ENERGY MEDICINE
by Donna Eden with David Feinstein, Tarcher/Putnam, 1998, $25.95

I had the opportunity to participate in Donna Eden’s workshop when she and her husband, David Feinstein were in town to discuss her book at The Church of Today. Donna’s energy, spirit and personality were so vivacious and contagious that I was compelled to not only own Energy Medicine but to digest it thoroughly! Her book reads like her personality and she truly lives her principles. Donna has used her own techniques to heal herself of debilitating food allergies, asthma, hypoglycemia and even the first symptoms of multiple sclerosis!

Energy Medicine empowers you to optimize your body’s natural capacities to heal itself. The gift of this book is its step-by-step approach for working with your body’s energies to foster health, healing and vitality. It includes a five minute daily routine of six different techniques designed to keep your energies unblocked and flowing. They are incredibly easy to do and even more incredibly effective!

There are more than 100 procedures and techniques pictorially detailed and succinctly dialogued throughout the three parts of the book. Part I is informational on energy: what it is, how to sense it and methods for testing your own energy. Part II details the eight major energy systems and how to keep the systems thriving for greater physical and emotional strength. Part III shows how to apply it all to our everyday situations of life, how to relieve pain, combat illness and create energy fields that will optimize your health and happiness.

I cannot emphasize enough how practical and complete Energy Medicine is for practicing healers, latent healers and those in need of a healer! With this book you will all realize what an incredible healer you and your body are – together!

Reviewed by Vicki Schneider

HOME DESIGNS WITH FENG SHUI, A-Z
by Terah Kathryn Collins, Hay House, 1999, 145 pages, $19.95

A bright, colorful book, Home Designs with Feng Shui A-Z by Terah Kathryn Collins is a book just begging to be picked up and deliciously read.

A wonderful “little” book but huge on information, Home Designs gives you a wealth of feng shui tidbits to try inside and outside of home and office. The cute format of the book is like a large address book with alpha tabs to help direct you to the first area of your house you’d like to harmonize. The entire book is done in scrumptious prime color illustrations and is spiral bound for ease of tabbing through it.

Each section has easy Feng Shui Chi Enhancers for that specific letter and very special inner work suggestions to apply as you seek to change your living space since feng shui is the total blending of mind, physical (body), and spirit. Terah shows the reader how connected we are to our living spaces and even offers life-enhancing affirmations to further provide that synchronistic link.

Home Design with Feng Shui A-Z is a fun, enjoyable book which gives you a mini feng shui seminar but doesn’t bog you down with the more advanced aspects of this ancient Oriental design modality.

Terah suggests in her intro that the book is very much a feng shui buffet of sorts. After going to this book “buffet” I feel very saited yet excited by all the new “tastes” that this book has to offer. And I’m eager to try out some of the “courses.” Definitely check out this book – it will delight your senses!

Reviewed by Nancy Miller

THE INVITATION
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Harper San Francisco, $16.00

“It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

“It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

“It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.”

This is but an excerpt from Oriah Mountain Dreamer’s poem and book, The Invitation. Her incredible use of words is amazingly intense and powerful! Each chapter offers an opportunity to explore the deeper meaning and explanation of each stanza of her poem. With her words she paints pictures and stirs emotions that resonate with the very fibers of your soul and call for it to do the dance of life.

The book was given to me to read by a complete stranger and I realize now, by Divine appointment. During the couple of days I was reading the book I had several situations that allowed me to use and reference several lines from the poem and was comforted by her words. It truly was an amazing experience, for in the midst of my quandary my mind repeated verbatim the lines, “I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it....if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul...”

And I had my healing.

Oriah offers meditations at the end of each chapter meant to clear some of those blocks that are keeping us from our highest good. They are very powerful and truly make you remember the place from which we all need to come. The Invitation is short, easily read and intensely powerful! I highly recommend Oriah Mountain Dreamer’s book, The Invitation.

Accept the invitation to live and love life completely with every fiber of your being!

Reviewed by Vicki Schneider

MICHIGAN’S ALTERNATIVE RESOURCE DIRECTORY, Volume VIII
published by phenomeNEWS,1999, 188 pages, $9.95

Fear of the onset of cold or flu season? You could get a flu shot. Or, like 7.3 million Americans you could swallow an echinacea capsule which comes from a purple petaled daisy. Worry your memory is fading? Then write down this name: ginkgo biloba made from a tree and 10.8 million Americans regularly remind themselves to take it.

Feeling a little depressed? You could get a prescription for Prozac or any other psychotherapy. But 7.5 million Americans gulped down an extract made from a bright yellow flower called St. John's Wart available without a script at the healthfood store, in the mail or at Wal-Mart.

