Why is figurative sculpture important? With lush photos and vivid narrative, THE ART OF LIFE explores figurative sculpture from the earliest times to the present. The work of ancient and classical sculptors, along with that of Michelangelo, Bernini, Canova, and Sabin Howard, is showcased. The book also details Sabin Howard's clay-to-bronze process, his philosophy, and his drawings.

Graphic Novel Art.

Far from being a Judeo-Christian invention, apocalyptic thought had its roots in the ancient Near East and was expressed in its art.

If you had the power within your reach to insure your own immortality, would you risk all to grasp it? Think about it. No longer would you plead for the mercy of others. No longer would you bow to invisible masters. No longer would you struggle for table scraps. You could become master of your own destiny. You could become as God. Drawing on the findings of science, religion, sociology, psychology, philosophy, mythology, history, ancient texts, and metaphysics, The Dark Arts of Immortality explains how to harness and augment the energy of our innate drives. Through personal combat, sexual fantasy, and mystic rituals the death drive (mortido), sex drive (libido), and growth drive (physis) can provide doorways to supra-consciousness. These core altered states of being (fury, ecstasy, and exaltation) grant preternatural physical, mental, and spiritual abilities. The synthesis of these attributes will elevate personal power in this world and allow one to manifest a divine Being in the afterlife.

Is There Life After Death? For many, death is terrifying. We try to live as long as possible while hoping that science will soon find a way to allow us to live, if not forever, then at least a very long time. Whether we deny our mortality though literal or symbolic immortality or try to turn death into something benign, our attempts fail us. But what if the real solution is not in denying death’s reality, but in acknowledging it while enjoying a hope for a wonderful forever? Clay Jones, a professor of Christian apologetics, explores the ways people face death and how these “immortality projects” are unsuccessful, even destructive. Along the way, he points to the hope of the only true immortality available to all—the truth that God already offers a path to our hearts’ deepest longing: glorious resurrection to eternal life.

If you could live forever, would you want to? Both a fascinating look at the history of our strive for immortality and an investigation into whether living forever is really all it’s cracked up to be. A fascinating work of popular philosophy and history that both enlightens and entertains, Stephen Cave investigates whether it just might be possible to live forever and whether we should want to. He also makes a powerful argument that it’s our very preoccupation with defying mortality that drives civilization. Central to this book is the metaphor of a mountaintop where one can find the Immortals. Since the dawn of humanity, everyone – whether they know it or not—has been trying to climb that mountain. But there are only four paths up its treacherous slope, and there have only ever been four paths. Throughout history, people have wagered everything on their choice of the correct path, and fought wars against those who’ve chosen differently. In drawing back the curtain on what compels humans to “keep on keeping on,” Cave engages the reader in a number of mind-bending thought experiments. He teases out the implications of each immortality gambit, asking, for example, how long a person would live if they did manage to acquire a perfectly disease-free body. Or what would happen if a super-being tried to round up the atomic constituents of all who’ve died in order to resurrect them. Or what our loved ones would really be doing in heaven if it does exist. We’re confronted with a series of brain-rattling questions: What would happen if tomorrow humanity discovered that there is no life but this one? Would people continue to please their boss, vie for the title of Year’s Best Salesman? Would three-hundred-year projects still get started? If the four paths up the Mount of the Immortals lead nowhere—if there is no getting up to the summit—is there still reason to live? And can civilization survive? Immortality is a deeply satisfying book, as optimistic about the human condition as it is insightful about the true arc of history.

