It’s Been a minute ‘Merica

Disregard all the shit you see below. I never finished that book about Bible stores, probably because it was boring And I am sorry that I made you all wait so long before bringing you that sweet ass content. My last post on here was over a year ago, and for me that isn’t too bad. We have made an entire revolution around the sun (and some change), and I have read a hand full of books that have mildly stuck to my brain. Ready Player One, The Lives of Tao, and The Alchemist. All good books in their own rights but I am more stoked about RP1 coming out a a major motion picture. In haven’t given up on my pursuit of the universe’s secrets. But I have mostly given up on people who write books about it. But i would like to adjust the aim of this internet publication. Branch out into other stuff. Like Podcasts, and my quest to write a novel about nothing? It’s national Novel writing month, and I would like to get into the habit of writing a few times a week. Trouble is I get my best plot ideas a 10:30 at night and I usually crash for the night within a 2 hour radius of that. Anyway my intention is to wright of the direction of right action and the ebb of the universe will flow in my general direction.

So since last year I have purchased a rectangular shaped TV an Xbox One and formally entered domestic partnership (yep ladies I am off limits…but you can look). All of the above were on my vision board at the beginning of the year.  If memory serves me right I think I hit four out of five if you include the queen Ikea bed I got this spring. But enough about my life I am out here trying to make the internet a nicer place to live. So This will be a new platform for other shit mostly the Podcasts I listen to (a very shortlist). But they get me to work sane on Pittsburgh’s less than glamorous Mass transit.

To all my fellow NanoWrimo pantsers send all reserve good vibes in my general direction. My brain hurts and the office isn’t enough. My original approach was a existential crisis of a middle aged man looking for a response from the creator of the universe, in the prose of Alice Walker in the Color Purple. But I am not sure how well the Journal entry thing would work for me, and I don’t want to rip off a legend. That would make me a bitter of the highest class. My girlfriend has a book by a woman named Jacqueliine Woodson called Brown Girl Dreaming. Amazing have any of you ever heard of this? It’s like all in poems. I love i. Well what I have read of it anyway. And she has a hard cover, and it’s draped in awards and medals like an Olympian gold medalist. My Girlfriend is going to see her speak sometime next year as apart of some series of YA writers. I am stoked for her, also I wish I was going but alas I am not. Anyway Ia m totes wasting word count here And I am sure I am slated to finish my novel sometime around Kanye’s Presidential Inauguration so on that note I am going to sign off.

Coming Soon, Turning the Tide

Sorry folks it has been so long since I have posted. I have been quite busy fighting the everyday fight of life as we know it. Trying to maintain the energy necessary for self evolution. It is hard yes but I am open my eyes every morning in the hopes that the gates to the next level open. Right now I am working on a book that touches a subject very near and dear to my heart. Biblical narratives by a gentleman by the name of John Alan Turner. The book is entitled ‘Crazy Stories Sane God.’ It basically has all the stories from the bible that are lesser known, or the smaller narratives of larger more known biblical stories. For example he opens with Sodom and Gomorrah and segways into the Noah account where Noah’s son is curse for finding his father drunk and naked.

 

After I read the Eben Alexander text I started being more careful about the knowledge i let creep into my skull. I also learned that just because someone is slapping a ‘spiritual’ sticker on a book doesn’t mean they have your best interest at heart (consciously or unconsciously). So with that in mind I struck all the iffy titles I was interested in, and put a higher litmus test on the titles i choose, and a higher premium on the time i committed to reading those titles. I can’t just out right call people bullshit artist. But I will steer clear of works I deem to be red herrings in my quest for truth. And I’ll sit and listen to anyone who makes arguments that are counter to my beliefs, or the ones I have found truth in according to what the universe has shown to me at this point in my life. With that said I hope to be done with the Turner book in the next 6 days.

 

 

