Eisenman,
Robert. James the Brother of Jesus.
Penguin Books, NYC, 1997. [Eisenman
introduces startling, meticulously detailed documentation about the
identity of James -- the brother of Jesus. The
description from the back cover of the book says,
"Drawing on long-overlooked early Church texts and the Dead Sea
Scrolls, Eisenman reveals in this groundbreaking exploration that James, not Peter,
was the real successor to the movement we now call
"Christianity." In an argument with enormous
implications, Eisenman identifies Paul as deeply compromised by Roman
contacts [not to mention he is from the family of the Herods]. James is presented as not simply the leader of
Christianity of his day, but the popular Jewish leader of his time,
whose death triggered the Uprising against Rome -- a fact that creative
rewriting of early Church documents has obscured. Eisenman reveals
that characters such as "Judas Iscariot" and "the Apostle
James" did not exist as such. In delineating the deliberate
falsifications in New Testament documents, Eisenman shows how -- as
James was written out -- anti-Semitism was written in. By rescuing
James from the oblivion into which he was cast, the final conclusion of
James the Brother of Jesus is, ... who and whatever James was, so was
Jesus."
Some of the comments in the beginning of the book begin to give
you a hint of just how important is this text. A. Auswaks of the Jerusalem
Post remarks, "A tremendous work of historical scholarship ...
Expert ... Unparalleled ... Great ... This book will live and live and
live." The Toronto Globe: "Robert
Eisenman's James the Brother of Jesus is less a book than an
irresistible force. Once opened ... [it] bulldozes your
prejudices, flattens your objections, elbows aside your
counter-arguments, convinces you." R. Price, editor of Journal
of Higher Criticism, says, "Mind-blowing ... A masterpiece ...
The breadth and detail of Eisenman's investigations are breathtaking, as
are its implications. Eisenman shows us how to crack the codes of
theological disinformation, to listen to the long-faded echoes, to find
handholds up what seemed an unsurmountable climb to a peak from which to
view a hitherto unseen landscape ... A Massive and profound
achievement." Neil Asher Silberman, author of The Hidden
Scrolls: "Professor Robert Eisenman speaks with the
fervor of a true believer who hasa been shown a revelation of stunning
splendor ... [his] words, theories, and personal style have all made a
deep impression on me ... A tour de force ... magnificent."
And the Los Angeles Times: "Stirs up a furor."]
Eisenman,
Robert. The Dead Sea Scrolls
Uncovered. ..?.
[This was the man who was most instrumental in finally freeing the Dead
Sea Scrolls from a small religious elite, who withheld these documents
for over four decades from open, scholarly access, scrutiny, and
translation. Interestingly, this material, which many imagine is
more about Jewish history and philosophy, provides the best insight to
date into the origin of Christianity!]
Elam,
Jennifer. Dancing with God through
the Storm: Mysticism and Mental Illness.
[publishing info?]
Eliade,
Mircea. Shamanism: Archaic
Techniques of Ecstasy. Pantheon,
New York, 1964.
Eliade,
Mircea. The Sacred and the
Profane: The Nature of Religion.
Harcourt Brace & Co., San Diego, NY, London, 1959, 1987 (originally
Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH, 1957).
Emoto, Masaru [David A.
Thayne, Translator]. The
Hidden Messages in Water. Beyond
Words, Hillsboro, OR, 2004 [originally published in Japanese (title:
Mizu Wa Kotaw Wo
Shitteiru) by Sunmark
Pub., Tokyo, 2001].
Erickson, Milton.
My
Voice Will Go With You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson,
MD. W.
W. Norton & Co., NYC, 1991 [reprint].
Farr, Signey Saylor.
What Tom Sawyer Learned from Dying.
Hampton Roads, Charlottesville, VA, 1993.
Fechner, Gustav Theodor
[Translated
from the German by Mary C. Wadsworth; Introduction by William
James].
The Little Book of Life After Death.
____?, Boston, 1904. [Some
of you may remember this man as something like the "father of
modern psychology," from your Psychology 101 class. But I can
fairly assure you, the good professor who taught your class did not,
could not tell you about the far more colorful and interesting aspects
of this man's ideas and experiential insights! I came across a book
by Fechner many years ago [I don't believe it was this one] and found it
totally fascinating, much as the reviewer below felt about this
book. It deeply impressed me, and I was outraged by what modern education hadn't bothered to
mention about him! Here is a brief description of this titled book from
amazon.com:
|
One
of the most fascinating minds and personalities in the history
of science, Fechner brought his "patient observation and
daring imagination" to bear upon the problem of death, and,
characteristically, he had something rather different to say.
