beyondananda for more than 20 years. This combination of authors makes for a very interesting read. The Biology of Belief was mostly scientific, although easy to understand. Spontaneous Evolution has a very broad base of science, politics, and spirituality making it a very important work for our times. The authors compare and contrast the human body to the body of all humanity, explaining how the way the cells and quantum particles work is an example of how individuals and groups of humans can work together for the good of all.

This is no airy-fairy type of spiritual book, neither is it channeled nor scientifically complex. It speaks to the human in us all with practical examples of how to envision and execute changes in our daily lives to effect humanity’s progress and evolution at this critical junction of time and space in which we find ourselves. Lipton and Bhaerman manage to convince us that we must take action now by envisioning the future we want to see in order to create a world of peace and understanding that will ensure the existence of the human race. All humans must work together instead of fighting over issues that are ultimately of little importance in the bigger scheme of things. Our physical and spiritual environments both must flourish for humanity to continue to survive and flourish at a level of greater complexity.

A positive future is foreseen that necessitates the involvement of our hearts even more than our minds. The quantum field, which a thing is part of, can be equated to the spirit of that thing. A large group of a broad range of types of people can exhibit greater wisdom than a small group of “professionals” in one area. The book is easy to understand and very stimulating. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the future of humanity from either a spiritual, scientific, or political perspective. – David Paulsen, Ekaha Enchantments, Keaau, Hawaii


Beading the Creative Spirit: Finding Your Sacred Center Through the Art of Beadwork
Rev. Wendy Ellsworth
$18.99 QP, 9781594732676, Skylight Paths Publishing, www.skylightpaths.com

In Beading the Creative Spirit, author Wendy Ellsworth shares her experience of feeling most spiritually connected while she is being creative doing her beadwork. This unique book combines 14 beading projects with spiritual exercises and meditations. Each of the seven chapters has a focus such as finding your center (beading mandalas), using beads to pray (making prayer beads), wholeness (chakra necklace), and creative expression (spiral necklace).

There are two beading projects in each chapter. The first project is geared toward beginners; the second is for more advanced beaders. The spiritual exercises and meditations relate to the subject matter for that particular chapter. These two activities help draw forth the creative spirit to prepare the beader for beginning the project. The exercise called Shake Up Your Palette sounded like a lot of fun. Ellsworth writes about how people often use the same color palette when they bead, so this exercise is designed to expand one’s comfort with using different colors of beads. Several friends who bead can be invited to participate in this exercise; everyone sits around a table and begins a project. After about a half an hour, everyone moves to the seat to the right and begins to work on that person’s project using their beads and color choices. This continues until everyone has worked on everyone else’s project. She encourages the beaders to see how they feel when working with different colors of beads. It is also interesting to see how the other beaders used your colors of beads to create patterns that are different from your usual ones.

The projects are illustrated with color photographs, clear diagrams showing the placement of the beads for that particular pattern, and step-by-step instructions.

To encourage creativity, Ellsworth has a section about 10 tools for creative expression such as love, compassion, trust, self-confidence, imagination, and play. She then writes about the cripplers of creative expression such as guilt, fear, self-doubt, inner critic, and judgment. She has another section where she writes about the 10 aspects of our creative voice, such as passion, persistence, commitment, wholeness, vision, intuition, and happiness.

Ellsworth also provides ideas that she calls “bead challenges” to help one break out of a rut to get the creativity flowing again. She has been teaching beading since the early ‘80s, and created a “workbook focused on how you can use beading to find your sacred center”. – Susan LosCalzo, Lofty Notions, Rutherfordton, N.C.


How to Heal with Singing Bowls: Traditional Tibetan Healing Methods
Suren Shrestha
$15.95 QP, 9781591810872, Sentient Publications, www.sentientpublications.com

Shrestha first learned about Tibetan healing practices in his home country of Nepal and now makes it his mission to share this knowledge with the Western world.

His book, How to Heal with Singing Bowls, details the history of singing bowls, what to look for when purchasing one, and how to play the bowls for use as a healing modality for oneself and for others. The volume includes an explanation of vibrational healing and how to use singing bowls to balance the chakras and relieve stress, depression, anger, arthritis, high blood pressure, and aggression. Also included are sections on how to use singing bells and tingsha chimes, as well as how to augment singing bowl healing with crystals.

A CD of singing bowl music for three different therapies—relaxation, chakra balancing, and sound meditation—is included. Funds from the sale of this book will go toward building an orphanage in Shrestha’s native Nepal.
How to Heal with Singing Bowls would be a perfect addition to a singing bowl display. – Susan LosCalzo, Lofty Notions, Rutherfordton, N.C.


Bridge to the Afterlife: A Medium’s Message of Hope and Healing
Troy Parkinson
$15.95 QP, 9780738714356, Llewellyn Publications, www.llewellyn.com

Bridge to the Afterlife is for the reader who is interested in visiting a medium, the reader who wants to know “Is it real?,” and the one who has a serious interest in developing his/her own talents as a medium.
As Troy Parkinson states, anyone can do this. It’s just a matter of how we choose to develop our talents. For him, as for everyone, development and study of all things spiritual is a life-long process. The learning never ends. Mediumship is not a parlor game or a fun thing to do with friends. It is a serious endeavor involving working with people who have experienced serious losses.

The book is written in three parts. Part One, “The Journey,” describes how the author discovered his connection to the other side. Part Two, “The Messages,” takes a look at some of the most powerful messages he has received in his work and Part Three, “What it All Means” is a reflection on the impact mediumship has had on his life along with some practical exercises to help the reader develop his/her own talent in mediumship. Additional resources are included in the back of the book.

The author has an undergraduate degree in film production, but only recently had the courage to combine his two talents. There was always the concern about being labeled “crazy” for talking to dead people. He also practices his mediumship from an unlikely location—his hometown of Fargo, N.D. Thus the reader in a remote location learns anywhere is a good place to utilize this talent if he/she cares to develop and share it. Sharing, the author feels, is important because the bridge between family and loved ones is so critical and the medium is that bridge.

Parkinson shares his journey from student to medium to teacher. The cover art is eye catching—a dandelion gone to seed, blowing in the wind against a blue sky. It’s one of those covers one might like in a poster. Other books on mediumship are recommended so this volume would do well placed among similar subjects as well as near divinatory materials such as crystal balls, tarot cards, and scrying mirrors. – Arlene Shovald, Ph.D., Fresh Start Therapies, Salida, Colo.


Mind Programming: From Persuasion and Brainwashing to Self-Help and Practical Metaphysics
Eldon Taylor
$24.95 HC with CD, 9781401923310, Hay House, www.hayhouse.com

The concept of “altered states,” while taboo to some, is quite real, writes Taylor, who is uniquely qualified to write on the subject, as he has been a salesman, lie-detection examiner and investigator, spiritual counselor and minister, and motivational coach. Although brainwashing is the most drastic of programming techniques, Taylor explains that most of us go into altered states every day, simply by watching television and becoming immersed in the programming and advertising. However, he notes, mind programming has its good side as well as its bad.

Divided into two parts—first the negative (mind control efforts by the government, subliminal messages), then the positive (hypnosis, visualization, meditation)—Mind Programming can help readers not only avoid being manipulated but also find their right path leading to positive change.

Self-tests, lists of affirmations, and an accompanying mind-training InnerTalk CD contribute to making this an excellent self-help book. – Arlene Shovald, Ph.D., Fresh Start Therapies, Salida, Colo.


 
 
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