Breakthrough Books



		by June Rouse

Do you recall the pleasure and surprise you felt as you studied another language and detected a slant on life that was different from what you were used to? Based on difference in sound and syntax and the subtle shadings of words and terms, your awareness was stretched into a new dimension.

If you love discovery that leads you into a new way of looking at the world, rest assured that each of this month's books fits this category.

If you have already dipped into the series of books by Monty Joynes, there's little doubt that you already admire his knowledge of the cultures and challenges of life in the Sangre de Christo area of New Mexico. The series begins with Naked into the Night, leads into Lost in Las Vegas and Save the Good Seed and presently, to our enthusiasm, culminates in the powerful DEAD WATER RITES.

Even though I read the preceding books, Joynes' summary of the doings of Winn Conover (also known as Booker and Anglo and Chief Old Woman's Son) held my interest. Through the adventurers of this stalwart protagonist, you will follow the metamorphosis of the human heart . . . and make an in-depth acquaintance of a number of other remarkably well-drawn characters. Ample rewards await you: in Joynes' research of the peoples and ethics and ecology of the area, he leaves few stones unturned.

(Click on the imageabove to order book)

For the hard-working small farmers of the Southwest, water is quite literally the life blood of a land they have dedicated their lives to for centuries of recalled family toil. With great sensitivity, Monty Joynes enters the secret and sacred worlds of a Pueblo tribal village and of Hispano farmers and their families. In painting a vibrant picture of the right to clean, living water, he doesn't make short shrift of the double-speak land developers; they hope to trick area residents by hiding expected acquisition of area water rights behind the prospect of a highly profitable casino. Their conversations include the kind of reasoning we've all grown accustomed to. The integrity of those who discern the motives of the developers comes into play behind the scenes.
Chapters in Dead Water Rites are short and, embellished by the author's remarkably poetic mastery of the language, pack an ecological punch. If you haven't yet given your heart to the watery bounties of the earth, you'll discover ample reason to. I'll keep the culminating chapter of the meeting in the dusty courthouse room between the developers and the members of tribal and Hispano councils a secret . . . no question about it, what happens there will be a surprise.

Joynes has our respect and thanks as an explorer who has gained the esteem of indigenous peoples. In Dead Water Rites, he speaks from the heart of the mystical secrets of humankind and the bounties of the earth.

(278 pages, $13.95, Hampton Roads.)

Raise your hand if, years ago when you read Ostrander's and Schroeder's Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, an in-your-face riddle occurred to you: How could it be that a totalitarian political regime was doing important research in a subject that is in a contradiction to personal repression? Here is your answer in TAUSHA: The Life and Teachings of a Russian Mystic by Ilia Beliaev who experienced the answers firsthand.

When Beliaev was a young resident of St. Petersburg, Russia, he met and began his studies with the mystic Tausha, an equally young man whose knowledge, teachings and uses of the occult were prodigious. It is not Tausha's intent to maneuver those he teaches into any particular tradition, but to enable them to perceive the unseen for themselves through their own experiences.

(Click on the imageabove to order book)

Tausha's efforts to bring about the next level of humankind's spiritual liberation brought him into direct conflict with the Soviet authorities, the KGB. As Stephen Larsen (author of The Shaman's Doorway) writes in the Foreword, "...this book is a genuine autobiographical account of the wonders and terrors of a spiritual quest taking place under a curse that has befallen the entire country like a curse in a fairytale." Indeed, part of the story indelibly imprints on the reader the workings of the parapsychological laboratories where the KGB restrained gifted psychics in order to further political purposes.
A lifestyle of keeping a step ahead of the KGB takes Tausha and Beliaev, often along with other disciples, into the exotic places of Russia, a travelogue of the sacred and offbeat. If you've ever wanted to see such places as Armenia, the White Sea or the mountains where hermits are revered, or Georgia, Altai, Pamir, Riga, Tashkent . . . names that inspire Western wonder, you will see them through Beliaev's eyes.

