Deep within the lunar crust, far beneath the neon-drenched domes of the Copernicus Metropolis, the future of humanity is being rewritten in the blood of its past. When the ambitious architects of Aethelgard Biotics use cutting-edge biotechnology to resurrect the decapitated head of Vlad Tepes, they believe they have created the ultimate corporate asset. Instead, they have unleashed a digital god of the New Age. This cloned and cybernetically enhanced Dracula does not merely hunt in the sha...

This book presents a detailed exploration into the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), an enterprise concerned with finding and communicating sustainable ways of living, established in Wales in 1973. Playing a central role in the global green network, this study examines CAT’s history and context for creation, its development over time and its wider influence in the progression of green ideas at the local, national and international levels.Based on original archival and ethnog...

This book brings together an unprecedented number and range of contributions from different disciplines relating to sleep in one comprehensive volume.The contributors explore the science of sleep - what it is, what makes it happen and why we do it - as well as the measurement of sleep, its importance for daytime performance and its sociological and cultural aspects. Sleep disorders, sleep quality and the importance of sleep for daytime performance are also explored, as are the ways...

The Hindu-derived meditation movement, The Art of Living (AOL), founded in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Bangalore, has grown into a global organization which claims presence in more than 150 countries. Stephen Jacobs presents the first comprehensive study of AOL as an important transnational movement and an alternative global spirituality. Exploring the nature and characteristics of spirituality in the contemporary global context, Jacobs considers whether alternative spiritualities are ...

Human Software is a book of poems, complemented with witty commentary and beautiful art. The poetry reflects how information is delivered, processed, and received throughout a lifetime. It takes the reader through a gutsy exploration of American psychology, history, art, science, religion, nature, current affairs, gender studies, and cultural/social studies. Additionally, the beautiful, unfiltered art drives home the raw feelings and emotions being explored throughout the book. The increas...

"Robert M. Sapolsky is one of the best science writers of our time."—Oliver SacksThe author of New York Times Bestseller Determined offers a completely revised and updated edition of his most popular work, with over 225,000 copies in print.Now in a third edition, the renowned primatologist Robert M. Sapolsky's acclaimed and successful Why Zebras...

Yoga is so prevalent in the modern world--practiced by pop stars, taught in schools, and offered in yoga centers, health clubs, and even shopping malls--that we take its presence, and its meaning, for granted. But how did the current yoga boom happen? And is it really rooted in ancient Indian practices, as many of its adherents claim? In this groundbreaking book, Mark Singleton calls into question many commonly held beliefs about the nature and origins of postural yoga (asana) and...

Why do we need sleep? How much sleep is enough? What is sleep? What happens when we don't get enough? We spend about a third of our lives asleep - it plays a crucial role in our health and wellbeing. References to sleep abound in literature and art, and sleep has been recognized as fundamental to the human condition for thousands of years. Over the past century, our knowledge of how sleep occurs, what it does, and what happens to our health if we do not have enough has developed h...

A concise and up-to-date guide to the history, teachings, and practice of Buddhism by two luminaries in the field of world religions.

Do antidepressants work? Of course -- everyone knows it. Like his colleagues, Irving Kirsch, a researcher and clinical psychologist, for years referred patients to psychiatrists to have their depression treated with drugs before deciding to investigate for himself just how effective the drugs actually were. Over the course of the past fifteen years, however, Kirsch's research -- a thorough analysis of decades of Food and Drug Administration data -- has demonstrated that what everyone knew ...

Join Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh as he explores 5 essential mindfulness practices that offer a blueprint for healthy, compassionate living—no matter your spiritual path or background.The Five Mindfulness Trainings (also referred to as “Precepts”)—not to kill, steal, commit adultery, lie, or take intoxicants—are the basic statement of ethics and morality in Buddhism. Zen Master and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh argues eloquently for their applicability in our daily ...

Buddhism is a vast and complex religious and philosophical tradition with a history that stretches over 2,500 years, and which is now followed by around 115 million people. In this introduction to the foundations of Buddhism, Rupert Gethin concentrates on the ideas and practices which constitute the common heritage of the different traditions of Buddhism (Thervada, Tibetan, and Eastern) which exist in the world today. From the narrative of the story of the Buddha, throughdiscussions of asp...