Magic, the occult, the mystical—is there anything behind those words apart from horror-movie clichés? People the world over have always known and interacted with these hid¬den forces. But today there are very few ways to sort out truth from nonsense.In this book, Richard Smoley, an expert on the occult, delves into mind power, magic, suggestion, and the realms of the unseen. He speaks simply and clearly, in common-sense terms, about these mysterious forces, how the...

**This groundbreaking work by Richard Smoley, author of fourteen books including Forbidden Faith: The Secret History of Gnosticism and Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition, presents the Jewish mystical teaching in a fresh new light.Kabbalah: Treasure House of Secret Wisdom** offers a guide to the esoteric tradition that will serve as a concise introduction for beginners. But it also presents never-before-published insights on the Sefe...

Here is the greatest “deal” you will ever find: This concise, deeply practical guide shows how to forgive anyone who has ever hurt you and to receive a payback of enormous personal satisfaction and inner peace.“What I am offering you in this book is the best deal you have ever gotten in your life, or ever will. Even though I know nothing about you, I’m willing to make this claim with complete certainty.”With elegance and absolute persuasiveness The Deal explains how forgive...

This epic, thrilling journey through Bible scholarship and ancient religion shows how much of Scripture is historically false--yet the ancient writings also resound with theologies that crisscrossed the primeval world and that direct us today toward a deep, inner, authentic experience of the truly sacred.From a historical perspective, the Bible is shockingly, provably wrong--a point supported by today's best archaeological and historical scholarship but not well understood by (or c...

An eye-opening introduction to the complex world of esoteric Christianity—perfect for the general readerThis guide to mystical and esoteric Christianity speaks from a nonsectarian point of view, unearthing insights from the whole of the Christian tradition, orthodox and heretical, famous and obscure. The esoteric tradition has traditionally searched for meanings that would yield a deeper inner knowledge of the divine. While traditional Christianity draws a timeline...

A spirituality based on love, not fear• Shares key, inspiring teachings from A Course in Miracles as well as Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, and the Sefer Yetzirah, the oldest known Kabbalistic text• Cites philosophical wisdom from Kant, Blake, Jung, and Gurdjieff, alongside cognitive science, to reveal how the world is not difficult and flawed, but our fear-based mind-sets lead us to see it that way• Offers a path to help you regenerate from the “...

The success of books such as Elaine Pagels’s Gnostic Gospels and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code proves beyond a doubt that there is a tremendous thirst today for finding the hidden truths of Christianity--truths that may have been lost, buried, or even forbidden by institutional religion over the last two millennia. Among the most compelling of these lost traditions is Gnosticism--a school of spiritual seekers that flourished in the late Roman Empire between the first and fourth centuries A...

**This groundbreaking work by Richard Smoley, author of fourteen books including Forbidden Faith: The Secret History of Gnosticism and Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition, presents the Jewish mystical teaching in a fresh new light.Kabbalah: Treasure House of Secret Wisdom**offers a guide to the esoteric tradition that will serve as a concise introduction for beginners. But it also presents never-before-published insights on the Sefer...

Richard Smoley is one of the world's most distinguished authorities on the mystical and esoteric teachings of Western civilization. He's at home with intriguing and complex questions about the history and evolution of Christianity, and how it reflects teachings of the other great wisdom traditions.

An eclectic, spicy smorgasbord of philosophical food forthought.- KIRKUS REVIEWSLife can seem to be a serious business. We could also look at it as a game—or a series of games.They include survival, love, power, pleasure, courage, creativity, and the Master Game!In this insightful book, Richard Smoley gives a lively but profound account of these games. He talks about how we play them, the mistakes we make, and how we can play them best....

Magic, the occult, the mystical—is there anything behind those words? If there is, is it anything beyond horror-movie clichés? People the world over have always known and interacted with these hidden forces. But in our culture, there are very few ways to sort out truth from nonsense.In this book, Richard Smoley, an expert on the occult, delves into the world of mind power, magic, suggestion, and the realms of the unseen. He speaks simply and clearly, in common-sen...

Scholar Richard Smoley reveals the secret history of the religious doctrines of Gnosticism in Forbidden Faith.The success of books such as Elaine Pagels's Gnostic Gospels and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code proves beyond a doubt that there is a tremendous thirst today for finding the hidden truths of Christianity—truths that may have been lost or buried by institutional religion over the last two millennia.In Forbidden Faith, Ric...