Get Free Ebook Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History, by Richard Smoley
Reviewing the book Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley by on-line could be additionally done quickly every where you are. It appears that hesitating the bus on the shelter, waiting the list for line up, or other areas feasible. This Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley could accompany you in that time. It will not make you really feel bored. Besides, this means will also enhance your life quality.
Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History, by Richard Smoley
Get Free Ebook Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History, by Richard Smoley
Simply for you today! Discover your favourite publication right here by downloading and install and getting the soft file of the e-book Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley This is not your time to commonly likely to the e-book stores to acquire an e-book. Below, ranges of book Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley and also collections are available to download and install. One of them is this Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley as your recommended publication. Obtaining this book Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley by on the internet in this website can be realized now by seeing the web link web page to download. It will be simple. Why should be here?
Just how can? Do you believe that you do not need enough time to go with buying book Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley Never ever mind! Simply rest on your seat. Open your kitchen appliance or computer system and be on the internet. You can open up or see the link download that we gave to obtain this Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley By this means, you can get the online book Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley Checking out guide Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley by on-line can be actually done conveniently by waiting in your computer system and gizmo. So, you can proceed every time you have spare time.
Reviewing the publication Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley by online can be additionally done easily every where you are. It appears that hesitating the bus on the shelter, waiting the listing for line up, or other locations feasible. This Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley could accompany you in that time. It will not make you really feel bored. Besides, in this manner will certainly also improve your life top quality.
So, just be here, find guide Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley now as well as check out that quickly. Be the very first to read this e-book Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley by downloading and install in the link. We have other publications to review in this internet site. So, you can locate them additionally effortlessly. Well, now we have done to supply you the ideal publication to review today, this Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley is really suitable for you. Never ever disregard that you need this publication Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley to make much better life. Online book Supernatural: Writings On An Unknown History, By Richard Smoley will truly provide easy of everything to review as well as take the benefits.
This gem-like, concise anthology provides thoughtful people with both an introduction to the paranormal and a reason to take a fresh look at it.
Nostradamus...channeling...Atlantis...divination. Most serious people consider such topics nonsense. But look again. Writing with intellectual verve and a deeply critical mind, religious thinker Richard Smoley explores and reconsiders the supernatural in history and today.
We are often conditioned to think of the Judeo-Christian tradition as the only valid, historically accurate, and rational spiritual philosophy. Occultism, magic, and the esoteric are, by contrast, considered illegitimate, delusional, and lacking in intrinsic worth. Supernatural challenges this prejudice, revealing that Western occult traditions are richer and more historically impactful than most of us imagine. The book reveals hidden diamonds and neglected ideas that characterize the magical tradition in the West.
For any reader, at any level of experience, who has ever been curious about an arcane subject – from psychical powers to secret societies – here is a book that gives a complete yet precise, critical, yet serious, and always respectful account of topics from the unseen world. Supernatural is a brilliant primer to the occult and magical traditions of the West.
Praise for RICHARD SMOLEY
“I have a standing rule: I read anything Richard Smoley writes.” —Larry Dossey, M.D.
“Smoley . . . is adept at unknotting the paradoxes of spiritual traditions and making new connections across centuries and languages.” —Library Journal
“He is one of the liveliest, most intrepid, and most gifted explorers of the spiritual landscape writing today.”
—Ptolemy Tompkins, author of Paradise Fever
- Sales Rank: #1054693 in Books
- Brand: Smoley, Richard
- Published on: 2013-02-07
- Released on: 2013-02-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.11" h x .65" w x 4.98" l, .31 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 240 pages
- Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History
Review
“A fascinating series of brief glimpses into the lives of some of the major players and their ideas and beliefs. Taken as a whole, this short work offers the reader an easy to understand introduction to traditions and ideas that have informed the world for centuries."
—Publishers Weekly
“I have a standing rule: I read anything Richard Smoley writes.”
—Larry Dossey, M.D.“Smoley . . . is adept at unknotting the paradoxes of spiritual traditions and making new connections across centuries and languages.”
—Library Journal“He is one of the liveliest, most intrepid, and most gifted explorers of the spiritual landscape writing today.”
—Ptolemy Tompkins, author of Paradise Fever"With scholarly precision, [Smoley] revisits Nostradamus, The Da Vinci Code, Atlantis, Freemasonry, A Course in Miracles, New Thought, and many other famed repositories of “secret wisdom”. Fair and clear-eyed, he communicates what his research unearthed in a surprisingly lively style. He speaks honestly to his readers as he recounts, elaborates and debunks. It makes for an intriguing read as well as excellent reference material."
—Anna Jedrziewski, Retailing Insight
About the Author
One of today’s most highly regarded writers on esoteric topics, RICHARD SMOLEY is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Oxford. He was a longtime editor of the venerated spiritual journal Gnosis. Smoley is the author of books including Inner Christianity, The Essential Nostradamus, and Forbidden Faith: The Secret History of Gnosticism. He currently works as editor of Quest Books and of Quest: Journal of the Theosophical Society in America. He lives in Chicago.
Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
A short compendium of thoughtful articles
By Alan S. Glassman
Richard Smoley's latest book offers a collection of some of his articles first published in New Dawn magazine as well as a few from other periodicals between the years 1997 and 2012. Altogether, this relatively short volume is composed of 16 separate chapters, each of which is a small gem of its own designed to be fast and enjoyable reading.
