Bøger udgivet af BEAR & CO

An exploration of Indigenous cosmology and history in North America

Examines both the physical and the spiritual sides of the UFO debate

ECOLOGY / INDIGENOUS WISDOM"Buckminster Fuller once complained that the earth had come without a good operating manual. In fact, though, there are an awful lot of instructions that have stood the test of time. Since we're clearly making a mess of things at the moment, it might be wise to pay some attention."--Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and the forthcoming The Bill McKibben Reader"Original Instructions shows how human beings can actually play a richly positive role in the web of life as a keystone species that creates conditions conducive to life for all beings. Here is the sacred geography of a world where all life is revered and animated by spirit."--Kenny Ausubel, author of When Healing Becomes a Crime and coexecutive director of BioneersFor millennia the world's Indigenous Peoples have acted as guardians of the web of life for the following seven generations. They have successfully managed complex reciprocal relationships between diverse biological ecosystems and multitudinous human cultures. Awareness of Indigenous Knowledge is reemerging at the eleventh hour to help avert global ecological and social collapse. Indigenous cultural wisdom shows us how to live in peace--with the earth and one another.Original Instructions evokes the rich Indigenous storytelling tradition in this collection of presentations gathered from the annual Bioneers conference, a yearly meeting of some of the world's most seminal environmentalists and social vision-aries. The book depicts how the world's native leaders and scholars are safeguarding the Original Instructions, reminding us about gratitude, kinship, and a reverence for community and creation. Included are more than thirty contemporary Indigenous leaders--such as Chief Oren Lyons, John Mohawk, Winona LaDuke, and John Trudell. These beautiful, wise voices remind us where hope lies.MELISSA K. NELSON, Ph.D., is an ecologist, writer, educator, and social activist whose work is dedicated to Indigenous revitalization and cross-cultural reconciliation. She is a professor of American Indian studies at San Francisco State University and president of The Cultural Conservancy, a nonprofit Indigenous rights organization. She also coproduced the award-winning documentary short film The Salt Song Trail: Bringing Creation Back Together. She is a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Indians and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

NEW SCIENCE / EARTH CHANGESMany ancient myths from around the world tell of catastrophic destruction by fire and flood. These ubiquitous legends are so extreme that they are -often dismissed as imaginative exaggerations. In Earth Under Fire, Paul LaViolette connects these "myths" to recent scientific findings in astronomy, geology, and archaeology to reconstruct the details of prehistoric global -disasters and to explain how similar tragedies could recur in the near future. Compelled by his decryption of an ancient warning hidden in zodiac constellation lore, LaViolette worked with information from many scientific sources, including astronomical observations, polar ice core measurements, and other geological data, to confirm that our Galaxy's core exploded near the end of the last ice age. This explosion unleashed a barrage of cosmic rays and enveloped the solar system in a dense nebula, which led to periods of persistent darkness, frigid cold, severe solar storms, searing heat, and mountainous floods that plagued mankind for many generations. Linking his scientific findings to details preserved in the myths and monuments of ancient civilizations, he demonstrates how past civilizations accurately recorded the causes of these cataclysmic events, knowledge of which may be crucial for the human race to survive the next catastrophic superwave cycle. This information reveals the intelligence and ingenuity of our ancestors who, when faced with extinction, found the means to warn us that the apocalypse that destroyed them could occur once again. PAUL A. LAVIOLETTE, PH.D., is president of the Starburst Foundation, an interdisciplinary research institute, and holds degrees in both systems science and physics. The author of Genesis of the Cosmos and Subquantum Kinetics, he lives in New York.

