The Map Of Heaven

The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Proof of Heaven teams up with the sages of times past, modern scientists, and with ordinary people who have had profound spiritual experiences to show the reality of heaven and our true identities as spiritual beings. When Dr. Eben Alexander told the story of his near-death experience and his vivid journey to the other side, many readers wrote to say it resonated with them profoundly. Thanks to them, Dr. Alexander realized that sharing his story allowed people to rediscover what so many in ancient times knew: there is more to life, and to the universe, than this single earthly life. Dr. Alexander and his coauthor Ptolemy Tompkins were surprised to see how often his readers’ visions of the afterlife synced up with each other and with those of the world’s spiritual leaders, as well as its philosophers and scientists. In The Map of Heaven, he shares the stories people have told him and shows how they are echoed both in the world’s faiths and in its latest scientific insights. It turns out there is much agreement, across time and terrain, about the journey of the soul and its survival beyond death. In this book, Dr. Alexander makes the case for heaven as a genuine place, showing how we have forgotten, but are now at last remembering, who we really are and what our destiny truly is. The Map of Heaven takes the broad view to reveal how modern science is on the verge of the most profound revolution in recorded history—all around the phenomenon of consciousness itself!

Shares an account of his religiously transformative near-death experience and revealing week-long coma, describing his scientific study of near-death phenomena while explaining what he learned about the nature of human consciousness.

Ingebretsen (English, Georgetown U.) poses an interesting question in his introduction, "Why does Milton's Satan have all the best lines?" A glance at the bestsellers list shows that king of horror Stephen King tops the charts with five books. Americans obviously love to be scared out of their wits because, the author argues, our puritanical theology demands fear to attain conversion, and the writings of Cotton Mather, Hawthorne, Frost, and King are the relics of this collective memory. Tracing themes of captivity, expiation, self-loss, and possession, the volume provides an entertaining analysis of American literature and cultural identity. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The celebrated Nigerian writer Tanure Ojaide relates here his experience of living in the United States where he has been based teaching and writing since 1996. Drawing the Map of Heaven picks up where his earlier memoir, Great Boys. An African Childhood which charted his upbringing in Nigeria by his Grandmother, left off. Less a purely personal tale and more a story of the many other African immigrants in the United States Ojaide in the text uses "we" to speak collectively for a traditionally communal society now residing in an individualistic setting. As much a reflection of an African background as an American experience Drawing the Map of Heaven is a unique portrait of the African in the United States

The rise of modern science has brought with it increasing acceptance among intellectual elites of a worldview that conflicts sharply both with everyday human experience and with beliefs widely shared among the world’s great cultural traditions. Most contemporary scientists and philosophers believe that reality is at bottom purely physical, and that human beings are nothing more than extremely complicated biological machines. On such views our everyday experiences of conscious decision-making, free will, and the self are illusory by-products of the grinding of our neural machinery. It follows that mind and personality are necessarily extinguished at death, and that there exists no deeper transpersonal or spiritual reality of any sort. Beyond Physicalism is the product of an unusual fellowship of scientists and humanities scholars who dispute these views. In their previous publication, Irreducible Mind, they argued that physicalism cannot accommodate various well-evidenced empirical phenomena including paranormal or psi phenomena, postmortem survival, and mystical experiences. In this new theory-oriented companion volume they go further by attempting to understand how the world must be constituted in order that these “rogue” phenomena can occur. Drawing upon empirical science, metaphysical philosophy, and the mystical traditions, the authors work toward an improved “big picture” of the general character of reality, one which strongly overlaps territory traditionally occupied by the world’s institutional religions, and which attempts to reconcile science and spirituality by finding a middle path between the polarized fundamentalisms, religious and scientific, that have dominated recent public discourse. Contributions by: Harald Atmanspacher, Loriliai Biernacki, Bernard Carr, Wolfgang Fach, Michael Grosso, Michael Murphy, David E. Presti, Gregory Shaw, Henry P. Stapp, Eric M. Weiss, and Ian Whicher

They were young, brilliant, and bold. They set out to conquer the world. But the world had other plans for them. Bestselling author Susan Jane Gilman's new memoir is a hilarious and harrowing journey, a modern heart of darkness filled with Communist operatives, backpackers, and pancakes. In 1986, fresh out of college, Gilman and her friend Claire yearned to do something daring and original that did not involve getting a job. Inspired by a place mat at the International House of Pancakes, they decided to embark on an ambitious trip around the globe, starting in the People's Republic of China. At that point, China had been open to independent travelers for roughly ten minutes. Armed only with the collected works of Nietzsche, an astrological love guide, and an arsenal of bravado, the two friends plunged into the dusty streets of Shanghai. Unsurprisingly, they quickly found themselves in over their heads. As they ventured off the map deep into Chinese territory, they were stripped of everything familiar and forced to confront their limitations amid culture shock and government surveillance. What began as a journey full of humor, eroticism, and enlightenment grew increasingly sinister-becoming a real-life international thriller that transformed them forever. Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven is a flat-out page-turner, an astonishing true story of hubris and redemption told with Gilman's trademark compassion, lyricism, and wit.

Neurosurgeon, Dr. Eben Alexander, was brain dead for seven days. During that period he believes that he went through death's door and experienced the incredible beauty of Heaven. While he was there, he was given a message to bring back to the world. For him, the vision was life-changing. From being a scientist and a secular materialist, his worldview was transformed. Because of what happened to him, he now believes in the miraculous and in a life beyond death. But did he experience reality? Was the message that he was given true? Coleman Luck has spent decades studying illusions and the paranormal, both as a professional writer in Hollywood where illusion is the stock-in-trade, and as a mentalist and member of the Academy of Magical Arts at the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood. Also, he is a student of the Bible, educated at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. From this unique perspective Coleman examines the profound visions and truth-claims presented in Proof of Heaven. Coleman's other books include Angel Fall and The Mentalist Prophecies - Book One: Dagon's Illusion.

Alessandro Scafi's fascinating account looks at the perception of world geography and the place of paradise within that. Central to this discussion are the key debates, prevalent from the Renaissance, about faith and reason, theology and philosophy and paradise both as an internal and external reality.