Links - Books

[Summer Wine]

An old book that I'm re-reading again for about the 10th time. I love this book.

Prince Ombra

Genre: Fantasy
Tor Books, New York, 1982
 

It is said--and it is true--that just before we are born, a cavern angel holds his finger to our mouths and whispers, "Hush! Don't tell what you know."

This is why we have a cleft in our upper lips and remember nothing of where we came from.

Toward the end of the last century--in 1978 to be precise--a smooth-lipped boy appeared in the world.

He grew up in an ominous time. People had lost the power of belief. Plagues of the spirit swept the world; shapeless anxieties spread like fever, self-hatred was rampant, love was bitterly denounced because it wasn't perfect. Evidence of madness glittered everywhere. The workshops of great nations forged weapons that would destroy the societies that used them. Acid rained from the skies. Rivers putrefied. In some places the air was unbreathable. Hucksters sold God on television, and religions were made out of economic theories that didn't work. Tyrants brutalized the people in the name of the people. The new prophets of freedom preached doctrines of selfishness. Knowledge raced far ahead of wisdom. Mankind worshiped facts, but facts couldn't explain the misfortunes that counterweight the blessings of human life. There were machines that could think, and people numbed their minds to keep themselves from thinking. In their deepest dreams men stood within stone circles and saw a darkness darker than dark.

Such epochs of desolation had cursed human history a thousand times before. And, each time, a smooth-lipped mortal was born. These men lived strange, obsessed lives. Some of them lie buried in great mausoleums. Others rotted on the hangman's tree. Some will be remembered forever. Other disappeared into dust and oblivion.

When the time of dementia and sorrow came to the late twentieth century, Bentley Ellicott was born with a twisted leg in Stonehaven on the northern coast. Why he was created as a cripple, why he appeared in a peaceful place far from the world's worst torments, will remain mysteries forever. Bentley Ellicott himself was the only person in the world who knew the purpose of his life. It was a secret. He didn't tell anybody until he was eight years old.
 
Bentley Ellicott, in spite of his crippled leg, dead mother and distant father, appeared to be a normal, happy child. He is a bright boy who loves school and baseball, and generally revels in his childhood. This is because Bentley knows the purpose of his life. He can remember the beautiful place of perpetual childhood from which he came and to which he will return when his life is over. He also knows that all the great heroes of history were grownups, so he has time to enjoy his childhood.

Then, in the autumn before his ninth birthday, things begin to change. A feeling of oppression sweeps over the tiny town of Stonehaven, and Bentley's heart tells him that the time for waiting is over. Bentley knows that Ombra, the Lord of Nightmares is coming to do battle with him, since he is what is known as the hero of the borrowed heart. Throughout history, Ombra has always appeared to the hero in the form of his greatest fear, so Bentley sets out to discover what his fear might be.

As an eight year old boy, the scariest thing he can think of is getting hit by a truck, so he begins to spend his mornings before school by the highway, standing a little closer every day as the big trucks go by. One day, Bentley stands too close, and the driver panics and goes off the highway, turning over his truck. The chief of police decides Bentley is crazy, and demands his father take him to a child psychologist.

Bentley doesn't want to tell Dr Kreistein his secret, but the psychologist draws it out of him anyway. When Bentley begins to speak to him in his native German, the doctor begins to believe in spite of himself. Bentley reminds him that he has met Ombra before, in Germany; heard his screeching voice on the radio, seen millions of ecstatic young men in uniforms hearkening to his call. Bentley knows that it was because of Ombra that Dr Kreistein's sister died. Bentley takes the doctor on as his teacher, and they begin to search for Bentley's fear together.

Then there's Sally, a little girl with a speech impediment who no one understood at all until Bentley came along. Bentley listens to her beautiful language and can tell people what she is saying. The two become fast friends. But Sally is in danger, as is everyone close to Bentley, as Ombra begins to infect the people of Stonehaven with his evil. Ombra taunts Bentley, promising to fix his leg, if he will only give up their quarrel. Bentley refuses, as things begin to spiral out of control.

And now for the old horror movie sell:? What form will Prince Ombra take? Will Bentley be able to defeat him and save his friends, his town, the world? Find out in Prince Ombra, coming soon to a used book store near you!


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312890249/ladiesoflallybtm/103-4158961-7649451

An Amazon link where a used copy starting at $0.93 can be found.

I highly recommend this book!

[Quemoni]

http://www.urantia.org/detail.html#Titles

Urantia the book
The Urantia Book, first published by the Urantia Foundation in 1955, was authored by celestial beings as a special revelation to our planet, Urantia.