ANCIENT CULTURES / NEW SCIENCE "A valuable addition to the study of lost civilizations and ancient maritime exploration. Essential reading for all true Atlantologists." --Andrew Collins, author of From the Ashes of Angels and Gateway to Atlantis "Definitely a can't-put-downer and must-read book for the enthusiast of ancient mysteries." --Robert G. Bauval, author of The Orion Mystery and Message of the Sphinx "This book should be a standard-issue text in all high school and college history courses. It will stand the test of time." --Robert R. Hieronimus, Ph.D., host of 21st-Century Radio and author of America's Secret Destiny All human cultures, from classical and biblical to native North and South American, share the myth of an ancient deluge that often coincides with a rain of fire from the heavens. Now, in The Destruction of Atlantis, author Frank Joseph links this worldwide cultural phenomenon to the story of the lost civilization of Atlantis, which in a single day and night disappeared into the sea in a violent cataclysm. In the most comprehensive account of this legendary island, Frank Joseph provides compelling evidence based on twenty years of research around the globe that Atlantis was at the root of all subsequent human civilizations. Refuting modern skepticism, he provides evidence from archaeology, geology, astronomy, and ancient lore to prove the existence of Atlantean civilization in the context of Near Eastern Bronze Age society at the end of the 13th century B.C. He combines hard scientific evidence with a stunning and imaginative re-creation of what it must have been like to walk the streets of Atlantis in its last days. The resulting portrait of a mighty empire corrupted by an overreaching lust for wealth and power offers an important lesson to our own materialistic civilization. A journalist and researcher, FRANK JOSEPH is the editor in chief of Ancient American magazine and the author of The Lost Treasure of King Juba and Synchronicity and You. He lives in Colfax, Wisconsin.

MYSTICISM / CREATION SPIRITUALITY "If one person deserves credit for the great Hildegard renaissance in our time, it is Matthew Fox. Here in the long-lost legacy of Hildegard of Bingen, Fox found blindingly beautiful paintings, radiant writings overflowing with fresh insights of the deepest kind, prophetic wisdom, and engaged political spirituality. Here was a mystical genius who could help to illumine the human soul spiritually, ecologically, politically--in every dimension of life." --Mary Ford-Grabowsky, author of Sacred Voices "We find relatively few Christian guides in the past to enlighten or to inspire us to a more functional relationship between the human and the natural worlds. Hildegard sees the creation maker in the ancient manner of the fertility cults, a view she expresses in her statement that creation and creator are related as woman and man. Only thus is the earth fruitful. . . . Because of this 'erotic' bond the earth becomes luxuriant in its every aspect." --Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth An introduction to the life and work of Hildegard of Bingen, Illuminations reveals the life and teachings of one of the greatest female artists and intellectuals of the Western Mystical Tradition. Hildegard was an extraordinary woman living in the Rhineland valley during most of the twelfth century. Besides being the abbess of a large and influential Benedictine abbey, she was a prominent preacher, healer, scientist, and artist. She also was a composer and theologian, writing nine books on theology, medicine, science, and physiology, as well as 70 poems and an opera. At the age of 42, she began to have visions; these were captured as 36 illuminations--24 of which are recorded in this book along with her commentaries on them. Author Matthew Fox has stated, "If Hildegard had been a man, she would be well known as one of the greatest artists and intellectuals the world has ever seen." It is a credit to the power of the women's movement and our times that this towering genius of Western thought is being rediscovered in her full grandeur and autonomy. MATTHEW FOX is a well-known lecturer and scholar and is president and founder of the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, California. He is the author of 24 books, including Original Blessing, Meditations with Meister Eckhart, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, and One River, Many Wells. He lives in Oakland, California.

FICTION / MYTHOLOGY Will the past become our future? Is humankind destined to repeat the events that occurred on another planet, far away from Earth? Zecharia Sitchin's bestselling series, The Earth Chronicles, provided humanity's side of the story--as recorded on ancient clay tablets and other Sumerian artifacts--concerning our origins at the hands of the Anunnaki, "those who from heaven to earth came." In The Lost Book of Enki, we can view this saga from a different perspective through this richly conceived autobiographical account of Lord Enki, an Anunnaki god, who tells the story of these extraterrestrials' arrival on Earth from the 12th planet, Nibiru. The object of their colonization: gold to replenish the dying atmosphere of their home planet. Finding this precious metal results in the Anunnaki creation of homo sapiens--the human race--to mine this important resource. In his previous works, Sitchin compiled the complete story of the Anunnaki's impact on human civilization in peacetime and in war from the fragments scattered throughout Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite, Egyptian, Canaanite, and Hebrew sources--the "myths" of all ancient peoples in the old world as well as the new. Missing from these accounts, however, was the perspective of the Anunnaki themselves. What was life like on their own planet? What motives propelled them to settle on Earth--and what drove them from their new home? Convinced of the existence of a now lost book that formed the basis of ancient Sumerian texts holding the answers to these questions, the author began his search for evidence. Through exhaustive research of primary sources, he has here re-created tales as the memoirs of Enki, the leader of these first "astronauts." What takes shape is the story of a world of mounting tensions, deep rivalries, and sophisticated scientific knowledge that is only today being confirmed. An epic tale of gods and men unfolds, challenging every assumption we hold about our creation, our past, and our future. An eminent Orientalist and Biblical scholar, ZECHARIA SITCHIN (1920-2010) was distinguished by his ability to translate ancient Sumerian and other ancient texts. He was a graduate of the University of London and worked as a journalist and editor in Israel for many years before making his home in New York City.

