With a rich cultural history and Hollywood stars publicly attesting to a wide range of faiths, it's no surprise that California's spiritual landscape is as diverse as its natural surroundings. The Visionary State weaves text and image into a compelling narrative of religion, architecture, and consciousness in California, from neopaganism to televangelism, UFO cults to austere Zen Buddhism. Acclaimed culture critic Erik Davis brings together the immigrant and homegrown religious influences that have been part of the region's character from its earliest days, drawing connections between seemingly unlike traditions and celebrating the diversity of California's spiritual composition. Michael Rauner's evocative photographs depict the sites and structures where these traditions have taken root and flourished. The Visionary State is a landmark look at what is likely the most varied locale for religious activity anywhere.

Visionary Worlds examines the role and significance of imagination and the myth-making processes that engage human beings in constructing a viable, living world of meaningful relations, beliefs, and social interactions. In this process of "world-building," we each draw on a wide variety of ideologies--religious, philosophical, aesthetic or scientific--which often conflict and clash with one another in the struggle to evolve a coherent and meaningful worldview. This unpredictable and fallible process often requires considerable readjustment or revisions as the complexities of an increasingly pluralistic society impinge upon us with greater divergence and multiplicity. This work examines the ways in which we all make and unmake our reality as part of the challenge of seeking greater spiritual maturity and relatedness to others.

Presenting the unique vision of an American original . . . Alexandre Hogue, a renowned artist whose career spanned from the 1920s to his death in 1994, inherited the view of an America that imagined itself as filled with limitless potential for improvement, that considered high art and great ideas accessible to ordinary working people, and that saw no reason for an intellectual chasm between a learned elite and the masses. He always viewed himself as a radical, yet his passion stemmed from a deeply conservative idea: that art, culture, and nature should form a central force in the life of every human being. His well-known Dust Bowl series labeled him as a regionalist painter, but Hogue never accepted that identity. His work reveals the spirit of Texas and the Southwest as he experienced it for nearly a century. In his later years Hogue worked in forms of crisply rendered nonobjective and calligraphic one-liner paintings. Bringing to light new information regarding the Erosion and Oil Industry series, this book gives special attention to lesser known, post-1945 works, in addition to the awe-inspiring Moon Shot and final Big Bend series. Each series—from the hauntingly beautiful Taos landscapes and prophetic canvases of a dust-covered Southwest to his depictions of the fierce geological phenomena of the Big Bend—serves as a paean to the awesomeness of nature. Houston-based curator and critic Susie Kalil grew close to Hogue from 1986 to 1994, a time during which she interviewed him, considered his oeuvre with him, and came to share his vision of the nature and purposes of art. In Alexandre Hogue she reveals Hogue as he presented himself and his work to her. Collections with Alexandre Hogue's paintings: Musee National D'Art Moderne, Pompidou, Paris DallasMuseum of Art Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The GilcreaseMuseum, Tulsa The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa University of Tulsa Tulsa Performing ArtsCenter Smithsonian Institution (NationalMuseum of American Art), Washington, DC OklahomaMuseum of Art, Okla City The SheldonMuseum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln PhoenixArt Museum University of Arizona, Tucson Art Museum of SouthTexas, Corpus Christi Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Tx. StarkMuseum, Orange, Tx Southern MethodistUniversity, Dallas SpringfieldArt Museum, Springfield, Missouri WeatherspoonArt Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro The Federal Reserve Bank, Dallas The Williams Companies, Tulsa

"Studies Raphael's images of supernatural phenomena, including apparitions and prophetic visions, within their contemporary artistic and religious contexts. Asks how a fundamentally naturalistic style of painting like that of the Italian Renaissance can accommodate representations of the supernatural without self-contradiction"--Provided by publisher.

A comprehensive summary of the author's revolutionary approach to psychosis.

