What book changed your life?

[Crystine]

Posted by pumashared (here)
could i ask everyone who posts from now on to state how and why these books changed their life. i think that will not only help us understand what the book is about it but how also you were changed personally by it
thanks

I have noticed something. I have read about 90 % or so of the books other members responding to this thread have read. Is anyone else seeing this also.
Gads, Tesla, after that list, I have to change the percentage to 80% Lol I read a lot.

[T Smith]

Let's see, my eclectic list, in no particular order, would be:

Seth Speaks, by Jane Roberts
The Conscious Universe, by Menas Kafatos and Robert Nadeau
Bridging Science and Spirit: Common Elements in David Bohm's Physics, the Perennial Philosophy and Seth, by Norman Friedman
Chaos: Making a New Science, by James Gleick
The Creature from Jekyll Island, by G. Edward Griffin
Tragedy & Hope, by Carroll Quigley
The Master Key System, by Charles F. Haanel
UFOs and the National Security State, by Richard Dolan
Nothing in this Book is True but it is Exactly How Things Are, by Bob Frissell
Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut
Your Health and Sanity in the Age of Treason, by Dr. Swineburne Clymer
Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville
Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter
The Report From Iron Mountain, author unknown

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

Shadow Divers (nonfiction book) -- I read it in jail. Without this book I would never have been as interested in what happened to the Titanic and other vessels over the years. The book is about a group of friends who met through diving as a hobby and a business. They were treasure hunters and wreck-crashers. In the book Shadow Divers, half a dozen lives are lost in pursuit of a mysterious U-Boat found very close to New Jersey. The wreckage is dangerous, near-inaccessible, and pushes the divers to the limit. Finally, one of them manages to bring to the surface a metal plate that proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that the vessel these men discovered was a Nazi U-Boat on a secret mission to destroy a ship near enough NYC to cause panic in America during WWII, right as Hitler was losing the war. The captain of this U-boat was supposed to go through Gibraltar toward Libya, but instead he went to NJ. Scientists theorize that his U-Boat sank to the bottom of the ocean with its 60+ crewmembers as a result of a "circle-run", which is when a defective torpedo transits in a complete circle after launch and strikes its originating vessel without successfully meeting an enemy target.

Long story short, this tale made me read a bit more about naval warfare in general, maritime disasters during peace and war, and intentional false flags throughout history.
For many reasons, the Titanic story does not make sense as told. There is undoubtedly much more to this story than we know.

_________________________________________

DUNE series by Frank Herbert (fiction)

I read these after I had my baby boy. It was a hard time in my life. I had been temporarily separated from my family and was living with my grandparents for a month. My uncle bought me the first DUNE book, and I was shocked to find that the main character's name was the same as my son's. This happened the same day I was reading a Swamp Thing comic book that had an autistic boy named Paul in it. As I was away from my dear son and there was nothing I could do about it at the time, it was both tormenting and comforting to be reminded of him and the possibility of his hidden powers. Some ESP definitely runs in both sides of the family, and I think Paul got a bigger dose than his parents did. he is a special boy, just like the characters who share his name.

p.s. Frank Herbert wrote a fairly decent series, I'd say. It kind of fell apart with the whole Honored Matres thing. lol
I would rather have had more of his scientific knowledge than his theories about sex...

_____________________________________________________

Bible -- read it cover to cover (while in the clink)

You'll have to read it to understand why it's life-changing...

__________________________________________________

Les Miserables
The Swiss Family Robinson
The Odyssey
IT

^very long books that I read in childhood; you have to read the UNABRIDGED versions to "get it"...

______________________________________________________

Sandman comic series
Lucifer comic series
Preacher comic series

^these have a lot of tough criticisms of past and modern society and religion. Very worth it.

________________________________________________________

TIME QUARTET by Madeleine L'Engle
Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRRT
Silmarillion by JRRT

these three are very good if you are a history buff,
or believe in magic.

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early childhood: ABCs of the Human Body by Reader's Digest (was crucial to my interest in science later)
Dr. Seuss: got me interested in language. it's a very good tool for teaching certain types of kids to read.

______________________________________________

Anne Rice is interesting enough, but not what I'd consider "great" literature lol
I blame the vampire movement of today on her personally.
Ayn Rand is definitely "great" but not always as fun?
Also another type of vampire (rofl) an energy vamp

_______________________________________________

I know I am forgetting probably hundreds of people.

There was a short story in high school that I found interesting: "That Old Demon", about an old Chinese woman who broke a (yellow river?) dam next to her village in order to drown Japanese invaders -- can't find it anywhere online. must have been a translation specially done for schools.

_____________________________________________


kids' magazines/other magazines that changed my life:
Ranger Rick -- helped me love nature more than farm kids get to see.
Popular Science -- too much like consumer report, but got me interested in NASA
Scientific American -- was a lifesaver in a boring home when i was a teen

_____________________________________________

War of the Worlds and all the spinoffs were super creepy to read as a kid.
So was Brave New World and the like.


illustrators who influenced me:

MC Escher
Leonardo
Michelangelo

they were very structure-oriented and i appreciated that.

