A Study of the Movement of Spiritual Awareness

A Study of the Movement of Spiritual Awareness PDF Author: D. Tumminia
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137374195
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
MSIA, the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, has been called the Cadillac of cults. Those interested in new religions may only know of MSIA from these kinds of labels. However, when looked at from a qualitative sociological perspective, a more complex story of religious innovation and cultural change can be told.

A Study of the Movement of Spiritual Awareness

A Study of the Movement of Spiritual Awareness PDF Author: D. Tumminia
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137374195
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

Get Book Here

Book Description
MSIA, the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, has been called the Cadillac of cults. Those interested in new religions may only know of MSIA from these kinds of labels. However, when looked at from a qualitative sociological perspective, a more complex story of religious innovation and cultural change can be told.

Seeking the Light

Seeking the Light PDF Author: James R. Lewis
Publisher: Mandeville Press
ISBN: 9780914829423
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Researcher and expert in nontraditional religions James R. Lewis explores the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA) from the inside out. His comprehensive study looks at MSIA under a microscope, examining the religious and spiritual heritage of MSIA, and presenting the truth about this so-called controversial movement. His conclusions are enlightening and informative, interesting not only in the context of MSIA, but in relation to our politics, our culture, and our response to alternative religious movements.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness PDF Author: John-Roger
Publisher: Mandeville Press
ISBN: 1935492934
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 55

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Book Description
Uplifting and anecdotal in nature, this insightful book shows how all individuals can change their perspective with the power of forgiveness, resulting in more freedom and joy.

Spirituality: A Very Short Introduction

Spirituality: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Philip Sheldrake
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191642436
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
It has been suggested that 'spirituality' has become a word that 'can define an era'. Why? Because paradoxically, alongside a decline in traditional religious affiliations, the growing interest in spirituality and the use of the word in a variety of contexts is a striking aspect of contemporary western cultures. Indeed, spirituality is sometimes contrasted attractively with religion, although this is problematic and implies that religion is essentially dogma, moralism, institutions, buildings, and hierarchies. The notion of spirituality expresses the fact that many people are driven by goals that concern more than material satisfaction. Broadly, it refers to the deepest values and sense of meaning by which people seek to live. Sometimes these values are conventionally religious. Sometimes they are associated with what is understood as 'the sacred' in a broader sense - that is, of ultimate rather than merely instrumental importance. This Very Short Introduction, written by one of the most eminent scholars and writers on spirituality, explores the historical foundations of the thought and considers how it came to have the significance it is developing today. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Walking with the Lord

Walking with the Lord PDF Author: John-Roger
Publisher: Mandeville Press
ISBN: 1936514095
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 69

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Book Description
For anyone interested in spiritual exercises, or for anyone who wants a deeper relationship with God, this guide is indispensable. It is a handbook that provides instruction in meditation, in chanting the name of God, and in dealing with mental and emotional distractions that tend to get in the way. It also describes the quality of empathy that awakens through doing spiritual exercises and explains the various realms of the Spirit that meditators may visit.

Spiritual Emergency

Spiritual Emergency PDF Author: Stanislav Grof
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0874775388
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
From Spiritual Emergency to Healing and Rebirth Increasing numbers of people involved in personal transformation are experiencing spiritual emergencies — crises when the process of growth and change becomes chaotic and overwhelming. Individuals experiencing such episodes may feel that their sense of identity is breaking down, that their old values no longer hold true, and that the very ground beneath their personal realities is radically shifting. In many cases, new realms of mystical and spiritual experience enter their lives suddenly and dramatically, resulting in fear and confusion. They may feel tremendous anxiety, have difficulty coping with their daily lives, jobs, and relationships, and may even fear for their own sanity. Unfortunately, much of modern psychiatry has failed to distinguish these episodes from mental illness. As a result, transformational crises are often suppressed by routine psychiatric care, medication, and even institutionalization. However, there is a new perspective developing among many mental health professionals and those studying spiritual development that views such crises as transformative breakthroughs that can hold tremendous potential for physical and emotional healing. When understood and treated in a supportive manner, spiritual emergencies can become gateways to higher levels of functioning and new ways of being. In this book, foremost psychologists, psychiatrists, and spiritual teachers address the following questions: What is spiritual emergency? What is the relationship between spirituality, “madness,” and healing? What forms does spiritual emergency take? What are the pitfalls — and promises — of spiritual practice? How can people in spiritual emergency be assisted by family, friends, and professionals? This groundbreaking work reveals that within the crisis of spiritual emergency lies the promise of spiritual emergence and renewal.

