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- A MUST for Anyone with a Bad Body Image
- A Great Workbook!
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The Body Image Workbook: An 8-Step Program for Learning to Like Your Looks (New Harbinger Workbooks)
Thomas F. Cash, Ph.D.
Manufacturer: New Harbinger Publications
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Customer Reviews:
Great Book!.......2006-06-27
This is really a great book. If you don't like the way you look,have self-esteem issues, fears, or depression (all these may be caused by a poor body image), read this book.
Thomas Cash teaches you step by step how to overcome this crippling illusion and discover the beautiful person you are meant to be.
I would highly recommend this book.
Wow.......2006-04-26
I never thought that I would try using something like this workbook, but I'm glad that I purchased it. It's an easy book to read and understand and the exercises have been very helpful so far. It isn't for JUST people with weight issues, but people who are dissatisfied with their facial features, thinning hair, height, etc. Highly recommended for anyone with problems with any physical features.
A Body Image Wonderland.......2005-10-05
I have found this workbook to be very thorough in professionally addressing the issues of body image for a variety of people. It provides a positive reference tool to those who seek greater self-confidence, self-awareness, and self-esteem.
A MUST for Anyone with a Bad Body Image.......2005-08-02
I found this book to be one of the most helpful books I've read on overcoming body image issues. Everyone has body image issues to some extent. Others, like me, could have received many advanced degrees and done great things in the world had they successfully channeled bad body thoughts into something productive; like accepting oneself and learning to honor the body (and genetics) given to you. This book walks readers through a number of exercises designed to help first return to the core reasons (and identify humiliating public experiences) leading to a negative body image. The book then goes on to help the reader come to grips with their own expectations and realities surrounding their body image. My nutritionist is now "prescribing" this book to all of her patients. I highly recommend this book to anyone who struggles with never feeling fully comfortable in the skin you're in.
A Great Workbook!.......2002-07-26
I never thought workbooks really work. I am on Step 6 in this book, and I am really beginning to notice a difference. I still have a negative body image, but I'm beginning to realize how much of my problem is related to my thoughts as opposed to my actual body. This book speaks to me on a very personal level, and has helped me realize that several people struggle with the same problem I do. I don't think I'll be totally cured by the time I finish the book, but I do think I'll improve my body image each day by practicing the steps in the book. It's a long process, but I truly believe this book will help me learn to love my looks!
Book Description
For centuries, people have turned to classical music for its calming and relaxing effects. Internationally acclaimed water researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto has discovered why certain music has healing benefits: Music with the appropriate rhythm, tempo, tone, and melody can correct distorted frequencies within our cells, assisting our health and healing.
In this unique collection, Dr. Emoto presents music that he has found through his research to be beneficial for common physical and emotional imbalances. Listen to the musical pieces while enjoying Dr. Emoto's captivating water-crystal photographs. The possible benefits you may experience include decreased joint and back pain; improved function of the nervous, circulatory, lymphatic, and immune systems; and the release of negative emotions such as anxiety, self-pity, and depression. The combination of images, words, and music in Water Crystal Healing concentrates consciousness as never before, providing a unique experience for healing.
Customer Reviews:
It comes with 2 free CDs.......2007-08-01
I was so excited when I opened the book up and found 2 free CDs in the back. What a pleasant surprise :)
Greet Book!
Beyond belief.......2007-07-31
This book is wonderful, beyond belief. Such a great blessing!
Raises our consciousness level and shows us how to build a better
future. Thank you, Dr. Emoto for caring and sharing.
classic sounds magic pictures.......2007-05-12
be apple to hear the music corresponding the water cristal is a beautiful experience for meditation, and coming again in harmony or resonance with your self.
Water Crystal Healing by Masaru Emoto.......2006-12-03
A well done research to prove that we are all affected by vibrations every moment in our lives. Water being the most abundant substance on earth forms different crystals when subjected to different vibrations. Hence, the music compilations ( 2 CDs) accompanying this book provides the healing tool for those who listen with their ears while enjoying the dance of the crystals (photographs in the book) with their eyes. A well invested book!
Book Description
In The Fingerprints of God best-selling author Robert Farrar Capon takes readers on a sleuthing project, using his own uniquely developed history of images to find evidence of the Divine Suspect in our midst." "Capon first explores various images that prompt proper talk about God and the nature of Scripture. The Bible, he says, is the mystery story of God's hidden presence as the Divine Suspect behind all history. Capon discusses the misuse of Scripture due to literalist interpretation, looks at the ways Christ has suffered at the hands of human image-makers, and proposes a novel understanding of salvation history that clarifies the proper roles of Scripture, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus." "In the second part of the book Capon turns his magnifying glass on major thinkers from church history - Irenaeus, Athanasius, Anselm, Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, Julian of Norwich, and others - pointing out both the strong and the weak images they have produced. Throughout the centuries, Capon sees God as the "Divine Bowler" trying to knock down the faulty "pins" of ideas that have been set up in the lanes of religious history, while also disclosing himself in profound and powerful ways.
Customer Reviews:
Re-forming the Reformation.......2000-08-08
Father Capon has done it again! He has given us food for thought with his own unique spin. True, he makes points that he's already made in preceding books - but in this one, he zeros in on the mistakes of some of the church fathers and puts a name to it - "transactionalism" - the old left-brain idea that one must contribute some kind of coin - sacrifice, repentance, good works - whatever - to deserve the free gift of forgiveness and grace given by God from the get-go to humanity. The Reformation kicked transactionalism out the front door, proclaiming salvation by grace, through faith, (not works), but let it right back in the back door by stipulating that faith was the current coin of the realm.