The book's message is that all human beings are one family, the sons and daughters of one God, the Universal Father. It instructs on the genesis, history, and destiny of mankind and on our relationship with God. It also presents a unique and compelling portrayal of the life and teachings of Jesus, opening new vistas of time and eternity, and revealing new concepts of Man's ever-ascending adventure of finding the Universal Father in our friendly and carefully administered universe.

[Summer Wine]

http://yowbooks.com/html/kolbrin.html?gclid=CLi9oZuir4YCFTaDJAoduXttHA

The Kolbrin Bible

anyone read this? just ran across it this morning and on a physics web site.

CAN WE END THE MISERY OF WAR?

The lesson of war is simple. People who cannot live together die together.? Yet, Sumer (which was located in present day Iraq), and Lemuria (a vast Pacific archipelago that was lost in a mega-Tsunami), lived in peace for many thousands of years. How did they do it?? They committed themselves to enlightenment.

The 3600-year old message of The Kolbrin Bible is clear. We?re all born with the need to seek enlightenment, each in our own way, and each in our own time.? This has never changed, which is why forcing submission upon others through our own human failings is by no means the path to an enlightened life. Only those who seek to profit by your misery will tell you otherwise.?

Take heart, because the ancients proved that we can stop making war upon each other at any time we choose.? This is because making peace is essentially like making a good marriage.? You live in service to each other, accept each other and commit to making it work. Therefore, our first step towards world peace is to restore the natural harmonic balance between men and women, and to help us do that, The Kolbrin Bible offers inspiring examples from the past.

[Kephra]

There is a Kolbrin website where you can read most of it online.   Physicist James McCanney promotes it a lot also.

[Summer Wine]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0916782905/ref=ase_windweavwebandwi/103-4158961-7649451?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=windweavwebandwi

Forgotten Founders: How the American Indian Helped Shape Democracy (Paperback)
by Bruce E. Johansen

Outstanding book. Essential reading for all Americans, October 14, 1999
Reviewer: A reader
I read this book with awe. It is carefully researched with rich archival and primary sources. It is well written and filled with insightful observations in every chapter. It is necessary read for all Americans, in fact all who care about government. If you feel that something special happened on this continent, but are not sure about the details of what took place, this book will reinforce the ideal that democracy as an institution came from America. Europeans had no idea how a government by the people could possibly succeed. The native Americans long experimented with a form of representative government that was grassroots, not top down as practiced in Europe. The framers of the constitution fully appreciated the form of government practiced by the native Americans incorporated those ideals into the founding documents of our nation. This book will fill a gap in education and make you proud of practicing a form of government that originated with the native people of America. It is a spirit of government that at its best is the ideal of all the common people of the earth. To remain free of tyranny, each generation of citizens needs to relearn the founding principles of our form of government. This is an extraordinary starting point.
 

[Summer Wine]

The Wise Ones: Reincarnated High-Priestesses, Wizards, Shamans, ect.
{Excerpts from the book: Earth Angels: A Pocket Guide for Incarnated Angels, Elementals, Starpeople, Walk-Ins, and Wizards by Doreen Virtue }


Intense. Exotic. Eccentric. The Wise Ones glow from the inside. Their looks are usually with long hair; oval faces; and haunting eyes complete with a lifetime of shadows beneath them . ?Earth Angels? (different from what is considered ?Heavenly Angels?) from this realm possess profound wisdom and are highly intuitive. Their eyes are penetrating, and there?s no point in pretending or lying to Wise Ones, because Truth is apparent to them. There?s a certain element of mystery accompanying each member of this realm. It?s obvious, when first meeting the gaze of Wise Ones, that they know.

The Wise Ones are humans with past lives in which they learned how to channel their power into miraculous healings and/or manifestations, including the ability to affect the weather and material objects (through levitation and telekinesis, and so on).

These are the extremely powerful and well-trained ?magicians? (and Teachers) of the human race who were called out of ?retirement? from the spirit world in order to come back to Earth for the currently urgent situation on our planet.

Wise Ones have a somber, serious, almost depressed energy, and they?re sometimes quite stern. In relationships, they?re highly opinionated in a helpful way. They?re the ?stage moms? and directors of their friends and family members, always KNOWING the best route for others to take. If someone wants solid advice, they should ask a Wise One.

Whereas some souls are fairly ?new?, or haven?t been ?around the block? as other older souls on the wheel of life and rebirth, the Wise Ones have been human for eons. Wise Ones often feel ?different? and are not afraid to proclaim it, at least once they ?wake up? to who they are.

The common denominator of Wise Ones is the number of years they?ve logged learning to harness their powers. Some developed their own interest in metaphysics, and others were hand-picked as children and schooled in the psychic arts. The Wise Ones have lived as High-Priests and Priestesses in Atlantis, Ancient Greece, and Egypt; during Arthurian times; among the Mayans; as Essenes; and as native medicine men and women. They?ve witnessed civilizations destroyed, and people murdered for their spiritual beliefs. The Wise Ones know and understand the innate darkness within the human ego, but they have an even greater appreciation and respect for the heights to which humans are capable. And this is why they?ve come back to teach.

