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July/August 2007 Conscious Media
Reader's Choice July/Aug 2007

Yurts: Living in the Round
Becky Kemery, Gibbs Smith, 2006, $24.95

If you have every considered living in a more natural space, a circular space, a space that is 20 percent more efficient than a traditional box house and yet costs up to 20 percent less to build, then you may want to check out structures called yurts.

This finely crafted book will tell you virtually everything you need to know about yurts - from their Mongolian origins to the companies who now sell them utilizing space-age materials to dealing with building codes in various parts of the country.

The book is loaded with photos and diagrams about yurts, including how modern-day Mongolians continue using yurts as their primary housing structure and how people all over the U.S. have adapted this design structure into their daily lives. It's a must buy for everyone who wants to consider true alternative styles of housing.

- David Moyle

Gemstone Energy Medicine: Healing Body, Mind And Spirit
Michael Katz, Natural Healing Press, 2005, $24.95

The practical information in Michael Katz's earlier fascinating book, Wisdom of the Gemstone Guardians, and much more are well presented in this guide to using therapeutic gemstone necklaces. An interesting introduction addresses transforming gemstones into therapeutic tools, and explains the power of gemstone necklaces. The book gives details on 30 gemstones necklaces, including indications for use, benefits and therapeutic quality, plus beautiful full page luminous photos of each necklace. A section tells about specific therapies with clear directions and drawings. The format is very user friendly with easy-to-use directions. Before reviewing this book, I tried one of the therapies and found it to be very beneficial and powerful. Useful appendixes include a reference guide to common conditions and therapeutic gems, and a guide to care and cleansing. It's a definitive guide for gemstone necklace enthusiasts and newcomers.

- Angelica Williams

New World of Self-Healing:
Awakening the Chakras & Rejuvenating Your Energy Field
Bente Hansen, Llewellyn, 2006, $19.95

Spiritual counselor and Reiki master Bente Hansen shows you how to balance your energy in this book and accompanying guided visualization CD. She describes the structure of the human energy field as a matrix, and through diagrams shows what it would look like as healthy, fractured, or weakened, among other energy imbalances. She addresses the four main levels of the human body - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual -- giving valuable feedback on maintaining alignment using medicine as food, positive thinking and releasing limiting beliefs. In today's increasingly toxic world, this book serves as motivation and inspiration that there is another way to optimal health and longevity. I found it highly user friendly and enlightening.

-Lucia M. Anderson

Mystic Microsoft: A Journey of Transformation in the Halls of High Technology, Kraig Brockschmidt, Creative Commons, 2007, $5

Many people would think that the largest software company in the world would be an unlikely place of inner spiritual growth, but Kraig Brockschmidt entertainingly describes how "when there's sincerity of heart and a willingness to offer oneself into whatever life brings, God can (and will) find a way to guide one's inner growth in any setting." His detailed description of the early days of Microsoft and of his participation in the hi-tech world - from novice to "guru" (a term he fought for years) gives many examples of how a seeming capitalist setting can still provide many chances for maturity and spiritual wisdom to develop. He discusses ways to discern motivations and right action: "What makes a thought or act 'spiritual,' including the business of making money, is whether it uplifts you toward that greater reality from whatever level of consciousness you happen to be." He concludes by describing how he came to the decision to leave his very lucrative job at Microsoft after understanding how abundance doesn't necessarily mean more. Free download at www.mysticmicrosoft.com ($5 donation suggested).

- Cathy McGuire

Living Well with Depression and Bipolar Disorder
John McManamy, HarperCollins, 2006, $14.95

William Styron's description of his dark depression identified the famous author with deep depression. Kay Redfield Jamison, PhD, mental health researcher, wrote of her deep bipolar disorder. Search "bipolar" on any book website. These two books and another ten thousand come up. How to choose? If usefulness is your criteria, John McManamy, former lawyer and ongoing bipolar patient, offers Living Well With Depression and Bipolar Disorder. Living with these incredibly difficult and intertwined mental health issues, McManamy has done his homework. He presents a user-friendly book, giving information on diagnoses, brain science, roads to recovery and special populations. Using stories of his website users, he presents sobering reminders of how people suffer with this illness. He covers specific areas, such as medication side effects, how a psychologist differs from a psychiatrist, personal isolation and going forward when funds are tight. He doesn't have the answers - no one does - but he offers detailed, helpful information about improving life while living with bipolar and depression.

- Carol Walnum, MA

Mastering Life's Energies: Simple Steps to a Luminous Life at Work and Play
Maria Nemeth, New World Library, 2007, $15.95

In this artfully written book filled with inspiring anecdotes and creative metaphors, Maria Nemeth talks about the steps we can take to lead a life filled with focus, clarity, ease and grace. In an easy-to-read format, Nemeth tells us how to use all of the energies in our lives in order to realize our full potential and create the luminous existence for which we all strive. These energies include physical vitality, creativity, time, money, enjoyment and relationships. If you feel that you need help in order to make your dreams a reality, then this book is for you.

- Jaime Brockman

Life After Death: The Burden of Proof
Deepak Chopra, Harmony Books, 2006, $24

Deepak Chopra masterfully weaves his way through a vast array of scientific and spiritual questions, provoked by an attempt to grasp the subtleties and potentialities of life after death.