In his own inimitable style, Father Capon has the Holy Spirit saying (in a dialogue among the Trinity at the beginning of the book), "They're going to paint themselves into a corner and say that the unbaptized go to hell or even that sins after Baptism make forgiveness flake off like a bad paint job, and that unless Christians go to confession for a second coat before they die, they'll go to hell too. Oh sure. We've also agreed on this Reformation business where I convince them that nobody has to do anything to be forgiven except trust the grace that Jesus has already given everybody. But give them a hundred years after that and they'll manage to turn faith itself into a requirement for grace: no faith, no forgiveness. Out the window again goes the free gift we've given them once and for all; and back in comes forgiveness as a deal that's good only as long as they behave themselves."
The author goes on to explain how the great church reformers such as Irenaeus, Athanasius. Luther, Calvin and Melanchthon, while contributing invaluable insights essential to a true reformation, still slipped in this pernicious transactionalism. "Human beings aren't afraid of accountability," says Capon's Holy Spirit, "they're crazy about it. If they can't get credit for themselves or dish out blame to others, they cry, 'Unfair!'"
Father Capon says he was originally planning to call the book *Re-forming the Reformation* and I think that may have been a better title for it (a worthy double entendre) because the book seems to hang together on the explication of these wrong turns in Christendom better than it does on an exploration of images. The only time images take center stage is when the author is talking about Literalism/Fundamentalism vs. Liberalism (turning the Bible into a book of ethics and denying the mystery) and he says both views are mistakes. God can jolly well use any device he wants to tell the STORY of scripture - images in poetry, hyperbole, allegory, parables, and yes, even literalism - even though the latter is seldom employed. So literalism is madness and deconstructivist liberalism takes all the vital juice out of it and who needs that?
The history of church thought that the author covers is most valuable and enlightening, but I thought that the imaginary dialogue with the church fathers toward the end of the book was a bit pedantic and tedious. Most of the same points were made in an earlier chapter.
But the burning question, to my mind, is - isn't the atonement itself a transaction no matter how you slice it? Just as C.S. Lewis says that the fall of man didn't HAVE to happen, did the atonement HAVE to take place? What dark necessity required it? Was it a god above and beyond or behind the Father as the god of Destiny was behind and beyond and above Zeus? We find out what the atonement is NOT. It's not a "ransom" - a transaction between God and the devil; it's not a task - a "what" that Jesus accomplished by fulfilling a transactional bill of particulars; it's not even a "bait and switch scam perpetrated by God himself" where "the cross is a mousetrap for the devil" (although Capon seems to favor this interpretation above the other two because it has a sense of humor). But I'm still scratching my head. How ELSE to see the atonement except as SOME kind of transaction?
To be fair to Capon, this was a burning question with me long before I read *The Fingerprints of God*, but since his earlier books (that little gem of Theodicy) *The Third Peacock* and the Parable books (Parables of the Kingdom, Judgment and Grace) changed my life and outlook, I was hoping this one would answer that question. Who knows? Maybe the next one will. In any case, Robert Farrar Capon's books are all and always worth reading, in my opinion. Read this one. Read his others. You won't be disappointed.
pamhan99@aol.com
Burns the Heart.......2000-08-04
Fr. Capon has a book that gives me an Emmaus experience. This author has been gifted with the ability to present the Gospel in fresh ways that light a fire inside. Like his other works, Capon has been careful in his accuracy, yet prophetic in his mission. He is one of the few authors today who side steps the modern avalanche of pious moralisms. Rather, he seeks to present the Word in context and in the radical and revolutionary power of what God is saying to us. From page one, I found my well-constructed theological walls of presumption and complacency being chipped starting to crumble. Not a casual read, but an incredble journey for someone who already has inner hints that there must be something more than we have been told about God's relationship to us!
Book Description
Phantasmagoria explores ideas of spirit and soul since the Enlightenment; it traces metaphors that have traditionally conveyed the presence of immaterial forces, and reveals how such pagan and Christian imagery about ethereal beings are embedded in a logic of the imagination, clothing spirits in the languages of air, clouds, light and shadow, glass, and ether itself. Moving from Wax to Film, the book also discusses key questions of imagination and cognition, and probes the perceived distinctions between fantasy and deception; it uncovers a host of spirit forms -- angels, ghosts, fairies, revenants, and zombies -- that are still actively present in contemporary culture. It reveals how their transformations over time illuminate changing idea about the self. Phantasmagoria also tells the accompanying story about the means used to communicate such ideas, and relates how the new technologies of the Victorian era were applied to figuring the invisible and the impalpable, and how magic lanterns (the phantasmagoria shows themselves), radio, photography and then moving pictures spread ideas about spirit forces. As the story unfolds, the book features the many eminent men and women -- scientists and philosophers -- who in the Society of Psychical Research applied their considerable energies to the question of other worlds and other states of mind: they staged trance seances in which mediums produced spirit phenomena, including ectoplasm. The book shows how this often embarrassing story connects with some of the important scientific discoveries of a fertile age, in psychology and physics. Over a sequence of twenty-eight chapters, with over thirty illustrations in colour and black and white, Phantasmagoria thus tells an unexpected and often uncomfortable story about shifts in thought about consciousness and the individual person, from the first public waxworks portraits at the end of the eighteenth century to stories of hauntings, possession, and loss of self as in the case of the zombie, a popular figure of soulessness, in modern times.
Customer Reviews:
Not reliable.......2007-06-29
To be fair, I should state I haven't read this book, but checking it a little against my knowledge, I find it inaccurate. On p. 208 Warner says that George MacDonald wrote a "series" about a boy hero, Curdie. No: he wrote two books, and I wouldn't call two books a series. Warner says that one of the "most successful" Curdie stories is At the Back of the North Wind, but this is a book in which Curdie doesn't appear at all.Warner calls Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde "the most famous doppelganger story of all," but it is not a doppelganger story at all.
