The Visionary State

With a rich cultural history and Hollywood stars publicly attesting to a wide range of faiths, it's no surprise that California's spiritual landscape is as diverse as its natural surroundings. The Visionary State weaves text and image into a compelling narrative of religion, architecture, and consciousness in California, from neopaganism to televangelism, UFO cults to austere Zen Buddhism. Acclaimed culture critic Erik Davis brings together the immigrant and homegrown religious influences that have been part of the region's character from its earliest days, drawing connections between seemingly unlike traditions and celebrating the diversity of California's spiritual composition. Michael Rauner's evocative photographs depict the sites and structures where these traditions have taken root and flourished. The Visionary State is a landmark look at what is likely the most varied locale for religious activity anywhere.

Visionary Worlds examines the role and significance of imagination and the myth-making processes that engage human beings in constructing a viable, living world of meaningful relations, beliefs, and social interactions. In this process of "world-building," we each draw on a wide variety of ideologies--religious, philosophical, aesthetic or scientific--which often conflict and clash with one another in the struggle to evolve a coherent and meaningful worldview. This unpredictable and fallible process often requires considerable readjustment or revisions as the complexities of an increasingly pluralistic society impinge upon us with greater divergence and multiplicity. This work examines the ways in which we all make and unmake our reality as part of the challenge of seeking greater spiritual maturity and relatedness to others.

"Studies Raphael's images of supernatural phenomena, including apparitions and prophetic visions, within their contemporary artistic and religious contexts. Asks how a fundamentally naturalistic style of painting like that of the Italian Renaissance can accommodate representations of the supernatural without self-contradiction"--Provided by publisher.

A comprehensive summary of the author's revolutionary approach to psychosis.

“One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades.”—John Gray, New York Times Book Review Hailed as “a magisterial critique of top-down social planning” by the New York Times, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail—sometimes catastrophically—in grand efforts to engineer their society or their environment, and uncovers the conditions common to all such planning disasters. “Beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit.”—New Yorker “A tour de force.”— Charles Tilly, Columbia University

An exploration of the emergence of a new psychedelic spirituality in the work of Philip K. Dick, Terence McKenna, and Robert Anton Wilson. A study of the spiritual provocations to be found in the work of Philip K. Dick, Terence McKenna, and Robert Anton Wilson, High Weirdness charts the emergence of a new psychedelic spirituality that arose from the American counterculture of the 1970s. These three authors changed the way millions of readers thought, dreamed, and experienced reality—but how did their writings reflect, as well as shape, the seismic cultural shifts taking place in America? In High Weirdness, Erik Davis—America's leading scholar of high strangeness—examines the published and unpublished writings of these vital, iconoclastic thinkers, as well as their own life-changing mystical experiences. Davis explores the complex lattice of the strange that flowed through America's West Coast at a time of radical technological, political, and social upheaval to present a new theory of the weird as a viable mode for a renewed engagement with reality.

TechGnosis is a cult classic of media studies that straddles the line between academic discourse and popular culture; it appeals to both those secular and spiritual, to fans of cyberpunk and hacker literature and culture as much as new-thought adherents and spiritual seekers How does our fascination with technology intersect with the religious imagination? In TechGnosis—a cult classic now updated and reissued with a new afterword—Erik Davis argues that while the realms of the digital and the spiritual may seem worlds apart, esoteric and religious impulses have in fact always permeated (and sometimes inspired) technological communication. Davis uncovers startling connections between such seemingly disparate topics as electricity and alchemy; online roleplaying games and religious and occult practices; virtual reality and gnostic mythology; programming languages and Kabbalah. The final chapters address the apocalyptic dreams that haunt technology, providing vital historical context as well as new ways to think about a future defined by the mutant intermingling of mind and machine, nightmare and fantasy.

Shamanic practices to access your spiritual blueprint, communicate with the universal mind, and transform in to your highest spiritual self • Explains how to tune in to imaginal cells to heal the past, activate the shaman within, and download information from the future • Includes shamanic breathwork practices and rituals to open access to your spiritual blueprint--the hologram of who your highest, best self is meant to be--and be more potent and powerful in the present We are in a highly transitional time on Earth as old structures break down in preparation for the new world that is coming. The accelerated pace of this time of spiritual evolution is forcing each of us to awaken the shaman within and reach our highest potential as quickly as possible. We no longer have the luxury of learning only from the past--we must also download information from the future in order to be fully present, fully conscious, in our most embodied and best self now. Incorporating the wisdom teachings of Seneca Wolf Clan Grandmother Twylah Nitsch with shamanic journeys and shamanic breathwork practices, Linda Star Wolf and Anne Dillon explain how to heal the past, learn from the future, and activate the imaginal cells within our human energy field. Imaginal cells are the energies of what has already happened and will happen stored in the blueprint of the invisible world. By tuning in to these imaginal cells, you can open access to your spiritual blueprint--the hologram of who your highest, best self is meant to be--and accelerate your evolutionary potential in this lifetime. Including information received by Star Wolf from the future, the book explores how to develop a communication link with the universe, receive guidance from the universal mind, and draw information from the future to be more potent and powerful in the present, live in harmony with one another and the planet, and fully prepare yourself for the new world to come.

• Provides an extensive inventory of beginning, intermediate, and advanced tools and practices for meaningful lucid dreamwork and shows how dreams can shape our conscious reality if we incorporate them into waking life • Offers guidance to help you overcome mental or physical obstacles, including ways to stop sleep paralysis • Examines supplements to aid lucid dreaming practice and increase the vividness and recall of dreams Dreams offer a gateway into our psyche. Through lucid dreaming--when you have conscious awareness during sleep--you can access and interact with the subconscious mind for greater self-awareness, personal development, and transformation. In this step-by-step guide to dreamwork, Lee Adams provides tools and techniques for encouraging, remembering, and using lucid dreams for personal growth as well as how to have big dreams that leave a lasting impact. Beginning with an overview of the history of lucid dreaming, he shares tried-and-true foundational practices to get you started--practices for before sleep, during sleep, and after dreaming. Drawing upon Jungian depth psychology, recent research in neuroscience, and years of personal dream practice, Adams then offers an extensive inventory of intermediate and advanced methods to support meaningful dreamwork, such as the Wake Induced Lucid Dreams technique (WILD), where you fall asleep while conscious and transport your active awareness into a dream state. He also explores dream companions, symbols of the unconscious mind, dream interpretation, and working with the shadow side of the self. He examines how dreams can shape our conscious reality if we incorporate them or their symbols into waking life. He offers guidance to help you overcome any mental or physical obstacles you may encounter, including ways to stop sleep paralysis. He also examines supplements to aid lucid dreaming practice, improve dream recall, and increase the vividness of dreams, such as Alpha-GPC, 5-HTP, Silene undulata, Mugwort, the mushroom Lion’s Mane, and Galantamine. With this practical guide, you can ignite your mind’s capacity to wake up to your own dreams and restructure your world to be more attuned to your deeper self.