On the other side, many Wise Ones were comfortably enjoying the afterlife plane. But then the Wise Ones were approached by a committee of guides that was trying to enlist retired ?spiritual soldiers? (hmmm?."Spiritual Warriors" did this author say?!!!!!) back into service. They asked the Wise Ones to return to Earth to teach and model peacefulness, and to remind people how to use their inner power and strength to create harmony.

Some Wise Ones reluctantly agreed to return to Earth (!). When they got here, they felt the heavy density of the shifting energy. A few Wise Ones, unable to handle this climate, exited immediately by willing their own deaths. Other Wise Ones relegated themselves to an Earth life, but felt depressed or angry about it.

The best-adjusted Wise Ones were those who resumed the study of Earth-based spirituality ? such as astrology, kabbalistic magic, paganism, herbology, shamanism, and so forth.

Members of the Wise Ones realm have spent lifetimes developing their spiritual and powerful gifts. They?re well practiced in the spiritual arts of manifestation, alchemy, and healing in various forms (unless they are weakened by so much soul damage over ?time?).

They?re born as psychic who may view their gifts as being curses (what a surprise!), especially if they?re prescient about a forthcoming ?negative? situation. They blame themselves if they saw a forthcoming tragedy and were not able to prevent it, forgetting that if they were supposed to intervene, they would have been clearly told what to do to prevent the situation.

Wise Ones often have past life memories to haunt them, lives in dark ages were superstition and death prevailed, and were many innocents were slaughtered and the threat of death hung over everyone during those times, and the memory makes Wise Ones nervous about fully reopening their spiritual gifts.

As a result, many Wise Ones hold back from unleashing their great power because of these ancient memories! Yet, the reason why they?ve elected to be here at this time is to teach and use those spiritual tools they have EARNED over many lifetimes. A Wise One?s purpose involves dusting off their psychic and spiritual healing abilities. And since we can only feel happy and fulfilled if we?re engaged in our purpose, then it is necessary for Wise Ones to open and redevelop their spiritual gifts.

The Wise Ones have carried emotional pain for eons from their many Earthly lives ? talk about long standing! Many of them have current heart problems now or in the past because of this.

The Wise Ones are usually intense individuals and hardworking teachers. They teach without ceasing, often by giving brief but deeply philosophical advice to people. Yet, the look in many Wise One?s eyes reveals years of disappointment in their ?students?. Not being arrogant ? they often times just KNOW what would help. Yet most people ignore the advice and keep wallowing in their troubles, unwilling to hear the advice/message.

Since the Wise Ones? purpose is to teach and be ?way-showers?, perhaps this frustration with their mission is their greatest heartbreak.

Most Wise Ones long for a mystical soul mate marriage. They may feel the elusive presence of a kindred soul whom they?ve KNOWN FOR MANY LIFETIMES. This leads to a search for the Beloved, and until he or she is found, the Wise One may choose to be romantically alone. Or worse, the Wise One may try settling for an unfulfilling relationship.

In previous lives, Wise Ones may have taken vows of chastity or celibacy. These unbroken vows can follow someone into a current life and wreak havoc unless dealt with to be released!

So, Wise Ones do best in their love lives when they use their remarkable gifts to manifest the love they seek. Even if their TRUE Beloved is not currently incarnate and is in the spirit world between lives, Wise Ones can still manifest wonderfully fulfilling love relationship with the many soul mates that ARE presently incarnated until reunited with their ?TWIN soul?.

The Wise Ones never get a chance to discuss their own troubles because they?re cast in the strong empowered role. Wise Ones are often accused of being know-it-alls. This accusation actually has a kernel of Truth to it, because Wise Ones are tapped into the all-knowing collective unconscious (when they are awakened that is!). They?re also highly psychic.

If you are a Wise One, you may have, like many other Wise Ones, taken vows in your past lives as a spiritual aspirant or devotee. Among the most common are vows of suffering, self-sacrifice or retribution, poverty, chastity, virginity, celibacy, obedience, and silence. Unless these vows are severed, they can follow you to Earth (karma!) and place barriers in your love life, finances, and life in general. No one is truly free until these past-life vows are broken.