The Historical Mystery of the Soul.......2006-12-10
In a spoof of a college curriculum brochure, Woody Allen listed the following course description: "Metaphysics: What happens to the soul after death? How does it manage?" Nearly as funny, but unintentionally so, was the query on a questionnaire sent all over the British Empire by the Victorian anthropologist James Frazer, who was making an inquiry into "the Customs, Beliefs, and Languages of Savages". The question was, "Does [the soul] resemble a shadow, a reflection, a breath, or what?" Presumably the savages all had different ideas, but that doesn't mean that academics and divines all had a uniform and agreed-upon concept of what a soul is (or how it manages). How soul or spirit has been visualized or otherwise manifest in modern history is the theme of _Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century_ (Oxford University Press) by Marina Warner. As a professor of literature, Warner has written an academic work, large and weighty and ballasted with plenty of footnotes. It is wide-ranging and often scattershot, taking in vampires, zombies, magic lanterns, Rorschach inkblots, Peter Pan, psychic photography, time travel, automata, ether, purgatory, transubstantiation, and much more. Warner is astonishingly well-read and knowledgeable, and consistently if the erudition gets too thick for the reader in one chapter, there will be agreeable surprises in the next.
Souls are important things, even if many of us don't have the same beliefs in God or gods that we used to. Warner writes, "Even when we profess agnosticism if not unbelief in a supernatural order, we are the inheritors of much classical cosmology and medieval philosophy about spirit and soul - in unconscious ways and in common parlance." If the soul cannot be completely described, that doesn't bother the author; she has given a broad examination of western attempts to do so. The book takes a more-or-less chronological tour of soul-stuffs, starting, surprisingly enough, with wax, and the lack of souls in waxworks. Souls have also long been connected with breath or with air. Aristotle believed that the "spirit which is contained in the foamy body of the semen" was conveyed by the father. The air in the sky was sometimes thought to be full of souls, and everyone in a cold climate could see that exhaled breath was a little cloud. From souls as material objects we pass into souls as manifestations of light or shadow. We have delighted for a couple of centuries in devices that project forms of light and shadow for us. The original phantasmagoria meant "an assembly of phantoms" and was applied to magic lantern shows, such as those of the notorious Etienne Gaspard Robertson, who found that projecting pictures in a darkened crypt got the best effect if the pictures were scary, like a Medusa's head or the ghost of Banquo. He thus set us up "... for the coming of the horror video, its ghouls, ghosts, and vampire-infested suburbs." Snapping pix of souls was all in a day's work for the spiritualists, with the new art of photography growing along with the new "science" of the séance. The scientists and objective observers never did find a good explanation of how immaterial souls or spirits interact with the material world to let us hear, see, or photograph them.
Warner writes, "The brain balks at non-meaning; meaninglessness, like formlessness, becomes the dominant scandal against reason, and reason, seeking to abolish it, generates fantasies ..." Her book is full of strange wonders, like divine portents in the sky such as "rains of frogs or of fish (and sometimes saucepans)", or the persistent story of the Angels of Mons supporting the good guys in World War One (acclaimed as a true vision against the protests of the man who had written it as a fictional story). _Phantasmagoria_ is a report on centuries of figments of the imagination, and reflects the understanding that ghosts and demons were present in the olden days of any period in the past, and will be with us in newer forms revealed by newer technologies and story-telling powers.
Amazon.com
The idea behind this magnificent book is to pair stunning images from outer space alongside meaningful spiritual quotes from here on earth. Ultimately, the two work well together, suggesting the presence of a divine hand, or at least a divine order in the universe. Editor Michael Reagan deserves much praise for his keen visual eye, as well as his selection of quotes from the likes of Albert Einstein, Jane Goodall, Stephen Hawking, Dr. Seuss, Theodore Roethke, Carl Sagan, Mark Twain, and Annie Dillard.
Many of the photos were taken from the Hubble Space Telescope, offering fascinating glimpses into distant black holes and galaxies. Some images are vivid and romantic like a Renaissance painting. Some (such as the Voyager I photo of Jupiter) seem to suggest that Vincent van Gogh had a hand in painting the universe. Each photo has a concrete caption and clearly explains what is happening and where the image comes from.
With a hint of irony, Reagan placed the following quote beside the explosive, womb web photo of "Star Birth Region NGC 604": "Stars are like animals in the wild. We may see the young but never the actual birth, which is a veiled and secret event." - Heinz Pagels, Perfect Symmetry
It is quotes such as these that make readers feel especially blessed. If not yet true voyagers, we can at least become voyeurs into space and spirituality--the far reaches of our final frontiers. --Gail Hudson
Customer Reviews:
Brings a glimpse of wonder of our amazing universe to the coffee table.......2007-08-11
This work brings home the grandeur of our universe (and the creator behind it) as best as any book, video or special I have ever seen. The quotes from theologians, astronomers and prophets that accompany the images do not all point to a singular philosophy or faith, so do not be too hasty to write this tome off as a religious work or creationist propaganda. The photo prints are of superb quality and the quotations are well matched. My personal favorite quote is found on page 128, next to an image of a cluster of Massive Infant Stars: "I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science. And there is certainly no scientific reason why God cannot retain the same relevance on our modern world that he held before we began probing His creation with telescope, cyclotron and space vehicles." -Wernher Braun
This text is also a fresh reminder that while popular, secular science writers often demonstrate a lack of wonder and exaggerate the claims of their theories, the real scientists, the Einsteins, Newtons and Keplers, regarded themselves as full of wonder and mere children who had stumbled upon a few pretty pebbles upon the ocean's beach (a paraphrase from Abraham Heschel's "A Philosophy of Judaism"). Regardless of your personal faith proclivities, if you understand that no human has all the answers (and perhaps not even very many) you will enjoy this book, guaranteed.