While I'm guessing the book's title is a play on words of P.D. Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching, the chapters themselves offer us brief glimpses of a variety of subjects suitable for the novice of metaphysical studies as well as those who have specialised in that area for a long time. Considering myself to be a member of the latter category, I found many delightful and interesting titbits of information of which I had not been aware.
Perhaps what is most engaging about this book is that Smoley gives us insight into some of his own personal experiences in the realm of the supernatural, whether they be direct encounters or accounts related to him by others. With his usual skilful writing ability, he tempts us to go further into our own investigations of subjects like archaic wisdom, Nostradamus, prophecy, The Da Vinci Code, the 2012 phenomenon, Atlantis, Freemasonry, The Course in Miracles, the nature of prayer, and many other areas of study.
Smoley's knowledge of Greek and Latin enlightens us with definitions with which we may not have been familiar, and add to our understanding of sometimes difficult subject matter. As early as in his Preface, for instance, he gives us the root of the word "esotericism" as coming from the Greek esoterikos, meaning "further in." This resonated and added to my mundane definition of that word as merely "hidden."
Whether he's talking about such diverse ideas as the Kabbalah; Tarot; the Western magical tradition; widening our observing faculties and qualities of attention in the manner taught by G.I. Gurdjieff; C.G. Jung's world of archetype and synchronicity; the predictions of Edgar Cayce; the astral realm; sacred literature; Priory of Sion; Mayan Calendar; Theosophy; the Rosicrucians; the Kahunas of Hawaii; Gnosticism; Hermeticism; psychic protection; and a host of other fascinating topics, Smoley presents them all in a thoroughly delightful and down-to-earth way.
The author's thematic stream prods us to develop our own way of finding our true Self, our real "I," if you will. While there are innumerable methods for this in the "esoteric tradition - the body of knowledge that underlies all the great spiritual traditions of humanity," Smoley cautions that we cannot necessarily find this in ordinary religion which "involves a relationship with a personal deity." Perhaps we can only find the useful and correct method for enlightenment in the sacred and secret technology of "real" magic prompted by meditation and directed imagination.
Of course, Smoley admits we are left with many more questions than answers as to the nature of other realms beyond our own that may, indeed, be generating and controlling factors in our day to day lives here on Earth. He reminds us, "We do not know. The evidence would seem to suggest as much. At any rate, I am convinced that we will not understand the rise and fall of civilisations, or history itself, until we do know."
And, he reiterates, a small step in beginning to crack the barrier to that knowledge is to get in touch with what it is, both within us and outside of us, that "experiencing." But, he cautions that, "...this is not ordinary ego, with its thoughts and desires and judgements. Why? Because we can step back and look at all these things within ourselves. If we can look even at internal events, what is doing the looking?"
In the final chapter of the book, entitled "The Dual Nature of Reality," Smoley gives us the goal from the Samkhya, thought to be the oldest of all Indian philosophical systems. It can be, and perhaps should be, the ultimate goal for those of us who are involved in metaphysical pursuits.
He summarises that ancient teaching's objective and intended result in this way: "The spiritual path, which is for a long time the process of detachment, is a means of gradually separating the `I' from the world, that is, separating consciousness from the contents of its experience. At this point, supreme illumination takes place. The old world falls away, and a new one arises. Such is enlightenment."
- This review first appeared in New Dawn magazine, Issue #137
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Facts or Fiction?
By Anna from InannaWorks
Smoley takes us on a tour of all things esoteric using his personal journey into that world as the framework. Beginning with the revival of interest in occultism which blossomed along with Hippies and Free Love, through the consolidation now known as New Age, and finally arriving at today's New Consciousness, he separates fact from fiction bringing reason and common sense to subjects which have been exploited and misrepresented in proportion to the profitability that was generated.
With scholarly precision, he revisits Nostradamus, The Da Vinci Code, Atlantis, Freemasonry, A Course in Miracles, New Thought, and many other famed repositories of "secret wisdom". Fair and clear-eyed, he communicates what his research unearthed in a surprisingly lively style. He speaks honestly to his readers as he recounts, elaborates and debunks. It makes for an intriguing read as well as excellent reference material. For those of us who also lived the journey he writes about, it a nostalgic revisiting with interesting clarifications.
(InannaWorks.com received a free review copy of this book.)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Good read, and well worth the wait.
By Mr Pasquale Di Rago
Richard Smoley is one author that I have a lot of time for, ever since I stumbled across him in New Dawn Magazine, several years back. His latest book offers a variety of topics, ranging from Prophecy to Hidden Masters, Atlantis to the power of Prayer, and much more besides.
But be warned these topics are vast in scope and if you wish to really explore them then Supernatural serves only as an appetizer, and not the main course. For that you need to possibly belong to a mystery school, or have a vast library and infinite time to spend in pursuing your interests. And let us not ignore the very critical aspect of experience.
Nonetheless, Richard Smoley has written a very good book, and one that allows one to gain a grasp of some of the basics. At least as far as understanding is concerned.
But I think the real worth, for me comes in Richard's words that appear at the end of each chapter, where his experience and knowledge, humility and wisdom really shine through. I wont spoil it for you, other than to say, that Richard has a gift of putting things in their right place and in their right order. And that is far better than being led astray.
PDR.
Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History, by Richard Smoley PDF
Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History, by Richard Smoley EPub
Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History, by Richard Smoley Doc
Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History, by Richard Smoley iBooks
Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History, by Richard Smoley rtf
Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History, by Richard Smoley Mobipocket
Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History, by Richard Smoley Kindle