Due to many lifetimes of spiritual learning and teaching, Wise Ones are most suited for a career as a spiritual teacher, astrologer, psychic, spiritual healer, channeler, or oracle card reader. Most Wise Ones don?t do well as employees or followers??


http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1401900488/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4158961-7649451#reader-link

Earth Angels: A Pocket Guide for Incarnated Angels, Elementals, Starpeople, Walk-Ins, and Wizards
Doreen Virtue

[Summer Wine]

http://www.amazon.com/Laughing-Jesus-Religious-Gnostic-Wisdom/dp/1400082781

The Laughing Jesus

(one review)
The first thing to remember when reading or speaking about this book is that it is in no way an attack on the existence of God. What this book is, is an attack on false, literalist dogma that has so dangerously distorted the true Reality of God for so much of Western history. Let me say that I read the authors' first two books on this subject (more than once), and this third volume is a more than worthy culmination.

_The first half solidly deconstructs and demolishes any claim to historical accuracy or legitimacy for the Holy Books of the Jewish, Christian, and Moslem religious traditions. All Holy Books are the work of men, not of God (including Gnostic books, but Gnostics realize this.) Personally, while I was aware of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian sources in the Tanakh, I was amazed to find that it appears to have been compiled as late as the first century BCE- and by the Maccabees in order to justify a rule so ruthless that it would put the Taliban to shame. Nor did I realize that the Romans were actually allies of the Maccabees against their Syrian Greek foes (which explains much in terms of creating a false religion and history for political ends.) An excellent case is also made for the origin of monotheism among the Greeks and not the Jews (read your Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and Plato.) It is also this first half that emphasizes the difference between the Gnostic and Literalist traditions. The Gnostic is the true and original Christian (or pre-Christian) who sees in Jesus the allegorical ideal of man awakening to his true origin and nature. The Literalist is one who bullies everyone into blind belief in dogmas that obstruct and distort true experience of God. There is an excellent table that spells out the specific differences between the two. As for the critique of Islam, well, how could a copy of a copy of a bad original be anything less than the worst of them all...?

_The second half of the book deals with the nature and obtainment of Gnosis. The authors' model holds that Gnosis is a natural state akin to lucid dreaming (dreaming, yet consciously recognizing that you are dreaming.) You experience a shift in consciousness and perspective. Your ordinary world and life does not disappear as you enter some new supernatural state or dimension. No, but your consciousness expands to the point that you realize that your old everyday life, including the your old sense of self, is not the totality of existence. You realize that you are part of a greater "life-dreamer" which is dreaming both itself, as well as, everyone and everything. You realize that we are all part of this great dreamer and are all connected at this higher level. We are all One. The purpose of life is to awaken and personally experience to this knowledge- this Gnosis. This section of the book points the way.

excerpts
_Having first touched upon the Gnosis over a dozen years ago, I like to think that I possess an intuition when it comes to teachings on the subject. I am not saying that reading this book will get you to the ultimate goal, but it will put you on the right path. It will plant the genuine seeds that will burst forth from dreaming unconscious.

We would like to suggest that you have a dual nature. You appear to be a person, but you are awareness. What we are pointing out is actually obvious. You are BOTH an object and a subject. Objectively you are a physical body. A thing in the world. But subjectively you are not a thing at all. You are awareness. Lucid living is recognizing that you can see yourself in two entirely different ways in this present moment. You are both an 'I' and an 'it'. Focus on the reality of this moment and discriminate what you are from what you appear to be.
What you appear to be is constantly changing, but what you are is never-changing. Your body is in perpetual motion. Your thoughts are constantly coming and going. Over your lifetime the person you appear to be has been transformed almost beyond recognition. But don't you have the sense that the real 'you' is the same now as when you were eighteen or eight? What is this unchanging self? It is the witness of your ever-changing appearance: awareness.

We experience the knowledge of being awareness as the feeling 'I am'. If you examine your sense of 'I am" you will see that, although obvious, it is completely indefinable. There is nothing you can say about the 'I', except that it witnesses all the changing qualities of the person you appear to be. Most of us, however, habitually identify what we are with what we appear to be and believe 'I am a person'. As an experiment, let go of the idea 'I am a person' and discriminate the 'I' that you are from the person you appear to be.

When you dream at night you have two aspects of your identity. Your apparent nature is the person you appear to be in the dream. But your essential nature is awareness within which the dream is arising. Lucid living is being conscious that you also have TWO aspects to your identity right now. Your apparent nature is the person you appear to be, but your essential nature is awareness which is witnessing all you experience. Right now, just as when you are dreaming, you are awareness appearing to be a person.

When you are absorbed in a dream at night the experience can sometimes seem terrifying 'real', because you believe yourself to be your dream-persona wrestling with your dream-dramas, and you are unconscious of the fact that you are the dreamer. In the same way when you are engrossed in the experience of living, life seems very 'real', because you identify with your life-persona wrestling with your life-dramas, and you are unconscious of the fact that you are awareness.