The Hand of God - The Hubble View.......2007-02-11
This excellent collection of pictures from space presents an awesome and inspiring view of space through many of the Hubble photos accompanied by pertinent and profound quotes from thinking peple.
It is a marvelous and thought-provoking encounter with the heavens regardless of your religious views.
I have given it to my children and friends and received 5-star responses from all who see it.
Could be written by the Hand of God..........2007-02-07
I am not one to give praise easily. In fact, I can't remember when I last reviewed a book. But this book is truly a work of art. It is very well written and will prick the conscience of any agnostic or non-believer. It's as if there is this giant puzzle which nobody has been able to put together, till Michael Reagan came along and assembled the pieces.
Well done, that man. I also believe this book should be in every Primary school library.
from atheist to Christian.......2007-02-04
As a young atheist, I was numb to the Creator. And now, after God's mercy has brought me to Him through His Son Jesus Christ, I know the joy of worshipping Him. This is a book that, for me, leads the heart to humility and worship of the great Creator of all.
Inspire Your Vision, Beautifully........2005-12-17
If you are looking for a book to provide snippets of inspiration for others who are dear to you, or, perhaps one that will spark your own prayer and devotional time, this may be the book you are seeking.
"The Hand of God" is a collection of photographs taken in space, many by the Hubble Telescope, showing the vast and awe-inspiring wonder of the universe. These photos, a new "eye on the heavens" show every manner of nebula, comet and star formation for the wondering earthbound traveler. Presented in deep and vivid colors, the photos are thoughtfully paired with inspirational quotations, both familiar and obscure.
Of the many gorgeous images, surprises abound. A view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its surroundings looks every bit like a segment of Van Gogh's "Starry Night". A shimmering white cross-like photograph of Galaxy NGC 4640A is coupled with these lines from an ancient Jewish proverb: "God said to Abraham, 'But for me, you would not be here.' 'I know that, Lord,' Abraham answered, 'but were I not here, there would be no one to think about you.'"
Here are page after page of vast and panoramic views--both in word and in photograph, ranging from the tender greens and blues of our own earth, to a halo-like image of a filament eruption on our sun.
One would not classify this as a coffee table book per se, since its 8" x 8 1/2" dimensions are much smaller. It is perhaps best called an end table or nightstand book, suitable for an occasional glance or prolonged study. Either way, the unfamiliar images are profoundly inspiring, and invite the reader to move beyond Arthur Schopenhauer's observation, "Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world." This book is sure to expand your limits and inspire your vision, beautifully.
Book Description
Basing much of Not in His Image on the Nag Hammadi and other Gnostic writings, John Lamb Lash explains how a little-known messianic sect propelled itself into a dominant world power, systematically wiping out the great Gnostic spiritual teachers, the Druid priests, and the shamanistic healers of Europe and North Africa. They burned libraries and destroyed temples in an attempt to silence the ancient truth-tellers and keep their own secrets. But as Lash reveals, when the truth is the planet Earth it cannot be hidden or destroyed.
Not in His Image delves deeply into the shadows of ancient Gnostic writings to reconstruct the story early Christians tried to scrub from the pages of history, exploring the richness of the ancient European Pagan spirituality—the Pagan Mysteries, the Great Goddess, Gnosis, the myths of Sophia and Gaia—and chronicles the annihilation of this Pagan European culture at the hands of Christianity.
Long before the birth of Christianity, monotheism was an anomaly; Europe and the Near East flourished under the divine guidance of Sophia, the ancient goddess of wisdom. The Earth was the embodiment of Sophia and thus sacred to the people who sought fulfillment in her presence. This ancient philosophy was threatening to the emerging salvation-based creed of Christianity that was based on patriarchal dominion over the Earth and lauded personal suffering as a path to the afterlife. As Derrick Jensen points out in the afterword, in Lash's hands Jesus Christ emerges as the agent provocateur of the ruling classes.
Customer Reviews:
Amateurish approach ruins promising text.......2007-07-08
I came to this book with high hopes, as there are all too few works which take full blooded `anti-Abrahamic' approach to the subject, preferring to try and amalgamate Gnosticism and mystery religions to some grand new age vision shared by Greeks and Jews, Hindus and Christians. And Lash starts off doing a pretty good job, showing just how crazy and evil the Jewish `god' is, along with his later Christian and Islamic transformations.
In his picture, (compatible with the approach of de Benoist and the other European neo-pagans, who are not mentioned in the text) the destruction of the Second Temple led to the creation of the Jewish mentality, in which temporal triumph (a la Rome and other normal people) is replaced by an eventual otherworldly triumph after the destruction of `this world' -- i.e., apocalypse. Like his hero D. H. Lawrence, he suggests that the Jews co-opted the personal transformation offered by pagan mysteries into an endlessly pre-empted national triumph and fleshly rebirth in a new world. His analysis of `the redeemer complex' is intriguing, as is his use of it to explain how Christianity `triumphed' -- by first violently destroying pagan cultures, "turning them into victims," then offering a "reformulated justification of the victim role" which promised that "they would ultimately be saved," a brilliant way to co-opt victims into future victimizers. And his suggestion that the origins of contemporary suicide terror lie in the Jewish Dead Sea cultists is profound, not cheap and easy sensationalism. As my friend Alisdair Clarke has speculated on his Aryan Futurism blog, is there not the suggestion of something deadly, radioactive perhaps, an ageless evil, almost Lovecraftian, sleeping under the sand of that quarrelsome land with its dead sea and endless tribal violence?
