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The Awakened City (Way of Ârata #2)
by Victoria StraussIn the remarkable sequel to The Burning Land, a man of peace is forced to confront his unwanted destiny in a fantasy realm torn apart by magic, religious intolerance, and holy war For years they were oppressed, outlawed, and hunted. But the Brethren have finally prevailed, and now the kingdom of Arsace is theirs once more. Unbending in their single-minded devotion to the slumbering god Ârata, the Brethren will not allow their religious authority to be questioned. Therefore, all of the remaining heretical renegade mages known as Shapers must be eliminated, their magic rendered impotent, and Refuge, their hidden desert sanctuary, destroyed. Of all the Shapers who survived an earlier attack on Refuge, the one known as Râvar possesses the greatest power, and he has declared himself the Next Messenger who will usher in a new, illuminated age. But the false prophet&’s decision to take Axane the Dreamer as his captive could have unforeseen, world-shattering consequences, for it has drawn the seer&’s devoted husband, Gyalo Amdo Samchen, away from his chosen path of peace. To rescue his endangered beloved, the former priest will have to confront his greatest fear, for in the terrible flames of holy war the true Next Messenger will be revealed.The Awakened City is the powerful sequel to Victoria Strauss&’s acclaimed fantasy masterwork The Burning Land. A story of faith, fate, love, and magic that unfolds in a richly imagined world plagued by violence, intolerance, and religious persecution, this is a stunning and intelligent work of literary artistry from a uniquely talented fantasist.
The Awakened Heart: Opening Yourself To The Love You Need
by Gerald G. May"Integrating the wisdom of ancient mystics and the insights of contemporary thinkers, May examines the spiritual longings that are often hidden and controlled by society's pressures and expectations."-Publishers Weekly
The Awakened One
by Sherab Chodzin KohnThe story of the founder of Buddhism is one of the world's great archetypal tales of spiritual awakening. He was born Siddhartha Gautama in the sixth century BCE, the son of a prince who ruled a small kingdom in what is now Nepal. Siddhartha led a sheltered existence until the age of twenty-nine, when he left his life of ease and set out to find a solution to the problem of suffering. For years he wandered as a homeless ascetic, practicing severe austerities that brought him to the brink of death but no nearer to his goal. He then abandoned asceticism for a "middle way." Sitting down under a tree, he vowed to remain there until he realized the truth. After a night of deep meditation, his Enlightenment came at dawn, and he was thereafter known as the Buddha, the "Awakened One."
The Awakened Ones: Phenomenology of Visionary Experience
by Gananath ObeyesekereWhile a rational consciousness grasps many truths, Gananath Obeyesekere believes an even richer knowledge is possible through a bold confrontation with the stuff of visions and dreams. Spanning both Buddhist and European forms of visionary experience, he fearlessly pursues the symbolic, nonrational depths of such phenomena, reawakening the intuitive, creative impulses that power greater understanding. Throughout his career, Obeyesekere has combined psychoanalysis and anthropology to illuminate the relationship between personal symbolism and religious experience. In this book, he begins with Buddha's visionary trances wherein, over the course of four hours, he witnesses hundreds of thousands of his past births and eons of world evolution, renewal, and disappearance. He then connects this fracturing of empirical and visionary time to the realm of space, considering the experience of a female Christian penitent, who stares devotedly at a tiny crucifix only to see the space around it expand to mirror Christ's suffering. Obeyesekere follows the unconscious motivations that underly rapture, the fantastical consumption of Christ's body and blood, and body mutilation and levitation, bridging medieval Catholicism and the movements of early modern thought, reflected in William Blake's artistic visions and poetic dreams. He develops the term "dream-ego" through a discussion of visionary journeys, Jung's and Freud's scientific dreaming, and the cosmic and erotic dream-visions of New Age virtuosos, and he defines the parameters of a visionary mode of knowledge that provides a more elastic understanding of truth. A career-culminating work, this volume not only translates the epistemology of Hindu and Buddhist thinkers to western audiences but also revitalizes western philosophical and scientific inquiry.