If you become conscious of your essential nature as awareness, however, your appreciation of reality will be profoundly transformed. You will see that the person you appear to be is not your essential nature. It is what the ancient Gnostics call your eidolon. An 'image' or 'appearance'. It is your apparent nature within the life-dream. If you recognize this you will understand why Plotinus teaches:

"Those who identify the body with real being are like dreamers who mistake figments of their sleeping vision for reality."

Excerpt from page 150

Some spiritual traditions, however, teach that to wake up to ONEness we have to eradicate our individuality. This common misunderstanding arises from either/or thinking and is resolved by adopting a both/and perspective. Endarkenment is being conscious of only one pole of our dual nature. The solution is not to identify with only the other pole instead. It is consciously embracing BOTH our shared essential nature as awareness and our individual apparent nature as a person in the world.

Either/or spiritual traditions, however, teach that to wake up we need to extinguish our apparent nature in the void of awareness. But this isn't waking up. This is going to sleep! We do this every night when we merge with the oneness of unconscious awareness. Awakening is CONSCIOUSLY experiencing our essential nature. And it is only when we appear to be a person in the life-dream that we are conscious, so it is only by having an apparent nature that it is possible to ALSO become conscious of our essential nature as awareness.

According to either/or spiritual traditions, if we become enlightened we will never have to reincarnate again and can finally escape this horrible business of being human. But this pious distaste for life is not lucid living. When we dream lucidly we don't stop dreaming, we simply start dreaming consciously. In the same way, when we live lucidly we don't stop appearing to be an individual person in the world, we simply start living consciously.

It is fashionable in spiritual circles, however to believe that to become 'enlightened' we must destroy our 'ego'. The word ego is used by different people to mean different things, which is the source of much confusion. If the word ego is used to signify the matrix of negative personal habits which keep us unconscious in the life-dream, then the ego is indeed something which stands in the way of our awakening. It is a psychic knot we need to untie. But often the word ego is used to signify our individuality generally. In this case the ego is not something to destroy, but something to emancipate from its illusionary isolation, so that we experience our individual identity as a part of the greater whole.

Awakening is not eradicating our personality and living a bland, boring existence as some sort of saintly zombie. Awakening is consciously being all that we are and having fun as a person in the life-dream, free from debilitating fear and isolation. Awakening doesn't diminish our individuality. It enhances and fulfills it. In this sense, lucid living is the celebration of the ego, not it's destruction. But this celebration of our individuality is possible because we have transformed ourselves from an isolated self into an integrated self.

There is a feeling of dissatisfaction which motivates us to awaken. We feel there must be more to life than the anxiety and numbness we experience in the endarkened state. And there is. Much more. But because we presume we know what it is to be a person in the world, we think we must reject this and look elsewhere for what we are seeking. But actually our present experience of appearing to be a person contains everything we are looking for, if we can wake up and see it for what it is. And enjoy it for what it is. That's enlivenment. *(Revealer note: to be RESURRECTED from the dead).
*
In spiritual circles there is much talk of fully 'enlightened' sages who have achieved enlightenment, which as seen as seen as the ultimate goal of existence. If 'enlightenment' is taken to mean ceasing to identify exclusively with our apparent nature, then it is something that we can achieve once and for all. It is possible to become conscious of our essential nature so profoundly that we never exclusively identify with our apparent nature again. But this is not the end of the story. It is just when it starts to get interesting, because we have finally discovered how to really love the experience of living. Enlightenment is the end of endarkenment and the beginning of enlivenment.

http://thepythia.proboards22.com/index.cgi?board=esoteric&action=display&thread=1157240218&page=2
book excerpts are taken from The Pythia?s Tripod

an esoteric discussion site

[Summer Wine]