Alas, although I obviously endorse much of this book, I find that it fails utterly, when judged as a work of scholarship. Lash, whatever his real qualifications might be, writes like an autodidact, with all of the related faults. No wonder the King of Autodidacticism, Colin Wilson, contributes a blurb saying `Lash's historical and anthropological erudition are [sic!] breathtaking." I'm afraid that grammatical solecism is typical of the book's problems.
First, Lash exhibits the bad habit of citing only evidence that supports him, rather than dealing with (apparent) anomalies. Thus, he suggests that the patriarchal god arises from the Jewish patriarchal family, as if most, if not all, pagan societies were not. Tell that to the Roman pater familias!
More seriously, Lash avoids all discussion or mention (although I'm going by his unreliable index here, see below) of the mysteries of Mithras, even though this was an official religion of the Empire (before Christianity), gave Christianity a run for its money, and last left us the most extensive records of all the mystery religions (such as the famous Mithraic Liturgy, available in the Mead anthology Lash constantly refers to). Could this omission be due to the fact that the Mithras cult does not fit into his simple patriarchal Christianity vs. Goddess/Gaian mystery paradigm?
However, I lost all confidence in Mr. Lash after turning to his `suggestions for reading and research' at the end. First, I only found this at the back because Lash fails to include the bibliography I was looking for, thus making it impossible to track down what editions he's using. The page numbering of my Penguin edition of Lawrence is certainly not his, for instance. I might let that scholarly flaw pass, however, if the "suggestions" were not so flawed as to be insulting. I don't mind his self-described "idiosyncratic" approach to selection and evaluation. I mean that he fails the basic test of being correct about things I know about, thus raising the issue of what he's wrong about elsewhere, where I have to rely on him.
Thus, we read the following incredible claim: "Unfortunately, the sole existing English translation [is] by the English Platonist Thomas Taylor....' Now I have only to half turn to my bookshelf to see the pricey but available paperback of the Clarke/Dillon/Hershell translation, along with a number of works, such as Shaw's Theurgy and the Soul which give quite adequate accounts and many excerpts from Iamblichus. This is not buried in obscure scholarly publications. All Mr. Lash needed to do to verify this claim, or to find himself a better translation, was to do what I did: search Amazon.com! How lazy and incompetent is this guy?
Later, Lash asserts that Harold Bloom gives a "brief, sober, no discounting passage on ... entheogenic practices." Now this intrigues me, so I consult Lash's index to find what he has to say himself. No entries on etheo-anything! And yet, here is at least one right before me. Did it slip by, because Lash in fact never discusses entheogens elsewhere in the text? No, in fact, a few pages later is a whole section of "suggestions" on the subject!
And here is where I throw the book aside onto the `read when bored and nothing else is around` pile. The section is entitled "Entheogenic Theory of Religion" and states "There are hundreds of text-heavy sites and heady forums dedicated to entheogenics on the Internet, but, unfortunately [there's that word again, always a clue to a howler on the way -- Lash mistakes his laziness for empirical restraint], they are all orientated toward recreational use of drugs and sacred plants, rather than sacramental use."
All? All? Now in elementary logic, I learned I could refute an `all' statement by finding one counterexample. Again, is it some obscure site? Well, how obscure is something on the Internet going to be? Get on the Google, as our president would say, and 9 hits come up for "entheogenic theory of religion" (the title of his section, remember), two of which lead to Michael Hoffman's Ego Death website, where his epochal article "Entheogenic Theory of Religion and Ego Death" can be found, along with hundreds of pages of articles and links to similar material. And needless to say, all the really new and useful books are unmentioned as well. Clark Heinrich, anyone?
Alas, Mr. Lash, as Housman said of incompetent textual critics, "the world is no feather bed for the repose of sluggards." If you want convince anyone but the most credulous, or the already convinced, you will have to do more work than this.
Three stars, but only for the Hebrew-bashing!
The Gnostic Revival.......2007-05-18
I first encountered the work of John Lamb Lash through his website, (...), when he posted a series of pieces on "2012" -- the end of the Long Count of the Mayan Calendar -- from astrological and historical perspectives. In his essays, he defined the characteristics of various "end-time tribes" that were embodying aspects of futuristic consciousness. I began a dialogue with him on this subject, and he sent me his new book, Not in His Image: Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology, and the Future of Belief (Chelsea Green, 2006). This work is a tremendous achievement that reframes the debate about monotheism, offering a radical perspective on the destructive effects that have been unleashed by religious ideologies over the last two millennia.
Not In His Image attacks the salvationist theology of the Judeo-Christian tradition from a Gnostic perspective, making a devastating critique of the moral conditioning and deep-buried suppositions of this heritage, which has shaped the modern Western psyche. As substitute, Lash presents a counter-myth and alternative cosmology drawn from the tradition of Gnosticism, featuring the goddess Sophia, who plunged from the Pleroma to become the physical and generative Earth, and the Archons, soulless off-planet entities who use the human propensity for error to lead us into increasingly destructive deviations from our evolutionary path.
The populist and academic conception of Gnosticism considers it a radical offshoot from Christianity that was stamped out as the Holy Roman Empire gave way to the Dark Ages. Lash has a different perspective. In his view, the Gnostics were the inheritors of the wisdom and initiatory training of the Mystery Schools that flourished across the Classical World. This learned, pagan tradition had roots in the shamanic practices that predated the rise of Greece and Rome, and could be considered the indigenous spirituality of Europe. In some respects similar to Buddhism, the Gnostic tradition valued philosophical debate and direct mystical experience over received wisdom and authority vested in religious hierarchy. Lash connects Sophia to the modern "Gaia hypothesis," developed by the scientists James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, and argues that the Gnostic seers of the Mystery Schools were "deep ecologists" who taught "coevolution with Gaia." The alienation from the natural world and the body that developed in Christianity was the result of a deception, leading to the "enslavement of humanity to an alien, off-planet agenda." The Gnostics understood the basis of this error, and were persecuted for voicing their opposition to it.
