3 X 5's: Index Card Wisdom from Best of Books

TECH JOY Jonathan Robinson (2019). The Technology of Joy: The 101 Best                                                  Apps, Gadgets, Tools and Supplements                                                           for Feeling More Delight in Your Life. Robinson is a "psychotherapist" but does not list his credentials nor can i find them on any website...he is the author of 10 best selling books at the time of this writing, and has been a speaker for Fortune 500 companies like Google.  In this book, Robinson explores various "technologies" which he defines as "the application of tools and methods for achieving a specified result more efficiently" (page 1). He bases the selection of these tech...

  CORE SHAMANISM Tom Cowan (1996). Shamanism: A Spiritual Practice for Daily Life. I first met Tom Brown in his book The Way of the Saints which includes practices based on the life of each saint--immensely practical. Similarly, Cowan's book Shamanism is immensely practical, providing an introduction to " core shamanism " (taking cross cultural/universal shamanic practices and adapting them to modern times because we cannot uproot the traditional shamanic practice from its time and culture, we need a translation for our own particular time and culture, and Cowan provides this translation with appropriate cautions). Cowan advocates that anyone can be a practitioner of shamanism , but few can become a shaman. An authentic shaman is called by their community, at a particular time, place, and culture.  Within a practitioner of shamanism context, Cowan describes how to develop relationships with helping spirits by consciously shifting from ordinary reality to nonordinary real...

GIFTED HANDS Ben Carson (1990). Gifted hands: The Ben Carson story. Autobiography of Ben Carson's life from the time of his early childhood memories to his rise to fame as a brain neurosurgeon with a wife and small children.  His mother and older brother's influences in his early years are profound. Many of his mother's sayings came through at critical times like: "You just ask the Lord, and He'll help you", "You can do it", and "What did you learn in school today?" After he received glasses and began to read, the library opened the doors of the world to him...his mother had both boys read a book a week and deliver an oral report to her at the end of each week.  His older brother was a model for him that turned his life around when he was led astray by peer pressure in his teens. He joined his brother in the high school Army ROTC and advanced to the highest rank in a short time which led to scholarship opportunities at Yale, and through ama...

  POSSIBLE HUMAN Jean Houston (1982). The possible human: A course in enhancing your physical, mental, and creative abilities. Houston began research on human possibilities in the 1960's as part of the Foundation for Mind Research for 17 years with over 1k people. The majority of the book guides the reader through activities/experiments in AWAKENING the body, senses, brain, memory, evolutionary history, and creative realms of inner space (including devices to alter states of consciousness). The description of the possible human at the beginning of the book is so INSPIRING...may we all move this direction in fulfilling our human potential!  There are so many practices! I highlight only a few here: 1) Find out what "turns you on" by observing your own internal reactions to words and images, 2) Celebrate all of your senses with music and dance, 3) Create a time machine yardstick with three 12-inch segments: the left most 12 inches represents the past, the middle 12 inches is...