Uniting both Oriental and Occidental concepts, Fechner outlined
what is probably the first developmental approach to human
identity and death, providing a philosophical psychology of
self-fulfillment-more than a century in advance of other efforts
in this direction-that pivots around the central fact of death.
Although the scope and theme of this book could hardly be more
ambitious, the clarity and natural lyricism of the prose is a
continuing delight. Although it is questionable whether any
human mind can fathom and integrate the cosmic and the personal,
Fechner seems especially well qualified for such an attempt, and
this work-totally unlike the common run of
"inspirational" life-after-death tracts-invites one to
reflect upon the relationship between confronting death and
becoming a fully alive person.] |
The story I recall may give you more insight about this fellow,
and it went something like this: Fechner became seriously ill, and one consequence was his
rapid loss of eyesight. The good doctor of his day completely
bandaged his eyes so no light could get in. In this state Fechner
lived for months. At the appointed hour, while he was out in his
garden on a glorious spring day with everything but the birdbath
blooming, the last of the bandages were slowly removed. When
finally he could focus his eyes enough to see his surroundings, what blazed before him was totally
extraordinary! Everything was alive with moving, dancing, pulsing,
vibrant light! Colors, some of which do not even exist in the physical
world, and patterns of living light suffused everything, as if the
physical was merely pinned, like a picture on a bulletin board, on the
underlying reality of Life-Writ-Large! His eyes, in complete
darkness for so long, seemed to have acquired a super-sensitivity one could not
possibly imagine until struck by experience such as he had that
day. This naturally had a profound impact on his life.
[By the way, Johann W. von Goethe purposefully tried this himself, and
had an almost identical experience.]
At least others recognized in this man, through various ideas and
accomplishments, enough to remember him to the best of their
interpretive historical considerations as "the father of
modern psychology." The way he has been
"remembered" to us generations later in contemporary
educational literature is a superlative
example of what we have customarily done with those who tried to
communicate things that do not fit into current cultural beliefs: that is, such enigmas are marginalized, suppressed, their
writings, etc., removed from public access and memory -- or butchered,
the discomfiting aspects just conveniently lopped off, sort of a mini
cultural lobotomy procedure. Ancient Egypt had its own
rendition of this. If a new pharaoh had something against a former
pharaoh, heshe would remove all possible traces of the previous pharaoh [e.g.,
Hatshepset and Akhenoten] from temples and statuary and thus from the
hearts and minds of the people, who after a generation or two would not
remember them. Sounds like human nature hasn't changed
a whole lot over the millennia!
With the rise of modern psychology a similar tract was taken.
People who saw or heard things others did not were labeled
pathologically compromised -- not right in their noggins. Considering this important part of
Fechner's life and the fact that he had the courage or naiveté to
publish his experiences and insights of this nature, it's a small if not
large wonder that he came to our attention at all!
Fechner's life is
surely another example of the value of breadcrumbs!
Be sure to record such moments when your own being was deeply changed by
such an event, for you and for others, in anticipation of a more
enlightened world. Every crumb is a contribution to all of us and
our children's children's children..... And yes: that more
enlightened world IS coming.
In the ancient myth of Isis and Osiris, Typhon killed his brother Osiris
out of jealousy and greed. Isis was able to recover his body that
had been thrown into the Nile, but Typhon inflicted his will again and
cut Osiris' body into many parts. Much as Isis managed to collect
all the pieces of her slain beloved Osiris and give him a proper burial
and memorialize him with the help of the priests so that his story still
lives for us today, it is left to each of us to make the effort to
re-member the wholeness of those whose lives are stars in our
heavens. The inspiring star of Gustav Theodor Fechner is now
firmly fixed in mine!
And, innocently and not sometimes not so innocently, there is another
way to comprehend Fechner's story in relation to this ancient
myth. The disparity between what we commonly refer to today as
science and religion [[I much prefer to think in terms of science and
spirituality, which is truly where the merger between the two is
beginning to mend and merge!]] is much older even than the ancient
Greeks. The doctored up version of Dr. Fechner I recall from
Psychology 101 days is a perfect example of the pieces that need to be
reassembled for the whole picture to become available to us
again.