Lash is ruthless in analyzing the moral precepts and core concepts of the Old and New Testament. He shows the ways in which these texts were designed to appeal to the highest aspirations and ideals of humanity, but subtly twisted to create impossible incongruities. Humans were tricked into trying to conform to an inhuman code of perfection, which doomed them to continual failure in relation to an absolutist abstraction. Borrowing a concept from Tibetan Buddhism, Lash suggests substituting the concept of "basic goodness" for "original sin," and argues that Gnostics were horrified by the Christian belief in the redemptive value of suffering.
He argues that the moral ethos expressed by Jesus Christ -- the "Divine Victim" -- in the New Testament has the unfortunate effect of aiding what he calls our "victim/perpetrator" bond. The concept of "turning the other cheek," for instance, only makes sense in world without aggressors. This precept instills a sense of otherworldly superiority in the victims of violence, while it helps the agenda of those who seek to dominate. "The ethic of cheek turning is utterly wrong because it obliges people who are not inclined to harm others to rely on those who do harm to embrace the same practice of nondefense."
The commandmant to "love thy God with all thy heart" is similarly distorted: "Who really needs to be commanded to love?" Lash asks. "We love spontaneously, through the power of love itself, which cannot be commanded." Throughout the Gospels, Lash finds "a monumental effort to convert the human mind to the bad faith of betrayed humanity." In our secular culture, it seems, the belief in a salvationist power that will liberate humanity at some future point has been transferred, unconsciously, from divinity to technology. In order to reconnect with our earthly powers, we have to deprogram ourselves from all concepts of a redemptive or divine force waiting outside of this realm.
While Lash evinces a tendency to romanticize traditional and indigenous cultures, while ignoring some of the progress made by modern civilization, his critique still goes to the heart of the crisis of our current world, where disconnection from nature and entrenched belief systems have brought us to the brink of global chaos. It seems that we can't find our way forward until we find our way back, utilizing that discriminatory intelligence -- what the Gnostics called "nous" -- that is our particular human gift.
(...)
Unveiling the Way of Organic Light, Transentience and Sacred Ecology.......2007-04-01
Not in His Image is indeed one of the "most important books of our time", or of any time. John Lamb Lash has created a textual masterpiece of historical documentation, mythopoeic vision and penetrating critique of the Abrahamic monotheistic religions. Lash digs deep into the roots of Paganism and skillfully reveals how the Gnostic tradition pre-dates and stands separately from the then emerging Christian religion. The Pagan Mysteries and Gnostic wisdom celebrated and honored the divinity of the Earth, and by so doing were anathema to Christianity. The subsequent genocide and ecocide of earth-based spiritual communities continues to this day, resulting in a world on the brink of disaster due to mankind's separation from the very planet that sustains all life. Lash's critique of patriarchal monotheism shows us the lie that people have accepted (and been forced to accept) for thousands of years.
As presented in Not in His Image, the ongoing creation story of Gaia-Sophia offers us a shift in perspective, an alternative reading of the history of the earth, and a mythopoeic narrative that invites humanity to re-imagine our sacred connection with the natural world. John Lash celebrates the fact that there are and always have been other ways of being and relating to the earth and each other. In the author's own words, "My primary purpose in writing this book is to show that Gnosis, taken as a path of experimental mysticism, and the Sophianic vision, taken as a guiding narrative for coevolution, can provide the spiritual dimension for deep ecology independently of the three mainstream religions derived from the Abrahamic tradition."
The human race is destroying itself and desecrating the earth in the name of monotheistic religions. It's past time to stop the infantile and patriarchal posturing and practices that characterize the "great" religions of the world; those same religions that breed division, materialism, genocide and ecocide in the name of off-planet deities. Or "annihilation theology" in John Lamb Lash's descriptive term. The earth will take care of itself. If and when mankind emerges from this dark time of scientific materialism, monotheistic fundamentalism and personal greed, Not in His Image will be looked back on as one of the most important and brightest signal flares that lit up the skies of darkness, revealing the divinity of the earth and Sophia's call for our participation in the ongoing dance of sacred life.
BRILLIANT.......2007-02-11
I have only just started this book but can not put it down. It is brilliant and life affirming. It is also BRAVE... Lash uses history, personal experience, common sense and a mind that is not afraid to ask the hard questions and find the real answers about Christianity. He puts Paganism in its true perspective -- not the vapid New Age-type fad cliche and not the ridiculous evil one, either... Lash shows the power, beauty, joy, SENSE of Paganism and what he calls sacred ecology. It is one of those rare books that one can call truly illuminating. Very intelligent, well written... the more I read , the more fascinated I am..
Thank God for Buck Teeth.......2006-12-19
Lash claims his life's work evolved from orthodontic visits that gave him time to think. [A little like Stephen Hawkings' claim that ALS made him so slow at getting dressed that it gave him time to think.] One third of Lash's book echoes things I've thought over a 72 year lifetime. The other two thirds comprise insights I can't claim to have arrived at before Lash did but which mesh perfectly with the one third just referenced. The book is an amazingly incisive summary of what the JudeoChristianIslamic monotheistic mainstream belief system has done to us all in 2000 years. Someone has finally caught on to the problems but it may be too late for rescue. Systems theorist Ervin Laszlo thinks we may have about 7 years to save ourselves and the others with whom we share the planet. Lash's JudeoChristianIslamic off-planet God definitely won't do it for us. I have serious doubts that we'll make it. But Lash and Laszlo offer rays of hope that younger people might "get it" soon enough to make some powerful corrective moves. If I were still teaching graduate students in psychology and related fields, I would make their books required reading. But I'm not. So I pray that someone will do whatever it takes to get the wisdom of Lash amd Laszlo before the people who can engineer needed changes.
