Inprint - New Books of interest by Jeanne Spiro

Spot of Grace: Remarkable Stories of How You Do Make a Difference by Dawna Markova, Ph.D. ( New World Library, $15.00, Paperback.)

What exactly is a spot of grace? According to Dawna Markova it is like a tiny shard of light that results from bringing the gift that only you can bring to the rest of the human community. This gift of the soul is what lights us up and gives life meaning. When we root into this place, we know how we matter, and even more we know how the world matters to us.

Spot of Grace is a collection of stories about moments when people did something very simple: asked a question in wonder, smiled from their heart, or risked a reach across the chasm of isolation so many of us experience, and made a profound difference in someone else’s life. It stems from Markova’s internet request for these stories about the people and moments that helped the contributors recognize that spot of grace in themselves. The stories touchingly balance the doom, gloom, and fear in today’s world, and act as an antidote to the sense that one life hardly matters in our chaotic world.

Markova tells us that we are often instrumental in important decisions or pivotal moments in other’s lives, without necessarily being aware of it. By sharing these stories, we foster a world in which we become refuge to each other. We help create a world where it’s possible for each of us to recognize that we can and do make a difference. It is possible to live a life of meaning and wholeness if we use the gifts of our soul on behalf of what we really care about.

As she did with her book Random Acts of Kindness, Markova is starting a revolution, one that asks us to acknowledge the spark in others and create a world in which each and every one of us feels the powerful force of love and support we felt when that one person saw our soul, and told us we mattered.

Western Herbs According to Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Practitioner’s Guide by Thomas Avery Garran. (Healing Arts Press, $50.00, Hardcover.)

The ever-growing number of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in the West has brought about an amalgamation of many styles of Chinese medicine and various other medical practices from around the world. This book addresses the increasing demand for knowledge of how to integrate plants from outside the standard Chinese materia medica into the fold of traditional Chinese medicine. It is an in-depth guide to Western herbs that is based exclusively on the theories, diagnoses, and treatments of traditional Chinese medicine and that harmonizes the unique terminology and theories of it with other botanical medicines.

The book contains 58 monographs, illustrated with full-color photographs, of herbs commonly used by Western herbalists. Each herb is grouped by the basic categorization for medicinals in Chinese medicine. The monographs detail the energetics, functions and indications, channels entered, dosage and preparation, and contraindications of each plant. Using his own clinical experience, Thomas Avery Garran also explains how to combine herbs to increase their effectiveness and how to use Western herbs to modify standard formulas used in everyday Chinese herbal medicine. An appendix of Western analogues for Chinese herbs further highlights forty Chinese medicinals that have related species growing in the West.

Forbidden Science: From Ancient Technologies to Free Energy edited by J. Douglas Kenyon. (Bear & Company, $18.00, Paperback.)

Forbidden Science reveals the cutting edge of New Science and shows how established science disallows inquiry that challenges the status quo—even when it produces verifiable results. Following the model of his bestselling Forbidden History and Forbidden Religion, J. Douglas Kenyon has assembled from his bimonthly journal, Atlantis Rising, material that explores science and technology that has been suppressed by the orthodox scientific community—from the true function of the Great Pyramid and the megaliths at Nabta Playa to Immanuel Velikovsky’s astronomical insights, free energy from apace, cold fusion, and Rupert Sheldrake’s research into telepathy and ESP.

Kenyon tells us there is an organized war going on in science between materialistic theory and anything that could be termed spiritual or metaphysical. For example, Masaru Emoto’s research into the energetics of water, although supported by photographic evidence, has been scoffed at by mainstream science because he has asserted that humans affect their surroundings with their thoughts. The materialism or absolute skepticism of the scientific establishment is detrimental to any scientific inquiry that thinks outside the box. This mentality is interested in preserving funding for its own projects, those that will not rock the establishment. From Tesla’s discovery of alternating current to Robert Schoch’s re-dating of the Sphinx, this book serves as a compelling introduction to the true history of alternative and New Science research.

Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir by Natalie Goldberg. (Free Press, $25.00, Hardcover.)

