Top 5 Books that have Impacted you the most

[KaliMagic]

ok so this is my first post and i would like to take the opportunity to say hello to this beautiful community and i am very much looking forward to sharing some thoughts and ideas with you lovely lot

for the books....

1. be here now - baba ram dass - quite possibly the best book i have ever read, mainly because i picked it up at a point in my life where it's message totally resonated with me.

2. the celestine prophecy - james redfield - quite cheesy i know but it was the first book i had read for a very long time and it triggered something inside me that sent me on a bit of a quest for knowledge!!

3. fingerprints of the gods - graham hancock - in fact any graham hancock book has completely enthralled me. i think his work is superb and i love hearing him speak.

4. siddhartha - hermann hesse - so beautiful.

5. mutant message down under - marlo morgan - a very easy to read novel with a seriously potent message for mankind. very highly recommened to anyone.

i would also like to add (ha ha... five seems a tad restractive when there are soooo many amazing books!!)

the invisible landscape - terrence and dennis mckenna - what can i say... fascinating.
the bhagavad gita

thanks for listening!

[Moxie]

I've read almost all the fine books that everyone has listed, Ashayana Deane's being the most recent importance, but will add these that impacted my life greatly:

The Christ Conspiracy. the Greatest Story Ever Sold - D.M.Murdock/Acharya S
The Way of The Superior Man - David Deida
Your Body Is Your SubConscious Mind - Candace Pert
You Just Don't Understand - Deborah Tannen
Brief History of Everything - Ken Wilber

[777]

David Icke - The Biggest Secret: If he hadn't ruined it for himself by introducing the Reptillian agenda before humanity was ready to hear it, then this would be (imo) the greatest, best researched and evidenced factual book ever written on secret societies and how we are being misled as a species.

The Kybalion - The Three Initiates: Ancient Egyptian wisdom allegedly passed down from Hermes Trismetigus. If you ever want a book to tie in the big picture this is it. Of all book this is the best thing I've ever read. Nothing before or since has touched it for me.

The Alchemist - Paolo Cohello: The first example of synchronicity I've read which led mt to Jung and then experiencing it for myself. Very well written, easy to read and life-changing to those receptive.

Celestine Prophecy - James Redfield: Fictional, yet very applicable to modern life and hugely humbling. I found all of the insights within the fictional tale quite enlightening and have re-read it a few times to re-affirm them. Critics say it's "wooly, misguided, cheesy" etc. Good for them, horses for courses.

The Teaching of Buddha - Buddha (apparently lol!): The only prophet whos wisodom I can't deny. Also one of few spiritual strains that focusses the individual to go within for peace. I'm no buddhist though for personal reasons, but his wisdom is undeniable and beautiful!

[grace]

Thanks for all the book suggestions everyone. i have one that i'm reading right now...
The Guiding Light of Lau Tzu by Henry Wei - the Tao Teh Ching is beautiful and Wei is a great commentator, highly recommended for anyone that hasn't checked it out.

[Yona]

1. Books on buddhism, various authors, about 24 yrs ago!
2. Spiritual Laws by Diana Cooper,
3. All the Celestine Phrophecy books, James Redfield
4. The truth will set you free, David Icke

[ries]

1 law of one. RA material ( still trying to comprehend parts of it )

Just mine top 1

p.s.
Thank you all for some nice book suggestions.

[_Infinity_original]

1.) The Biggest Secret by David Icke ( This is the book that really got the ball rolling for me!)
2.) The Divine Matrix by Gregg Braden
3.) The Spontaneus Healing of Belief by Gregg Braden
4.) Genesis Revisited by Zecharia Sitchin
5.) The 12th Planet by Zecharia Sitchin

[fifi]

1. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche
2. The Third Eye by Tuesday Lobsang Rampa
3. Journey to the East by Baird Spalding (translation version)
4. One Minute Wisdom by Anthony De Mello
5. The Sirian Trilogy (3 books) by Patricia Cori

and I would like to add 1 more:
6. The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life by Drunvalo Melchizedek

[lightwalker]

1. Blueprint for Change (Bashar w. Daryl Anka)
2. Bringers of the Dawn (Barbara Marciniak)
3. Conversations With God
4. The Initiation (Elisabeth Haich)
5. Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (Dave Pilkey) and other great stories

[MargueriteBee]

Carlos Castandea series
The Elegant Universe, Brian Green
Children of the Matrix, David Icke
The Christ Conspiracy, Acharya S
Reality, Peter Kingsley
The Ringing Ceders Series/Anastasia by Vladimir Megre

[Kulapops]

Ooh.. five would never be enough !