Book Description
Provocative essays on body image by black women.
Candid, witty, and insightful, Naked is a compelling collection of essays that captures what today's black women think about their bodies-from head to toe.
Tackling such issues as hair texture, skin color, weight, and sexuality, it follows women on their paths to acceptance-and enjoyment -of their unique features...to a place where it doesn't matter how big the breasts or how long the legs, only what is in the heart.
Includes contributions from women of all ages and walks of life, including such notables as:
- Iyanla Vanzant
- Jill Scott
- Kelis
- Tracee Ellis Ross
- Jill Nelson
- Hilda Hutcherson
- asha bandele
- Melyssa Ford
Edited by Ayana Byrd and Akiba Solomon
Foreword by Sonia Sanchez
Customer Reviews:
The Urban Book Source.......2007-08-13
Naked strips away all the mystery surrounding the thoughts held by black women about their bodies. Often raised in a subculture that is not tolerant of a woman sharing their fears, reservations and insecurities about their bodies African American ladies have had to long keep their thoughts to themselves, at least until now. Often over-sexualized in music and videos, Naked sheds a rainbow of light on the way black women from all walks of life, view their bodies, from Melyssa Ford and Jill Scott to a former prostitute and a house wife, this anthology has it all. With short essays like "My Tush" and "Ho Gear", this promises to be a quick enjoyable read for anyone.
1. What did you like best about this book?
I absolutely loved that this book was written by women, for other women. Some of the stories in here express thoughts and feelings that are often not talked about and mostly not accepted. It was very refreshing to see the stories of our women in print.
2. What did you dislike about this book?
I felt that the editors did a great job in being selective about what they put in the book but I still feel a few stories could have been left out.
3. How can the author improve this book?
I think the book would be even better if the editors could somehow swap out a few stories.
The Truth.......2007-08-12
I thought the majority of these essays we so true. Sadly, the truth provided me with some comfort because I was able to think, "Thank God I'm not the only one who feels this way!" I identified with a lot of these storied and it's given me hope that one day I can overcome my issues with my self and body image.
Illl finish by saying I am SORRY.......2007-06-19
I am a black man. Five days ago I received a copy of this book from by cousin. I've only reached half way but I HAD to stop.
There were some passage about how BLACK WOMEN felt hurt and unwanted by verbal abuse of men when they were walking in the streets and I felt bad, because I am one of those guys cussing when a women doesn't give in to my advances. I walk around with friends and I often cuss just as to show off to my friends that "hey that B*** didn't hurt me with her stupid attitude".
The thing I never thought about is how they felt when I cuss them out. Even if my intention was not to add yet another blow to her lowself-esteem. I might sound green by now to some readers but I first off come from the carribean. And there the inferiority complex is not that extreme over there since the majority of the population and business owners are black. But I must add, ormaybe confess I would be more likely to cuss a black women then any other race. And that alone shows that I am part of the problem.
For those who need more convincing argument of the dilemma which Naked exposes, BLACK SKIN WHITE MASK, by Fanon is a support to this book.
But I have to agree with some essay where they says the media, hell society has a fix definition of what beauty is and should look like. Even disney movies like Cinderella, snow white, etc..... brings to our children mind what is expect of their physical appearance to be considered attractive.
I'll try to mustard courage to finish this book AND I'll finsih by saying I am SORRY to all those women I hurt with my foul words. A change is definitely needed '
naked..............2007-04-03
I also finished most of the essays in Naked, soon after purchasing it. The various thoughts, and emotions that the women in this collection have gone through are both shocking, and yet not surpising at all. Having dealt with my fair share of black women, I've come to almost accept their multitued of "lets say" spiritual ailments. Far too often, we allow the outside world to dictate who we are, and what beauty is...I'd definitly suggest everyone to pick up this book. As a man, I can honesetly say that I have more appreciation for the sane sista's that I've come across after reading Naked.
Could not put this down! Highly recommended.......2007-02-28
I picked this up on a whim at my library. This book offered way more than I originally expected.
The various narrations revealed a glimpse into the many insecurities many women of all nationalities face each and everyday. Particularly the plight of the African American woman. Who is often perceived as strong willed and to have a "don't take no mess" attitude. We suffer from the same insecurities, eating disorders, mental illnesses and sense of inferiority that our White sisters often are more vocal about.
Its a double edged sword being a woman in a man's world as well being Black in a White world.
This book upon reading it gave me a significant boost in my self esteem (I'm a Mom to a two year old and still have yet to lose the "baby" weight).
As women, we are sometimes our worst critic and sometimes you just have to be reminded that you are beautiful no matter what others outside your world believe.
Book Description
Mircea Eliade--one of the most renowned expositors of the psychology of religion, mythology, and magic--shows that myth and symbol constitute a mode of thought that not only came before that of discursive and logical reasoning, but is still an essential function of human consciousness. He describes and analyzes some of the most powerful and ubiquitous symbols that have ruled the mythological thinking of East and West in many times and at many levels of cultural development.
Customer Reviews:
Towards a new humanism.......2004-05-13
This insightful book features a central element of Eliade's work as a whole: a humanistic impulse which envisions the study of symbols as the best possible way to overcome close-mindedness and provincialism, and which holds that a liberation from the traps of historicism is necessary in order to reach the archetypes that somehow inform the multiple 'symbolic incarnations' throughout the ages and peoples. Eliade here considers symbols of centre, time, binding (relying a lot on Dumezil on that topic), waters and shells. The relationship between symbol and history is constantly examined in the book: Eliade suggests that each new meaning ascribed by history to a symbol does not alter the latter's fundamental structure, since the symbol can properly be considered 'transhistorical'. This is as good a work as any to start reading Eliade; many quintessential Eliadian themes are treated here.
