ALTERNATIVE REALITIES: THE PARANORMAL, THE MYSTIC AND THE TRANSCENDENT IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE by your host Leonard George (New York: Facts on File, 1995) - an encyclopedia of unusual experiences, both spontaneous and sought; summarizes the current knowledge and historical context of a vast range of topics, including Apparitions, Ghost Rockets, Burial Alive, Possession, Old Hag Experience, Incubus Nightmare, Devil's Jelly, Will-o'-the-Wisp, Peyote, Zombification, Meditation, and much, much more! (featured by Book of the Month Club and Quality Paperback Book Club)
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CRIMES OF PERCEPTION: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HERESIES AND HERETICS by your host Leonard George (New York: Paragon House, 1995; London: Robson Books, 1996; Barcelona: RobinBook, 1998) - a compendium of those who held unorthodox views of reality, and, as often as not, ended up roasting on a stake or swinging from a rope; entries include Gnosticism, Isochrists, Savonarola, Arius, Cathars, Free Spirits, Joan of Arc, Bruno, Rasputin, Paracelsus, Abulafia, Crowley, Mormons, Eckhart, Great Witch Hunt, Alchemy, Kabbalah, Key of Solomon, even Jesus, and much, much more!
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MAGIC IN THE ANCIENT WORLD by Fritz Graf (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997) - a thoughtful examination of magical practices in the Greco-Roman world, from the archaic period through late antiquity; a must-read for students of the history of magic and religion
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THE MEASURE OF REALITY: QUANTIFICATION AND WESTERN SOCIETY, 1250-1600 by Alfred Crosby (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997) - this book describes the revolution in consciousness that shifted the attention of the West toward perceiving time and space in terms of measurable units; our attention has remained shifted ever since, and the consequences surround you
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GNOSIS AND HERMETICISM: FROM ANTIQUITY TO MODERN TIMES edited by Roelof van den Broek & Wouter Hanegraaff (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1998) - a new collection of essays tracing these esoteric currents through history; without a working understanding of the paths of Gnosis and Hermes, you cannot even begin to grasp the history of Western spirituality; Hanegraaff's chapter on "Romanticism and the Esoteric Connection" is a standout, if you can chew through the academese
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ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY, MYSTERY, AND MAGIC: EMPEDOCLES AND PYTHAGOREAN TRADITION by Peter Kingsley (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995) - although the main character in this brilliant study is Empedocles, the broader focus is on the origin of the deepest biases in Western thought (which are still active today); it seems that the West has lost sight of some of its most intriguing founders in a haze of propaganda created by their enemies; read this book, and your vision of the ancient world - and, perhaps, the modern world - will never be the same
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THE ARYAN CHRIST: THE SECRET LIFE OF CARL JUNG by Richard Noll (New York: Random House, 1997) - what was old Carl really up to? Noll provides evidence that Jung aimed to resurrect an ancient mystery cult centred on mystical experiences of self-deification, and that Jews were not especially welcome in the endeavour; while some critics have responded to this book like deranged bonobos, many top historians have hailed it as a work of impeccable and creative scholarship; if you have any interest at all in Jung, you must read this book, and decide for yourself
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THEURGY AND THE SOUL: THE NEOPLATONISM OF IAMBLICHUS by Gregory Shaw (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995) - the philosopher Iamblichus is almost forgotten today, certainly compared to the all-stars such as Plato and Aristotle, yet in his own day (3rd-4th century AD) he was hailed as "Divine", and recognized for the genius of his vision; Iamblichus wove together major strands of antique thought and spiritual experience into a profound world view before his work was submerged in the rising tide of Christianity; today, our own fragmented culture strives vainly for such integration, and we could learn much from this long-lost sage; Shaw's book is challenging for the nonspecialist, but richly repays the effort (for more about Iamblichus, see the articles on this website).
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THE ORIGINS OF THE MITHRAIC MYSTERIES: COSMOLOGY AND SALVATION IN THE ANCIENT WORLD by David Ulansey (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991) - speaking of ancient mystery cults, this short work is a model of historical research, as Ulansey collects and interprets clues to what the initiates of Mithras were doing in their underground initiation chambers throughout the Roman Empire; a fascinating example of how a scientific discovery (the precession of the equinoxes) can be absorbed into the spiritual world view of a culture; the question is, why does the modern West have such difficulty fitting science and spirit together?
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