http://www.amazon.ca/Techgnosis-Myth-Magic-Mysticism-Information/dp/1852427728

Product Description

From Amazon.com

The gap between the technological mentality and the mystical outlook may not be as great as it seems. Erik Davis looks at modern information technology--and much previous technology--to reveal how much of it has roots in spiritual attitudes. Furthermore, he explores how those who embrace each new technological advance often do so with designs and expectations stemming from religious sensibilities. In doing so, Davis both compares and contrasts the scientific attitude that we can know reality technologically and the Gnostic idea of developing ultimate understanding. Although organized into reasonable chapters, there's a strong stream-of-consciousness component to Davis's writing. His expositions may run, for example, from information theory to the nebulous nature of Gnosticism to the philosophical problem of evil-?all in just a few pages. It's as if there are so many connections to make that Davis's prose has to run back and forth across time and space drawing the lines. But the result, rather than being chaotic, is a lively interplay of wide-ranging ideas. His style is equally lively and generally engaging--if sometimes straying into the hip. In the end, he succeeds in showing the spiritual side of what some may see as cold, technological thought. --Elizabeth Lewis --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
In the new millennium, will we drop our messy bodies and upload our mindsAand soulsAinto tidy android containers? Why not, argues Davis, a Wired contributor whose hip, erudite first book argues for the survival of a kind of gnostic mysticism in the age of information technology, carried over from the specifically Christian movement of late antiquity. Davis marshals an impressive, even exhausting, amount of evidence from Eastern and Western literature, history, philosophy, scripture and popular culture to support his sometimes opaque position on the matter of technology's impact on human spirituality and vice versa. In wave after wave of hybrid vocabulary ("mythinformation," "netaphysician," "cyberdelia," etc.), he offers a dizzying implosion of simulated hypertext, leaping from an authentic Gnostic poem to a '60s rock concert to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook to the latest cultic catastrophe. This deluge of information and theory manages to be quite entertaining ("Already in Homer, Hermes is a multitasking character"), but, ultimately, readers may be unsure whether to applaud Davis's conclusion that the phallic vector of technological development has been supplanted by a womblike matrix. But it's not always the destination that matters, and readers who hang on will find that surfing Davis's datastream makes for an exhilarating ride.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

This book just makes me wonder what is going to happen when computers do really go "quantum". I think it might be magical!

[Kephra]

And then again, it might make Battlestar Galactica a reality.  It will be interesting!

[Xaos]

BSG does do a wonderful job at taking todays social/political ideals and problems and putting them into a very interesting perspective I think. However if anything like the Cylons are brought into being I think I may have to go live on another planet by myself haha.

[Xaos]

This is probably a must have for a lot of people.

http://processmediainc.com/press/mini_sites/getting_out/

Many people are thinking about it.
This book shows how it?s done.

Whether you find the government oppressive, the economy on a devastating course, or if you simply want adventure, you?re not alone. Over 300,000 Americans emigrate each year.
Getting Out walks you through the world of the expat: the reasons, the rules, the resources, the tricks of the trade, along with compelling stories and expertise from expatriate Americans on every continent.

Getting Out shows you where you can most easily gain residence and citizenship, where can you live for a fraction of the cost of where you?re living now, and what countries would be most compatible with your lifestyle, gender, age, or political beliefs.
Chapters Included:

    * Visas, Residency, and Work Permits
    * Foreign Citizenship and How to Get It
    * Work and Study Options Abroad
    * Choosing a Country: How Do They Stack Up?
    * The Top 50 Expat Meccas
    * Doing It: How to Begin, What?s Involved, and Where to Turn
    * Web Resources

Mark Ehrman is a frequent traveler and freelance writer whose work regularly appears in the Los Angeles Times, Playboy, Travel and Leisure, and numerous travel magazines and city guidebooks. By the time you read this, he will be living in Berlin.

5 1/4 x 8 1/5 in, 360 Pages, ISBN 0-9760822-7-6, $16.95

[Summer Wine]

Dang it I forgot to post the link, but this is a book by Philip Gardiner called "The Shining Ones". I am intrigued because supposedly the author has written hidden codes within the narrative, that I guess help's one figure out who these Shining Ones are.

He also has a new release out entitled The Key to Soloman's Temple which also has a hidden code in the narrative.

Now reading the reviews, one comes across a lot of disgruntled people who say it is all just a gimmick to sell books, but there are also many who say that they have broken this secret code and that many mysteries are revealed.

I am just kinda flabbergasted I guess would be the word, that ALL this huge amount of information is flooding us now at this time, right before 2012. Almost like we are being left clues and secret codes to break open our consciousness in some way. In some way to entice US to become "Shining Ones".



Book Description
The Shining Ones
Brief Overview
The book is about a worldwide secret priesthood, who date as far back as 5000 years before Christ, and who have formed the modern world. All religions, all ancient monuments and all governments, including Royal lineages, have their background in the Shining Ones.
Synopsis
With the coming of the Millennium, interest in the spiritual aspect of life has risen, while at the same time, church attendance is at an all time low. Instead, ancient Earth-aligned beliefs, in the guise of the New Age movement, are enjoying a rise in popularity. That there should be a return to 'old ways' is not surprising when we discover that these beliefs are not so outdated after all, that the practises denounced as pagan actually form the basis of 'orthodox' religions such as Christianity.
Mankind is more in-tune with the Universe than we realise, and the cyclical nature of the Earth tells us that we are on the threshold of a new beginning. The world is waiting for a new Messiah to show us the way. Whether he or she comes from the religious arena, or the world of politics, one thing is sure: like the countless others who came before, this Messiah will have been nurtured, shaped and placed here by the Shining Ones.
The early 'Messiahs' were gurus and shamans who understood how the world worked, and used that knowledge to their advantage. Later, came the priest/kings, with their cyclical birth/death/resurrection rituals. From here, organised religions developed, and with that came the perfect way to control the masses.
The story of The Shining Ones is the real history of mankind. Every twist and turn on the pathway of human evolution was put there deliberately by this secret priesthood for a mysterious and extremely long-term goal. On our journey to uncover the Shining Ones we will learn that history, as we know it, is a lie. History is, as Justice Holmes said, 'what the people who won say it is.' It has been warped over vast periods of time to fit with each generation's idea of what is fact and what is truth.
We will see how ancient man and his religious beliefs were perfectly parallel to current scientific thought, the difference being only in the terms used. The following pattern is common to the majority of the world's religions.
Only God exists. He is supreme and is alone .The heavens and earth are formless and everything is in darkness and/or covered by primeval waters. Then there is light. Heaven and earth are split apart. The land is separated from the waters. Day and night are created with the emergence of the new sun. The land brings forth vegetation and eventually creatures. Birds and animals are created. Finally, man appears.