Twenty years ago Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, broke new ground in its approach to writing as a practice. Now, Old Friends from Far Away—her first book since to focus solely on writing—transforms the practice of writing memoir.

Old Friend from Far Away is a meditation on the capacity of the written word to remember the past, free us from any stifling effects it may have on our voice, and forever transform the way we think and write about ourselves and our lives. Through timed, associative, and meditative exercises, Goldberg guides us to the attentive state below discursive thinking in which we can re-discover and open forgotten doors of memory. It is written in her workshop style with its terse, demanding writing sprints that train the hand and mind to quicken their pace and give up conscious control. These exercises divert the eye from the obvious and redirect it to the tactile details we miss, the embarrassments we pass over, and the complication we overlook in the blur of everyday living.

Millions of Americans want to write about their lives. This is a roadmap for getting started and following through. With it we can gain a deeper understanding of our own minds, learn to connect with our senses to find the detail and truth that give our written words power and authenticity, and unfold the natural structure of the stories we carry within.

Eastern Wisdom for Your Soul: 111 Meditations for Everyday Enlightenment by Richard A. Singer, Jr. (Dreamweaver Press, $16.95, Paperback.)

Richard A. singer doesn’t claim to be a Guru or Sage. He doesn’t profess to be an expert on Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, or any other structured religion. He has, however, found a path to enlightenment, and gained immense peace and tranquility through the personal study and daily practice of Eastern wisdom.

In Eastern Wisdom for Your Soul, Singer introduces Western spiritual seekers to this all-inclusive system of thinking and its life-transforming potential. Keeping his style down-to-earth and dogma-free, he presents a collection of diverse teachings on universal truths contained in the philosophies of the East. Without advocating any particular religious practice, he provides specific steps for attaining profound awareness of everything and everyone, including yourself, and enjoying unprecedented fulfillment and bliss.

Singer explains the difference between living through your ego and being connected with the flow of the universal source of energy. He supplies meditations that can be applied to your daily life, advice on how to uncover the ultimate truth of reality, and ways to recognize and live in the moment of being right here, right now. Eastern Wisdom for Your Soul helps you live the life you’ve always wanted to live, one without regrets, filled with happiness and joy, one that enables you to transcend the ego and live as one with the Universe.

Shift: Change Your Words, Change Your World by Janet Smith Warfield. (Word Sculptures Publishing, $19.95, Hardcover.)

A cosmic, planet-transforming breakthrough is emerging. Can you feel it? Can you hear it in the words people speak? We can hardly keep pace with the physical changes in our lives: iPods, DVDs, cancer cures, laser surgery, internet options. More important, however, are the massive mental changes that are beginning to manifest.

Are you part of this human consciousness shift? Of course. But if you’d like to shift with ease and grace, rather than with struggle and turmoil, you might want to read this book and play with it. Shift is a creative tool for expanding consciousness. Through thought-provoking questions, stories, illustrations, poetry, quotations, optical illusions and diagrams, it draws out new ways of thinking about old challenges. Its purpose is to produce powerful peace on the planet, one person at a time—not through rigid control, but through self-knowledge, awareness, and understanding.

Shift is not for the faint of heart. If you’re looking for pat answers and authoritarian security, you won’t find them here. If you’re a curious, risk-taking problem-solver who wants to enhance your life and create harmony on our planet, it might just be the thing.

Discover Your Psychic Type: Developing and Using Your Natural Intuition by Sherrie Dillard. (Llewellyn Publications, $14.95, Paperback.)

Are you a physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual intuitive. Take Sherrie Dillard’s quiz to find out. A professional psychic who also teaches intuition development at Duke University , she’s developed this unique typing system to help anyone uncover their natural psychic abilities.

Discover more about each type’s intuitive nature, personality, potential physical weaknesses, and more. There are guided meditations for each kind of intuitive, as well as exercises to hone your psychic skills. Stories from Dillard’s professional life illustrate the incredible power of intuition and its connections to the spirit world, inner wisdom, and your higher self.

From psychic protection to spirit guides to mystical states, Dillard offers guidance as you evolve toward the final destination of every psychic type: union with the divine.