More and more of us are supplementing and replacing prescription medicines with pills and potions containing medicinal herbs, vitamins and minerals. We can stock up not only on incense, tofu, soy cheese and sprout at shops often at the corner supermarket or from mail order houses or websites.

Our blossoming market for all things herbal and for alternative remedies has attracted growing interest from Ann Landers, Larry King, professors of medicine and Wall Street investors. Among the eye-opening findings: Americans today make more visits to non-traditional physicians than to their family physician. And they spend almost as much out-of-pocket ($27 billion) on alternative therapies not reimbursed by health insurance.

What's behind the revival of thousand-year old remedies and therapies? At the root, it's the fears and desires of 80 million aging baby boomers who are eager to grab hold of their medical destinies. The perceived coldness and remoteness of conventional medicine and the red-taped web of managed care make other modalities very appealing. Consumers value them as preventative measures distinct from the usual drugs prescribed after disease strikes. The frantic expansion in this market can come at some risk if you are not weary of the fly-by-night hucksters out there.

In this chaotic marketplace, phenomeNEWS has put out the new edition of Michigan's Alternative Resource Directory that people rely on to provide them with connections to the alternative, complimentary, integrative healthcare fields and related services not readily available through other sources in Michigan. The Directory has it all .... listings for acupuncture, therapeutic massage, homeopathy, chiropractic, reflexology, aromatherapy, herbal therapy and ayurvedic medicine.

So whether you seek to brighten your moods, stave off a disease, rev up and boost your immune system, lower your cholesterol, retain your youth and vitality, let Michigan’s Alternative Resource Directory be your guide.

Reviewed by Norine Zimmer

Editor’s Note: The Directory is available at libraries, favorite bookstores, health food stores (Whole Foods, Merchant of Vino, Good Food Company, NutriFoods, Zerbo's), healing centers, clinics and training schools or on our website. The price is $9.95 plus $2.60 S/H charges. It can also be purchased at the phenomeNEWS office

The Art of Spiritual Dreaming
by Harold Klemp, published by Eckankar, 324 pages, $14.00

Harold Klemp’s new book The Art of Spiritual Dreaming clearly demonstrates why he is considered one of the leading authorities in the world today on the spiritual nature of dreams.

Klemp makes three reassuring points to today’s reader: (1) God loves you, (2) God speaks to you often, (3) You can learn to hear God’s “voice” through the forgotten language of dreams. It goes beyond the ordinary dream book. It places spiritual dreaming in its rightful place at the center of the whole subject of dreams.

He goes on to explain there is an ancient tradition about the spiritual nature of dreams. The Old Testament gives examples of dreams and waking visions, affirming these as ways that God provides personal direction and guidance.

Klemp has been exploring the spiritual nature of dreams for the last decade and a half. He holds the view that dreams are of divine origin. They are a portal to spiritual worlds and bear messages and prophetic insights from God.

So what is spiritual dreaming? “Dreams are like a daily report card,” says Klemp, “They show how you are doing in your spiritual mission, even if you don’t know you have one. Dreams tell how you are getting on in your relationship with God and life. In The Art of Spiritual Dreaming, Klemp reaffirms that dreams are a divine gift. He offers readers of all faiths and backgrounds proven techniques to assist them in using dreams to discover spiritual meaning and purpose in life.

Klemp, the spiritual leader of Eckankar, Religion of the Light and Sound of God, draws upon his own insights and experiences, as well as those of many other spiritual dreamers whose personal adventures fill the pages of this book.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone new or familiar with the significance of dream study. It is the most thorough and comprehensive book I have ever read on dreams. A must read.

Reviewed by Peter Lucchese

The Indigo Children – The New Kids Have Arrived
by Lee Carroll and Jan Tober, published by Hay House, $13.95

Indigo Children is an absolute ground breaking book for this time on our planet! If you have young children, more than likely you have an Indigo on your hands! If you are a teacher or work with children, you too must read this book.

An Indigo child is a boy or girl who displays a new and unusual set of psychological attributes. The 10 most common traits of Indigos are:

1. They come into the world with a feeling of royalty (and often act like it).
2. They have a feeling of “deserving to be here,” and are surprised when others don’t share that.
3. Self-worth is not a big issue. They often tell the parents “who they are.”
4. They have difficulty with absolute authority (authority without explanation or choice).
5. They simply will not do certain things; for example, waiting in line is difficult for them.
6. They get frustrated with systems that are ritual-oriented and don’t require creative thought.
7. They often see better ways of doing things, both at home and in school, which makes them seem like “system busters” (nonconforming to any system).
8. They seem antisocial unless they are with their own kind. If there are no others of like consciousness around them, they often turn inward, feeling like no other human understands them. School is often extremely difficult for them socially.
9. They will not respond to “guilt” discipline (“Wait till your father gets home and finds out what you did”).
10. They are not shy in letting you know what they need.

Remind you of anyone you know?