The Awakened Ones: Phenomenology of Visionary Experience
by Gananath ObeyesekereWhile a rational consciousness grasps many truths, Gananath Obeyesekere believes an even richer knowledge is possible through a bold confrontation with the stuff of visions and dreams. Spanning both Buddhist and European forms of visionary experience, he fearlessly pursues the symbolic, nonrational depths of such phenomena, reawakening the intuitive, creative impulses that power greater understanding.Throughout his career, Obeyesekere has combined psychoanalysis and anthropology to illuminate the relationship between personal symbolism and religious experience. In this book, he begins with Buddha's visionary trances wherein, over the course of four hours, he witnesses hundreds of thousands of his past births and eons of world evolution, renewal, and disappearance. He then connects this fracturing of empirical and visionary time to the realm of space, considering the experience of a female Christian penitent, who stares devotedly at a tiny crucifix only to see the space around it expand to mirror Christ's suffering. Obeyesekere follows the unconscious motivations underlying rapture, the fantastical consumption of Christ's body and blood, and body mutilation and levitation, bridging medieval Catholicism and the movements of early modern thought as reflected in William Blake's artistic visions and poetic dreams. He develops the term "dream-ego" through a discussion of visionary journeys, Carl Jung's and Sigmund Freud's scientific dreaming, and the cosmic and erotic dream-visions of New Age virtuosos, and he defines the parameters of a visionary mode of knowledge that provides a more elastic understanding of truth. A career-culminating work, this volume translates the epistemology of Hindu and Buddhist thinkers for western audiences while revitalizing western philosophical and scientific inquiry.
The Awakened Psychic: What You Need to Know to Develop Your Psychic Abilities
by Kala AmbroseThe Awakened Psychic is a guide to developing your inner psychic and tuning in to your intuitive wisdom. With hands-on exercises and stories from the author’s practice, this book is all about lifting the veil between the worlds, seeing into the future, and connecting with spirits and loved ones on the other side. Join Kala Ambrose as she explores ideas and techniques for enhancing your psychic abilities and making the most of your intuitive talents, including:How to build a powerful energy field for psychic self-defenseThe difference between being psychic and being a mediumTechniques to heighten your psychic abilitiesHow ghosts and spirits are differentHow to awaken your powerful inner intuitive oracleThe difference between an intuitive hunch and being psychicTechniques to connect with spirit guides and your higher selfEveryone has intuitive ability at some level, and those abilities can be helpful tools in making decisions, following your dreams, enhancing your relationships, and building a business or career that you enjoy. In this book, you'll discover the different kinds of psychic abilities and how they work together so that you can manifest your destiny and live a spiritually fulfilled life.
The Awakened Way: Making the Shift to a Divinely Guided Life
by Suzanne GiesemannThe Awakened Way combines deep spiritual wisdom and practical tools for living a consciously connected and divinely guided life, helping readers go from an emptiness that can&’t be filled to a fullness that can&’t be contained.The Awakened Way is the soul&’s answer to your earthly challenges.This book invites you to live the awakened way, a path that embraces ancient wisdom and integrates it with the latest scientific discoveries about the nature of consciousness and the underlying reality.Many self-help books focus on our human nature. They miss the point that we are both human and a soul. They fail to teach us to shift our focus and access the Source of solutions that is always available and will never steer us wrong.The Awakened Way is a higher-self book that reorients your belief system and shows you how to approach life from the soul's perspective, where the highest answers lie.&“A practical resource for many who are seeking a richer connection with lost loved ones and the spiritual realm in general.&”— Eben Alexander, M.D., former Harvard neurosurgeon and author of Proof of Heaven, The Map of Heaven, and Living in a Mindful Universe
The Awakening
by Angela HuntFrom a Christy Award–winning author: “A wonderful, soul-stirring tale of hope and long-suffering love” (Marlo Schalesky). Aurora Rose is different from her neighbors, different from most people. Still single at thirty-five, she spends every hour of her time in an elegant Manhattan apartment, quietly caring for her invalid mother. Then her mother dies, and Aurora’s world spins on its axis. Reality shatters into startlingly realistic nightmares, and the shards of troubling memories slice into her sleep. Everything Aurora has believed about herself and her world fades into murky dreams. Something, someone is pursuing her—growing more threatening by the day, testing the limits of her sanity. Will she find the courage to confront her unseen pursuer? Or will she surrender to the destructive melancholy that haunts her days and nights? This psychologically suspenseful story about fear, faith, and finding the way through the darkness is a “lovely tale” from the acclaimed author of Egypt’s Sister and Judah’s Wife (Publishers Weekly).
The Awakening (Seven Sisters Series Book #2)
by Debra White SmithViatnamese-American, Super Model, Kim Lan has always wanted to go to her mothers native land. Now that she has the opportunity... will she take it? Will she live through it? Join her as God not only reveals His plan for her life... but as she is truely "changed" into the person He wants her to be.
