This book analyses the evolution of literary and artistic representations of the soul, exploring its development through different time periods. The volume combines literary, aesthetic, ethical, and political considerations of the soul in texts and works of art from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries, spanning cultures and schools of thought. Drawing on philosophical, religious and psychological theories of the soul, it emphasizes the far-reaching and enduring epistemological function of the concept in literature, art and politics. The authors argue that the concept of the soul has shaped the understanding of human life and persistently irrigated cultural productions. They show how the concept of soul was explored and redefined by writers and artists, remaining relevant even as it became removed from its ancient or Christian origins.

Compelling evidence for afterlife messages backed by scientific research • Presents detailed accounts of experiments conducted to obtain evidence for the survival of consciousness after death, including the author’s own test involving a secret message left behind by his late sister • Shares interviews with mediums to understand how they receive information from the spirit world and explains how to recognize fraudulent mediums • Explores the healing impact that afterlife communications can have on people who are grieving After the unexpected passing of his youngest son, Mark Ireland began a search for messages from the afterlife and discovered remarkable proof of life after death. Interweaving profound personal experience and compelling scientific evidence, Ireland presents a deep dive into psychic-medium phenomena, spirit visitations, after-life communication, reincarnation, synchronicity, and near-death experiences, pointing to the survival of consciousness after bodily death. He details how he confronted his resistance to engaging in the spiritual and parapsychological practices of his deceased father, prominent 20th-century psychic Dr. Richard Ireland, who counseled celebrities such as Mae West and the Eisenhower family. On his journey, he meets with respected mediums who deliver unexpected messages from his son, father, and others who have passed and explores the healing impact that such messages can have on people who are grieving. He shares his interviews with mediums to understand how they see, hear, and feel the information they receive from the spirits of the deceased, and he explains how to recognize fraudulent mediums. Ireland presents detailed accounts of scientific experiments conducted to obtain evidence for the continuity of consciousness, including the author’s own test involving a secret message left behind by his deceased sister, Robin. The contents of this message were unknown to any living person and remained sealed in an envelope until the author received messages from a group of mediums. He exposes deceptive arguments made by skeptics and examines mediumship through the lens of multiple religious traditions—including some factions who seek to demonize the practice. Showing how spirit communication can be undeniably accurate and frustratingly ambiguous, Ireland reveals the profound healing and transformative possibilities available to those who come to believe in the persistence of the soul.

A father watches his teenage son step out the door on a hiking trip, not knowing that this is the last time he would see him.... A journal of grief, despair, and ultimately, hope, this book tells the story of every parent's nightmare--the sudden death of a child--and a father's search for meaning in a seemingly random world of psychics and skeptics. Expanding on territory covered in his 2008 memoir of his son's death Soul Shift, Messages from the Afterlife is both an account of Ireland's journey from indifference to belief and an overview of the resources available to the bereaved to help them receive messages from the afterlife. Mark Ireland, son of celebrated "psychic to the stars" Dr. Richard Ireland, was a successful marketing executive in Arizona with little interest in his father's colorful history. While his father held readings for Mae West and traveled the U.S. demonstrating his parapsychological powers, Mark Ireland took a more conventional route through life. But when his own teenage son Brandon suddenly dies while hiking in the mountains with friends, Ireland is forced to confront his resistance to all things spiritual and begins to explore the possibility that communication with the dead is real. In his search for conclusive evidence of life after death, he plunges into his father's world and meets an array of respected psychic-mediums who deliver unexpected messages not only from his son in the afterlife but also from many other souls seeking to communicate with the living. Fighting to retain a sense of critical thinking, Ireland also contacts scientists conducting research into the survival of consciousness after death. The book features detailed accounts of tests and experiments that various people have conducted to obtain proof of consciousness survival, including Ireland's own, involving a secret message left behind by his sister, Robin, who died of pancreatic cancer. The contents of this message were unknown to any living person and remained sealed in an envelope--untouched--until responses had been received from a group of qualified mediums who sought to "crack" the code. Messages from the Afterlife shows how spirit communication can be both undeniably accurate and frustratingly ambiguous, and above all demonstrates the value of having an open, receptive mind while maintaining faith in the indestructiblity of the human spirit.