Book Description
When you look in the mirror, do you see a Goddess? For anyone who's experienced a "fat day" or wished a doctor could make them younger, Wiccan Dianne Sylvan speaks candidly about overcoming body hatred and offers a spiritual path back to Divine femininity.
Sharing her own struggles with poor body image and self-acceptance, Sylvan explores how the impossible standard of female beauty has developed and endured. Emphasizing the Mother, the Healer, the Lover, and other archetypes of one's relationship with the sacred body, the author provides a uniquely Wiccan approach to achieving a healthy, new self-perception as Goddess.
Customer Reviews:
Every woman should read this book!!.......2007-09-22
Even though I read hundreds of books a year, I have never taken the time to write a review before. Which just shows how strongly I feel about this book. I picked up this book at my local library and boy was I glad I did. This book has changed my life and the way I view myself, my body, and my emotions. Even though it is written by a Wiccan author, I can see any woman, Wiccan or not taking away something positive from this book and using it in their own lives. If you have ever had any body issues, please, please read this book. It does not matter what that issue is, if you think you are too fat, too skinny, too short, too tall... this book is for you!!
A MUST HAVE for ALL WOMEN!.......2007-06-28
Ms Sylvan has just joined the ranks as one of my favorite authors of all time, and if you read this book, I'm sure you will feel the same way. Her down-to-earth style makes you feel as if she's right there with you, like you're having a chat with your best friend. She isn't afraid to tell it like it is, and to empower women in a world where we're still looked down upon for *being* women. I can almost guarantee that if you need to revitalize the Goddess within, you will find her again after reading this book.
I give this book 5 pentacles and it's worth it.......2007-04-26
The Body Sacred is an amazing book
which should be on every Wiccan's/Pagan's
bookshelf.
This is a book in which so many readers
can relate. I thought, "OMGoddess, she's
writing MY story, MY thoughts, answering
all MY questions, and she is doing it with
a wonderful sense of humor!"
I recommend this book to everyone.
Dianne Sylvan's books are wonderful!.......2007-02-23
An excellent book! Like Ms. Sylvan's other book "The Circle Within", this book is well researched, easy to understand, and thought provoking. I love her books!
Beautiful........2006-01-21
Excellent book, excellent read. I love how Sylvan does NOT take the lofty-ish sort of air with her writing, but a down-to-earth, witty, touching, and sometimes just downright funny style.
A wonderful read for experienced witches and non-experienced - such as myself - alike. She provides with thorough explanations of several archetypes of the Goddess(Mother, Healer, Dancer, Lover, Crone, and that which resides within ourselves) along with a spell and ritual or two for each of them.
Some parts of the book will cause you to laugh out loud, others will make you cry in joy as you discover you're not the only one who feels in certain ways or in relief that you finally have the strength to believe in your own self.
Even for those not dealing with body issues, this book is great for causing you to look inward and outward and find yourself to be wonderful. As Sylvan puts it, "Thou art Goddess."
More of a read for females, as we are her intended audience; however, I'd recommend it for males as well, at least to gain a smidgen of insight into...well, us females.
Customer Reviews:
Incredible book.......2007-06-15
This book is an intressant and beautiful book of an Anusara teacher.
Accepting your True Self.......2007-05-28
An interesting, easy to read book about yoga and accepting your true inner self. This by means of doing yoga and accepting your body as it is and not what it should be according to the outside world, where women have to look perfect, being muscular, slim and beautiful. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 as the "theme" repeats itself throughout the book which get a little bit too much in the end. Nevertheless a very inspiring book, a must to have when you have body image problems.
Beautiful Book for Almost All Women.......2007-05-16
*****
This book really spoke to me about weight issues, body acceptance, self-image, and how yoga can be used to deal with all of these. The subtitle of the book is "Making Peace with Your Body Through Yoga", and every time I read it (I've read it three times so far) this book helps me to accomplish this. I have the parts I like best highlighted and often reread them for inspiration; it is a beautifully written book.
The book focuses on a type of yoga called Anusara Yoga, but as other reviewers have said, you don't really have to be interested in yoga to benefit from the book. It's more about mindfulness, philosophy, attitude, being with feelings, and acceptance than it is yoga and yoga positions. The women modeling the poses are women of all shapes and sizes, all obviously content with their bodies and enjoying their practice.
The only part of the book I did not relate to was about having a guru, which is part of the philosophy of the author, and I just skip over those parts when I reread it. That part is peripheral, and the book is more than worth it for the rest.
Highest recommendation.
*****
Not about Anusara.......2006-08-09
Although this book is touted on several Anusara web sites as a book about Anusara, I found it to be more about self-loathing and a poor body image. From cover to cover, the author rehashed her, and other's, disfunctions and poor self-esteem related to a poor body image and eating disorders.
Now, if you fall into any of the afore mentioned catagories, you may find this book for you. If not, it's a waste of time. (I too have looked in the mirror during a yoga session and thought, jeez, I'm going to have to not eat for the next month...., but I didn't dwell on it. And I don't consider a new pedicure when gazing at my feet in down dog.)
My truly, heart felt advice to those of you whom this book will speak to is, spend less time on the mat and more in meditation, until you get your mind under control. I am saddened for anyone who is their own worst enemy. Life is too short.
Yoga, and all it's attendant traditions, are so much more. Let it be so for you.
yoga making peace with your body.......2005-10-14
A very good book, it brings out some vital and interesting reasons why one would wish to practice yoga and puts those reasons in context of modern day living, this book was definitely written from a woman's point of view but without any basis
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