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

DEMONS AND ANGELS Andrew Greeley (1974). The devil you say! Man and his personal                                                devils and angels. Andrew Greeley was a Catholic priest, and prolific sociologist and story writer (novels of G's crazy love for people). In this book, Greeley eloquently describes our personal demons, and their counterparts as angels who assist us in coping with/managing the devils/demons.  According to Greeley, it doesn't matter if the "devil" is a personage or idea, what matters is that demons are in all of us, and that we need to understand them in our daily life struggles, and we need to invoke the assistance of angels (who are also in us) that represent our better selves.  For every devil there is an angel counterpart: envy devil--angel of generosity gnostic--wisdom righteous--humility scapegoat--personal responsibility shame--...

GETTING HIGH James Nester (2009). Get high now without drugs. Nestor does his own "research" on methods of getting high without drugs in experiments with a group of friends dubbed The High Lab who met at his house weekly for 2 months. The format for the getting high methods have a picture, description, warnings, and references for those that want to learn more.  Critique: I found the Book of Highs  much better than Nestor's compilation in this book. I sometimes had difficulty getting through the sarcastic humor and some darker tones--others might not be bothered by this. There also seemed to be a good deal of repetition of visual highs that generally were ineffective for me when i tried them..i simply didn't feel high. Finally, for several of the methods, Nestor cautions against using them because of the dangerous side effects or possibility of death--so why even include these--why put these ideas in people's heads?  There were a few methods of getting high with...

FUNGI KING/QUEENDOM  Merlin Sheldrake (2020). Entangled Life: How Fungi make our                                                             W orlds, Change our Minds, and Shape                                                 our Futures. Sheldrake is a biologist who does field research and interviews with experts to present a well documented account, with many personal stories, of the amazing world of fungi. Fungi are one of life's kingdoms, living mostly underground in vast networks, fruit above ground as mushrooms which produce spores to make more fungi. The amazing part is the fungi are, "...eating rock, making soil, digesting pollutants, nourishing and killing plants, surviving...

INTUITION Melinda Connor (2016). Accessing Truth:                                          Emotion, Intuition, and Compassion. Connor is a PhD, ordained Buddhist priest, clinical psychologist, trained in over 20 energy healing forms, and conducted energy and health research with Gary Schwartz (PhD) and Andrew Weil (MD) at the University of Arizona, Tucson. The high ethical regard for others, for understanding the impact of sharing intuitive truth with others in a kind and nonjudgmental way that supports another person in the larger context of their life without giving medical, psychological, nutritional, or exercise advice (unless one is trained in one or more of these areas) is a consistent theme throughout the book. There are many techniques/methods of grounding, centering, aligning, and practices for receiving intuitive truth. One preparation practice for receiving intuitive truth...

OPEN TO THE INFINITE Stephan Schwartz (2007). Opening to the infinite: The art and                                                       science of nonlocal awareness. Schwartz is one of my heroes...he is data driven and uses sound scientific methodologies to back up his claims. Through nonlocal awareness, one experiences a connection to a greater whole and is able to remote view as a kind of knowing in a timeless time according to particular protocols outlined in the book. While i usually like to offer a practice based on the book, this time, you need to follow the systematic protocols outlined in the book for a practice...i cannot provide sufficient details here, but i can give you a taste of what the process of remote viewing is like....quiet oneself, have paper, pencil, and an intention (include time--going back, real time, or forward in time--a...

LAMA HAPPINESS Dalai Lama & Howard Cutler (1998). The Art of Happiness:                                                               A Handbook for Living. Culter, a psychiatrist, asked the Dalai Lama about happiness in several personal interviews, and together with other Dalai Lama books, integrate the Dalai Lama's teachings on happiness.  To summarize the Dalai Lama's teachings on happiness as filtered through Cutler (and me): The purpose of human life is the seek happiness. Our approach to personal relationships can be to see others like us...we all have the same needs, so we are more alike than different. We do well to accept suffering as a natural part of human life, take the long view of suffering, attempt to find something positive, perhaps something to learn, some opportunity for growth... There are many concret...

NEAR DEATH Penny Satori & Kelly Walsh (2017). The transformative power of                                                                 near death experiences: How                                                                 the messages of NDEs                                                                           positively impacts the world. Penny is a nurse, and through her clinical work with patients having near death experiences decided to complete a PhD diss...