The Awakening Body: Somatic Meditation for Discovering Our Deepest Life
by Reginald A. RayMany of us experience life through so many conceptual filters that we never recognize the freedom and joy that are inherent in us--and are in fact the essence of who we are. We can grow old not realizing that one of the most powerful tools to escape the painful knots we tie ourselves in is, literally, at our fingertips: our body.Here, Reggie Ray cracks open the shell of the mind-body dichotomy and presents six fundamental body-based practices that connect us back to who we really are. These practices cut through the mental fabrications through which we experience our world and lead us directly to the richness of living a fully present, embodied human life.Includes a link to free downloads of recorded guided practices.
The Awakening Coast: An Anthology of Moravian Writings from Mosquitia and Eastern Nicaragua, 1849-1899
by Terry Rugeley Karl OffenThe indigenous and Creole inhabitants (Mosquitians of African descent) of the Mosquito Reserve in present-day Nicaragua underwent a key transformation when two Moravian missionaries arrived in 1849. Within a few short generations, the new faith became so firmly established there that eastern Nicaragua to this day remains one of the world’s strongest Moravian enclaves. The Awakening Coast offers the first comprehensive English-language selection of the writings of the multinational missionaries who established the Moravian faith among the indigenous and Afro-descendant populations through the turbulent years of the Great Awakening of 1881 to 1882, when converts flocked to the church and the mission’s membership more than doubled. The anthology tracks the intersection of religious, political, and economic forces that led to this dynamic religious shift and illustrates how the mission’s first fifty years turned a relatively obscure branch of Protestantism into the most important political and spiritual institution in the region by contextualizing the Great Awakening, Protestant evangelism, and indigenous identity during this time of dramatic social change.
The Awakening Ground: A Guide to Contemplative Mysticism
by David Chaim SmithAuthor David Chaim Smith offers a guide to the practice of mystical contemplation from the perspective of a highly unusual form of non-dual Kabbalah, unfettered by both religious mythology and psychological reductionism. The path articulates the ultimate quest for meaning, which seeks to pass through the clutter of the mind’s conceptual associations to nakedly and directly recognize the innate essentiality of all things known as the light of En (no) Sof (end), or the Infinite. Most mainstream conventional schools of Kabbalah hold such a radical aspiration to be inapproachable at best, and heretical at worst. • The work introduces six stages that articulate how the mind breaks through its own restrictive habitual reflexes to awaken to the ground of En Sof, which is the mind’s essential nature • Each stage is illustrated by the author’s own original works of art and line diagrams • Draws upon obscure sources such as the 13th-century Kabbalistic text Fountain of Wisdom, various alchemical and gnostic texts, and the writings of Isaac the Blind The author reveals how meaning never remains static--its nature is to move, transmit, and display--yet its precious potential becomes buried under layers of mental constructs. He explains how the mind’s habits and reflexes impose structures of containment that try to make sense out of phenomena, but these very structures actually obscure their essence completely. Smith’s experiential path to gnostic awakening reveals how, in the wake of the lesser concerns of the conceptual mind, primordial purity shines in resonances of vast poetic beauty, if a sensibility of wonder, awe, and delight is cultivated. Offering a step-by-step analysis to the ecstatic aspects of contemplative revelation, David Chaim Smith explores how to ride the razor’s edge of the paradox to coax the mind from the sleep of habituation towards the culmination of gnosis. Although the process is described within the traditional symbol system of kabbalah, its import is a truly radical exponent of extreme mysticism.
The Awakening Heart: My Continuing Journey to Love
by Betty J. EadieAddressing daily concerns, Betty J. Eadie gives readers the keys to an elemental, healing life force. She examines the course of her life source, and reveals the profound power that unites us all.
The Awakening Mind
by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche Geshe Tashi Tsering Gordon McdougallBodhichitta, often translated as "great compassion," is the gem at the heart of Buddhism. From this altruistic desire to serve others, all other Buddhist practices naturally flow, therefore, this state of mind is one Buddhists should understand and cultivate. In The Awakening Mind, Geshe Tashi Tsering leads us through the two main methods to develop bodhichitta that have been developed by the great Indian and Tibetan Buddhists over the centuries: the seven points of cause and effect, and equalizing and exchanging the self with others. This is the fourth release from Geshe Tashi's Foundation of Buddhist Thought series, which individually and collectively represent an excellent introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. These unique and friendly books are based on the curriculum of a popular course of the same name, developed by Geshe Tashi himself. Geshe Tashi's presentations combine rigor and comprehensiveness with lucidity and accessibility, never divorced from the basic humanity and warmth of his personality. In Geshe Tashi, we encounter the new generation of Tibetan monk-scholars teaching in the West who are following in the footsteps of such revered and groundbreaking teachers as Geshe Wangyal and Geshe Sopa.