“One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades.”—John Gray, New York Times Book Review Hailed as “a magisterial critique of top-down social planning” by the New York Times, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail—sometimes catastrophically—in grand efforts to engineer their society or their environment, and uncovers the conditions common to all such planning disasters. “Beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit.”—New Yorker “A tour de force.”— Charles Tilly, Columbia University

This unique series of paintings takes the viewer on a graphic, visionary journey through the physical, metaphysical, and spiritual anatomy of the self. From anatomically correct rendering of the body systems, Grey moves to the spiritual/energetic systems with such images as "Universal Mind Lattice," envisioning the sacred and esoteric symbolism of the body and the forces that define its living field of energy. Includes essays on the significance of Grey's work by Ken Wilber, the eminent transpersonal psychologist, and by the noted New York art critic, Carlo McCormick.

“There is much to praise in this extensively researched book, which is certainly one of the finest biographies of a sadly underrated man. . . . [Kaplan is] a master historian and biographer. . . . If he could read this biography, Adams would be satisfied that he had been fairly dealt with at last.” —Carol Berkin, Washington Post In this fresh and illuminating biography, Fred Kaplan, the acclaimed author of Lincoln, brings into focus the dramatic life of John Quincy Adams—the little-known and much-misunderstood sixth president of the United States and the first son of John and Abigail Adams—and reveals how Adams' inspiring, progressive vision guided his life and helped shape the course of America. Kaplan draws on a trove of unpublished archival material to trace Adams' evolution from his childhood during the Revolutionary War to his brilliant years as Secretary of State to his time in the White House and beyond. He examines Adams' myriad sides: the public and private man, the statesman and writer, the wise thinker and passionate advocate, the leading abolitionist and fervent federalist. In these ways, Adams was a predecessor of Lincoln and, later, FDR and Obama. This sweeping biography makes clear how Adams' forward-thinking values, his definition of leadership, and his vision for the nation's future is as much about twenty-first-century America as it is about Adams' own time. Meticulously researched and masterfully written, John Quincy Adams paints a rich portrait of this brilliant leader and his vision for a young nation.

• Provides an extensive inventory of beginning, intermediate, and advanced tools and practices for meaningful lucid dreamwork and shows how dreams can shape our conscious reality if we incorporate them into waking life • Offers guidance to help you overcome mental or physical obstacles, including ways to stop sleep paralysis • Examines supplements to aid lucid dreaming practice and increase the vividness and recall of dreams Dreams offer a gateway into our psyche. Through lucid dreaming--when you have conscious awareness during sleep--you can access and interact with the subconscious mind for greater self-awareness, personal development, and transformation. In this step-by-step guide to dreamwork, Lee Adams provides tools and techniques for encouraging, remembering, and using lucid dreams for personal growth as well as how to have big dreams that leave a lasting impact. Beginning with an overview of the history of lucid dreaming, he shares tried-and-true foundational practices to get you started--practices for before sleep, during sleep, and after dreaming. Drawing upon Jungian depth psychology, recent research in neuroscience, and years of personal dream practice, Adams then offers an extensive inventory of intermediate and advanced methods to support meaningful dreamwork, such as the Wake Induced Lucid Dreams technique (WILD), where you fall asleep while conscious and transport your active awareness into a dream state. He also explores dream companions, symbols of the unconscious mind, dream interpretation, and working with the shadow side of the self. He examines how dreams can shape our conscious reality if we incorporate them or their symbols into waking life. He offers guidance to help you overcome any mental or physical obstacles you may encounter, including ways to stop sleep paralysis. He also examines supplements to aid lucid dreaming practice, improve dream recall, and increase the vividness of dreams, such as Alpha-GPC, 5-HTP, Silene undulata, Mugwort, the mushroom Lion’s Mane, and Galantamine. With this practical guide, you can ignite your mind’s capacity to wake up to your own dreams and restructure your world to be more attuned to your deeper self.

In his afterword, Igor Webb writes, "The lament, uttered when love and death are most closely bound, is something like an essential accessory to mortality. . . . 'Living with a Visionary' is the poet's account of his, and (and his wife) Diana's, descent into hell (from effects of Parkinson's disease). . . . But it's in 'Some of Her Things,' a fable in the form of a long prose poem, . . . that Matthias most powerfully, and poignantly, deploys his language. . . . it is a courtly threnody for lost time." Literary Nonfiction