Chopra subscribes to Ervin Laszlo's theory of the Akashic field - a dream field of cosmic possibility seen as the spring of origin for the cosmos. It enables the uniting of ideas from the realms of science and religion, allowing a dance between Vedic beliefs and quantum theory. Hindu sages, known as rishis, saw consciousness as a universal principle. Chopra too insinuates it into much of what informs our world.

Along the way angels, devas, heaven and hell, the bardo, ghosts and psychic pets are given their due. Out of body research, communication with the dead through mediums, and the scientific proof of reincarnation are all examined. Children's accounts of near death experiences and past lives receive high creditability given their youth. Although memes and spiritual materialism are given consideration, Chopra does not find himself in agreement.

An effort is also made to assist people with their present journeys. Relationships are pictured as an opportunity to develop one's soul. Individualism, self knowledge, comfort with uncertainty, and expression are positive factors as well in having a life of the soul. Fundamentalist beliefs offer one the shelter of certainty.

Chopra intimates that the possibilities for the afterlife come to rest in the best of all places - in our own hands.

- Michael Moylan

Make it a Deepak Chopra Summer

Check out the latest releases from Deepak Chopra for great summer reading. Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment is an inspiring novel, re-imagining the life of the Indian prince Siddhartha, who gave up the trappings of royalty for something much more important - wisdom and enlightenment that created his transformation to the Buddha.

Visit your favorites again - enjoy old Chopra titles now on DVD: How to Know God and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success (which also has been released as a handy pocketbook guide).

- Vicky Thompson

Dr. Quantum Presents: Meet the Real Creator - You!
Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D., Sounds True, 2005, $29.95

Fred Alan Wolf is a physicist, writer and lecturer who earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at UCLA in 1963. He continues to write, lecture throughout the world and conduct research on the relationship of quantum physics to consciousness. He is the National Book Award Winning author of Taking the Quantum Leap. In total he has written eleven books, appeared on TV and radio, and was featured in the movie What the Bleep Do We Know.

In this 4 CD set, Dr. Wolf, or Dr. Quantum in this case, talks about the real creator being - us. He states that we are the source and the creator of our own realities. He leads us on a self discovery as he talks about riding our spiritual elephants: knowing that you are an actor in your life and that you have the ability to step out of your role at any given time. He addresses quantum heaven and quantum hell suggesting that we again, create the bliss and chaos because we are all addicted to the drama. Only when we remove the drama we then have the ability to stop the perpetuation of heaven and hell. We must let go of the absolutes, heaven being the absolute of "good" and hell being the absolute of "evil." This CD set brings up many fascinating points to ponder and discuss. Dr. Quantum breaks the barriers between the mysterious and the material in a lively and interesting manner.

- Jelina K. Vance

Quantum Prodigal Son: Revisiting Jesus' Parable of the Prodigal Son from the Perspective of Quantum Mechanics
Lee & Steven Hager, Oroborus Books, 2006, $18.99

Bridging the gap between what is known about the mechanics of the quantum universe and the teachings of Jesus is a daunting one. Yet it is an important span to cross, especially for fundamentalist Christians, the apparent target audience for this text. Lee and Steven Hager go to great lengths to reframe every aspect of the famous parable of the prodigal son. The majority of the book is devoted to this task, bringing a deeper understanding of this story.

An unexpected but valued addition to the book is a reexamination of the politics in the Christian community during the first couple hundred years when there were two fundamental groups among the emerging Christian church - the orthodox or Catholic group, urging a unified, controlled structure of the church, and the second group known as the Gnostics, which championed the idea that each individual should determine their own path to knowing the teachings of Jesus.

As we now know, the Catholics instituted their own versions of ethnic cleansings over the centuries to eradicate any apposing belief systems. Nonetheless, operating in secret, the teachings of the Gnostics did survive and an interesting comparison of these two perspectives is included in this book. This section of the book alone might make it worthwhile for some readers.

- David Moyle

It's About the Rose (CD)
Karen Marie Garrett, Waterstreet Records, 2006, $16

Classically trained Karen Marie Garrett's fourth CD, It's About the Rose, is a compilation of a dozen original instrumental piano compositions. She is accompanied by other instruments on some of the songs; others have just her playing piano solo. The story about the rose is to remind ourselves, when we get caught up in life's little dramas, that life is about the rose in the vase on the table. This CD will help the listener move on beyond those dramas, as it is uplifting and soothing music, while some of it is also energizing.

It's About the Rose debuted at #1 on the Top 100 Contemporary Instrumental and New Age Charts, and remained at the top position for the first quarter of 2007. Visit www.kgpiano.com.

- Alice R. Berntson

All Is Forgiven (CD)
Ashana, Spirit Voyage Music, 2006, $16.99

Ashana's pure and ethereal voice provides a spiritual voyage on her six compositions that make up her debut CD All is Forgiven. "Beauty all around us, Beauty deep within, The sign of awakening, When all is forgiven." The foundation for her pieces is the haunting and penetrating drone of crystal singing bowls. Like a wet finger played around the top of a wine glass, the clear tones emanating from the crystal bowls can enhance meditation.

Her angelic voice and the accompaniment of the crystal singing bowls lead to profound relaxation. It is transcendent music that will touch the core of your soul. Visit www.ashanamusic.com.

- Alice R. Berntson