What book would you recommend everyone read in their lifetime

[Artemesia]

I love her work with the Perelandra principles but havent read her book! Thanks for the tip!

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Posted by Bright Skies (here)

Posted by Dennis Leahy (here)
Journey of Souls - Dr Michael Newton. An exploration of reality.

Wow! What a synchronicity!

"Journey of Souls (Case Studies of Life Between Lives)" by Michael Newton PhD

Heartily approved. See thread here:
Michael Newton - Past Life Therapy - Journey Between Lives

Here's an old interview with Michael Newton.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Vk5bSG78pbQ

On the subject of life after death/lives between lives, I recommend the following books:

Life After Life - Dr Raymond Moody

Life Between Life - Joel L. Whitton (M.d, Ph.D) Joe Fisher

Origin of the Soul - Dr Walter Semkiw

Many Lives, Many Masters - Dr Brian Weiss

Between Death and Life - Dolores Cannon

Life After Death - Mary T. Browne

The Afterlife is Real - Theresa Cheung[/QUOTE]

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Concerning a personal recommendation re the broadly applicable declaration in the OP:

[AxisMundi]

"Bringers of the Dawn", Barbara Marciniak, 1992

Just an exquisitely beautiful channeled book exploring galactic history, the nature of the soul, the power of free will and our spirit's infinite capacity for evolution.

It also deals with some dark themes such as Reptilian consciousness and Reptilian takeover of Earth which is explained in a way so as it's not menacing and disempowering.

Likely the single most empowering and inspirational book I've encountered

[Tintin]

Posted by rgray222 (here)
Ultimately, the best book may vary based on personal interests and life experiences. What resonates with one person may not hold the same significance for another. But if you could limit your recommendation to one must-read book, which would it be? It makes no difference if it is War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy or Sahara by Clive Cussler. Please add a brief reason for your choice. Thanks

This is a fabulous idea for a thread, well done

Right, and I've read a LOT. I'm really going to have to ponder this for a bit.

In a synchronistic way Culture Critic on X had started a thread with almost the exact same topic. Many here I haven't read yet: this is some list too

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I asked X: "Which book changed your perspective on life more than any other?"

After THOUSANDS of replies, these were the top 50.

The ultimate 2025 reading list… (bookmark this) 🧵

The Bible was the outright winner according to CC, and he's provided categorisations too.

Theology:

1. Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
2. Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton
3. The City of God, Augustine of Hippo
4. Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas
5. Confessions, Augustine of Hippo

Philosophy / Political Theory (Part 1):

6. Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
7. Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle
8. Letters from a Stoic, Seneca
9. The Republic, Plato
10. Tao Te Ching, Laozi

Philosophy / Political Theory (Part 2):

11. Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche
12. The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis
13. The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli
14. The Federalist Papers, Hamilton / Madison / Jay
15. The Symposium, Plato

Psychology / Self Improvement:

16. Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl
17. The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene
18. The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck
19. How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie
20. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey

Economics / Personal Finance:

21. Basic Economics, Thomas Sowell
22. The Richest Man in Babylon, George S. Clason
23. The Creature from Jekyll Island, G. Edward Griffin
24. Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki
25. Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

Fiction (Part 1):

Dostoevsky, Orwell and Rand dominated suggestions. The most common as follows...

26. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
27. The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
28. 1984, George Orwell
29. Demons, Fyodor Dostoevsky
30. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Fiction (Part 2):

31. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
32. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
33. Animal Farm, George Orwell
34. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
35. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
36. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

Fiction (Part 3):

[Tintin Q comment: The Screwtape Letters is on my shopping list ]

37. The Stranger, Albert Camus
38. The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis
39. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
40. Dune, Frank Herbert
41. The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
42. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Classical / Medieval Poetry:

43. The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri
44. The Iliad, Homer
45. The Odyssey, Homer
46. Metamorphoses, Ovid

History & Other Non-Fiction:

47. The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
48. The Art of War, Sun Tzu
49. Histories, Herodotus
50. The Decline of the West, Oswald Spengler

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The original thread is here

"Which book changed your perspective on life more than any other?"

[Karl]

I have always been fascinated and energized by 'better' ways of doing stuff, down to earth things.
If only we applied a fraction of our knowledge, we would live in paradise.
Many, many examples, e.g., Geopolymer, Teaming with Microbes, Holistic Management, Scalar Waves, etc. etc.
In that train of thought, maybe one book stands out for me, because it's easy reading and gives a nice overview:

Suppressed Inventions by Jonathan Eisen.

[WhiteFeather]

The Day After Roswell by Colonel Philip J Corso non fiction. NY Times Best Seller.

[Applesprig]

' World's in Collision ' by Immanuel Velikovsky. This book answers many of the questions about world cataclysmic events, how Mars was stripped of it's atmosphere and water and fills in many of the gaps in our knowledge about the cosmos. There is soo much guesswork out there about "pole shift', what wiped out the dinosaurs etc. It is my belief that to have a Pole Shift, only one mechanism can activate such an event, ( the moon's effect on our tides is well understood ) , so it would need a force that is at least as large as Earth, travelling at an enormous speed to initiate a pole shift. Size and speed. No need for the object to actually hit Earth - Action at a Distance will do it. Simplicity at it's best.

This is the book that Einstein left open on his desk when he died, he admired Velikosvsky's work.