Part of the charm and fascination of Tausha is the personality of the writer, Ilia Beliaev (Bel-EE-ah-ev), whose spiritual imperative leads him into the most remarkable situations, both fearsomely intimidating and awe-inspiringly radiant. As he continues to learn, through events and places, the underlying significance of protection and of beauty, he offers the reader impressive magical and meditative techniques for acquiring mastery of his or her own life.

(174 pages, $14.95, Station Hill.)

While you may be familiar with the phrase "the wisdom of the body," its definition may be elusive. In SENSES WIDE OPEN: The Art and Practice of Living in Your Body, Johanna Putnoi points out that a world of insight is connected with how aware we are of the responses of our body. As we read her words and practice the deceptively simple exercises (you don't have to put the book down), we are wakened to what most of us have forgotten about the wondrous possibilities of our body.
"We are taught to suppress our natural instinctive responsiveness and in the process we learn not to tell the truth, not to trust our instincts, not to touch." As Putnoi's words and exercises flow, we're reminded in detail of different ways to use our eyes, our hearing, our senses of smell and taste and touch. Awareness of chronic unnatural patterns of muscular holding (melancholy, compliance, emotional self

(Click on the imageabove to order book)

indulgence, "going & going & going," aggression) tips us off to how we experience life. How we do and don't breathe, the messages that can be read in the production of sound (being aware of your voice) . . . observing all these and more leads us to recognize how we really are.
The section on The Art and Practice of Living in Your Body offers Joanna Putnoi's wise words about creating the body-mind-heart connection. It gives insight about why we don't listen to our body, about "gut instinct" and about the heart center: how we feel about the world. With Senses Wide Open can enable the reader to recognize when he or she is or isn't living in the present and offers a splendid promise: "At home in our bodies, at home on the planet, we are at rest. This gives us the wonderful opportunity to go deeper into the place of essence that connects us to each and every being. This is a place where we no longer worry what anyone thinks about us, a place where we can just be."

(165 pages, $14.95, Ulysses Press.)



Do you recall the pleasure and surprise you felt as you studied another language and detected a slant on life that was different from what you were used to? Based on difference in sound and syntax and the subtle shadings of words and terms, your awareness was stretched into a new dimension. If you love discovery that leads you into a new way of looking at the world, rest assured that each of this month's books fits this category.

	If you have already dipped into the series of books by Monty Joynes, there's little doubt that you already admire his knowledge of the cultures and challenges of life in the Sangre de Christo area of New Mexico. The series begins with Naked into the Night, leads into Lost in Las Vegas and Save the Good Seed and presently, to our enthusiasm, culminates in the powerful DEAD WATER RITES. Even though I read the preceding books, Joynes' summary of the doings of Winn Conover (also known as Booker and Anglo and Chief Old Woman's Son) held my interest. Through the adventurers of this stalwart protagonist, you will follow the metamorphosis of the human heart . . . and make an in-depth acquaintance of a number of other remarkably well-drawn characters. Ample rewards await you: in Joynes' research of the peoples and ethics and ecology of the area, he leaves few stones unturned.
(Click on the imageabove to order book)
For the hard-working small farmers of the Southwest, water is quite literally the life blood of a land they have dedicated their lives to for centuries of recalled family toil. With great sensitivity, Monty Joynes enters the secret and sacred worlds of a Pueblo tribal village and of Hispano farmers and their families. In painting a vibrant picture of the right to clean, living water, he doesn't make short shrift of the double-speak land developers; they hope to trick area residents by hiding expected acquisition of area water rights behind the prospect of a highly profitable casino. Their conversations include the kind of reasoning we've all grown accustomed to. The integrity of those who discern the motives of the developers comes into play behind the scenes. Chapters in Dead Water Rites are short and, embellished by the author's remarkably poetic mastery of the language, pack an ecological punch. If you haven't yet given your heart to the watery bounties of the earth, you'll discover ample reason to. I'll keep the culminating chapter of the meeting in the dusty courthouse room between the developers and the members of tribal and Hispano councils a secret . . . no question about it, what happens there will be a surprise. Joynes has our respect and thanks as an explorer who has gained the esteem of indigenous peoples. In Dead Water Rites, he speaks from the heart of the mystical secrets of humankind and the bounties of the earth. (278 pages, $13.95, Hampton Roads.)