Book Review: The Map of Heaven

Title: The Map of Heaven

Author: Eben Alexander

Published: October 7, 2014

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Source: ARC

Before I came across an ARC of Eben Alexander’s Map of Heaven, the most I’d heard about him was that he was some doctor that had gotten sick; and gone into a coma and had a dream about butterflies. Well from the preface (and I almost never read that part) of his new book he had my attention. Given the last few books I reviewed (some DNF’d) I was kinda losing hope for the genre, as in there were no genuine contributions to such a new and emerging space in the publishing world. But Alexander put all of my worries to rest. First of all he has enticed me to want to read his first book Proof of Heaven; which I have not yet read, but now I look forward to it. Alexander’s ability to present his arguments with some of the founding fathers of science and medicine is impeccable. Reaching as far back as Newton and even to the two pillars  of philosophy Plato and Socrates; citing Plato one of Socrates  disciples’ allegory of the cave. basically using what is normally perceived as people in a cave chained to a wall with a myopic view of the world outside of them because they can not see shadows on the wall by the light of the fire. This is analogous to what Alexander believes is the current state of science, and the empirical world as we know it. Being part of that scientific community, and fully initiated into this fraternity he’s uses figures like Socrates and Plato who were the top minds of their time in greek culture to illustrate how much we are off the mark. That is not to out do the fact that science has and is making a lot of contributions to the world as we know it. It’s just that after his NDE Alexander live only in the observable universe anymore. He quotes Plato on a number of occasions citing “what we call learning is only a process of recollection.” I love this notion of an observer in the midst of consciousness. Or the awareness that is aware as I have heard it in other places. This book was one of great introspection on the part of Alexander. He does a great job at backing up his claims with the research and facts from other revered figures in the scientific community, this text comes complete with a references in the footnote section at the end of each chapter. But this reader was not compelled to fact check Mr. Alexander, but it’s great to know that the window is left open to all who would like to.

There is no doubt that this book is a response to those in the scientific community who wrote off Alexander’s claims in Proof of Heaven as a simple firing of oxygen deprived neurons. But what Alexander did instead of speak overtly and unequivocally to his naysayers amazed me more and kept me totally engaged while reading his seven chapter curtain call. He gave a voice to the hordes of folks who wrote to him their testimonials of similar experiences, whether they were first hand or second hand experiences. While presiding over the marriage of the metaphysical and scientific community; he simultaneously built a cake layering his commentary with the italicized personal accounts of those he’s encountered on speaking engagements as well as those who’ve written him since the publication of Proof of Heaven.

If you are looking for an intelligent discussion on the subject of NDEs, and the existence of consciousness beyond the physical body I highly suggest you scoop this title up when it hits bookstores on October 7th.

Twitter: @LifeBeyondD

Website: http://www.ebenalexander.com/

Oprah’s The Life You Want Weekend – Day 2 – My Ah ha Moment

Shinin Light Book Reviews

The first exercise from Oprah’s The Life You Want Weekend Tour Workbook.

 The first exercise we were told by Oprah to think about someone we love and the life we want for them. – EASY

I thought about my Mother wanting to see her do here nonprofit work full time. To have a mobile van to teach youth about video and audio. She works with foster care children and helps them speak their truth. I wanted her to have a huge house and all the video equipment she needs.

THE AH-HA Moment

Oprah helped us see  how quickly we can imagine a great life for someone we love. People even wiped away tears when they opened their eyes from envisioning someone else’s dream.

The AH HA Moment- look at how much thought, love, and energy you put into a vision for someone else. Why is it so hard to do…

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Q & A with Jas Boothe – Washington, D.C.’s Toyota Standing O-Vation Recipient on Oprah’s Weekend Tour

this was one of the most beautiful moments of the weekend.

Shinin Light Book Reviews

Q & A from the Round-table Interview with Jas Boothe hosted by Toyota Brand Ambassador Amy Purdy. 

By: Nicole Howard

High resolution photos above are Courtesy of Harpo Studios, Inc. / George Burns 

Watch this video of Jas Boothe’s incredible story from losing everything after Hurricane Katrina, to being discharged after 13 years of service in the U.S. Army after a battle with cancer.

Learn more about her organization here.

Follow on Final Salute, Inc on twitter: @FinalSaluteInc

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Q.  Do you have psychological services available?

A.  We have a full-time case manager. We also have a  connection with veteran organizations. Some of our residents in the house are Veteran disability rated and are getting support that way.

Q.  Is there anything that we can do on our platforms to help the problem before it gets to the stage where you are helping the woman.

A. People say, do you need more homes? – No…

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#LIFEYOUWANTTOURDC

 

Bon Voyage 

Very excited to be heading to out nation’s capitol for the #LifeYouWantTour. I have been an admirer of Oprah since she was on broad cast television back in the 1980’s on 6 ABC back in Philadelphia. In fact I still can recall the time she recorded several shows in Philadelphia. She Chartered a bus full of audience members too the City of Brotherly Love to the Civic Center (the convention Center in the city at the time). All i can recall is them singing Elton John’s ‘Philadelphia Freedom; while speeding down the Philadelphia expressway. I was too young at the time to process the juices that flowed from her soul. I was never quite sure what it was, why I was, and still to this day so drawn to her, like a hummingbird to an orchid. The line up is quite impressive, and Washington D.C. is only the third stop in her circuit around the country with her band of merry souls.

Consequently, or as the universe may have convinced me in perfect order. I was living in Washington D.C. when stumbled upon a book Oprah urge all who were listening to go out and purchase. It was in about 2008, when she was just planning to leave broadcast television, and launch her ‘own’ (did you see what I did there?) network which we all now know as OWN. I was unemployed, and staying with my cousin in southeast DC, in the throws of southern culture shock. I’d become accustomed to watching Oprah while she was still on broadcast TV. And it seemed all of the sudden but she began promoting this book called ‘A New Earth’ by a guy I’d never heard of named Eckhart Tolle. Even though I was broke, and living in a city with one of the highest costs of living I’d ever seen I managed to make it all the way to Union Station and scrounged $20 to buy this book by a guy I’d never heard of in my life.