Businessman Mark Ireland’s father was Richard Ireland, a deeply spiritual minister and renowned psychic and medium who counted Mae West among his famous clients. While he loved his father, Mark followed a more conventional path in pursuit of mainstream success—until the wrenching death of his youngest son. This unexpected tragedy plunges Mark into the spiritual world of psychics and mediums in a frantic attempt to communicate with the dead. His defenses and pragmatic mindset begin to fade as he remembers premonitions on the day of his son’s death. He consults a number of well-known mediums and is struck by the remarkably accurate information their readings provide. Mark first meets with Allison Dubois, the subject of NBC’s hit show Medium, and later participates in a single-blind lab experiment with medium Laurie Campbell, filmed for a Discovery Channel feature. He then enters a new dimension of personal paranormal experience, as his own psychic awareness begins to unfold. This dramatic story of a father’s unbearable loss and his discovery of life after death offers hope to the bereaved and compelling evidence that death may not be the end.

What are humans? What makes us who we are? Many think that we are just complicated machines, or animals that are different from machines only by being conscious. In Are We Bodies or Souls? Richard Swinburne comes to the defence of the soul and presents new philosophical arguments that are supported by modern neuroscience. When scientific advances enable neuroscientists to transplant a part of brain into a new body, he reasons, no matter how much we can find out about their brain activity or conscious experiences we will never know whether the resulting person is the same as before or somebody entirely new. Swinburne thus argues that we are immaterial souls sustained in existence by our brains. Sensations, thoughts, and intentions are conscious events in our souls that cause events in our brains. While scientists might discover some of the laws of nature that determine conscious events and brain events, each person's soul is an individual thing and this is what ultimately makes us who we are.

Success is a concept universally embraced but individually defined. Our definition of success truly depends on our individual goals. For example, your goal might be monetary, a physical accomplishment or a moral achievement. To flesh out this topic, we are adding a few comments made by famous and successful people in diverse fields - similar and familiar concepts to those put forward by the Premier Experts(r) in this book. Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. Booker T. Washington You can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed. Napoleon Hill The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will. Vince Lombardi Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. Thomas Jefferson In our New Economy, the acquisition of success has been reformatted somewhat by business and industry even though its principles remain the same. The Electronic Revolution has changed the economic landscape as much as the Industrial Revolution. We now live more and more in "real time" and expect others to do the same. This era of instant communication has changed the ways in which we communicate and expect responses. To succeed today, it is useful, perhaps essential, to have a mentor. Errors will be made, but to minimize them will speed up your journey. The Premier Experts(r) in this book will help you along the way. They have been there and know the road. Who would be better to guide you? They will illuminate your path to The Soul Of Success..

R. Paul Stevens and Alvin Ung tap into the wisdom of the Bible and the Christian spiritual tradition to redefine the workplace as an arena for personal spiritual growth. Together they discuss real-life dilemmas and give practical guidance on turning professional work into the catalyst for a richer, more balanced spiritual life. --from publisher description.

"The Second Vatican Council called the Bible 'the food of the soul.' Yet, for many Catholics, their engagement with Scripture is often limited to what they hear at Mass--and the dull, safe, predictable homilies that obscure rather than break open up the Word of God. In Food for the Soul, a riveting three-part series, celebrated philosopher Peter Kreeft invites the faithful—clergy and laity alike—to a heart-to-heart relationship with Christ the Word through the Word of the Scriptures." --

At the heart of Spinoza's Heresy is a mystery: why was Baruch Spinoza so harshly excommunicated from the Amsterdam Jewish community at the age of twenty-four? In this philosophical sequel to his acclaimed, award-winning biography of the seventeenth-century thinker, Steven Nadler argues that Spinoza's main offence was a denial of the immortality of the soul. But this only deepens the mystery. For there is no specific Jewish dogma regarding immortality: there is nothing that a Jew is required to believe about the soul and the afterlife. It was, however, for various religious, historical and political reasons, simply the wrong issue to pick on in Amsterdam in the 1650s. After considering the nature of the ban, or cherem, as a disciplinary tool in the Sephardic community, and a number of possible explanations for Spinoza's ban, Nadler turns to the variety of traditions in Jewish religious thought on the postmortem fate of a person's soul. This is followed by an examination of Spinoza's own views on the eternity of the mind and the role that that the denial of personal immortality plays in his overall philosophical project. Nadler argues that Spinoza's beliefs were not only an outgrowth of his own metaphysical principles, but also a culmination of an intellectualist trend in Jewish rationalism.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa (335 – 395), wrote this classic upon the death of his brother, Saint Basil the Great.