ANCIENT EGYPT / MAYAN STUDIES "One of the most amazing books I have ever read." --Colin Wilson, author of The Outsider Maurice Cotterell's background as a scientist, mathematician, and engineer helped him to decipher the code of the ancient Maya, revealing the mystery of their science and religion to an extent never before possible. Using the same techniques, the author turns his attention here to deciphering the secrets encoded within the tomb of Tutankhamun. His extensive research revealed that both the ancient Egyptians and the Maya possessed a sophisticated understanding of sun spot activity and other astronomical phenomena--facts recently confirmed by modern science. Knowledge of the connections between solar patterns and human destiny allowed the Egyptians and Maya to harness the energy generated by the sun to achieve spiritual enlightenment and soul growth. The link between reincarnation and solar energy encoded in the tombs of Tutankhamun and the Mayan Lord Pacal is a jealously guarded secret held by a select number of occult groups, including the higher orders of Freemasonry. The author unleashed a firestorm of controversy in Europe when he exposed much of the esoteric knowledge of the Freemasons, including one of the society's most carefully concealed secrets: incarnate gods like Lord Pacal and Tutankhamun have come to Earth to help humans achieve spiritual enlightenment, soul growth, and individual realization as solar beings. MAURICE COTTERELL, a mathematician and scientist formerly at the Cranfield Institute of Technology, was awarded in 1992 the Voluntariado Cultural medal for his contributions to Mexican culture. He is the author of the international bestsellers The Mayan Prophecies and The Supergods. He lives in England.

HEALTH / MEDITATION Specific body postures reappear in the art and artifacts of world cultures, even those widely separated by time and distance. What are these images of unusual postures telling us? Anthropologist Felicitas Goodman discovered that people who assume these postures while in trance report strikingly similar meditative experiences. The results from this research are astonishing, proving that certain body gestures and movements, when properly worked with, actually trigger us into accessing altered states of consciousness. With clear instructions and illustrations, Belinda Gore, one of Dr. Goodman's prominent students, reveals to us these shamanic postures and how to work with them. Ecstatic Body Postures is a "must read" for anyone interested in meditation, shamanic practice, yoga, and body work. "Felicitas D. Goodman has studied and worked with religious trance and trance postures for over twenty years. Written by one of her students, a trained psychotherapist, this book summarizes the results of hundreds of workshops and introduces the reader to the rich resources of information found in the alternative reality. Belinda Gore gives direct, hands-on advice on how to approach and how to interpret these experiences. I highly recommend this book to all who want to explore their inner reality." --Ruth-Inge Heinze, Ph.D., University of California/Berkeley, author of Shamans of the 20th Century and Trance and Healing in Southeast Asia Today "A scientific discovery with startling implications, opening the door to experiences that fascinate by their strangeness and wonder." --Felicitas D. Goodman, author of Where the Spirits Ride the Wind: Spirit Journeys and Ecstatic Experiences "It's a stimulating, enriching and revelatory insight that illuminates both the hidden initiatory side to indigenous art traditions while charting a new body-grounded path into the mysteries." --Richard Leviton, senior writer, Yoga Journal BELINDA GORE has been teaching workshops on ecstatic trance for over eight years. She is vice-president of the Cuyamungue Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the principles of ecstatic trance and ritual body postures are studied and taught under the tutelage of renowned anthropologist Felicitas Goodman. A psychologist in private practice in Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Gore earned her Ph. D. in counseling from Ohio State University.