From the moment I read the first sentence, my eyes were glued to the pages. The only thing that kept me from breezing through it in one day was my finger hurting from taking notes on the margins as I read (as suggested by Oprah herself) She’d prefaced her book club entry by saying that one should be taking notes all throughout. So that one could take as mush as humanly possible from the publication. Suffice to say the world that I knew before I opened the front cover of that book had transformed in a matter of days. I began having strange dreams. My worldview shifted dramatically. And the man i knew as Jesus became fully three dimensional. In a way that i never believed was possible. Until it happened to me. If Oprah was an Orchid, then she bloomed in the period of time it took me to complete that book.

This weekend Washington will be my own personal Mecca, the place where I experienced my own spiritual awakening, an transformation that would not have taken place if my fairy God Mother hadn’t showered me in her sparkling fairy dust. i love her and honor her for that. For being a platform for all that is good in this world. For emerging from her own personal trails unscaved, and demonstrating what it means to be brave and beautiful all at once. I take this opportunity to thank her for setting me on a sound path to fulfillment and enlightenment. I alot of what little i have to her efforts in making the planet a better place to live for all sentient beings.

Beyond Past Lives

Beyond Past Lives

Author:  Mira Kelly

Published: 29 July 2014

Publisher: Hay House

Source: ARC

To reiterate what I started in the prior post about this author and her book, I found it extremely difficult to dredge through Beyond Past Lives. Especially when dealing with the given subject matter of New Age/New Thought. I found it especially insulting, not only to my sensibilities but to the trust a reader puts in a writer when they expose themselves to what it is that the writer has prepared for them between the covers. I am not familiar with Kelly’s prior work but this one not only last me but through me for a loop only a dozen pages in, I hung in there until chapter 3. Her claims and findings were very hard to keep track of, and sometimes seemed implausible. In one instance she tells a story about leaving her business card between the pages of a book in the New Age section of a Barnes and Noble, and claims she acquired a client that way. She proceed to tell us how she took this man into a Past Life Regression session where he recounts a past life that took place in the 1960’s. Apparently he offed himself, but no wait, in trance he’s not done because he continues to recount details in a life that overlapped the one he left as a soul in the 1960s. This is where Kelly dropped the bomb that shit was about to get crazy. More like stupid. She ushers in some concept of a ‘oversoul’ compares it to hands, and the concurrent lives as fingers on the globe contributing to the evolution of this ‘oversoul.’ And you can tell she is used to a gullible audience because she suggests that you may have infact interacted with this over soul.

In short i was left unengaged, trying to figure out where she was going with this and what she was getting at, and more importantly what was the takeaway. I feel that as a reader if a writer can’t draw pictures in my mind, and effect my heart with their prose, and the poetry in the way that they speak to me as the reader then I have nothing else to offer certainly not my time ans attention. The choice to take back the energy I’d invested in the form of intention when I entered this covenant with Ms. Kelly was not an easy one, but once I did further research and thought about how important my time was, it got easier.

I checked on Amazon to see what the streets was saying about this woman, like me and 3 other people actually believe this publication is trash. One girl named Bellaisa got a bit further than me says that at one point Kelly has a client who was reincarnated as a FLOWER? Yes America a flower. All I could say to my self was WTF are you serious? A flower, so with that I made the final decision to just DNF this thing. I will also be deleting it from my Amazon carousel. This was a really bad one guys run away

How a Blog Post Sparked a Retail Movement

I love Big Girls America Deal with it!!!!!

Longreads

Once in a while, a single post can spark a movement. In the summer of 2011, Gabi Gregg, who writes the blog GabiFresh, went on a quest to find a bikini; at the time, bikinis were hard to find in large sizes. When she found one, she posted a picture of herself in it, calling it a “fatkini.” (Gregg says that she got the word and the idea from a Tumblr user.) The picture, and a follow-up article for the Web site xoJane, the next summer, went viral, prompting a wave of copycat posts. Plus-size women took bikini pictures and tagged them #fatkini. Gregg ended up on the “Today” show, and the retail landscape changed. Gregg told me, “Out of nowhere, all these plus-size brands were suddenly making bikinis.”