Raise your hand if, years ago when you read Ostrander's and Schroeder's Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, an in-your-face riddle occurred to you: How could it be that a totalitarian political regime was doing important research in a subject that is in a contradiction to personal repression? Here is your answer in TAUSHA: The Life and Teachings of a Russian Mystic by Ilia Beliaev who experienced the answers firsthand. When Beliaev was a young resident of St. Petersburg, Russia, he met and began his studies with the mystic Tausha, an equally young man whose knowledge, teachings and uses of the occult were prodigious. It is not Tausha's intent to maneuver those he teaches into any particular tradition, but to enable them to perceive the unseen for themselves through their own experiences.
		(Click on the imageabove to order book)
Tausha's efforts to bring about the next level of humankind's spiritual liberation brought him into direct conflict with the Soviet authorities, the KGB. As Stephen Larsen (author of The Shaman's Doorway) writes in the Foreword, "...this book is a genuine autobiographical account of the wonders and terrors of a spiritual quest taking place under a curse that has befallen the entire country like a curse in a fairytale." Indeed, part of the story indelibly imprints on the reader the workings of the parapsychological laboratories where the KGB restrained gifted psychics in order to further political purposes. A lifestyle of keeping a step ahead of the KGB takes Tausha and Beliaev, often along with other disciples, into the exotic places of Russia, a travelogue of the sacred and offbeat. If you've ever wanted to see such places as Armenia, the White Sea or the mountains where hermits are revered, or Georgia, Altai, Pamir, Riga, Tashkent . . . names that inspire Western wonder, you will see them through Beliaev's eyes. Part of the charm and fascination of Tausha is the personality of the writer, Ilia Beliaev (Bel-EE-ah-ev), whose spiritual imperative leads him into the most remarkable situations, both fearsomely intimidating and awe-inspiringly radiant. As he continues to learn, through events and places, the underlying significance of protection and of beauty, he offers the reader impressive magical and meditative techniques for acquiring mastery of his or her own life. (174 pages, $14.95, Station Hill.)

	While you may be familiar with the phrase "the wisdom of the body," its definition may be elusive. In SENSES WIDE OPEN: The Art and Practice of Living in Your Body, Johanna Putnoi points out that a world of insight is connected with how aware we are of the responses of our body. As we read her words and practice the deceptively simple exercises (you don't have to put the book down), we are wakened to what most of us have forgotten about the wondrous possibilities of our body. "We are taught to suppress our natural instinctive responsiveness and in the process we learn not to tell the truth, not to trust our instincts, not to touch." As Putnoi's words and exercises flow, we're reminded in detail of different ways to use our eyes, our hearing, our senses of smell and taste and touch. Awareness of chronic unnatural patterns of muscular holding (melancholy, compliance, emotional self
(Click on the imageabove to order book)
indulgence, "going & going & going," aggression) tips us off to how we experience life. How we do and don't breathe, the messages that can be read in the production of sound (being aware of your voice) . . . observing all these and more leads us to recognize how we really are. The section on The Art and Practice of Living in Your Body offers Joanna Putnoi's wise words about creating the body-mind-heart connection. It gives insight about why we don't listen to our body, about "gut instinct" and about the heart center: how we feel about the world. With Senses Wide Open can enable the reader to recognize when he or she is or isn't living in the present and offers a splendid promise: "At home in our bodies, at home on the planet, we are at rest. This gives us the wonderful opportunity to go deeper into the place of essence that connects us to each and every being. This is a place where we no longer worry what anyone thinks about us, a place where we can just be." (165 pages, $14.95, Ulysses Press.)