Inprint - New Books of interest by Jeanne Spiro

The Way Back to Paradise: Restoring the Balance Between Magic and Reason by Joseph M. Felser, Ph.D. (Hampton Roads, $14.95, Paperback.)

Paradise is not the state of being in harmony, but the process of harmonizing. It is not a garden of bliss, but the bliss of gardening. It is about mending the self, restoring the balance, getting back into tune, bringing all our discarded and forgotten parts into the whole. That means paying attention to and honoring synchronicities, precognitive dreams, telepathic communications, visions, and all manner of experiences of psychic sensitivity.

Philosophy professor Joe Felser realized that what he calls the “decrepit, decaying cultural ideologies,” in exclusively favoring reason and logic, were excluding the equally real world of magic and psychic activities. He began to investigate, and the closer he looked, the more he found. He wasn’t ready, however, to abandon the world of reason and logic. Instead, he wanted to see if he could find a way to blend the two.

The result is this book. In The Way Back to Paradise, Felser takes us through his day, showing what everyday life looks like when you live that blend. His stories, both magical and reasonable, point the way toward a new kind of paradise, one suited to the twenty-first century.

A Rebirth for Christianity by Alvin Boyd Kuhn. (Quest Books, $14.95, Paperback.)

A Rebirth for Christianity has been a leader in the great shift in thought following the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Gnostic texts. In it, Alvin Boyd Kuhn challenges orthodox interpretations of the Bible to restore what he believes is the true Christian message. We must learn, he says, to view Jesus’ life allegorically instead of historically and to find behind the myths and symbols the mystical teachings they embody. He shows how the story of Jesus contains the key to knowing the Divine here and now. The spiritual vision Kuhn revives has immense transformative power: What we discover is the inner Christ—ever-present and ever-renewing.

Kuhn says that if Christianity will recognize that the time has come to join with the other great religious traditions and direct its vision to the reawakening of the divine spirit, the Christos in man, it may vindicate its right to call its message the true religion of humanity.

Lose Weight and Gain Money: A Program for Putting Your Life in Order by Vivien S. Schapera and Drew A. Logan. (Four Winds Press, $15, Paperback.)

Does your life need a spring cleaning? According to government statistics, 65% of Americans are overweight, with one in fifty being morbidly obese. The consumer debt problem is no better—the average rate of personal saving in the early nineties was just six percent and is less than one half percent today. Personal bankruptcy is five times more common than it was in the 1980s, and today we have over two trillion dollars in personal debt. These problems have reached crisis proportions and it is time to break the cycle of overspending and overeating.

How to Lose Weight and Gain Money presents a systematic plan for making positive and lasting changes. While the title may sound sensational, the authors show seven links between weight and money and explain how to solve the problems associated with each of them once and for all.

The Color of Demons by Stephen Hawley Martin and David Nathan Martin. (Oaklea Press, $22.95, Hardcover.)

It’s the final weeks of a presidential campaign in the not too distant future. A Taliban-like group called the Free Fascists has come to power in Baghdad and has overrun the Middle East and much of Eastern Europe. Candidates who bear remarkable resemblances to Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice are running neck and neck in the polls. At the center of the campaign action, but at opposite ends of the political spectrum, are two compelling individuals. She is the chief strategist for the liberal senator; he is the chief strategist for the hawkish former Secretary of State. Much to their discomfort, they must bury their differences and come together when it becomes apparent that one of their candidates is under control of the Free Fascists, who are wielding a powerful paranormal phenomenon in orchestrating events. The stakes are enormous, the clock is ticking, and nothing less than the fate of western civilization is at stake. Will they succeed or will the world be plunged into a new dark age? Read this novel and find out.

Touched by Fire: The Ongoing Journey of a Spiritual Seeker by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Ph.D. (Himalayan Institute Press, $16.95, Paperback.)

When was the last time you felt at peace? You may have a hard time answering that question. It’s not always easy to hear the small voice over the cacophony of ringing cell phones, the constant blare of TV, and the discordant honks and curses of rush hour. This autobiography of Pandit Rajmani Tigunait provides a glimpse of an entirely different way of life.

Touched by Fire follows this extraordinary man on a journey from his birthplace in India to his current home as spiritual head of the Himalayan Institute. It is not a “how to” guide to enlightenment nor is it a call to any particular religious tradition. But in its description of his life—the years of disciplined study and the struggle to master emotions—some of the keys are revealed. Its ultimate message, that we’re all the same beneath our cultural, religious, and political facades, is needed in our world of tumult and tears. It is a practical guide for seekers on the path of truth and light.

Master of the Jinn: A Sufi Novel by Irving Karchmar. (Bay Street Press, $13.99, Paperback.)

In English for the first time, here is a tale set on the path of the heart, both a mystical adventure and an eloquent portrayal of the Sufi way.

A seemingly chance discovery in the desert compels a modern-day Sufi Maser to send seven companions on a quest for the greatest treasure of the ancient world—King Solomon’s ring. It is the very same seal ring of a hundred legends, given to King Solomon by God to command those terrifying spirits of smokeless fire called the Jinn. But the quest has a strange effect on those chosen to go: visions enter their dreams, remembrances and tears fill their hearts, and mysteries abound; unearthly storms and unending night, a lost city, and demons of living fire. At last, the journey reveals not only the fate of the Jinn, but also the path of love and the infinite mercy of God.

Ruby by Mary Summer Rain. (Hampton Roads, $15.95, Paperback.)

This is Mary Summer Rain’s first novel in over a decade. In it, antiques dealer Sadie Brennan, fresh from the breakup of a long-term relationship, is called to her sister’s estate outside Chicago. She has no idea what she’s being pulled into, she’s there primarily to help her eight year old niece Savannah, who is in a trauma induced state of muteness. When she arrives, Sadie meets a strange homeless woman in rumpled, secondhand clothing. Together, she and Savanna seek to solve the puzzle that is Ruby.

This merry adventure of metaphysical awakening, led by an old woman whose identity and purpose is unclear, but who just may be something much more than she appears, touches the heart and soul. It shows that the possibilities in the universe are endless, the divine is all around us, and God could appear as anyone we meet.