The fatkini movement—and plus-size fashion in general—has occasionally sparked a backlash. “Being really visible when you’re a plus-size woman is not…

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#NextonDeck

What’s On My Plate

Currently on my plate is a little thing called Beyond Past Lives by Mira Kelly. Let me be honest I am not very excited about this book, this latest offense by Hay House is a bit out of my grasp at the moment. I was first drawn into past life regression for by Brian Weiss. I thought this book would be followable. Well it’s not.  I am really close to DNFing (this is a term introduced to my girlfriend who blogs over at Best Books Ever…basically means you just pitch the book because it’s become impossible)  this title.  I am a good portion thru this and am more excited about the other things on my plate.

However…I am totally stoked about The Map of Heaven, by Eben Alexander, the same doctor who had a near death experience who penned Proof of Heaven. This book is published by Simon and Schuster and is slated to be released later this fall. Upon just flipping through the first few chapters I am really excited about it. I know it seems like I only review books that i like, or am excited about. But I think I do. I also think it’s possible to write a book without running leading your reader in 50 directions at once. The biggest stumbling block for me with this Mira Kelly title is that she throws this huge concept of ‘oversouls’ and parallel lives out there without really ever preparing the reader. She relays her initial reaction to the phenomena but outside of that there isn’t much else for me to go on, that concept alone sparked a trajectory toward rejection on my part with this title from the moment Kelly introduced it. I am pushing through this title. but I don’t have to like it. But in order to give an informed review and criticism i must push through. To be clear this isn’t just a Kelly issue, it’s a Hay House issue. I am not sure why they pander to these kinds of audiences, but it doesn’t seem to gel together well to me. I might be wrong, but so far this book isn’t panning out too well. And in all honesty with all this over soul and parallel universe business they could have made this about 3 books. I could be slow but I feel like they are stretching the minds of their audience too fast too much. the plasticity of the mind is like delicate bread dough to be slowly pulled and stretched. this takes patience guys patience.

In other news….Meditation Relapse (my Bad Universe). I have had a few setbacks lately that have made finding a zen space rather difficult lately. Sensei Simmons would not be proud of me, but I don’t think he’d judge me either I am back on the wagon again, on that long road to infinity. The pendulum has begun to swing back in my direction. And with any hope I will be back in the swing of things (no pun intended). But I will be in Washington D.C, in a weeks time to see Oprah and Friends on her Life You Want Tour. I am a bit excited about that.

Adventures of the Soul

Adventures of the Soul: Journeys Through the Physical and Spiritual Dimensions

Author: James Van Praagh

Published: September 8, 2014

Publisher: Hay House

Source: ARC

In Adventures of the Soul Van Praagh attempts to give his readers a glimpse into the spirit world by giving accounts into his encounters with discarnate spirits, and offering several wafers of wisdom; which i can only assume come from a lifetime of reading and communicating with spirits; and a lifetime of in an industry where trips to other dimensions are common place.  There is an entire chapter dedicated to the out of body experiences or OBE’s as they are commonly referred to in the New Age community. In this chapter Van Praag delineated the differences between OBEs and remote viewing. He also gives personal account he has had with OBEs, as well as a moment he had with a friend who was in transition.  He floats over dozens of metaphors illustrating in the readers mind blatant examples of things that are hard for the normal human mind to grasp. For example at the outset of the book he explains the difference between the soul and the spirit; using a piece is cinematic americana to do it. Taking from The Wizard of Oz; the spirit he offers is more pure and vast than the soul. The spirit is more connected to ‘the source’ most would call God. While the soul intentionally comes to earth to collect information in order to learn lessons. Generally to express the Universe in the best way they know how; with the circumstances in front of them. The way it clicked for me while reading, is he likened the soul to Glinda the good witch, and the bubble that carried her up, up up, and away at the end of the movie to the spirit.  So basically the soul is the spirit incarnate.

He also makes no bones about the realities of life and death. And that we all make mistakes. He continues that we build our own world with the choices we make, whether those choices are made as a result of love or fear. As a teacher in this respect Van Praagh is one of the highest caliber in this realm of New Age and New thought. He may not be as wordy and disciplined in his prose as a Micheal Singer or Eckhart Tolle, but he’s driving home the same point. And like any good teacher he uses the most worn tool in his arsenal: repetition. Which is my only major gripe with this book. Like a hard headed pupil I must confess I skimmed over the portions I felt were repetitious (which were not plenty).  I trust this is a device Van Praagh uses as a teaching tool for anyone who may be picking up one of his books for the first time. I was not one of those readers but I appreciated the consistency in his writing style and prose. The thing that annoyed me may offer a jewel or an ‘aha’ moment to the novice to the genre reading a Van Praagh title for the first time.  I can not crucify a man for doing what both of the other above listed authors do just as often. If you are looking to dip your toe into the water in new thought/new age I offer Adventures of the Soul; as Van Praagh having been raised catholic is gentle with those coming from a traditional religious background. So if you have read similar titles, or been to talks, and would like to expand on a shift that you have had. This is a good title to keep the juices flowing.