The Awakening of HK Derryberry: My Unlikely Friendship with the Boy Who Remembers Everything
by Andy Hardin Jim BradfordThe Awakening of HK Derryberry is the inspiring story of how one man was willing to step out of his upper middle-class world into the life of a young, disabled boy with a dismal future. Little did Jim Bradford know the transformational potential of that friendship--for HK and himself. HK Derryberry came into the world with the odds stacked heavily against him. He was taken from his unmarried mother's womb three months prematurely when she was killed in a car wreck. After ninety-six days of seesawing between life and death, HK's grandmother took him home. One Saturday morning Jim Bradford, a successful businessman in his mid-fifties, happens into Mrs. Winner's Chicken and Biscuits and sees a nine-year-old's head pressed down against a black plastic boom box with a crooked antenna and three strips of silver duct tape stretched across the battery cover. He can't help but notice the long, white plastic braces on each of the child's legs. Mr. Bradford learns that HK's grandmother is forced to bring him to the fast-food restaurant where she works, leaving him to sit alone all day at a small table, with only his boom box for company. On subsequent Saturdays Jim feels drawn back to the restaurant to meet with HK and begins spending every weekend with him. Eventually it becomes apparent that buried beneath HK's severe disabilities is one spectacular ability. He is diagnosed with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM), which involves superlative powers of recollection that enable him to remember everything that has happened to him since the age of three. Less than one hundred people have been diagnosed with HSAM, but none of them have the physical disabilities of HK Derryberry.
The Awakening of Hope: Why We Practice a Common Faith
by Shane Claiborne Jonathan Wilson-HartgroveAccording to Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, faithful action is always inspired and sustained by common convictions—the basic truths that have sustained God’s people throughout every generation. The Awakening of Hope re-presents Christian faith by beginning with stories of faithful witness and asking, Why? Why do Christians eat together? Why do we fast? Why would we rather die than kill? These are the questions that help us see why creation and the fall, covenant and community, ethics and evangelism matter. This book and its accompanying DVD project is a contemporary catechism, celebrating lives and stories that wouldn’t make sense if the gospel were not true. And then going one step further, this project shares the good news of Jesus and the way of life that he makes possible.
The Awakening of Malcolm X: A Novel
by Ilyasah Shabazz Tiffany D. JacksonThe Awakening of Malcolm X is a powerful narrative account of the activist's adolescent years in jail, written by his daughter Ilyasah Shabazz along with 2019 Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe award-winning author, Tiffany D. Jackson.No one can be at peace until he has his freedom.In Charlestown Prison, Malcolm Little struggles with the weight of his past. Plagued by nightmares, Malcolm drifts through days, unsure of his future. Slowly, he befriends other prisoners and writes to his family. He reads all the books in the prison library, joins the debate team and the Nation of Islam. Malcolm grapples with race, politics, religion, and justice in the 1940s. And as his time in jail comes to an end, he begins to awaken -- emerging from prison more than just Malcolm Little: Now, he is Malcolm X.Here is an intimate look at Malcolm X's young adult years. While this book chronologically follows X: A Novel, it can be read as a stand-alone historical novel that invites larger discussions on black power, prison reform, and civil rights.
The Awakening of Muslim Democracy
by Jocelyne CesariWhy and how did Islam become such a political force in so many Muslim-majority countries? In this book, Jocelyne Cesari investigates the relationship between modernization, politics, and Islam in Muslim-majority countries such as Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Tunisia, and Turkey - countries that were founded by secular rulers and have since undergone secularized politics. Cesari argues that nation-building processes in these states have not created liberal democracies in the Western mold, but have instead spurred the politicization of Islam by turning it into a modern national ideology. Looking closely at examples of Islamic dominance in political modernization - for example, nationalization of Islamic institutions and personnel under state ministries; reliance on Islamic references in political discourse, religiously motivated social unrest, or violence; and internationalization of Islam-aligned political movements or conflicts - this study provides a unique overview of the historical and political developments from the end of World War II to the Arab Spring that have made Islam the dominant force in the construction of the modern states, and discusses Islam's impact on emerging democracies in the contemporary Middle East.
