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

SENSE OF WONDER Rachel Carson (1956,1998). The Sense of Wonder. Carson (a biologist) is best know for her work Silent Spring  that provides scientific evidence for pollutants (like ddt) destroying the ecosystem and eventually destroying all life on the earth... the Sense of Wonder edition published in 1998 adds photos (worthy of contemplation--so beautiful) taken by Nick Kelsh to the original work. The primary purpose of the book is to assist children in their growing sense of wonder for nature, not in the sense of identifying and memorizing names of plants and birds, but in the sense of journeying with children, showing not telling, enjoying excitement, curiosity, and the sense of wonder of the natural world.  Those who develop this sense of wonder Carson maintains will "dwell...among the beauties and mysteries of the earth...are never alone or weary of life...their thoughts can find paths that lead to inner contentment and renewed excitement....[they] find reserves of st...

SOUL WISDOM Zhi Gang Sha (2007). Soul Wisdom I: Soul Language, Soul Song, Soul Movement, Soul                                            Tapping, Soul Dance. Sha was trained in many Chinese arts from a young age (e.g., tai chi, qi gong, kung fu), becoming a medical doctor, then acupucturist and herbalist, studying with master Zhi Chen Guo, eventually receiving divine transmissions for his "soul" teachings.  Briefly, everything has a soul, a divine essence, that we can communicate with (see below). Sha affirms mind-body communication, but believes that soul communication is much more powerful. These soul teachings include language (similar to Christian "speaking in tongues"), singing, dancing, tapping (on different places on the body for healing), and dancing.  There is much repetition in the book regarding benefits of soul communication to us, others, and mother earth....

DANCE OF CHANGE Michael Lindfield (1986). The dance of change: An eco-spiritual                                                   approach to transformation. I was inspired to buy this book after listening to Lindfield's Ted talk called Experiments in communication with morphogenic fields :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqK4nB29wWs Michael spent much time with the Findhorn community and is well acquainted with the philosophy of Rudolph Steiner (among others)...much of what he writes about are principles that leave the individual to figure out how to apply those principles to their life.  A sample of the topics: Celtic calendar of 8 festivals, Starhawk's Goddess IS the world, 7 bodies of the human, ceremonial magic, dancing with our shadow, quest for the grail, seed and soil metaphors for life, and using our inner voice to navigate life. I found t...

WOO WOO David Hamilton (2021). Why Woo-Woo Works: The Surprising                                                                Science Behind Meditation, Reiki, Crystals,                                                   and Other Alternative Practices. Hamilton has a PhD in chemistry and worked in big pharma for many years before devoting himself to writing on topics related to the mind-body connection.  "Woo-woo" is the belief in things with no scientific basis...the phrase is also associated with the sound that ghosts make. He demonstrates that many woo-woo phenomenon have a scientific basis, but many people aren't aware of the research. A clas...

ENERGY HEALING EXPERIMENTS Gary Schwartz (2007). The Energy Healing Experiments: Science                                           Reveals Our Natural Power to Heal. Schwartz is a PhD professor at the University of Arizona Tucson (at the time of this writing) who conducted several experiments to test "energy healing" with highlights as follows: we can detect the presence of others by their electromagnetic field we can detect the intention of others  healers can increase the health of stress induced ecoli in test tubes healers can change the ph of water without touching it some sounds, light, and electromagnetic devices can be used for healing high scores on science, low scores on application expect the last chapter which focuses on some general healing ideas that we can all do including: [paraphrased from p. 219] sit still, close eyes, extend palms facing forward, invite un...

Mediumship Lauren Robertson (2017). The Medium in Manolos: A Life-affirming                                            Guide to Modern Mediumship. Robertson narrates how she began "readings" for others with angel cards at the age of 16 and then stumbled into mediumship in the basement of a pub... She presents mediumship as a service to help others overcome their fear of death and heal their relationships by connecting them with those who have died and are now in "Spirit." There are many "activations" throughout the book designed to assist one in self-care, insight, growth, and mediumship. One of these activations is summarized below. Sitting in the Power meditation begins with igniting a flame of light at one's solar plexus, allowing the light to spread throughout the inside of the body with each in-breath, then popping the light beyond the surface of the body, gradually extendi...

 NOTICE Andy Andrews (2009). The Noticer . A story...Jones is an old brown man with white hair and blue eyes that appears to people when they are in great need. He uses questions and sprinkles wisdom to facilitate  positive transformation.  Each chapter presents a different character(s) with a problem that Jones is able to assist with. The theme running through all of the chapters is NOTICING , getting perspective on  "problems." Some of the particular wisdom includes:  1)focus on gratitude for whatever you focus on increases, 2)all people are either in crisis, coming out of crisis, or headed for crisis so if you're in crisis now, that's ok, it's normal,  3)we need to learn to speak the love language of others for them to feel loved--animal analogies apply to people: dogs love praise (words of affirmation), cats love touch (all forms of touch), canaries want someone to listen to them sing (quality time), and goldfish want to be fed and have their bowl clean...