__________________________

probably leaving out so many good ones.

[161803398]

"The Bible Story" when I was 4 that the Jehovah's witnesses brought to the door...I got so excited when I saw the pictures my dad had to buy it even though he never liked them. I spent hours and hours and hours with that book. The picture I remember most was Adam standing in the garden with all the animals. I thought that is how things are supposed to be...and what that picture told me is that we are here to take care of them and of nature. I grew up with that belief.

We Have Always lived in the Castle which I read as a child...about a little girl who is accused of poisoning her family. It made me realize that people sometimes don't use their thinking processes very well.

Kon Tiki, The Chrysalids and Animal Farm in Grade 8....our teachers gave us those books to read but never talked about them in class. Strange...the most useful books were never discussed. I just accepted that the ideas in Kon Tiki were true so I never had an issue with those concepts. I continue to believe that ancient people travelled all over the world. The Chrysalids was something like We have always lived in the Castle in terms of the strange thinking processes of humans. The things that are important to most people seem to be fairly stupid. Animal Farm I didn't really understand till later except, of course, I knew it was us.

Anything written about Edgar Cayce with whom I become absolutely fascinated as a teenager. It changed my awareness of our potential.

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf - because I wrote a graduating essay about Virginia Woolf in University that is still being used to teach the course and recommended to students to read. The funny thing was no one at the University thought I had anything in my personality that would connect me with Virginia Woolf yet I still understood what she was writing better than many other people who would have more in common with her. Must be another side of my personality I know very little about. Virginia Woolf made me realize there is sanity in madness and madness in sanity....mostly madness in sanity, I'm afraid.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley -- its important to know how monstrous people can be created by others.

The Law of Contracts --- which is terribly boring but useful. It made me a more useful person.

The Gnostic Gospels that I found quite comforting because I never liked the Bible. Particularly interesting was the concept of 3 basic types of people...the biological person; the psychological person and the spiritual person....didn't have the anthropological person then. Also, Jesus talked. He says almost nothing in the Bible, its all been edited out.

Holy Blood, Holy Grail that I found extremely scary....horrifying...i realized there were things going on I had never contemplated...I thought that's why my ancestors probably hoofed it to Narvik to get away from the people.

Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock which is, of course, a wonderful book which made me realize there was a lot more to history than I'd ever imagined.

The Art of War which made me realize the American politicians were trying to destroy their own country.

[donk]

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

[Craig]

Convoluted Universe series by Dolores Cannon, they spun me out.

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

@161803398

Anything written about Edgar Cayce with whom I become absolutely fascinated as a teenager. It changed my awareness of our potential.

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Holy Blood, Holy Grail

You just gave me the biggest chill of the day... no, the week.

I feel that we have similar interests.

In an email to my therapist, once, I mentioned "To the Lighthouse" to him. I asked him, what kind of man did Virginia Woolf know, that she was able to describe him with such ability and love? When she speaks about the underlying fabric that supports the world. She was speaking of the male intelligence, and I wanted to know, who inspired her to write that.

Edgar Cayce was amazing... one day, I was reading a book that talked about Throne and Chariot mysticism. Well, I put the book down and was extremely frustrated. I picked up an Edgar Cayce book and went into the bathroom to read it. I turned to the heading "Jewish visitors". The passage talked about Edgar working in his garden. This made me think of the Garden of Eden and how we are all working there, in spirit. Edgar heard a noise like the sound of bees, and when he turned around, there was an angel in the garden, a glowing golden man in a chariot of fire. He told Edgar not to be afraid and said "behold the Chariot of the Lord and the Horsemen Thereof". and he had the shape of a human being.
We are the chariots of fire, the hekalot. "for what are men but chariots of wrath, by demons driven", indeed!

Holy Blood, Holy Grail is one that I own but am afraid to read.
Some things really worry me. In particular my interest in the deaths of certain members of royalty and the celebrity class has led me to wonder about the legend of the Grail.
I have to drive through a town named Roslyn once in a while, and it makes me think of the Grail bloodline. "England's Rose", candle in the wind, and all of that.

Thanks for posting about those books... spooky dooky, heh!

[Maunagarjana]

If I had to give you my top 3 that had a real impact on my life, I'd say:

- Entering The Stream (various authors) because it was the perfect intro to Buddhist teachings for me, which is the spiritual foundation of my life.

- Extraordinary Knowing by Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer, because it let me know that there is actually a lot of good evidence for paranormal abilities out there, despite what skeptics like to say.

- The Law of One (the whole series, which really are like one long book split up) aka the Ra Material, because there's really nothing else like it, and has helped me immeasurably in many ways.

[Arak]

Well there has been few.