This pattern is also common to the current theories regarding the origin of species. It is completely in line with the big bang theory and yet seems to have emerged thousands of years ago.

The origin of life has always been a fundamental part of religion. The age of enlightenment of Darwin and his contemporaries drastically altered the religious outlook of the world. But if we look at the truth behind the origin of mankind, we will see that Darwin was only 'discovering' what was already known, that this age of enlightenment was planned; it had to happen for the required changes to occur.

When we come to leave old religions behind, we are simply given a new one, more relevant to our age and to the political aims of the power brokers. But even the new belief systems are based upon the same old lies and the secret knowledge that we are supposedly too simple to understand.
Our belief systems, whether religious, scientific or political, have been manipulated by a secret and deadly group of individuals who have a history going back thousands of years. They have a name, they have a power base and they have a secret, locked away within their initiated few, which has major implications for the future of mankind. We will discover the secret and reveal it.

Once we decipher the Shining Ones' clues, we will see how the mysteries of the ancient and not so ancient world can now be solved, from megalithic standing stones, the Holy Grail and alchemy to the truth behind religion and our present political systems. We must forget the false interpretations of myth and religion we have heard so many times, and know them for what they really are: the secret language of the Shining Ones.

 See all Reviews

[Summer Wine]

Art of Darkness
At the heart of this novel is a metaphor for creative inspiration.

Reviewed by Ron Charles
Sunday, October 29, 2006; Page BW03

LISEY'S STORY

A Novel
 
Admit it: You've been a horrible snob about Stephen King. You've rolled your eyes at passengers on the Metro reading Pet Sematary. You've told your son to put down Salem's Lot and get a real book. When King won a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Foundation, you gleefully quoted Harold Bloom's crack about this new "low in the shocking process of dumbing down our cultural life."

Well, suck it up. Even that faint praise about how you can appreciate him for being good at "what he does" isn't going to cut it anymore. With Lisey's Story, King has crashed the exclusive party of literary fiction, and he'll be no easier to ignore than Carrie at the prom. His new novel is an audacious meditation on the creative process and a remarkable intersection of the different strains of his talent: the sensitivity of his autobiographical essays, the insight of his critical commentary, the suspense of his short stories and the psychological terror of his novels. (And yes, a few hairy monsters.) They're all evoked here in this moving story about the widow of a famous writer trying to lay her grief to rest.

King claims in an afterword that this character -- Lisey -- is not based on his wife, but there's no denying who the famous writer is, and King fanatics will pounce on these personal details like Cujo on a bucket of chicken wings. The story opens two years after the death of Scott Landon, a prolific horror writer almost as popular as King but more critically acclaimed. For months, Lisey has been hounded for access to Scott's papers by "the collectors and the academics who maintained their positions in large part by examining the literary equivalent of navel-lint in each other's abstruse journals; ambitious, overeducated goofs who had lost touch with what books and reading were actually about and could be content to go on spinning straw into footnoted fool's gold for decades on end." (Take that, Dr. Bloom!)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/26/AR2006102601261.html

[Summer Wine]

http://www.amazon.com/Three-Magic-Words-Uell-Andersen/dp/0879801654

(ha ha thank you universe, mentioned my desire to understand the magic of three and look what pops up! never underestimate your power)

You Already Know those Three Magic Words ...... , September 23, 2005
Reviewer: Stan Evenson (Sunny San Diego) - See all my reviews
     
..... but most people are too afraid of the possibility of them REALLY BEing True!