The first ring of force is the first book from “The Art of immortality” series. The book is devoted to the focal point of a human being: life and death. Three major types of magical arts are depicted in the book closely: 1.​ Art of perfection of the first attention’s ring 2.​ Art of perfection of the second attention’s ring 3.​ Art of unification of attentions to the first ring of force The book breaks the secrets of Toltec magic and a path of the warrior. The following subjects are considered in the book: 1.​ Freedom. Depiction of the world of Force, illusion of a choice and a path of the warrior 2.​ Internal Force, yin and yang, harmony of external and internal force of the human being 3.​ Myth about luminous ketatkoatle 4.​ Two ways of transformation and the new intention – of the second attention 5.​ Force – the dark ocean of realization 6.​ Parasites and energy dependence 7.​ Heart – the main center of human energy. Heart’s wings – opportunities that are opened by the heart. 8.​ Cross is the symbol of art of the energy entirety attainment 9.​ Breath moves the sun 10.​ Angel of death and realization of time – control’s force to act and change 11.​ Fear is the first enemy of a human being, seven human intentions 12.​ Four power tests – losses, difficulties, uncertainty and resistance 13.​ To be the loser, the judge and the victim! 14.​ Abstract core of the Force’s display 15.​ Eagle is the symbol of the Force 16.​ Action is the key to the change 17.​ Circle is a symbol of the stalker’s force: to restrict yourself and to track down, Toltecs were drawing two circles – of intention and of action. Action’s circle of Toltec is an order for the warrior! 18.​ The path of a warrior is individual! Always! For this reason, the warrior has no name! There are only the force, the party and the way. Fixation of oneself is a trap and a warrior has to avoid traps! Of individuality! To become a luminous creature, it is necessary to get gradually rid of anything personal and fixed! 19.​ The path of the warrior is the way of changing yourself (not the reality) These arts depict the secrets of human’s psyche in detail and give a description of an individual interlink between us and the Force of the Universe that guides all of us. Studying these arts uncovers an effective system of hidden magical capabilities development in each of us. Mastering these arts gives a human being an opportunity to realize himself as a part of the great evolutionary design and prepare himself for the acceptance of the “IMMORTALITY GIFT” that is obtained by each of us at the moment of meeting death. Value of the work, offered to the reader, consists in the deep research of the spiritual order system of the human, who has entered the path of the “warrior of an absolute freedom”.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER As seen on The Joe Rogan Experience! A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and the real-life quest for the Holy Grail that could shake the Church to its foundations. The most influential religious historian of the 20th century, Huston Smith, once referred to it as the "best-kept secret" in history. Did the Ancient Greeks use drugs to find God? And did the earliest Christians inherit the same, secret tradition? A profound knowledge of visionary plants, herbs and fungi passed from one generation to the next, ever since the Stone Age? There is zero archaeological evidence for the original Eucharist – the sacred wine said to guarantee life after death for those who drink the blood of Jesus. The Holy Grail and its miraculous contents have never been found. In the absence of any hard data, whatever happened at the Last Supper remains an article of faith for today’s 2.5 billion Christians. In an unprecedented search for answers, The Immortality Key examines the archaic roots of the ritual that is performed every Sunday for nearly one third of the planet. Religion and science converge to paint a radical picture of Christianity’s founding event. And after centuries of debate, to solve history’s greatest puzzle. Before the birth of Jesus, the Ancient Greeks found salvation in their own sacraments. Sacred beverages were routinely consumed as part of the so-called Ancient Mysteries – elaborate rites that led initiates to the brink of death. The best and brightest from Athens and Rome flocked to the spiritual capital of Eleusis, where a holy beer unleashed heavenly visions for two thousand years. Others drank the holy wine of Dionysus to become one with the god. In the 1970s, renegade scholars claimed this beer and wine – the original sacraments of Western civilization – were spiked with mind-altering drugs. In recent years, vindication for the disgraced theory has been quietly mounting in the laboratory. The constantly advancing fields of archaeobotany and archaeochemistry have hinted at the enduring use of hallucinogenic drinks in antiquity. And with a single dose of psilocybin, the psychopharmacologists at Johns Hopkins and NYU are now turning self-proclaimed atheists into instant believers. But the smoking gun remains elusive. If these sacraments survived for thousands of years in our remote prehistory, from the Stone Age to the Ancient Greeks, did they also survive into the age of Jesus? Was the Eucharist of the earliest Christians, in fact, a psychedelic Eucharist? With an unquenchable thirst for evidence, Muraresku takes the reader on his twelve-year global hunt for proof. He tours the ruins of Greece with its government archaeologists. He gains access to the hidden collections of the Louvre to show the continuity from pagan to Christian wine. He unravels the Ancient Greek of the New Testament with the world’s most controversial priest. He spelunks into the catacombs under the streets of Rome to decipher the lost symbols of Christianity’s oldest monuments. He breaches the secret archives of the Vatican to unearth manuscripts never before translated into English. And with leads from the archaeological chemists at UPenn and MIT, he unveils the first scientific data for the ritual use of psychedelic drugs in classical antiquity. The Immortality Key reconstructs the suppressed history of women consecrating a forbidden, drugged Eucharist that was later banned by the Church Fathers. Women who were then targeted as witches during the Inquisition, when Europe’s sacred pharmacology largely disappeared. If the scientists of today have resurrected this technology, then Christianity is in crisis. Unless it returns to its roots. Featuring a Foreword by Graham Hancock, the NYT bestselling author of America Before.

This book is the first attempt to think philosophically about the comic phenomenon in literature, art, and life. Working across a substantial collection of comic works author Agnes Heller makes seminal observations on the comic in the work of both classical and contemporary figures. Whether she's discussing Shakespeare, Kafka, Rabelais, or the paintings of Brueghel and Daumier Heller's Immortal Comedy makes a characteristic contribution to modern thought across the humanities.

This is an indispensible volume for creators, curators, and conservators of installation art. Installation art is an evolving, often ephemeral medium that defies rigid categorization. It has also radically transformed the concepts of space, time, and the experience of art. The conservation field is faced with unique challenges over how best to manage and preserve the essence of these works. How detailed can documentation get? When does the replacement of original components become acceptable? How does the field cope with the obsolescence of certain technologies? By exploring the questions and dilemmas facing those who care for art installations, this book intends to raise awareness and promote discussion about the various conservation approaches for these works.