In other words, through reclaiming and openly making available the long
unclaimed, unacknowledged, secreted-away parts of ourselves; through our
mutual recognition of just how 'common' -- and important -- these
aspects of our lives are, we are together making-whole and healing our
global humanity. And we are thus, in Mellen
Thomas Benedict's
words, joining hands and walking out of hell together.]
Feinstein,
D., & Krippner, S. Personal Mythology.
Tarcher, Los Angeles
,
CA, 1988.
Fenwick, Peter and
Elizabeth. The Truth in the Light.
Berkley Books, New York, 1995.
Ferrucci,
Piero. Inevitable Grace: Breakthroughs in
the Lives of Great Men and Women: Guides to Your Self-Realization.
Tarcher, Los Angeles, CA, 1990)
Fezler, William.
Creative
Imagery: How to Visualize in All Five Senses.
Fireside, New York, 1989.
Fezler, William.
Imagery for Healing, Knowledge, and Power.
Simon & Schuster, NYC, 1990.
Flowers,
Betty Sue, Peter M. Senge, C. Otto
Scharmer, and Joseph Jaworski. Presence:
Human Purpose and the Field of the Future. Society
for Organizational Learning, ____?, 2004. [See
excellent review from
amazon.com, under author, Peter Senge.]
Foos-Graber,
Anya. Deathing: An
Intelligent Alternative for the Final Moments of Life.
Nicholas-Hays, Inc., York Beach, ME, 1989. [This
is a unique and empowering Great Work. Foos-Graber's understanding
and teaching, expressed in largely secular and universal terms, is one
of those natural, next-step revelations and teachings that over time
will grow to become a Humanity-wide wisdom and essential, yet highly
individualized practice. Deathing
is one of the most crucially important insights of all ages. What
a wondrous thing that this woman has so capably, elegantly, simply
brought this awareness to our time.]
Ford, Arthur.
Unknown But Known: My Adventure into the
Meditative Dimension. Harper
and Row, New York, 1968.
Forman, Linda.
Dreaming
in Real Time: The Shanti Shanti Story.
North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA, and Blue Halo Books, Sparks, NE,
2001.
Frank,
J. D., and Frank, J. B. Persuasion and
Healing (3rd ed.).
Johns
Hopkins, Baltimore
,
MD
, 1991.
Freeman,
M. Rewriting the Self.
Routledge, London, 1993.
Frankl, Victor.
Man's
Search for Meaning. Washington
Square Press, NYC, 1959 [revised and updated].
Gallenberger,
Joseph. Brothers Forever: An
Unexpected Journey Beyond Death.
Hampton Roads Pub., Charlottesville, VA, 1996.
Gallup,
Jr., George. Adventures
in Immortality. McGraw-Hill, NYC,
1982.
Garrett, Eileen J.
Many Voices: The Autobiography of a
Medium. G. P. Putnam's Sons,
New York, 1968.
Gaynor, Mitchell L.,
MD. The
Healing Power of Sound: Recovery from Life-Threatening Illness Using
Sound, Voice, and Music.
Shambhala, Boston,
2002.
Ghose,
Sisirkumar. Mystics as a Force for
Change. Theosophical Publishing
House, Wheaton, IL, 1977.
Gershom, Rabbi Yonassan.
Beyond the Ashes: Cases of
Reincarnation from the Holocaust.
ARE Press, Virginia Beach, VA, 1992.
Goethe,
Johann Wolfgang von. The
Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily.
Steinerbooks, New York, 1979. [An
early admirer, Thomas Carlyle, who published this excellent translation
in 1832, referred to this fascinating fable as "one of the
notabelist performances produced in the last 1,000 years!"
The Fairy Tale is an enjoyable read, but it is at the same time a most
subtle and complex story that has attracted many great minds to long
contemplation of its mythic meaning. According to Paul M. Allen,
who wrote the introduction to this book, Dr. Steiner "characterised
(sic) the Goethe Fairy Tale as the 'archetypal seed' which offers the
possibility of a new order of social life amongst humanity as a whole,
and described it as the foundation upon which he based his teaching
concerning the modern Science of Spirit, Anthroposophy."]
Goldsmith,
Joel S. A Parenthesis in Eternity.
Harper & Row, New York, 1963.