Though I think "You just don't understand" should be the retitled name of this forum !

Current Faves :

1 The power of Now... Eckhart Tolle
2 Loving What is Byron Katie
3 Finding your Own North Star
4 Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (why not.. ? It has far better written fiction than most of the threads at Avalon!). Plus he practically invented the concept for Wikipedia.
5 The Road less Travelled Scott Fitzgerald

But equally have read and enjoyed books such as mutant message and celestine.. these made a big impact on me back in the 90's

With all this knowledge.. are we really going to get there by more reading though? I wonder.. I think we're coming to the time of doing, not reading...just now...

Great thread... wonderful resource...Thank You all,

K

[rosie]

Hey Swanny, I made it all the way through Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance and it was a good read.

Here is a link to a site to download a pdf version, for free, if anyone wants to do a bit of reading.
http://maisonbisson.com/blog/post/13...-over-the-web/

[Nenuphar]

I love this thread!

1) The Witch's Catalog (out-of-print children's book...you could say my fascination with spirituality and the occult began at a very early age *L*)
2) Journeys Out of the Body - Robert Monroe
3) various books on Wicca/earth religions
4) Journey of Souls & Destiny of Souls - Michael Newton
5) Illusions - Richard Bach

Interesting...I just realized that the books I feel had the most impact on my life I read before I was 20! I think I'd better get reading again.

[zenith]

Not five books, but five general areas of study,

Art - It's what we are, and what we do.
God / Spirituality - See above.
Symbols / Language - Good to be aware of some of this stuff.
Mathematics / Geometry - See above.
Ceramics - You can't get more grounded than the ground itself


Peace

[Justano]

Top 5.... for now

AEGYPT-John Crowley

Miracles of the Mind- Russell Targ & Jane Katra

Supernatural- Graham Hancock

Siddhartha - Herman Hesse

The Revolution- Ron Paul

[Gestalt]

bump, for new peoples.

[Ethereal Blue Being]

Anything by MICHIO KAKU the renouned physicist/futurist (I'm a geek at heart) MICHIO KAKU . CARL SAGAN AND GENE RODDENBERRY (STAR TREK) will always be my personal heros in the Science and Sci-fi fields

"The Field" by Lynne Mctaggert I have noticed many books quote this book or quote the studies and research of the scientists in " The Field"
"Fractel Time" and "The Divine Matrix" by Gregg Braden
" Molecules of Emotion" by Nobel prize winning chemist Dr, Candace Pert
Anything by Deepak Chopra especially "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind"
"Earthway" by Mary Summerain (after seeing the movie AVATAR in December i got this out and read it again cover to cover instead of just using it for quick reference)

[Humble Janitor]

1. A People's History Of The United States Howard Zinn
2. Brain Droppings George Carlin
3. 1984 George Orwell
4. Communist Manifesto Marx and Engells (don't get any rash ideas here, I was younger and more impressionable)
5. Fortunate Son (about G.W Bush)

And if I could add more, probably anything that I've read by Noam Chomsky, "Catcher In The Rye" by J.D Salinger, etc.

Feel free to recommend something for me as it's been too long since I've read anything.

[Bill Ryan]

----------------

1. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
2. The Bridge Across Forever - Richard Bach
3. The Holographic Universe - Michael Talbot
4. When Corporations Rule the World - David Korten
5. The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight - Thom Hartmann
6. Magic and Mystery in Tibet - Alexandra David-Neel

[CuppaJoe]

Excellent thread, Bill. I love talking about good books.


1. The Magical Child by Joseph Chilton Pearce

For the question I had a long time... "Where did we go wrong?" In utero, it turns out. This book draws a clear and sometimes heartbreaking picture of what we truly come into this world feeling, knowing, and expecting. A must for anyone who has been a child.

2. A Course in Miracles

Self explanatory. Life changing from the first page.

3. The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield

You go on a journey with this man into a brighter state of being that puts you squarely in charge of your own destiny - my world glowed for weeks after finishing this.

4. Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills

Fabulous. Well put-together, illustrated, no-nonsense. Should be required study in high school.

5. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Just loved it. Does a really fantastic job of drawing your focus into the now, which is good place to start from.


Good Fiction:

The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint

I can't praise this highly enough. It's got one hell of a dark side, but the incredible story that goes on next to this world is just breathtaking. He's a wonderful writer and he tells the story with such care. Fantastic, absorbing read.