- First one was Orwell's 1984 that I read at highschool mid 90's. It made me realize that trust no government.
- second big turning point came 15 years later as I read Tolle's "Power of Now" which was awesome and really opened my eyes.
- After that there has been 2 great experiences: Don MIguel Ruiz's "The four wisdoms" - it has basicly everything you need to know in order to live happy life
- and last one being Michael Newton's "Journey of Souls" which really answered all by big questions about past lives and times between and to come.

[Milneman]

The one I always go back to, the one that is the greatest book of philosophy and human wisdom: The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne, tiddly pom.

Now you know how I chose my nickname, tiddly-pom

[christian]

The Dao De Jing by Lao Tse. It's very short, you can read it in like 15 minutes. But the content may keep you inspired for many lifetimes.

[greybeard]

Quite a few but "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle and various books by Dr David Hawkins and also Ramana Maharshi's books stand out.

Chris

[Azt]

The Holy Bible. But not on the religion side but on the code side. It is a book written in the now.

[Lifebringer]

Urantia Book, Book of Enoch, Greatest Story Never Told, Wars of Gods and Men, Bible, K'oran, Stephen King's "The Gunslinger."

[161803398]

@ Tesla_WTC_Solution

It must have been her father and To the Lighthouse somewhat autobiographical. Woolf had good relationships with men and admired their abilities even in the face of having been sexually molested by her half brothers as a child. She was concerned though about what had happened to men and women as of the time of her writing. She said she felt that people had been made self-conscious of their sex which had not been the case in times past and, as a consequence of which not only people but society had become unbalanced. That is why I never liked people talking about the matriarchal society as a solution because I do agree with Woolf that we don't need matriarchy...we need an androgynous society.

Im so suspicious of Holy Blood, Holy Grail....(part of it is now known BS although parts of it are true). But the reasons to be suspicious are more interesting. As I recall the investigation was inspired by an old story that appeared in a newspaper about the priest who was sent to the remote village in France and then uncovered certain information. That led the writer to re-examine certain historical information which led to the conclusion that Christ had not died on the cross and there would be a bloodline somewhere in Europe. That story in the newspaper always bothered me...because it was so timely you see...with what came after....Holy Blood Holy Grail seemed to inspire a literary landslide where suddenly everyone was re-thinking everything....again and all just around the same time the PTB appeared to be planning their Armageddon supposedly leading to the NWO. It was ALL so interesting. In fact, life had never really been quite that interesting...so many people addressing so many fascinating ideas about history....and I had previously imagined myself playing golf or some such ridiculous thing at this age. But things like this had happened before, at times, and some of the information was actually a rehash of information that had been written before at certain points in the past. So why now...again?

The funny thing was, I would have never read that book if not for a dream I had. It was so strange, I told a friend of mine about it...a baby who gets stabbed in the eye with a knife, at a time and in a setting much like an event described in the book. My friend got so excited when i told him the dream and said I had to read that book..so I did. I found it horrifying for so many reasons....I so know why my family wanted to live quietly in the snow. But it was a good book to read...sadder and wiser now....so much wiser even though much of the book is BS.

There was something going on in England then and in the 90s. A writer friend of mine told me that (Sir) Laurence Gardner had called him up wanting him to join a club...they were pushing the reptile thing....I believe it was royalty descended from reptiles. My friend declined...it was a stupid idea...but Laurence Gardner became quite famous I believe. Maybe a lot of people just jumping on the bandwagon but I remember that the entire reptilian idea was started by a strange aristocrat in some Eastern European Country who wrote a crazy book about his family being descended from reptiles. We all thought it was funny and then my friend, Phil, got a call asking him to push the idea...all the alternative writers were being asked to push it. What was that about anyway? I don't know if we will ever find out.

[Lifebringer]

I was intrigued by the Michael Newton's book title and found a free download, as I sometimes use this title to describe my life experience when talking to "self."

Thank you.

[Lifebringer]

I thought about Delores Cannon also, but I only saw the videos on YT, didn't buy her books, they didn't fit my budget, but I've definitely been intrigued enough to delve deeper because of her videos on hypnotic memory regression and past lives. Very good and I still enjoy going back and listening when the world/people/or my communication skills become less coherent in understanding, and I or others are misunderstood in communicating our own experience. Some things can't be tap danced over and must be faced, but the knowledge that this too shall pass, I've faith in the promise of the Son of God in every text that is over all gods or/those who think themselves god" of the nations past and present.

So many facets of the stones.

[sirdipswitch]

"Adventures Beyond The Body"
"The Secret Of The Soul"
by: William Buhlman

Awakened my Spirit... forever...

[panopticon]

Posted by christian (here)
The Dao De Jing by Lao Tse. It's very short, you can read it in like 15 minutes. But the content may keep you inspired for many lifetimes.

Ditto.
Add Zhuangzi.

[Maunagarjana]

Posted by Lifebringer (here)
I thought about Delores Cannon also, but I only saw the videos on YT, didn't buy her books, they didn't fit my budget

You know, there are some of her books available online in ebook format, here: http://esotericonline.net/docs/index...JlcyBDYW5ub24=