The Awe of God Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video: The Astounding Way a Healthy Fear of God Transforms Your Life
by John BevereIs the desire of your heart to be close to God?Do you long for an intimate relationship with your Creator but He seems elusive? Perhaps it is because something essential is missing in your life—the fear of the Lord. Don&’t let this frighten you. Fearing God is very different than being afraid of God. It&’s the key to everything. Holy Fear is not a topic you&’ll hear much about these days, but if you want to build a faith that stands strong through troubled times, you cannot afford to ignore it.In this six-session video Bible study, bestselling author John Bevere explores more than forty promises in Scripture given to those who embrace holy fear—rewards such as holiness, wisdom, legacy, confidence, happiness, and security. He invites you to take a fresh look at what it means to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And he shows how approaching God in this way allows you to discover the deeper relationship with the Lord that your soul longs for and that He desires to have with you.This study guide includes:Individual access to six streaming video sessionsA how to use this guide sectionVideo notes and a comprehensive structure for group discussion timePersonal study for deeper reflection between sessionsSessions and video run times:Holy Awe (20:30)Revealed as We Are (20:00)Irresistible Holiness (20:30)God&’s Word (20:00)Intimacy with God (20:30)The Treasure&’s Benefits (21:00) This study guide has everything you need for a full Bible study experience, including:The study guide itself—with discussion and reflection questions, video notes, and a leader's guide.An individual access code to stream all video sessions online. (You don&’t need to buy a DVD!)Streaming video access code included. Access code subject to expiration after 12/31/2028. Code may be redeemed only by the recipient of this package. Code may not be transferred or sold separately from this package. Internet connection required. Void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Additional offer details inside.
The Awe of God: The Astounding Way a Healthy Fear of God Transforms Your Life
by John BevereDo you long for an intimate relationship with your Creator, but He seems elusive? Perhaps it is because something utterly essential is missing—the fear of the Lord. Don't let this frighten you. Fearing God is very different than being afraid of God. It's the key to everything.Holy Fear is not a topic you'll hear much about these days. But if you want to build a faith that stands strong through troubled times, you cannot afford to ignore this book.In The Awe of God, John Bevere invites you to take a fresh look at what it means to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. This healthy, holy, and largely forgotten virtue is the uncommon path to a more fulfilled and fruitful life. In this book you will see why godly fear is the foundation of:Wisdom, understanding, and knowledgeForesight, clarity, and divine directionMaturity and conformity to the image of Jesus ChristBuilding an eternal legacyConfidence, fearlessness, and securityFreedom from the fear of man as all lesser fears are eclipsed If you look at the men and women in Scripture, the ones who lived and finish well all have one thing in common: they are marked by holy fear.The Awe of God was designed to be read slowly and intentionally. At the end of each of the 42 chapters are five tools to help you deepen your understanding and apply what the Spirit of God is teaching you. Experience the intimate relationship with God that you have always longed for by unlocking this countercultural message.
The Axial Age and Its Consequences
by Robert N. Bellah Hans JoasThe first classics in human historyâthe early works of literature, philosophy, and theology to which we have returned throughout the agesâappeared in the middle centuries of the first millennium bce. The canonical texts of the Hebrew scriptures, the philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle, the Analects of Confucius and the Daodejing, the Bhagavad Gita and the teachings of the Buddhaâall of these works came down to us from the compressed period of history that Karl Jaspers memorably named the Axial Age. In The Axial Age and Its Consequences, Robert Bellah and Hans Joas make the bold claim that intellectual sophistication itself was born worldwide during this critical time. Across Eurasia, a new self-reflective attitude toward human existence emerged, and with it an awakening to the concept of transcendence. From Axial Age thinkers we inherited a sense of the world as a place not just to experience but to investigate, envision, and alter through human thought and action. Bellah and Joas have assembled diverse scholars to guide us through this astonishing efflorescence of religious and philosophical creativity. As they explore the varieties of theorizing that arose during the period, they consider how these in turn led to utopian visions that brought with them the possibility of both societal reform and repression. The roots of our continuing discourse on religion, secularization, inequality, education, and the environment all lie in Axial Age developments. Understanding this transitional era, the authors contend, is not just an academic project but a humanistic endeavor.
The Axiological Status of Theism and Other Worldviews (Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion)
by Kirk LougheedThis book explores the value impact that theist and other worldviews have on our world and its inhabitants. Providing an extended defense of anti-theism - the view that God’s existence would (or does) actually make the world worse in certain respects - Lougheed explores God’s impact on a broad range of concepts including privacy, understanding, dignity, and sacrifice. The second half of the book is dedicated to the expansion of the current debate beyond monotheism and naturalism, providing an analysis of the axiological status of other worldviews such as pantheism, ultimism, and Buddhism. A lucid exploration of contemporary and relevant questions about the value impact of God’s existence, this book is an invaluable resource for scholars interested in axiological questions in the philosophy of religion.