[Heart to heart]

UFO OF GOD is the book I am reading today and it comes highly recommended! ♥️♥️♥️

[Valknut3301]

Brain Droppings - George Carlin

[Bill Ryan]

The Holographic Universe, by Michael Talbot.

(PDF here )

[Docim369]

I am suprised no one has put forth Tao Te Ching allegedly written by Lao Tzu.
This book is pure gold. And a cultural shock for the modern man. Amazing stability and flow this book has. Not to mention timeless wisdom! It's is said to be the second most read book after the Bible.

[Johnnycomelately]

Posted by Docim369 (here)
I am suprised no one has put forth Tao Te Ching allegedly written by Lao Tzu.
This book is pure gold. And a cultural shock for the modern man. Amazing stability and flow this book has. Not to mention timeless wisdom! It's is said to be the second most read book after the Bible.

Was quite familiar with that book, found a copy at iirc a yard sale, read it usually nightly, daily chapters going to bed part of one year. Beautiful graphics in that.

I was bummed when I learned how he ended up, he apparently banished himself out to the wilds, because he lost faith in the morality of that civilization.

[DustOff72]

I like all of Alan Watts' books, but The Book on The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are is my favorite.

[truthseek]

Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi is one of my favourites. It contains a lot of in-between-the-lines wisdom which is especially useful today.

Happy Holidays !

[RunningDeer]

Siddhartha
by Hermann Hesse, 1982

Though set in a place and time far removed from the Germany of 1922, the year of the book’s debut, the novel is infused with the sensibilities of Hermann Hesse’s time, synthesizing disparate philosophies–Eastern religions, Jungian archetypes, Western individualism–into a unique vision of life as expressed through one man’s search for meaning.

It is the story of the quest of Siddhartha, a wealthy Indian Brahmin who casts off a life of privilege and comfort to seek spiritual fulfillment and wisdom. On his journey, Siddhartha encounters wandering ascetics, Buddhist monks, and successful merchants, as well as a courtesan named Kamala and a simple ferryman who has attained enlightenment. Traveling among these people and experiencing life’s vital passages–love, work, friendship, and fatherhood–Siddhartha discovers that true knowledge is guided from within.

[RunningDeer]

The Kin of Ata Are Waiting for You
by Dorothy Bryant, 1997

The Kin of Ata Are Waiting for You is part love story, part science fiction, at once Jungian myth and utopian allegory.

“Truly unforgettable!”—San Francisco Chronicle

The kin of Ata live only for the dream. Their work, their art, their love are designed in and by their dreams, and their only aim is to dream higher dreams. Into the world of Ata comes a desperate man, who is first subdued and then led on the spiritual journey that, sooner or later, all of us must make.

“A masterful novel . . . a beautiful, symbolic journey of the soul, the journey of a serious dreamer.”—Berkely Monthly

[Ashiris]

Read this and you will never be the same again! Unlike anything else I have ever read, the Oversoul 7 trilogy stands alone, and in my top 5 books of all time. Cosmic truths presented in fictional format, but NOT cheesy or contrived like most 'New Age fiction.' You know what I mean - those books that have a story just to provide an excuse for New Age preaching. blech. It's great when it works, but it rarely works. Well this time it works! Jane Roberts pulls it off, and pulls it off quite well! Read Oversoul and your dreams will come alive. You will look at every sunflake with new appreciation. Your sense of time and space will be forever altered. You will grasp at last the paradox of nonlinear time (ie, 'time travel'). You will meet unforgettable characters and remember them fondly many years later (the hallmark of a great book). And, you'll have fun reading it.

[ExomatrixTV]

"Gods Of Eden (PDF: here)", William Bramley ... but only if you are a "beginner/novus reader" .... I can sum up dozens more profound ones ... but this one is a good one to start a journey of multiple Project Avalon topics ... if I can recall correctly it will discuss at least 10 different (controversial) topics that are also separate "stand alone" P.A. Forum Threads.

• If you are young of age and have no real idea "where to begin" to dig much deeper or not ... this book can help you to see what topic(s) resonates with you the most! ... When done, let us know if it helped/inspired you, that would be nice!

• Please be aware, all is for consideration purpose only ... heaving a healthy skeptical but open mind is certainly needed.

cheers,
John 🦜🦋🌳

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by DustOff72 (here)
I like all of Alan Watts' books, but The Book on The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are is my favorite.

A piece of personal trivia. This was the very first 'spiritual' book I ever read, in my late teens, and it had a huge impact on my worldview at the time.

[RunningDeer]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by DustOff72 (here)
I like all of Alan Watts' books, but The Book on The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are is my favorite.

A piece of personal trivia. This was the very first 'spiritual' book I ever read, in my late teens, and it had a huge impact on my worldview at the time.

PDF - The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
by Alan Watts

A revelatory primer on what it means to be human and a mind-opening manual of initiation into the central mystery of existence, by “perhaps the foremost interpreter of Eastern disciplines for the contemporary West" (Los Angeles Times).

At the root of human conflict is our fundamental misunderstanding of who we are. The illusion that we are isolated beings, unconnected to the rest of the universe, has led us to view the “outside” world with hostility, and has fueled our misuse of technology and our violent and hostile subjugation of the natural world. To help us understand that the self is in fact the root and ground of the universe, Alan Watts provides us with a much-needed answer to the problem of personal identity, distilling and adapting the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta.