Book Description
Essays about communication and the thought of Canadian Jesuit philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan. ... Read more

Book Description
The full story told for the first time—the origins and precursors, its flowering within the American counterculture of the 1960s, and the development into an international spiritual perspective.

The New Age movement may well reflect the future face of Western religion. Drawing on an eclectic mix of Eastern and Western spiritual philosophies, it embraces an extensive range of holistic mind-body and self-empowerment forms and practices.Nevill Drury presents the movement's key themes, along with numerous telling and unfamiliar illustrations:

• the strong influence from the East on New Age thought, linking Theosophy and Hinduism, Vivekenanda with Huxley and Esalen, Leary and The Tibetan Book of the Dead;
• the major "higher consciousness" models that have emerged from the Transpersonal movement;
• the historical progression from the precursors—Swedenborg, Blavatsky, Gurdjieff—to the psychological pioneers of the study of consciousness, from the psychedelic period to alternative health, from the emergence of the New Physics and its parallels with mysticism to the modern study of comparative mythology.

  Due attention is given to the role of women in the rise of the New Age, especially since the 1970s—among them Shakti Gawain, biophysicist Candace Pert, shaman Brooke Medicine-Eagle, and psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, as well as high-profile personalities such as "angel therapist" Doreen Virtue or channelers Shirley MacLaine and JZ Knight. 131 illustrations, 53 in color. ... Read more

  Customer Reviews (1)

  Perfect New Age 101, but it forgot to include Neo-Paganism.
  This is exactly the sort of new age 101 book that I was looking for, and even better than I expected! (And here I was told there wasn't any such thing as a new age 101 book.) This is a neatly organized book (sorted by chronology and by subject) with lots of full color photographs and illustrations contemporary to the subjects discussed. Its tone is astonishingly, delightfully neutral, describing both the positive, successful, genius aspects of each movement within the movement, while also telling about the debunkings, hoaxes, disasters, and dissolutions. It provides enough background information about each subject for you to understand it a bit better than if you'd directly approached another book on that subject alone. It covers not only the sub-movements that I'd come to think of as being New Age, but also related movements, such as the Victorian precursors to the New Age, modern shamanism, developments in psychology, and hippie psychadelica. While it does cover the Goddess-based spirituality, it does not include any other things about Paganism, Wicca, etc. (Odd, since I'd expect the neo-Pagan movement to be included in here, if they included those other things.) It is not strictly American (or Californian, which tends to be thought of as the center of the New Age movement) and includes movements which happened primarily in England or in India. The book does not present new ideas of its own, it just describes what the ideas were of these other people, and how it worked out for them.
  
  If you're interested in anything occult (or psychadelic, psychological, or social) then read it, it's excellent in every way! Doesn't matter if you're new to the occult, or if you consider yourself to be fairly experienced; you will learn something from this. It's more than just a New Age 101. Pagans may be disappointed by being left out, but there's still plenty of connections that they'll like. I'm not sure how much reread value this book has, although it's ideal as a reference. ... Read more

Book Description
Wolverine's 30th Anniversary Celebration starts off with a bang as the X-Men investigate a series of mysterious murders in New York City. All the victims seem to have been cut to pieces by blades...Adamantium blades! But if Wolverine didn't murder these people, then who did?! Plus: While on assignment to track down missing teammate Sage, the X-Men discover more than they bargained for: the birth of a newer and deadlier Hellfire Club! Collecting Uncanny X-Men 450-454. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Good story
I thought this book has a interesting story line.This one was deal with the hellfire's club.As soon as I heard that name I thought I was going to see the Phoniex but it wasn't about that.It was about re-establishing the hellfire's club and x-23's rescue attempt happens to lead up to it, and the x-men have to take down the hellfire's club once again before it is established again.I was introduce to the character Sage which I have not had the pleasure before.First heard of this character from a Spiderman game (Gameboy Advance).I got to see Emma Frost (or White Witch as she is called in the hellfire's club) in action. So it makes for a good read

Mainly a fan read if at all
I have to say that I enjoyed this Graphic Novel: but I am a fan, and we can (if we try hard enough) like anything X-men related. As comic books go, however, this one is kind of pointless: to both a long-term fan and someone just starting out. The plots (there are two) are really not that interesting: the first one focusing on the "Mutant town" of new york, and the second focusing on the Hellfire Club. The first is much better, but still the whole thing doesn't really do anything but cement a new character into the X-Men books, (the process further and better carried out in the next Graphic Novel in this series) and the whole mutant town concept is pretty poorly explained. The next one is a plot only fans can love, with so many obscure and unexplained characters it was confusing even for me (where the heck did Selene come from?!?!?). Both of these two plots did have their brief moments of characterization (such as the confrontation between Rachel and the White Queen), and they both have decent art, but even this does not really make it worth it. All in all these felt more like fillers done in desperation then anything else. So if you absolutely must buy these, buy them for brief moments and good art. Otherwise, if you are looking to save some money by skipping a Graphic Novel, or you are a newbie, skip this.

P.S If marvel wants to highlight an issue like slavery, why create a fake mutant slave trade, when very real and terrible ones already exist?

Really Trying to Like Uncanny X-Men
I'm obviously in the minority here; I think Logan is cool but I don't need to see him in every X-Title. It's hard to believe there was a time when he was on one team, but he really seems to be on them all.

That being said, I really didn't get that interested in X-23. Unfortunately, I have to admit to enjoying Wolverine alot in his own comic book, but am losing his character in the X-books. I don't really see how he can be on more than one team at once and still have enough adventures to justify his own title.

Maybe I'm just over exposed to him? Regardless, I feel as if stories about the Weapon X program really should stay in his own comic - I actually read X-Men to catch up with how the team as a whole is doing. It's getting hard to really justify buying what is essentially a team book when the focus is increasingly on one character.

The arc isn't bad; it's just treading a plot line that has been overdone in the X books in Wolverine's case, it's really hard to work up enthusiasm for another person who went through the Weapon X process.

More good X-fun from Claremont
This second volume of legendary X-scribe Chris Claremont's return run on Uncanny X-Men finds Wolverine encountering Marvel's newest (and hottest) character in the past few years while investigating a murder: the X-23.In the meantime, Storm, Nightcrawler, Bishop, Marvel Girl, and Wolvie are trying to track down Sage, and in the process discover a new Hellfire Club, and boy do they have an axe to grind.If you read the previous volume, The End of History, then you'll know what to expect in Cruelest Cut.Claremont seems to be getting more comfortable back in the house he built by not trying to impress everyone every issue.He's having fun here writing characters he created and riding on the mythology he helped shape, which helps make this TPB a worthwhile read.The art by Alan Davis and Andy Park is great as well, especially Davis' pencils as he once again draws a mouth watering Marvel Girl.All in all, longtime and new readers who have either enjoyed Claremont's last volume or were there in the golden age of his Uncanny X-Men run should give this a look. ... Read more

Book Description
How to Write for the New Age MarketPublish your New Age book! More than 60,000 new books are published every year in the United States. A growing number of these books are in the New Age subject areas. Just how do you break into this growing market, and how can you make a comfortable living as a New Age writer?

The best-selling author of more than twenty-five books, including Spirit Guides & Angel Guardians and 101 Feng Shui Tips for the Home, generously shares his tricks of the trade with this first-ever guide to writing for the New Age market. Learn how to get the attention of publishers, how to actually write your book, how to work with editors and publicists, conduct book tours, and write articles for publication. This comprehensive and encouraging guide will also teach you how to:Choose a topic, evaluate the market, develop your own writing style, research, and write your book Find the right publisher, prepare your submission package, and know what to expect from the acquisitions process Understand the production process and how to work with editors Promote your book and generate positive publicity ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

How to Write for the New Age Market
An extremely practical book. It is really worth its price.

Writingfor the New Age Market
If you are an aspiring new age auther this is the book for you. This book takes you completely through the writing proccess. Richard Webster gives practical tips for outlining, publishing, and writing. If you are serious about wring for the new age market I would definitely suggest this book to you. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A must for Fifth Age fans
This boxed set brings out the best for sorcerer characters in the Fifth Age saga. New and powerful professions, a lot of background information and a well-done adventure make this supplement very helpful! ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (13)

New Age Chinese English Dictionary Reviewed
This is one of, if not the best, chinese-english dictionaries to have come out in the last few years.Formerly, The Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary was one of the best dictionaries produced on the Mainland.However, it was woefully out of date and full of Cultural Revolution platitudes. The 'New Age...' is roughly 2000 pages, has many more characters than the 'Pinyin..', and has most, if not all of the new phrases and terms of the last 20 years. As China has modernized, so has its language vastly increased the number of compound words in current use.The 'New Age...' is also printed and bound much better than most books produced on the Mainland, athough its pages are necessarily thin.
All in all, this dictionary is a 'must have' for anyone studying Chinese at an advanced level.

Great dictionary with lots of extras
I just bought the 2006 edition of this dictionary in Beijing last week (the price has gone up to a whopping 112 yuan/14 US$--c'mon Amazon, you're losing your competitive edge!). In the store I compared it to the big dictionary recommended by my professor, and found that the New Age dictionary not only had more entries per word, but also had many more idomatic usages as well. Plus it includes proper names and place names, classical, cultural and folklore references, tons of botanical and esoteric references and finally has a big appendix including all sorts of helpful charts about family relationships, heavenly stems, chinese musical instruments (illustrated), Chinese governmental offices, a breakdown of the Chinese communist party, and many more things, making it almost a mini almanac! The only negatives are that the introduction is in Chinese only, there doesn't seem to be list of the chinese abbreviations for 'part of speech' notations (ie--'v','adj','m. word', etc), and the print is not as big as I wish it were. But I still really recommend this one!

Best Chinese-English Dictionary Ever
As with other reviewers said, this is THE definitive Chinese-English dictionary. If you need just one Chinese-English dictionary, make sure you buy this one. If you're a serious learner, this dictionary is a must have.

* It has more than 2,000 pages describing thousands of characters.
* It's indexed by Pinyin and its corresponding intonation mark.
* It has a radical table at the first few pages making it a breeze to search for the entries.
* It contains entries of rare / classical characters with annotation.
* It even contains entries of the ancient / obsolete meaning of the character, if any.
* It contains examples of the word usage plus its meaning, making it very suitable for advanced learners.
* It briefly explains the idiom (if the entry is an idiom / proverb) and a little background on it.
* It contains an appendix that explains Chinese culture a bit.

The characters are indexed like this:
X --> Main character, (pinyin sound)
Main meaning: xxxx... Example: xxxx Translation: xxxx
Secondary meaning:
1. xxxx... Example: xxxx Translation: xxxx
2. xxxx... Example: xxxx Translation: xxxx
...
n. xxxx... Example: xxxx Translation: xxxx
Words using X:
XA (pinyin): Meaning: xxxx. Example: xxxx. Translation: xxxx
XB (pinyin): Meaning: xxxx. Example: xxxx. Translation: xxxx
...

From here you know that it's extremely comprehensive. You'll find dozens of pagesper each common word like Bu (No), Shi (Yes), Yi (One), etc. And even contains idioms (like Bu San Bu Shi, etc).

The only down side of this book is there's no electronically searchable version and it's heavy.

I own this edition (2001 edition) and use it ever since I bought it in 2004. I heard that there's a newer edition (2004) with ISBN 710003308X. But I haven't confirmed it. If it is, then I'll definitely buy it again since my copy creased a lot due to frequent use.

disappointment
i am sad to say that i was very disappointed from the condition of the dictionary cover. it looks used or damaged. this was the first time i have ordered somthing from amazon and i think it might be the last.

best chinese dictionary
I have looked at just about every available dictionary in China and the US and this is my choice.As a graduate student doing research in Chinese I have made extensive use of this dictionary for a few years now and it's hard to imagine a better tool.It even includes an impressive amount of classical words and usages.In answer to the questions submitted by another reviewer, yes, the dictionary includes pinyin (words are organized in alphabetical order by pinyin) and yes there are example sentences, given in Chinese with English translation. ... Read more

Product Description
Are you looking for the right kind of work? A job that will satisfy your need to contribute to society, provide enough money to live on, and help you advance on your spiritual path? You spend a major portion of your life at work why not use the workplace to develop as a person?Unlike other career books, Karma, Destiny, and Your Career looks at your vocation as part of a spiritual journey that will lead you to on-the-job professional and personal growth. Nanette Hucknall has developed visualization techniques to help you get in touch with the transpersonal, or Higher Self, which knows exactly what your evolving soul should be doing in this lifetime. Each exercise shows you how to discover and overcome the barriers that prevent you from finding and pursuing the right vocation. Hucknall explores the karmic affects of free will, how your past choices affect your career timetable, and why you may have feelings of aversion or inadequacy toward your true vocation. Step-by-step, the book offers the practical advice and encouragement you need! Youll learn to respect the meaning and spiritual importance of obstructions, how to set priorities, the benefits of starting slowly, and the importance of giving thoughtful consideration to your loved ones as you make major career changes. Maybe its time to follow your heart! These techniques provide the guidance you need to explore your Karmic self, live up to your maximum potential, and discover your spiritual destiny. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Living Your True Purpose for this life
This book helps you to learn how to find your purpose and right career for this life. It will bring you clarity and will help you to move to what you are meant to be and love your work where you will find great fulfillment. Enjoy it too.
Eva Jeannine Meloche
Ageless Living Life Coach
Certified Soul Purpose, Career & Retirement Coach
[...] ... Read more

Product Description
Buddhist beliefs impact the world. Its teachings are found in todays media, entertainment, education, government and other places where Christians interact. How can Christians defend their faith in the face of New Age, Tibetan Buddhist thinking? How can the Church reach out and share the Gospel in ways that Buddhists will understand?"Jesus in a New Age Dalai Lama World" reveals how a clear understanding of Tibetan Buddhist beliefs can help Christians live out the life of Christ in ways that Buddhists will appreciate. Using the approach of the Apostle Paul to the Athenians, this book is especially valuable for Christians who interact with Tibetan Buddhist beliefs in the West, or who work abroad. Missionaries, students, churches, or anyone who needs a practical approach to defend or share Christ in the Tibetan Buddhist World will powerfully benefit from this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Agressive Religious Intolerance
An attempt by a practitioner of one religion to convert people of another.Any religious discussion that begins with the perspective of I am right and you are wrong is never a good idea, the idea that a person that is opposed to a faith can teach about it accurately is preposterous.

Wonderful!!
This is a well documented book, detailing the historical foundation for their Tibetan Buddhist beliefs. Highly recommended.

A Compelling Read on Buddhism
Even for a person who has limited knowledge of Buddhism, one would find Tsering's writing style and arrangement of the book a very compelling read.It is a fascinating compilation of history, from the ancient times to the present, with stories and clear explanations of the tenets and background of Buddhism.In addition, the author skillfully compares and contrasts Buddhism and Christianity, and gives us a real sense of the people who live in Middle Asia.

Roger Converse, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship ... Read more

Book Description
Just as formal religion appears to dwindle to a minority interest, 'New Age' spirituality gathers increasing momentum and baffles us with its popular appeal.What is more, it has appropriated Jung as one of its spiritual leaders.
In his own trenchant style, David Tacey, offers a theoretical and philosophical account of the New Age phenomenon and the archetypal imperatives that have brought it about.He also investigates the popular claim that Jung is a prophet or mystic, and argues that critics have been only too willing to concur with what the New Age has made of him, conspiring to turn Jung into a figure of ridicule.
Jung and the New Age redresses the balance while offering a wide-ranging discussion about the state of consciousness in the New Age culture and the future of spirituality versus formal religion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Bad Title but an absolutely amazing book
This author is, in my opinion, one of the most compelling interpreters of Jung and modern psychology. He should be a bestseller. He and James Hollis are tops.Forget the title and forget he bad cover, buy this and read it. He is so smart and the book is a must for Jung fans. ... Read more

Book Description
Understand the impact of new technologies on the media landscape with LIVING IN THE INFORMATION AGE with InfoTrac®! Examining the conceptual and practical aspects of life in an information society, this communication text encourages you to consider how the media industries are being transformed through digital convergence and corporate concentration. Each reading is prefaced by a short introduction and three questions for critical thinking and discussion to help you master the material. Each article is followed by suggestions for taking research online using InfoTrac College Edition so that you can enhance your understanding of the material. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Didn't like it.
I was immediately turned off on this book from page 1.I felt that the authors and editor make many assumptions about society/culture which are generally applied globally rather than to specific cultures and on a more local level.Even among similar societies/cultures, the differences can be great enough that presumption of similarity is an affront to the citizens of those societies/cultures.To speak of one is not to speak of all or others and I didn't feel that this book made an effort to make those types of distinctions.

Another issue I have with some of the material presented here is that developed nations are not yet completely in the information-based stage of development; nor will they ever be.A society will always have local agriculture, manufacturing, and service industries (no matter how small) because society/culture/economy is a continuum, not stepwise and discrete.

A society based solely on information processing will eventually collapse because information processing has no inherent value and is only supported by the "lower tiers" which give it a reason to be (i.e., information management and ICT's are unnecessary if there is no real product going through the supply chain).Assuming this, the information based society is the weakest link in the chain and is possibly the worst to be in (information processing can also be automated the same way as mass production).This book would have you believe the opposite.

The book is frequently optimistic to a fault. Technology (regrettably) does not always have solutions to life's problems, and in fact technology frequently complicates life's problems.In that regard, I specifically found Cairncross' "Trendspotter's Guide to New Communications" to be a laughable example of this, particularly items 3, 7, 9, 10, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, AND ESPECIALLY 28, 29, 30.The last three are examples of extreme techno-evangelical optimism and, while I believe they are highly worthy pursuits, they will be difficult goals to reach in practice; perhaps even impossible because intercultural strife is one human problem that technology can not solve.

To be fair, there are some well written, well thought articles to be found, it's just that there were not enough of them to carry the rest of the book.Alternatively there were some really bad articles (specifically pointless ones) which unnecessarily clutter the book.

Overall, I hated this book and I'm glad to be done with it.It was required reading for a college course (I earned a 3.9 GPA in the class in spite of reading the book).My copy is now so full of marginalia that it's likely to be unsellable so this curse will be darkening my bookshelf into the indefinite future... ... Read more

Book Description
In the pages of this revealing book, the secret "Plan" of the New Age Movement is exposed for the first time in startling detail. Basing the book on an in-depth investigation of the Movement, author Texe Marrs includes over 600 actual quotes from New Age leaders which unveil their "Plan" for establishing a New Age Messiah to lead a One-World Religion and a global government. As part of the "Plan," the Movement intends to wage a total spiritual war against Christian believers. Their ultimate goal? To eliminate every vestige of Christianity.

This is the most complete and well-documented book ever published about the New Age Movement. It shows exactly what is now being done by the New Age leadership to gain influence in every facet of society, from the entertainment industry to public schools and government. Marrs details specifically the New Age Plan to win over the next generation by flooding the media--TV cartoon shows, movies, comic books, libraries, etc.--with material that promotes New Age religious thinking and doctrine. Finally, Marrs shows how New Age ideas have already begun to infiltrate and undermine Christian churches from within.

Dark Secrets of the New Age is a sobering expos of the alarming New Age Movement with an urgent message for every believing Christian. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Well written.... Texe Marrs nails it as always.... Classic book..
I'm about half way through the book and I'm just glued to it.....
What awsome research done by Texe Marrs. He just nails it to the core.
The rejection of christianity through the New age religion to usher in a new way of thinking.
Texe explains the doctrines and the errors of the new age gurus with 600 quotations from their leaders.
Basically, Satan (Lucifer) decieves the world into thinking that they are gods and they don't need to seek redemption from GOD because they are gods.....
The same lie that the serpent (Lucifer) told EVE in the garden of eden....

Relevant then, relevant now.
This book is an important tool for the discerning Christian. The author does a thorough job of defining the New Age movement, exposing its agenda and expounding upon the future plans for the syncretism of the New Age movement and Christianity. Some books of this type loose relevance as the years pass; this book has gained significance. The best feature about this book is the meticulous documentation that is provided. If you have trouble believing the authors premise, then research his sources, and you will see that if anything he has gone a little too easy on the New Age movement.

Also, this book is a very easy read. It is written in a veryplain and common style and flows nicely from beginning to end.

Hogwash
I see yet another attempt to undermine the New Age movement.. In a world where a war is being waged by two religions, Islam and Christianity, both religions have the audacity to blame and criticize the beliefs of others. It's really amazing to me.

I look at the world today and rather than seeing some New Age "conspiracy" to rule the world, I see a renewed crusade by the two Abrahamic religions in order to regauin perceived power lost. This book is just another attempt to keep people away from spiritual truth... "Oh, it's the religion of the anti-Christ." Really?

The book of Revelation makes it quite apparent that the anti-Christ will be a Christian and viewed as someone to be admired.. It is just another example of why so many people dislike modern day Christians. The whole "I'm right, your'e wrong" ideology is not panning out too well for Christianity, in my opinion.

Recommended Pre-Requisite: Being a Christian.
If your a fundamentalist Christian or Evangelical this is the book for you. This book will speak volumes to your soul.

This book is ultimatley, all true. There are many New Age leaders and groups, they have agenda's and beliefs, and they are advancing and shaping our culture and world. Even some of the new age leader do hate relligion to the point of trying to destroy it (even if by violence) And Christians do (should) believe everything this book says.

However, Whether or not Christianity is real, or if the New Age is going to end up taking over the world and everyones going to become a demi-god...Is up to the reader.

For the non believer, this book is an interesting and factual read into the beliefs and conflict between two relligious groups if taken into a non personal context.

So befor for ordering, you better ask yourself...How's your faith?

When Truth is Proclaimed those Ensnared will Scoff
I dislike labeling any subject as a "Conspiracy" whereas the vision of a wild-eyed fanatic is immediately attached. Sometimes however, that is the best term to use and accurately applies to the New Age. Having spent much time in the ministry, authoring articles worldwide and a website dedicated to unmasking the movement, I can vouch for the authenticity of the content found in this book. The New Ager will only interpret bigotry and narrow-minded philosophies propagated in material such as this. I can understand and do sympathize. However, the truth must be proclaimed so that error may be illuminated.The ancient lord of the lost has used these methodologies unveiled from the beginning of mankind, branded by many different labels. Lucifer has not had to change his strategies, for they work perfectly. The unenlightened whose eyes are veiled, who follow the system, are woefully ignorant of the poison they drink. Enough mother earth 'sugar' is added to disguise the taste of deception. Texe Marrs valiantly exposes the satanic ploy of old and dismantles it one brick at a time. ... Read more

Book Description
This is the first book to cover the new landscape of pyramids found worldwide. It describes the changed nature of the pyramid debate and offers science a challenge, but equally tries to answer some of the key messages that the last decade of pyramid discovery has brought us. It is a series of discoveries that has changed the archaeological world and extended all our horizons. ... Read more

Book Description
Literary fiction in Germany has long been a medium for contemplation of the 'nation' and questions of national identity. From the mid-1990s, in the wake of heated debates on the future direction of culture, politics and society in a more 'normal', united country, German literature has become increasingly diverse and seemingly disparate - at the one extreme, it represents the attempt to 'reinvent' German traditions, at the other, the unmistakable influence of Anglo-American forms and pop literature. A shared concern of almost all of recent German fiction, however, is the contemporary debate on globalisation, its nature, impact and consequences for 'local culture'. In its engagement with globalisation the literature of the Berlin Republic continues the long-established practice of reflection on what it is to be 'German'.

This book investigates literary responses to the phenomenon of globalisation. The subject is approached from a wide range of thematic and theoretical perspectives in twelve chapters which, taken together, also provide an overview of German fiction from the mid-1990s to the present. The book serves both as an introduction to contemporary German literature for university students of German and as a resource for scholars interested in culture and society in the Berlin Republic. ... Read more

Product Description
Author: Zhang Boran Order No. 15807 ISBN: 710003308X Binding: Hardcover Publisher: Commercial Press Pub Year: 2004 Pages: 2,818 Language: English and Chinese Size: 7.5 x 10.5 This is a new, large-sized, and illustrated dictionary that contains more than 160,000 entries, with more than 1,000 illustrations and 11 appendices. It also has 1,000 groups of synonyms, 700 groups of usages aiming to provide assistance to solving general problems that often puzzle English learners. This dictionary was compiled by a group of scholars at Nanjing University who had spent six years to complete the project. ... Read more

Book Description

From Shirley MacLaine's spiritual biographyOut on a Limb to the teenage witches in the filmThe Craft, New Age and Neopagan beliefs have made sensationalistic headlines. In the mid- to late 1990s, several important scholarly studies of the New Age and Neopagan movements were published, attesting to academic as well as popular recognition that these religions are a significant presence on the contemporary North American religious landscape. Self-help books by New Age channelers and psychics are a large and growing market; annual spending on channeling, self-help businesses, and alternative health care is at $10 to $14 billion; an estimated 12 million Americans are involved with New Age activities; and American Neopagans are estimated at around 200,000.New Age and Neopagan Religions in America introduces the beliefs and practices behind the public faces of these controversial movements, which have been growing steadily in late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century America.

What is the New Age movement, and how is it different from and similar to Neopaganism in its underlying beliefs and still-evolving practices? Where did these decentralized and eclectic movements come from, and why have they grown and flourished at this point in American religious history? What is the relationship between the New Age and Neopaganism and other religions in America, particularly Christianity, which is often construed as antagonistic to them? Drawing on historical and ethnographic accounts, Sarah Pike explores these questions and offers a sympathetic yet critical treatment of religious practices often marginalized yet soaring in popularity. The book provides a general introduction to the varieties of New Age and Neopagan religions in the United States today as well as an account of their nineteenth-century roots and emergence from the 1960s counterculture. Covering such topics as healing, gender and sexuality, millennialism, and ritual experience, it also furnishes a rich description and analysis of the spiritual worlds and social networks created by participants.