The book is incredibly informative, insightful and well-researched. The list of contributors is impressive and their findings are well-documented and footnoted. The endnotes include phone numbers and web sites for your own personal follow through. As Doreen Virtue, PhD states, “We know that Indigo children are born wearing their God-given gifts on their sleeves. Many of them are natural-born philosophers who think about the meaning of life and how to save the planet. They are inherently gifted scientists, inventors and artists. Yet our society, built upon the old energy is smothering the gifts of the Indigo children.”

The children today come in awake. You can see it in their eyes! And then we place these ambassadors from heaven in the old paradigm, label them ADD, ADHD, hyperactive and non- conformists. We give them Ritalin, tell them we have always done it this way and then wonder why the luster in their eyes fades and their spirits no longer soar!

The Indigo Children, gives practical useful ideas on how to communicate with your Indigo, how to teach the new kids. It explores the spiritual aspects and the awareness of Indigos. It also gives suggestions on nutrition, supplements, alternatives to Ritalin, etc. It is a fantastic resource and tool for all of us who interact with the children who are here to lead us toward conscious evolution and ascension! Please, please read this book!

Reviewed by Vicki Schneider

ENCHANTED LOVE – THE MYSTICAL POWER OF INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS
by Marianne Williamson, Simon & Shuster, 1999, 281 pages, $24.00

I am blessed! I had the privilege of obtaining an advance copy of Marianne’s new book, Enchanted Love – The Mystical Power of Intimate Relationships, and what a gift it turned out to be for me!

Enchanted Love will sing to your soul; it did to mine. Marianne takes you into the hearts of two souls striving for the ultimate destiny of the intimate connection – infinite love. This journey of the soul to passion, freedom and unconditional love requires traveling through the forests of forgiveness, surrender, assumed innocence and the deep thickets of our past hurts. Marianne reveals that this vision of love is really a journey of the soul to spiritual evolution, renewal and transformation. When we obtain this highest vision of divine love in all of our intimate relationships, we will heal the world. I pray for that day and wept when Marianne took me there in her book.

Throughout Enchanted Love, Marianne takes you into the sacred space of the soul striving for the perfect union of love and God by taking you into the minds and sometimes the bedrooms of the innocent. “Your eyes are like street lamps to me. They tell me I am home, this is where I live, I am safe here, I have made it. There is someone waiting here to talk to me and hold me… I want to know everything, and I am rushing now across the grass to throw open the door, to say ‘I’m home!’ to see your eyes, to know that this is the right address, the address at last, thank God.”

Synchronistically, while reading Enchanted Love, I found mine. (Thank you God!) I was on my way to explore this relationship and was in a great deal of fear as I was not feeling worthy of the love being shown me, so I decided to divert my mind by continuing Marianne’s book. Well, as divine right action would have it, I was in the chapter on Grace and Forgiveness where she was talking about negative thought, feeling we’re damaged goods of sorts and knowing that “Love is a Miracle. It’s a God Job.” She then offered this prayer: “Dear God, I want to be loveable, and prepared for a beloved. Please remove from me the walls in front of my heart. Please take from me the games I play to deny myself the joy of life. Please make me new, that I might know an enchanted romance. Then send to me my heart’s delight. Please open up the gates, that love might flood my soul. Amen.” I repeated the prayer like a mantra and I and my heart were opened, love flooded my soul and I am healed! Thank you God! Thank you Marianne!

I ask, God to please place this book into the hands of everyone who fails to see the innocence in their own heart as well as their partner’s, of everyone who fails to forgive the woundedness of their fellow beings, of everyone longing for love and failing to see it within themselves. Show them this way. We are ready to be healed. We are ready to assume our spiritual destiny of unconditional love. Thank you for this gift that has been presented to us by Marianne Williamson. May we all become this deep spiritual force of transformational love and heal ourselves and the world.

Heal yourselves, your relationships and the world. Please share this book with everyone you know, it is time.

Reviewed by Vicki Schneider

BASIC PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT: A USER’S GUIDE TO AURAS, CHAKRAS & CLAIRVOYANCE
by John Friedlander & Gloria Hemsher, Samual Weiser, Inc., 1999,148 pages, $12.95

If increasing your self-awareness, improving professional and personal relationships, and enhancing your psychic abilities are on your agenda for the new millennium, but the task seems mountainous, here’s a place to start. Basic Psychic Development is a wonderfully accessible trail guide to the human psyche.

Starting at base camp with survival skills, we learn about breathing and grounding, using energy from the earth and the cosmos to create a sense of well-being and a safe space in which to learn. Heading up the trail to higher consciousness, we identify and clean our chakras, and eliminate energy blocks. Feeling clear and focused, we move on to the next altitude – our relationship with others. After a series of clever and playful exercises, we round the bend to a breathtaking view of how we can successfully interact with the broad assortment of people and situations in our lives.