First written in 1954 (which BTW was a wonderful year for Wizards:-) Three Magic Words is proof that New Age didn't start in the 60 or 70s or 80s or 90s. In fact, New Age is just the concept we place on time to make our newest "discoveries" seem relevant to our Now. Some of the absolute BEST New Age stuff has been around for millennia, showing a new face every so often to make it more appealing to that Rebel in our Soul. With this book, US Anderson writes about Concepts and Ideas and Ideals and Truths as old as the Soul itself, and shares simple ways to place them into actionable relevance within our lives of the 20th and 21st Centuries.

As I look through my copy of Three Magic Words, I see lots of Yellow Highlighted sentences and paragraphs and sections. In fact, I see more than one or two entire pages highlighted in Yellow, with the really important pieces Highlighed in Green. and the REALLY Importanto Words and Ideas further Underlined.

As US Anderson says in this book ..... THOUGHT is the Only True Action. Thought is the elemental Start of any Creative Cycle.
If Thought is indeed the Elemental Action, then the Magic of these Three Words are absolutely essential for anyone interesed in Personal and Spiritual Growth.
of ourSelves, and of our Worlds!

[Summer Wine]

Ah but I do so love books. And wonderfully my children do too. I began reading to them when they were very little. Every single night we read a bedtime story. I think I can still recite Dr. Seuss books by heart And once they began to read on their own no more bedtime stories, sadly.

But then we began to talk to each other about the stories and introduce to each other whole other books and authors. I have always enjoyed reading what my kids were reading. And oh what a pleasure it is to have them read some of my most treasured books.

Here's two that I have in my in stack to read:

From my youngest daughter comes this -

His Dark Materials
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials

His Dark Materials is a trilogy of novels by the fantasy fiction author Philip Pullman, comprising Northern Lights (released as The Golden Compass in North America and published in 1995), The Subtle Knife (published in 1997) and The Amber Spyglass (published in 2000). The trilogy has also been published as a single-volume omnibus in the United Kingdom, titled simply "His Dark Materials".

The trilogy follows the coming of age of two main characters, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, as they wander through a multiverse of parallel universes and a backdrop of epic events. The story begins in Northern Lights with fantasy elements such as gyptians, witches, and armoured bears. As the trilogy progresses, it acquires allegorical layers of meaning, introducing a broad range of ideas from fields such as physics (especially quantum physics), philosophy (especially metaphysics, philosophy of religion and, arguably, a degree of hylopathism), and theology (especially biblical symbolism).

Although the series is marketed to young adults, the audience includes many adult readers. Pullman has specifically denied targeting the books at any particular age group[1].

The novels also draw heavily on gnostic ideas, and His Dark Materials has been a subject of controversy, especially with certain Christian groups. The verse from Paradise Lost in which the phrase "his dark materials" is used follows:

    ?Into this wilde Abyss,
    The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave,
    Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire,
    But all these in thir pregnant causes mix't
    Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
    Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain
    His dark materials to create more Worlds,
    Into this wilde Abyss the warie fiend
    Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while,
    Pondering his Voyage...

Some have called His Dark Materials the antithesis of The Chronicles of Narnia, the seven-book fantasy series by C. S. Lewis, although Pullman denies any conscious connection[2]. This image has been reinforced by Pullman making public statements accusing Lewis of being "blatantly racist" and "monumentally disparaging of women" in his novels[3].

And from my middle daughter this -

http://www.kingsolver.com/bookshelf/poisonwood_bible.asp
The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver

The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it--from garden seeds to Scripture--is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.

The novel is set against one of the most dramatic political chronicles of the twentieth century: the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium, the murder of its first elected prime minister, the CIA coup to install his replacement, and the insidious progress of a world economic order that robs the fledgling African nation of its autonomy. Against this backdrop, Orleanna Price reconstructs the story of her evangelist husband's part in the Western assault on Africa, a tale indelibly darkened by her own losses and unanswerable questions about her own culpability. Also narrating the story, by turns, are her four daughters--the self-centered, teenaged Rachel; shrewd adolescent twins Leah and Adah; and Ruth May, a prescient five-year-old. These sharply observant girls, who arrive in the Congo with racial preconceptions forged in 1950s Georgia, will be marked in surprisingly different ways by their father's intractable mission, and by Africa itself. Ultimately each must strike her own separate path to salvation. Their passionately intertwined stories become a compelling exploration of moral risk and personal responsibility.

Dancing between the dark comedy of human failings and the breathtaking possibilities of human hope, The Poisonwood Bible possesses all that has distinguished Barbara Kingsolver's previous work, and extends this beloved writer's vision to an entirely new level. Taking its place alongside the classic works of postcolonial literature, this ambitious novel establishes Kingsolver as one of the most thoughtful and daring of modern writers.

    "What we have here-with this new, mature, angry, heartbroken, expansive out-of-Africa Kingsolver-is at last our very own Lessing and our very own Gordimer."
    -The Nation