Goodman,
Sandy. Love Never Dies: A
Mother's Journey from Loss to Love.
Jodere Group, San Diego, CA, 2001.
Goswami, Amit [with
Richard E. Reed and Maggie Goswami]. The
Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World.
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York, 1995.
Grant, Robert J.
The Place We Call Home: Exploring the Soul's Existence after
Death. A. R. E. Press,
Virginia Beach, VA, 2000.
Greaves, Helen.
Testimony of Light. Neville
Spearman Publishers, Essex, England, [reprint from 1969, Churches'
Fellowship for Psychical & Spiritual Studies, England] 1991.
Greeley,
Andrew M. Ecstasy: A Way of
Knowing. Prentice-Hall, Englewood
Cliffs, NJ, 1974.
Green, Elmer, and
Green, Alice. Beyond
Biofeedback. Pocket
Books, NYC, 1977.
Greer, Steven M.
Hidden
Truth: Forbidden Knowledge.
Crossing Point, Afton, VA, 2006.
Gregory,
Anita.
The Strange Case
of Rudi Schneider.
Scarecrow
Press, Metuchen, NJ,
1985.
Grey, Margot.
Return
from Death: An Exploration of the Near-death Experience.
Arkana/Penguin,
London and NYC, 1985 and 1988.
Grof,
Stanislav and Christina. [Eds.] Spiritual
Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis.
Jeremy P. Tarcher / Putnam / Penguin, New York, 1989.
[From the back
cover:
A
NEW CONSCIOUSNESS READER. From Spiritual Emergency to Healing and
Rebirth: Increasing numbers of people involved in personal
transformation are experiencing spiritual emergencies -- crises, when
the process of growth and change becomes chaotic and overwhelming.
Individuals experiencing such episodes may feel that their sense of
identity is breaking down, that their old values no longer hold true,
and that the very ground beneath their personal realities is radically
shifting. In many cases, new realms of mystical and spiritual
experience enter their lives suddenly and dramatically, resulting in
fear and confusion. They may feel tremendous anxiety, have
difficulty coping with their daily lives, jobs, and relationships, and
may even fear for their own sanity.
Unfortunately, much of modern psychiatry has failed to distinguish these
episodes from mental illness. As a result, transformational crises
are often suppressed by routine psychiatric care, medication, and even
institutionalization.
However, there is a new perspective developing among many mental
health professionals and those studying spiritual development that
views such crises as transformative breakthroughs that can hold
tremendous potential for physical and emotional healing. When
understood and treated in a supportive manner, spiritual emergencies
can become gateways to higher levels of functioning and new ways of
being.
In this book, foremost psychologists, psychiatrists, and spiritual
teachers address the following questions: What is spiritual
emergency? What is the relationship between spirituality,
"madness," and healing? What forms does spiritual
emergency take? What are the pitfalls -- and promises -- of
spiritual practice? How can people in spiritual emergency be
assisted by family, friends, and professionals?
This groundbreaking work reveals that within the crisis of spiritual
emergency lies the promise of spiritual emergence and renewal.]
Grof,
Stanislav. The
Adventure of Self-Discovery: I : Dimensions of Consciousness : II : New
Perspectives in Psychotherapy (Suny Series in Transpersonal and
Humanist). State
University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 1988.
Grof,
Stanislav. Psychology
of the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research (Suny Series
in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology).
State University of New
York Press, Albany, NY, 2000.
Grof,
Stanislav. The
Ultimate Journey: Consciousness and the Mystery of Death.
Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Ben Lomond, CA, (Sept.)
2006.
Grof,
Stanislav (ed.). Human Survival and
Consciousness Evolution. SUNY Press,
New York
, 1988.
Guggenheim,
Bill and Judy. Hello From Heaven! A
new field of research ~ After-Death Communication ~ confirms that life
and love are eternal. Bantam, New York, 1995.
Guirdham, Arthur, MD.
The Cathars and Reincarnation: The
Record of a Past Life in 13th Century France.
Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton,
IL; Madras, India; London, England, 1970.
Guirdham, Arthur, MD.
A Foot In Both Worlds: A
Doctor’s Autobiography of Psychic Experience.
C. W. Daniel Co., London,
2004 [reissue from 1973].
Guirdham, Arthur, MD.
We Are One Another: A
Record of Group Reincarnation.
Neville Spearman/Jersey,
London, 1974.