The Axiology of Theism (Elements in the Philosophy of Religion)
by Klaas J. KraayTheism is the view that God exists; naturalism is the view that there are no supernatural beings, processes, mechanisms, or forces. This Element explores whether things are better, worse, or neither on theism relative to naturalism. It introduces readers to the central philosophical issues that bear on this question, and it distinguishes a wide range of ways it can be answered. It critically examines four views, three of which hold (in various ways) that things are better on theism than on naturalism, and one of which holds just the opposite.
The Axioms of Religion; a New Interpretation of the Baptist Faith
by Edgar Young MullinsThe Axioms of Religion: A New Interpretation of the Baptist Faith by Edgar Young Mullins is a landmark work in Baptist theology, offering a systematic and thoughtful presentation of the principles that define the Baptist tradition. As one of the most influential theologians of the early 20th century, Mullins provides a fresh interpretation of Baptist distinctives, focusing on the role of personal faith, religious freedom, and the autonomy of the local church within the broader Christian experience.The book is structured around six core axioms, which Mullins identifies as essential to Baptist identity: the theological axiom of God’s sovereignty, the religious axiom of personal faith, the ecclesiastical axiom of local church independence, the moral axiom of individual responsibility, the social axiom of democracy, and the religious liberty axiom affirming freedom of conscience. Mullins argues that these principles not only shape Baptist beliefs but also reflect foundational truths that are vital for all of Christianity.Throughout the book, Mullins addresses the practical implications of these axioms, such as the importance of believer’s baptism, the authority of Scripture, and the separation of church and state. His writing underscores the Baptist conviction that faith must be personal and voluntary, emphasizing that each believer has direct access to God without the need for intermediaries. At the same time, Mullins highlights the importance of community within the local church and the need for cooperative efforts among churches to advance the Gospel.The Axioms of Religion remains a significant work in the study of Baptist theology and serves as both a guide to understanding the Baptist faith and a call to embrace its principles with conviction. Ideal for students, church leaders, and believers seeking to explore the foundations of their faith, Mullins’ work offers a vision of Christianity grounded in freedom, responsibility, and a personal relationship with God.
The Ayahuasca Experience: A Sourcebook on the Sacred Vine of Spirits
by Ralph MetznerAn exploration of the chemical, biological, psychological, and experiential dimensions of ayahuasca • Details the scientific discovery of ayahuasca’s sophisticated psychoactive delivery system in the brain and body and its potential applications in medicine and psychology • Includes contributions from Dennis J. McKenna, Ph.D., J. C. Callaway, Ph.D., and Charles S. Grob, M.D., on the ethnopharmacology, psychology, phytochemistry, and neuropharmacology of ayahuasca • Provides 24 firsthand accounts of ayahuasca experiences and resulting life changes Widely recognized by anthropologists as the most powerful and widespread shamanic hallucinogen, ayahuasca has been used by native Indian and mestizo shamans in Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador for healing and divination for thousands of years. Made from the Amazonian vine Banisteriopsis caapi and the DMT-laden leaf of Psychotria viridis, ayahuasca is regarded as the embodiment of intelligent plant beings who can offer spiritual teachings and healing knowledge to those who respectfully engage with them. Many Western-trained physicians and psychologists now acknowledge that ayahuasca allows access to spiritual dimensions of consciousness, otherworldly realms and beings, and visionary experiences indistinguishable from classic religious mysticism. With contributions from leading psychoactive scholars Dennis J. McKenna, Ph.D., Charles S. Grob, M.D., and J. C. Calloway, Ph.D., on the ethnopharmacology, psychology, phytochemistry, and neuropharmacology of ayahuasca, Ralph Metzner provides a comprehensive exploration of the chemical, biological, psychological, and experiential dimensions of this Amazonian hallucinogen. He includes more than 20 firsthand accounts from people who have participated in ayahuasca rituals and experienced major life changes as a result. He details the scientific discovery of ayahuasca’s sophisticated psychoactive delivery system in the brain and body as well as the deep psychological impact of this potent entheogen. He concludes with his own findings on ayahuasca, including its applications in medicine and psychology, and compares the worldview revealed by ayahuasca visions to that of modern cultures.