Customer Reviews (2)

excellent, but mostly about the west coast
As a fellow academic in sociology and religion, I am familiar with Pike's work in general. She is an excellent scholar and one of the foremost authorities on alternative religion. However, I will spare you all the tedium of academic discourse and instead make one critique: the book is mostly about new age and neopagan religions as manifested on the west coast of the US. As a scholar of midwest alternative religion, I think her book would benefit greatly from a visit to Chicago and Detroit for example, where paganism and other forms of alternative religion are equally manifest--but with some significant differences. Other areas of the country likely exhibit unique characteristics as well. Still, I strongly recommend the book for academic readers as well as practitioners and other students of religion.

Highly Recommended for General and Student Readership
Sarah Pike's 2004 study is an accessible, enjoyable, very general overview of New Age and Contemporary Pagan religion in the United States. It is intended for students and interested non-students, rather than the religionist per se, and is written from a balanced, critical point of view. Her introduction provides a quick guide to most other major works of this kind, including Graham Harvey's study, and is a vast improvement over other, more polemical studies, such as Philip Davis's "The Goddess Unmasked." Pike's biggest challenge, and a controversial one, is to include yet separate New Age and Pagan religion from each other. Her efforts are probably more successful in this area than other attempts to either totally distinguish them or collapse them together.

What makes Pike's study different is that her goal is not to provide a comprehensive guide to traditions and practices. Rather, her work concentrates on situating the contours of these religions in an American historical context, and demonstrating their continuity, as well as divergence, from other aspects of American Religious History. As well her main areas of investigation are trends in in healing, gender/sexuality, apocalypticism/millenialism, and in the ethics or style of practice, rather than content or specific denominations. This is significant because New Age and Neopagan religions are radically decentralized movements. Lacking a single charasmatic leader, or even one authoritative organization, these movements are for the most part, difficult to study. Unlike early century or 19th century esotericisms, they lack founding texts, or single leaders.

Pike begins by spending a chapter compressing and extending, in parts, America's unchurched religious traditions, including Spiritualist trance, which she considers a significant antecedent to Pagan possession and New Age channeling. We know that Spiritualist demonstrations were attended by many, including Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and James Fenimore Cooper. One of the major ways spirits communicated in Spiritualism was by "rapping," or making noises then interpreted in a narrative fashion. As well, Spiritualist publications and proponents were widely known to engage in ethical advocacy of issues of the day, including the treatment of Amerindians, liberal causes such as death penalty reform, and wage reform, causes advocated by many (but not all) New Agers and Pagans. While discussing Neolithic and Jungian approaches in Pagan myth, Pike firmly locates these traditions as emerging from mid-20th century revivals and transformations of 19th century (and earlier modes of religious expression), even as many Pagans trace their deities directly to classical sources. Pike correctly traces the focus on personalization in this form of religion to the highly personal, ecstatic, and optimistic ways Americans have historically related to sacred power, such as reformist movements and the Great Awakenings. One debatable point is her location of the "birth" of NeoPaganism in the United States with the founding of Feraferia and the Church of All Worlds in 1967.

While many New Age practitioners and Pagans tend to pursue worship and transformation in an entirely private way, there are those who pursue a highly political and even oppositional form of public worship. In Ottawa in 2001 at the World Bank meeting protests, a Pagan group formed a "living river" as part of the protest. At the School of the Americas Protest in Columbus, Georgia, in the same month, several religious groups, including a group of Witches, conducted an "Earth-Based Blessing." Issac Bonewits has been regularly promoting the use of spellwork in encouraging people to participate in the Democratic process in the United States, calling for collective simultaneous action over the Internet, and teaching political ritual workshops at Pagan Festivals. Others take a wider view of activism beyond the nation-state. Some groups take political action in the form of ecological magic, or conducting rituals as threatened natural sites. As well, some of these sites may be contested with indigenous peoples, which adds a whole other dimension and layer of complexity to this issue. Gender activism is particularly important, given the connection to feminism which transformed the movements in the 1960's. Pike as well discusses the tensions between Goddess as mythic symbol, feminine life-force, structuring reality, and ontological literal truth, and clearly debunks much of the fantastic myths surrounding sexuality and its relationship to worship and practice.

Healing plays a central role for New Agers and Neopagans, according to Pike. The influence of wholism and health movements in the United States has a long history in religious communities as well. But its interpenetration with the New Age and Neopagan movements was key to the development of each during the 1970's. Religiously, the older inherited occult notions of correspondence and interconnectedness promote analogical healing of "macrocosm" and "microcosm." The increasing emphasis on a spiritual side to science, including Hindu and Chinese interpolations with quantum mechanics and relativity, gave weight to the increasing view that life and its environment interact at the levels of subtle threads, layers, and relationships of energy. Herbalism continues to be common, with its ties into folk medicine and vernacular lore, while auric healing and direct manipulation/transformation of subtle energies, at the other end of the spectrum, is easily as well known. Sometimes energy manipulation via earthen means combines these notions, such as in crystal healing. Deities may also be part of the healing process. Nuturing powers may be called upon, but ones of fierce defense, and regeneration, such as Kali, are commonplace as well. In any case, Pike continues to make the point that self-exploration and self-understanding are in many cases, foundational to New Age or Pagan forms of healing, both in the sense of deconstruction and regeneration.

Apocalyticism is treated by Pike in a single chapter. The scope of the spectrum she explores again ranges from a totalistic immediate shift in the physical environment to personal transformation. There is more than some elitism among New Age practictioners and Neopagans who see themselves as part of a vanguard that will help usher in the elite, and a corresponding underlying concern that those dragging their feet, so to speak, may not end up with a share in this future world, or paradigm. Pike locates much of her discussion of Pagan Sacred Geography, or dedicated sacred lands, to this topic.

Highly recommended for the student, general reader, or historian of American Religion. Advanced practitioners may find much of the non-historical material redundant. Pike includes a resource guide for those interested in continuing their study in this area, either in terms of scholarship or practice. ... Read more

Book Description
Here it comes! Find out why and how Psylocke came back to life. Find out what Jamie Braddock is up to and why he's been popping up from place to place in the past year. Everything has been building to this. Don't miss it! Collects Uncanny X-Men #472-474 and Uncanny X-Men Annual #1. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

fast delivery
I am very pleased with my purchase.It came faster than I thought it would and in very good condition.I am happy with the the writers bringing my favorite X-Man, Psylocke, back to the team.Both the art and the writing is fantastic.I'm glad they are giving Betsy more action this time around than before they killed her off.She is a warrior and deserves it.

Nothing great, but an all around solid entry from Claremont
Chris Claremont scripted the golden age of X-Men stories, and as any fanboy knows, just about anything he's done since his return to Marvel's merry mutants has ranged from average to just plain bad.First Foursaken, the fifth collected volume of his return to Uncanny X-Men helps from the fact that Claremont has a co-writer here, and it's a pretty all around solid yarn.The majority of this TPB focuses around Psylocke, who has recently returned from the dead (only a few years after Claremont killed her off during his yawnable run on X-Treme X-Men), as well as her insane brother Jamie Braddock.Storm plays a pivotal role here as well, pondering her marriage proposal to the Black Panther while she, Psylocke, and the rest of Claremont's lineup of X-Men are in the heat of battle.There's nothing here we haven't seen before from Claremont or any other X-Men writer or title, but that's not necessarily bad here as things are pretty much kept entertaining.The only downside for me is the artwork from veteran X-Men artist Chris Bachalo, whose character models have never been much to write home about for me personally.I'm not saying I can do any better, but I've never been a fan of his work since his Generation X days, and he hasn't done much to win me over in the years since.Regardless, First Foursaken isn't bad one bit, and if you are a fan of Bachalo's work and are looking for a solid X-Men story from the man responsible for the way they are today and have been for years, look no further.

not amazing, but pretty solid book
collects issues #472-474 and annual #1. the uncanny x-men new age series has been pretty disappointing overall, so it was nice to see this book which while not outstanding has some solid artwork and writing (perhaps helped by the fact that claremont had a co-writer). the main arc concerns psylocke's brother jamie and although it's supposedly a battle on the scale of the phoenix stories (and introduces a brand-new antagonist) it doesn't reach nearly the same epic scope. but it's still pretty enjoyable, mostly b/c it's nice to see psylocke in the spotlight. the annual is actually the main draw here, which focuses on storm and her conflicts about what to do about the black panther's marriage proposal in the midst of being attacked on all sides by a power-hungry dictator. there are some nice dream sequences here and a surprising revelation about storm's past at the end, which unlike some of the other recently revealed x-men histories is actually believable and interesting and should lead to some interesting storylines in the future. all in all not the best but def. not the worst, and although the rest of the team doesn't get much attention this is still worth reading if you like psylocke and storm. ... Read more