The author looks to the heavens and to some of the most ancient ruins on earth to explore the shamanistic practices that started humankind on the path to scientific knowledge and modern civilization.

“Deeply moving, superbly crafted, and highly unconventional.” —Washington Times Raven Stole the Moon is the stunning first novel from Garth Stein, author of the phenomenal New York Times bestseller The Art of Racing in the Rain. A profoundly poignant and unforgettable story of a grieving mother’s return to a remote Alaskan town to make peace with the loss of her young son, Raven Stole the Moon combines intense emotion with Native American mysticism and a timeless and terrifying mystery, and earned raves for a young writer and his uniquely captivating imagination. When Jenna Rosen abandons her comfortable Seattle life to visit Wrangell, Alaska, it’s a wrenching return to her past. The old home of her Native American grandmother, Wrangell is located near the Thunder Bay resort, where Jenna’s young son Bobby disappeared two years before. His body was never recovered, and Jenna is determined to lay to rest the aching mystery of his death. But whispers of ancient legends begin to suggest a frightening new possibility about Bobby’s fate, and Jenna must sift through the beliefs of her ancestors, the Tlingit -- who still tell of powerful, menacing forces at work in the Alaskan wilderness. Jenna is desperate for answers, and she appeals to a Tlingit shaman to help her sort fact from myth, and face the unthinkable possibilities head-on. Armed with nothing but a mother’s ferocious protective instincts, Jenna’s quest for the truth about her son -- and the strength of her beliefs -- is about to pull her into a terrifying and life-changing abyss....

A study of archaeological evidence for Shamanism in North America and how it links to the archaeology of the mind. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Discover the celestial myths and cosmic rituals of ancient priests and kings . . . Drawing on intimate knowledge of the more than 1,300 ancient sites he has visited, E. C. Krupp, acclaimed writer and preeminent researcher, takes you to the world's essential sacred places and celestial shrines. Join him on a rich narrative journey to see where the rulers of old communed with the gods of the sky. "Highly recommended to everyone interested in the culture of astronomy and those peoples who practiced it in their own ways."-Sky & Telescope "A lively account of the ways in which our ancestors conceived of and used the heavens."-New Scientist "There can be no doubt that this imaginative and readable work by a widely read and widely traveled author will strike a chord in the minds of a great many modern readers."-Isis "The fact that the book is written by an expert in his field comes through on every page, as does his enthusiasm for the subject."-Astronomy Now "Krupp's indispensable volume is fascinating, well-illustrated, and covers much territory."-Parabola

Should scientists challenge religious beliefs? Is religion inevitable in human society? Is religion harmful to society? Can science itself inspire spiritual wonder? Confrontation between science and religion has defined much public debate about religion in recent years, most lately in bestsellers portraying a clash between scientists and religious believers, such as Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and Sam Harris's The End of Faith or Letter to a Christian Nation. But what does this 'us versus them' divide mean for society? This collection of essays gives voice to social scientists, natural scientists and theologians whose experience holds direct relevance on these major issues, and clarifies the position of science in the modern debate. Includes contributions by Mary Midgley (University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK), Denis Alexander (Cambridge University, UK), Richard Roberts (Lancaster University, UK), Bob Layton (Durham University, UK), Simon Coleman (Sussex University, UK), Michael Shermer (Executive Director of the Sceptics Society and monthly columnist for Scientific American), Lewis Wolpert (University College London, UK), Andrew Newberg (University of Pennsylvania), Timothy Taylor (University of Bradford, UK), Steven Mithen (University of Reading, UK), David Sloan Wilson (Binghamton University), Herbert Maschner (Idaho State University), Ian Reader (University of Manchester, UK), Hiroko Kawanami (Lancaster University, UK), Andrian Kreye (Süddeutsche Zeitung), John Hedley Brooke (Oxford University, UK), Gordy Slack (Author of The Battle Over The Meaning Of Everything), Seth Shostak (Seti Institute), William Calvin (University Of Washington), and David Wilkinson (Durham University, UK).

This book is an accessible, engaging tool to help people enrich their lives through the observance of ancient, astronomically determined Earth festivals. It assists us to recover an experience that had deep meaning for the ancients and that is now increasingly relevant to a world facing environmental challenges. Seasonal festivals are not meant to be cultural relics. They are joyous, fun, mischievous, profound, life-affirming events that connect us deeply with the Earth, the heavens, and the wellspring of being within us. This book encourages us to undertake full-bodied, ecstatic seasonal renewal by providing information on the history and meaning of the solstices with practical suggestions on how to celebrate them now.

The new edition reorganizes its treatment of Greek science and significantly expands its coverage of industrial civilization and contemporary science and technology with new and revised chapters devoted to applied science, the sociology and economics of science, globalization, and the technological systems that underpin everyday life.

Eighty-five black-and-white photos and accompanying essays share the beauty of the canyons and mesas of the Colorado Plateau and the history of the resourceful inhabitants.

The Cerebral Code is a new understanding of how Darwinian processes could operate in the brain to shape mental images in only seconds, starting with shuffled memories no better than the jumble of our nighttime dreams, but evolving into something of quality, such as a sentence to speak aloud. Jung said that dreaming goes on continuously but you can't see it when you are awake, just as you can't see the stars in the daylight because it is too bright. Calvin's is a theory for what goes on, hidden from view by the glare of waking mental operations, that produces our peculiarly human type of consciousness with its versatile intelligence. As Piaget emphasized in 1929, intelligence is what we use when we don't know what to do, when we have to grope rather than using a standard response. Calvin tackles a mechanism for doing this exploration and improvement offline, as we think before we act or practice the art of good guessing. Surprisingly, the subtitle's mosaics of the mind is not a literary metaphor. For the first time, it is a description of a mechanism of what appears to be an appropriate level of explanation for many mental phenomena, that of hexagonal mosaics of electrical activity that compete for territory in the association cortex of the brain. This two-dimensional mosaic is predicted to grow and dissolve much as the sugar crystals do in the bottom of a supersaturated glass of iced tea. A Bradford Book