Our able authors then lead us to the place of communication with our own essence, our Higher Self, and we experience this profound and endless source of love, compassion, wisdom and joy waiting to embrace us. Buoyed by a new sense of the divine within us, we tackle the final leg of the climb to clairvoyance. We come to understand the tough concept of compassionate neutrality, visit the seven layers of our aura and our out-of-body chakras, and glimpse our potential as healers for ourselves and for the planet.

From the mountaintop at the end of the trail, we see that intuition and perception are natural gifts we have all been given. With intent and a sense of humor, we can take charge of our well-being and actually manage our relationship with our fast-paced world. We can finally be present for all that life has to offer. Take this trek! You have excellent guides for the journey who provide a clear map of the chakras and the aura layers, give understandable instructions, have a rich sense of play, and a zest for the adventure that is life. No matter how far up the mountain you choose to go, you will come back refreshed and wiser.

Reviewed by Nancy L. Campbell

THE SECRET OF SHAMBHALA
by James Redfield - due out in November 1999, Warner Books, 238 pages

James Redfield has written another book. He started with The Celestine Prophecy where he investigated nine insights, then followed on with The Tenth Insight which lead us to this book about the 11th insight. How many insights are there, I wonder?

This story is set in Tibet, one of the most if not THE most spiritual places on our planet. The search for Shambhala begins with the words of a neighbor’s child and the vision of his old friend, Wil.

Synchronicity is an all-important part of this adventure and as I finished reading this book, I became aware again of all the synchronistic events that have happened and are still happening in my life.

Why, just today I received this great pizza flyer and was wondering how I could take one into work when I only had one flyer. I knew how much they loved pizza! I thought, well I can just photocopy it. But I didn’t have to. I was sitting outside and some young kids turned up and placed another flyer in my door! Synchronicity!

I know it’s only a small occurrence but the point is to be aware and alert to every event so that you will be open for more. It truly is amazing how many times this can happen in just one day when you are aware enough.

Synchronicity abounds in this wonderful book. James shows us how our lives can be affected when we follow our intuition and when we don’t.

We learn all about our prayer field and how powerful we truly are – how just by a single thought we can change the outcome of any given situation. Can you imagine that? And we can all do it, all of us here on this planet, right now!

“Every negative assumption or expectation that we make about another human being is a prayer that goes out and acts to create that reality in that person. Remember our minds connect – our thoughts and expectations go out and influence others to think the same way we do.” This excerpt from the book really hit home for me. It makes you stop and think before you “think.”

James speaks of four extensions that make up the 11th insight. You can’t do the last extension without doing the first three and understanding them is very important.

The first one – connecting with energy and letting it flow through you. The second – setting your field of energy so that it flows ahead of you wherever you go. The third – setting your prayer field to go out and increase the energy and vibrational levels of others. The fourth extension is broken up into sections... and you will have to read the book to find “The Secret to Shambhala.” The trip is well worth it. You will meet some very unusual people on your journey, people that we ourselves can become. That’s what I found so exciting, that we can evolve to places that are not impossible, that are within our reach.

James has a way of showing us “the way” by taking us on an incredible adventure that we don’t want to end. Well, I am sure there will be more insights to tantalize our imaginations and I am already looking forward to a new insight.

Reviewed by Shazz

Celtic Women In Music A Celebration Of Beauty and Sovereignty
by Maireid Sullivan & Martin Melhuish, Quarry Press, 1999, 224 pages, $16.95

Celtic Women In Music is an intimate book that reveals the insights of authentic women who live for music. It is skillfully woven from exhaustive interviews with each artist by a woman who herself has recorded two solo albums.

Celtic Women In Music is about bonding and the nurturing spirit these women bring with them. The reader delves into the most intimate thoughts of these Celtic women as performers, artists in their own right and can make connections between them that perhaps have never been made as most of these women are independent artists who don’t personally know each other.

Even though the artists appear alphabetically there is a story that flows from the simplicity of tin flute player Mary Bergin to Steeleye Span’s vocalist Gaye Woods’ weavings of the ancient archetypes about Gaya, earth mother, and Dagda, male god of concepts of knowledge. One interview steps to the next cultivating a texture of diversity.

Ms. Sullivan’s knowledge and insight into Celtic life – historical, ancient and present day – is vast. She both keeps her artist interviewees on their toes and maintains their pace. This book also contains a fascinating interview with the author.

Naturally omitted – lost in the transcription and publishing process – are the brogue and vocal intonation that carry the soul of these wonderful Celtic ladies of music. Thankfully, each soul’s voice and life’s intent are captured and preserved here for our inspiration.

Color photos with 30 interviews in 255 pages comprise Volume 1. We eagerly await Volume 2.

Reviewed by Greg Ozimek