Tarot Awareness

Tarot Awareness PDF Author: Stephen Walter Sterling
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN: 9781567186765
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Have you ever looked at the mysterious symbols on the Tarot cards and wondered what they meant? Or perhaps you have read the Tarot for others for many years but still don't understand how to use them for meditation and spiritual development. Or perhaps you use the intense imagery of the Tarot for meditation, but don't think it is "appropriate" to use this mystical tool for readings. Well, now you can learn the meaning of the symbols for spiritual development and for giving great readings in Stephen Walter Sterling's Tarot Awareness. The Tarot is composed of two major sections, the illustrated cards that form the Major Arcana and the cards of the Minor Arcana which are like a deck of playing cards with an extra court card for each suit. Each card has a meaning for a reading. The meanings of the cards are given in the text. The Major Arcana cards also are about the spiritual development of your consciousness. As you go through the cards, from zero to twenty-one, you follow the progression of yours spirituality. The fifty-six cards of the Minor Arcana are associated with your development from the spiritual to the physical. In fact, they deal with the four levels of progression to manifestation, the spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical. Put this all together, and for the first time you have a book which integrates spiritual and practical, meditative, and divinatory. One of the great things about the Tarot is that it's symbolic. Since the unconscious works through symbols, it speaks to you. Just working with the Tarot helps you to evolve, especially when you understand the Tarot's spiritual truths. In order to work with the cards the book shares five different readings you can do. As an added bonus, the book also deals with the difficult subject of "proximity," relating the cards in a spread to each other as opposed to just their positions in the spread. This can enhance your readings on your quest for spirituality.

Of Bridges

Of Bridges PDF Author: Thomas Harrison
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022673529X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
"Always," wrote Philip Larkin, "it is by bridges that we live." Bridges represent our aspirations to connect, to soar across divides. And it is the unfinished business of these aspirations that makes bridges such stirring sights, especially when they are marvels of ingenuity. A rich compendium of myths, superstitions, literary and ideological figurations, as well as architectural and musical illustrations, Of Bridges organizes a poetic and philosophical history of bridges into nine thematic clusters. Leaping in lucid prose between seemingly unrelated times and places, Thomas Harrison gives a panoramic account of the diverse meanings and valences of human bridges, questioning why they are built and where they lead. He investigates bridges as flashpoints in war and the mega-bridges of our globalized world. He probes links forged by religion between life's transience and eternity and the consolidating ties of music, illustrated in a case study of the blues. He illuminates the real and symbolic crossings facing migrants each day and the affective connections that make persons and societies cohere. In fine and intricate readings of literature, philosophy, art, and geography, Harrison engages in a profound reflection on how bridges form and transform cultural communities. Interdisciplinary and deeply lyrical, Of Bridges is a mesmerizing, vertiginous tale of bridges both visible and invisible, both lived and imagined.

White Utopias

White Utopias PDF Author: Amanda J. Lucia
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520376951
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
Transformational festivals, from Burning Man to Lightning in a Bottle, Bhakti Fest, and Wanderlust, are massive events that attract thousands of participants to sites around the world. In this groundbreaking book, Amanda J. Lucia shows how these festivals operate as religious institutions for “spiritual, but not religious” (SBNR) communities. Whereas previous research into SBNR practices and New Age religion has not addressed the predominantly white makeup of these communities, White Utopias examines the complicated, often contradictory relationships with race at these events, presenting an engrossing ethnography of SBNR practices. Lucia contends that participants create temporary utopias through their shared commitments to spiritual growth and human connection. But they also participate in religious exoticism by adopting Indigenous and Indic spiritualities, a practice that ultimately renders them exclusive, white utopias. Focusing on yoga’s role in disseminating SBNR values, Lucia offers new ways of comprehending transformational festivals as significant cultural phenomena.

Electric Santería

Electric Santería PDF Author: Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231539916
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
Santería is an African-inspired, Cuban diaspora religion long stigmatized as witchcraft and often dismissed as superstition, yet its spirit- and possession-based practices are rapidly winning adherents across the world. Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús introduces the term "copresence" to capture the current transnational experience of Santería, in which racialized and gendered spirits, deities, priests, and religious travelers remake local, national, and political boundaries and reconfigure notions of technology and transnationalism. Drawing on eight years of ethnographic research in Havana and Matanzas, Cuba, and in New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay area, Beliso-De Jesús traces the phenomenon of copresence in the lives of Santería practitioners, mapping its emergence in transnational places and historical moments and its ritual negotiation of race, imperialism, gender, sexuality, and religious travel. Santería's spirits, deities, and practitioners allow digital technologies to be used in new ways, inciting unique encounters through video and other media. Doing away with traditional perceptions of Santería as a static, localized practice or as part of a mythologized "past," this book emphasizes the religion's dynamic circulations and calls for nontranscendental understandings of religious transnationalisms.